Christien kindly answered some of the questions and sent her answers to me by email. Then I had a chance to records her reading Pasternak's poem Hamlet in Dutch (at the IATEFL conference in Glasgow http://conference.iatefl.org/) Christien's answers: Pasternak’s poetry +++ In 2016 a book with poems by Pasternak came out in Dutch in a series called The Russian Library by the publisher Van Oorschot; it was reviewed very favourably. See here A quote from the review: ‘Als je overziet wat Pasternak dan toch nog, tussen de terreurtijden door, heeft geschreven, dan kun je niet anders dan concluderen dat het veel is. En veelzijdig. Hij is vooral een groot winterdichter.’ Translation: ‘If you oversee what Pasternak still has written, despite the terror that ruled, you cannot but conclude that it’s a lot. And extremely varied. First of all he is a great poet about winter.’ He is especially appreciated for his unusual metaphors that paint a very lively picture of landscapes etc. but as is said in the review, it’s difficult to judge whether it’s Pasternak’s doing or whether it’s the translators’ achievement. Of course that is always difficult to judge if you do not speak the original language. Fragment from Hamlet (Dr Zhivago): Hamlet ’t Wordt al stil. Ik sta nu op de planken. Met mijn rug tegen de deurpost aan tracht ik uit de verre echoklanken op te vangen hoe ’t mij zal vergaan. ’t Duister is op mij gericht, er keren duizenden binocles zich naar mij. Laat de kelk aan mij voorbijgaan, Here, Abba Vader, zo dat mogelijk zij. Lief is mij Uw vaderlijk vermanen, en ik ben tot deze rol bereid. Maar vandaag speelt hier een ander drama. Gun mij deze keer nog wat respijt. Maar de loop van ’t stuk is als het leven. ’t Eind is onafwendbaar, ligt al vast. ’k Sta alleen, door huichelaars omgeven. Leven is bepaald geen lichte last. The last line of Hamlet is a Russian proverb, literally ‘life is no walk through a field’ and it has been translated literally in Dutch by (translators Berg en Wiebes): by ‘Life is certainly no easy burden’. Another review of the new translation of the poems can be found here +++ Doctor Zhivago Appreciation of the book Dr Zhivago has been translated into Dutch a number of times and the latest translation stems from 2016 – see here a review in Dutch http://www.volkskrant.nl/recensies/een-topleeservaring~a4247434/ When it was first published the CIA was said to be involved in publishing the book through a Dutch publisher. A book came out about this involvement called The Zhivago Affair (in Dutch De zaak Zjivago), written by Peter Finn and Petra Couvee. A famous Dutch writer tells about this book here: http://www.tzum.info/2014/07/filmpje-dokter-zjivago-nu-wel-geen-goed-boek-maarten-t-hart-weet-raad/ He also talks about the novel and says that he was really fascinated by the book when he first read it but that he was a bit disappointed when he reread it years later. He thought it was long-winded… Nobel Prize A good overview of Pasternak, his work and life in Dutch can be found here, called ‘The mystery that Pasternak was’: https://www.kristienwarmenhoven.nl/russische-profielen/boris-pasternak/ It also discusses what happened around the Nobel Prize.
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