Carol Rumens in the Guardian has posted her own translation of the Pussy Riot 'Punk Prayer'. You can read it here preceded by her explanation of some of her translation choices
( Read more... )
Hmm. I've not been paying attention to the people decrying it as offensive and blasphemous, and it looks like I was right not to; this is not an anti-god or anti-religion poem in the slightest. What a horrendous misrepresentation, to call it those things.
I am taking Rumens' comments about the Russian original on trust, but I think it's more likely that she's right and the BBC are using a bad translation which has been given to them by the Russian authorities. They should have been more careful.
The poem reminds me a little of 'God save the queen' by the Sex Pistols, where he blesses Ian Brady, which I also think is a legitimate religious message 'Even though he's horrible' as they say.
Yes, it does seem likely that they didn't sufficiently vet the translation given them (whether by the authorities or not; I suppose they might not be the only people with a vested interest). Her translation seems to be a close-in-spirit/cultural-reference version (from her notes), which prefer to literal translations, so perhaps that's biasing me the *other* way. Hmm.
I'm reminded of Manic Street Preachers songs (at least, earlier ones before they went all stadium rock). Though they usually went at authority via examples of regimes/holocaust imagery, rather than via religion.
(Ha, having said that they didn't often go via religion, of course, it occurs to me that MSP's most vitriolic, bitter album--which has a lot of genocide/anti-capitalism/anti-western-cultural emphasis--is called 'The Holy Bible'.)
I don't know whether the English papers did as well, but yesterday there was a translation of the final pleas of all three young women in the FAZ (one of our two main German newspapers), and they came across as incredibly smart and articulate.
Comments 9
Reply
The poem reminds me a little of 'God save the queen' by the Sex Pistols, where he blesses Ian Brady, which I also think is a legitimate religious message 'Even though he's horrible' as they say.
Reply
I'm reminded of Manic Street Preachers songs (at least, earlier ones before they went all stadium rock). Though they usually went at authority via examples of regimes/holocaust imagery, rather than via religion.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment