What I am reading

Роковые яйца is an early novella by Bulgakov that can be categorised somewhere between magic realism and science fiction. The plot moves at a quick pace, it is witty and funny and filled with great and overall likeable characters out of whom I quickly fell in love with Pankrat.
Bulgakov clearly intended to make fun of early communism and it’s good to know, that Soviet censorship in 1925 was still cool enough to let it pass.

Since I caught a cold last weekend and am therefore borderline ill at the moment, I also got the translation of Bulgakov’s novella – just in case my head needed a rest from Russian I would switch to German for a chapter or two. I got tired, took the translation and after the third paragraph I was back to the original. Damn, this translation is unreadable. I more or less know the translator personally, but until today I have never read one of his prose translations and I am quite sure, that I will never pick one up again. It just feels awkward and cumbrous and for some reason more complicated and more antiquated than the original itself. That’s going to be a fun topic when we meet next time.

Bottom line: Роковые яйца is a great novella, but Nitzberg’s new translation is terrible.