Samuil Marshak
(1887-1964)
Translation into
Modern Russian of Shakespeare Sonnet No. 129
Издержки духа и стыда растрата -
Вот сладострастье в действии. Оно
Безжалостно, коварно, бесновато,
Жестоко, грубо, ярости полно.
Утолено, - влечет оно презренье,
В преследованье не жалеет сил.
И тот лишен покоя и забвенья,
Кто невзначай приманку проглотил.
Безумное, само с собой в раздоре,
Оно владеет иль владеют им.
В надежде - радость, в испытанье - горе,
А в прошлом - сон, растаявший, как дым.
Все это так. Но избежит ли грешный
Небесных врат, ведущих в ад кромешный?
d
Literal Translation
Expenditure of spirit and
squandering of shame—
That’s lust
[voluptuousness] in action. It is
Pitiless, crafty,
devilish,
Cruel, rude, full of fury.
Once slaked, it entails
[results in] contempt,
In pursuit [of one] it
does not spare any effort.
And he who by chance
swallows the bait
Is deprived of peace and
forgetfulness.
Insane, at odds with its
very self,
It either masters (possesses)
[one] or is mastered.
Hoping [for it] is joy,
putting it to the test [assaying it] is grief,
And once past it’s a dream
that dissipates like smoke.
All of that is so. But can
a sinner avoid
Those heavenly gates that
lead to the pitch black of Hades?
d
Literary
Translation/Adaptation by U.R. Bowie
Disbursement of spirit and
shame’s dissipation—
Those are the workings of
unbridled lust,
Which is pitiless, crafty,
devilish vexation,
Crude and uncouth, frenzied
mayhem in musth.
Once slaked, leaving taste
that’s abhorrent, derisible,
Lust spares no effort when
sensing the spoor.
Deprived of all peace and
on edge, sorely miserable
Is he who by happenstance
swallows the lure.
One maddened with lust possesses
tempestuously;
He’s insatiable, ravenous,
avid always.
He strives for it
joyfully, suffers it grievously,
And when the deed’s done what
was bliss is but haze.
All that is so. But can
sinning souls shun
The heavenly lewdness that’s
hell when it’s done?
The expense of spirit in a waste of shame
Is lust in action: and till action, lust
Is perjured, murderous, bloody, full of blame,
Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to trust;
Enjoyed no sooner but despised straight;
Past reason hunted; and no sooner had,
Past reason hated, as a swallowed bait,
On purpose laid to make the taker mad.
Mad in pursuit and in possession so;
Had, having, and in quest to have extreme;
A bliss in proof, and proved, a very woe;
Before, a joy proposed; behind a dream.
All this the world well knows; yet none knows well
To shun the heaven that leads men to this hell.
d
Paraphrase in Modern English
(From the website No Sweat Shakespeare)
Squandering vital energy in a wasteland of moral decay is what
satisfying one’s lust amounts to. And in the anticipation of it lust makes one
dishonest, murderous, violent, blameworthy, savage, extreme, rude and not to be
trusted. As soon as its goal has been achieved one despises it. It’s hunted
beyond reason and as soon as it’s had it’s hated beyond reason, like an
irresistible bait put in front of one on purpose to make the taker mad. One is
crazy in the pursuit of sex, and during sex too: having had it, having it and
hunting for it one goes to extremes. It’s blissful while it’s happening and a
true sorrow afterwards – before an anticipated joy, afterwards nothing but a
dream. Everyone knows this very well, yet no-one knows it well enough to avoid
the heaven that leads men to this hell.
d
Translator’s Note
(U.R. Bowie)
My usual method in working on Shakespeare’s sonnets by way of
Russian translations: I depend solely on the Russian version, not peeking in
advance at the original in old English. One unfortunate consequence is that if
the Russian translation contains serious inaccuracies I perpetuate these in my
modern English translation.
Marshak’s translations of Shakespeare’s sonnets are wonderful,
and one can only marvel at how he rendered all of them into Russian. His
translation of #129 is, for the most part, faithful to the original; he comes
up with some lovely lines. But it seems to me that in the first two lines of
the third quatrain he goes far astray. Shakespeare’s text here has roughly the
following meaning: [One afflicted with lust is] mad while pursuing his goal
and remains mad while possessing it (engaged in copulation)/ [He is] extreme, a
maximalist having had sexual concourse, while in the process of having it and
in its quest to have it. The “having had” presents a problem, a
contradiction in Shakespeare’s text. Why? Because the gist of the whole sonnet
suggests that “having had” sex one is in for a letdown. Take, for just one
example, Shakespeare’s line # 5: “Enjoyed no sooner but
despisèd straight.”
How does Marshak render these first two lines of the third
quatrain? Like this: [Lust is] mad, at odds with its very self/[Lust] either
masters (possesses) one or is mastered itself. Here the meaning deviates
radically from the original text. Shakespeare never says anything about how
lust is at odds with itself. On the contrary. Lust always knows what it wants;
lust rages on in a straight line toward its goal, intolerant of resistance and suffering
no inner contradictions. It is the human being consumed by lust who is divided
egregiously within him/herself. Shakespeare also says nothing about how lust
either possesses one or is defeated (possessed, mastered). Again on the
contrary. Nothing in the original suggests that one can master lust.
Given these radical deviations from the original, in translating
Marshak’s poem I have done something I do not usually do. I have gone back to
the original and tried to render in my variant something closer to the meaning
of that original. Of course I do not capture perfectly the sense of the
original either, but such is the nature of literary translation.
d
Online commentary quotes several pertinent passages, which
suggest that the central idea of this poem—disillusionment with sexual
intercourse—was already well-established long before Shakespeare’s time. One example
is the folk proverb: “Omne animal post coitum triste est” (any animal after
coitus feels sad).
Ben Jonson’s translation from the Latin of Petronius is
contemporaneous with Shakespeare:
“Doing a filthy pleasure is, and short,
And done, we straight repent us of the sport.”
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