The table below was my starting point where I started to translate my aphorism “Unelma”. It is from my second poem collection, “Paljon on meneillään“, published in 1994, ISBN 951-97103-0-2. As you can see that I haven’t conjugated Russian verbs neither inflected nouns.
Russian |
Pronunciation |
Finnish |
English |
мечта |
mitšta |
Unelma |
dream, |
который не |
katoryj ne |
joka ei |
which don’t |
летать |
litetj |
lennä, |
fly, |
носить |
nasitj |
kantaa |
carry |
моя жизнь, f |
maja žyznj |
elämääni. |
my life |
мечта,
|
This is the result I have got using dictionaries, grammar books, Google translator and search. |
Unelma, |
The dream,
|
Even though there are a few unsolved questions. Firstly, I’m not sure does the word “мечта» mean both “unelma” (dream) and “haave” (dream). In Finnish these words have different meanings. “Unelma” is something which can be realized but “haave” is a castle in the air. Perhaps this is the case in Russian as well.
Secondly, I am not sure if I have inflected the feminine word “жизнь” (life) correctly. The Google search gave me the sentence: Я читал газету. = I read my newspaper => This tells me that nominative is not the same than accusative at least when we talk about the feminine word “газета” (newspaper).
On the other hand, I found the video “Юрий Антонов Несёт меня течение” where the accusative of the word “течение” (current) is the same as the nominative. Perhaps this is the case with the word “жизнь” (life).
If I had a good luck everything is in order, otherwise not. I feel that i have at least 55 % chance to have a correct translation. I would appreciate if there is someone who could give more information on this. In this case I can speak about the translation because the text runs without figure of speech and has no idiomatic language. The birds fly everywhere in a same way and we carry things in only one way. Still, even I say it myself, this aphorism has a message. In fact, it was my style to hide a surprise inside the most common phrases. Many people, who have read the book, say that the method works. I am not saying this in order to show off, but to tell the original idea of the expression. Sometimes any kind of translation is impossible from one language into another.
Moreover, perhaps the English version doesn’t work. I have mostly written my English poems using English because translating is a dangerous business.
so creative!
happy holidays
in English 🙂
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Thank you very much and happy holidays 🙂
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Your language translation is fascination, and the video is beautiful.
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Thank you very much. I believe that I get enough information to correct the Russian version, if necessary.
Happy Holidays 🙂
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Merry Christmas
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Thank you very much. I wish you the same ❤
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thank you ❤
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🙂
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Hallo, Yelling Rosa, I find it great that you do your poetry in three languages!
The accusative of жизнь is correct, the form несёт is from the verb нести, which also means to carry; from the verb носить the correct form would be носит.
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Thank you very much for giving me more information. One of my dictionaries says that the verb “нести” means that something is carried in the one direction and the verb “носить” that something can be carried in one way or the other. Being so the verb “нести” might be a better choice. It would be a very bad thing if the leading dream doesn’t know where to go and need to go back and forth. Perhaps those both words will do.
Happy holidays ❤
YR
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Thank you for your post. I do agree with you about translations of poetry. It is at times
almost impossible as the references in nature, life, living are so different.
I have after many years now understanding and feeling of English reference in these matters and of course also from Sweden from where I hail.
Saw s famed Swedish poem today translated to English….I think Victor Rydberg would be bewildered. 😊.
It can be done but is hard work and total immersion.
…just my experience….
miriam
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Thank you for commenting. I must confess that I don’t really understand English. Sometimes I even ask myself whether anyone does. If I were younger, I would immediately switch to some other foreign language. English is a very confused language because it is originated from so many languages and the pronunciation comes from all of them. The preposition policy is a mystery for me after all these years. That’s why I have to check out them every now and then.
I wish you all the best in 2018 🙂
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I just consulted with my husband who once studied Russian. Usually, feminine nouns have different endings in the nominative and accusative cases, but there are exceptions. Since “жизнь” is a feminine noun that ends in a soft sign, the accusative form is the same as the nominative.
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Thank you very much. This helps me a lot.
Take care 🙂
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Happy Holidays!
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Thank you very much. I wish you the same ❤
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Happy New Year!
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Thank you and Happy New Year to You ❤
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a smile
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Translation can be difficult! Happy holidays ❤🎄
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Thank you for commenting. Whatever it is said translating is a risk job.
Happy holidays ❤
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Happy New Year, 2018 ! 🙂
Alioșa ! 🙂
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Thank you very much. I wish you the same 🙂
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The video and music are lovely.
I wish you a happy 2018.
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Thank you I wish you the same 🙂
Yes Jury Antonov’s video is nice.
All the best
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