Nora Gal
Nora Gal (actually Eleonora Jakowlewna Galperina , Russian Элеоно́ра Я́ковлевна Гальпе́рина); (Born April 14 . Jul / 27. April 1912 greg. In Odessa ; † 23. July 1991 ) was a Soviet translator from English and French into Russian, literary critic , theorist and editor of translation. She gained fame in the Soviet Union for her translations of the works The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry , The Stranger by Albert Camus , Who disturbs the nightingale by Harper Lee and science fiction works.
Life
Nora Gal was born on April 27, 1912 in Odessa in the family of the doctor Jakow Galperin and the lawyer Frederika Galperina. Since childhood she lived in Moscow . She graduated from Moscow State Pedagogical University and graduated in 1937. In 1941 she received her doctorate with a doctoral thesis on the works of Arthur Rimbaud . Gal published articles on literary classics such as Guy de Maupassant , Lord Byron , Alfred de Musset and more recent foreign literature in various magazines .
She married the literary scholar Boris Kusmin. Their daughter Edwarda Kusmina is a literary critic and editor. Nora Gal's grandson Dmitri Kuzmin is a poet, literary critic and literary scholar.
Nora Gal died on July 23, 1991 after a serious illness. Her name is immortalized in space: In July 1995 the minor planet (4049) Noragal ' in the asteroid belt was named after Nora Gal.
Works
Even as a student, Nora Gal published several poems. During her studies she published prose works. In the late 1930s she published numerous articles on contemporary foreign literature. During the Second World War she tried her hand at translation for the first time (1942). After the war she worked a lot as a translation editor (works by Jules Renard , Alexandre Dumas , HG Wells ). Since 1948 she has devoted herself exclusively to translations.
Since the late 1950s and early 1960s, Nora Gal has been one of the leading literary translators thanks to her translations of Saint-Exupéry ( The Little Prince ), JD Salinger (stories) and Harper Lee ( Who disturbs the nightingale ). She subsequently translated The Stranger by Camus, Heroic Death by Richard Aldington and novels by Thomas Wolfe , Joyce Carol Oates and Katherine Anne Porter . Because of her passion for science fiction literature, she has translated works by Ray Bradbury , Clifford D. Simak , Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke , Roger Zelazny, and Ursula K. Le Guin , Theodore Sturgeon and Robert Sheckley .
In 1972 Nora Gal's book Slowo schiwoje i mjortwoje (Living and Dead Word) was published, which summarizes her professional experiences. The basis of the book are examples of unsuccessful and incorrect linguistic and stylistic solutions by translators, authors and editors. These are each subjected to a brief analysis and supplemented by alternative suggestions. Everyday language is the main focus. The book is therefore not only aimed at specialists.
Slowo schiwoje i mjortwoje experienced several new editions.
Others
On April 27, 2012, on the occasion of Nora Gal's 100th birthday, the Nora Gal Prize for translations from English in the field of short prose was awarded for the first time.
Web links
- Memorial page on Nora Gal (Russian)
- Texts by Nora Gal at lib.ru (Russian)
- Short biography of Nora Gal in the Laboratory of Fantastics (Russian)
- Translations of Nora Gals in the Laboratory of Fantastic (Russian)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Gal, Nora |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Galperina, Eleonora Jakowlewna (real name); Гальпе́рина, Элеоно́ра Я́ковлевна |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Soviet translator |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 27, 1912 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Odessa |
| DATE OF DEATH | July 23, 1991 |