Russian by audiobooks with matching texts

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Eafonte
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Re: Russian by audiobooks with matching texts

Postby Eafonte » Sat Jan 22, 2022 1:39 am

January 20, 2022: I finished reading and listening the belarusian novel "Дикая охота короля Стаха".

I found this novel compelling, a page turner. A detective/ghost story. Without spoilers this text in Goodreads about the english translation gives a good synopsis:

King Stakh's Wild Hunt tells the tale of Andrey Belaretsky, a young folklorist who finds himself stranded by a storm in the castle of Marsh Firs, the seat of the fading aristocratic Yanovsky family. Offered refuge by Nadzeya, the last in the Yanovskys’ line, he learns of the family curse and terrible apparitions that portend her early death and trap her in permanent, maddening fear.

As Belaretsky begins to unravel the secrets of the Yanovskys, he himself becomes quarry of the Wild Hunt, silent phantoms who stalk the marshes on horseback and deliver death to all who cross their path. He must uncover the truth behind the ghostly hunt to release Nadzeya from her fate and undo the curse that hangs over the marshes.

A jewel of Belarusian classic literature, King Stakh's Wild Hunt is one of Karatkevich's most critically acclaimed works that also inspired a 1979 film adaptation. Based on an ancient European legend, this suspense masterpiece taps into the imagery of the country’s rich cultural heritage to offer both a haunting piece of gothic intrigue as well as a profound meditation on the destiny of the Belarusian people.


https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/161 ... Lqn&rank=2

Language-wise this novel was hard, a tough nut to crack. Many unknown words, and besides that, many words which I couldn't find even in my biggest paper monolingual russian dictionary (the 2000 Kuznetsov Dictionary with 130,000 words) . This was driving me nuts. I was dumbfounded. Never had I encountered such a difficult translated text. Then I did three things: got the original Belarusian text, shelfed my paper dictonaries and began to use a russian monolingual multidictionary online search (23 dictionaries simultaneously): slovari.ru . Using these tools I managed to unravel the linguistic mystery of the russian version's difficulty. I found out that many belarusian words were translated by means of mysterious russian cognates. And these mysterious russian cognates were giving me trouble because all of them were and are dialectal words in Russian!

For instance, the belarusian verb "хаваць/схаваць" (to hide) was translated sometimes not as the standard russian verbs meaning "to hide" ("прятать/спрятать" or "скрывать/скрыть"), but as an obscure dialectal russian cognate "ховать/сховать".

After discovering this I feel vindicated and could resume the reading using slovari.ru as my weapon of choice, although I must confess that I stumbled upon a word that even this site couldn't give me a clue of (the verb "шкодовать", whose existence in Russian, even as a dialectal word, is doubtful (see this discussion: https://russian.stackexchange.com/quest ... in-russian)

Books read: 18.
Pages read: 4,997.
10 x

Eafonte
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Re: Russian by audiobooks with matching texts

Postby Eafonte » Sat Jan 22, 2022 10:06 pm

January 22, 2022:

I started reading and listening the novel "На краю Ойкумены", 278 pages, by russian writer Ivan Efremov (1908-1972), first published in 1949.

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Eafonte
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Re: Russian by audiobooks with matching texts

Postby Eafonte » Fri Jan 28, 2022 12:10 am

January 27, 2022:

Yesterday I finished reading and listening the novel "На краю Ойкумены" by russian writer Ivan Efremov. "На краю Ойкумены" can be literally translated as "At the edge of the Oecumene", that is, "At the edge of the inhabited world", but the available translation into English bears the title "The Land of Foam". This novel is a historical adventure fiction, set about 1000-900 BC . The main character is Pandion, a young greek sculptor, which goes to Crete in an esthetic pursuit, finds himself enslaved in Pharaoh's land, but manages to leave Egypt back to Greece not by the way you're thinking. And this long journey back home is a collective accomplishment of Pandion and his comrades, fellow slaves in Egypt.

Language-wise Efremov loves writing descriptions, sometimes lengthty, sometimes terse: the weather, landscape features, trees, fruits, animals, odd tribal ceremonies, buildings, architecture etc. The book has more than hundred footnotes. Few dialogues. On the other hand, all the novel is conveyed in a crystal clear Russian, a precise and beautiful diction without any flowery. I needed to look up no more than 5-6 words.

We must also bear in mind that "На краю Ойкумены" is part of a dilogy, named "Великая дуга" (the Great Ark).

So today I started reading the story "Путешествие Баурджеда", 103 pages, first published in 1953, the other book of the dilogy.

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Books read: 19.
Pages read: 5,275.
5 x

Eafonte
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Re: Russian by audiobooks with matching texts

Postby Eafonte » Sat Jan 29, 2022 11:39 pm

January 29, 2022.

Today I finished reading the story "Путешествие Баурджеда" by Ivan Efremov. The story, whose title translates as "The Voyage of Baurdjed", is set in the reigns of Pharaohs Djedefre and Khafre of the IV Dinasty of the Old Kingdom in the XXVI century BC. Djedefre gives Baurdjed, the kingdom's Treasurer, a paramount mission: to command a sea expedition to the vaunted and shrouded in mystery Land of Punt, located somewhere in the eastern coast of Africa to the south of modern day Somalia, and also to seek the continent's end down south. Baurjed's voyage lasts so long that the former ruler dies and Baurjed manages to return back to Egypt only in the reign of Pharaoh Khafre, Djedefre's successor. This will give Baurjed much trouble...

The story is captivating. The reader can feel the awe and the wonder of these ancient egyptian explorers when they were boldly going to a land where no egyptian had gone before, and by a sea still unsailed, fraught with unforeseen dangers but also full of pleasant surprises.

Language-wise, having found no good recording to listen, I only read the story and therefore took the occasion to look a sizable amount of words up in the dictionary, but I could have read it extensively, looking up sparingly, in the way I read the preceding book.

Both works have left me an excellent impression of Efremov's writing style, and it goes without saying that I will definetely read more books by him. But my quest in this vast, wonderful and for me still unchartered world of literature in Russian, original and translated, should continue.

So today I started reading and listening the book "Господин Никто", 237 pages, a translation into Russian of the 1967 spy thriller novel "Господин Никой" by bulgarian writer Bogomil Raynov (1919-2007).

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Books read: 20.
Pages read: 5,378.
Last edited by Eafonte on Sun Jan 30, 2022 12:39 am, edited 1 time in total.
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einzelne
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Re: Russian by audiobooks with matching texts

Postby einzelne » Sat Jan 29, 2022 11:47 pm

Eafonte wrote:Today I finished reading the story "Путешествие Баурджеда" by Ivan Efremov.


Do you know about his sci-fi novel «Туманность Андромеды»? It has a cult status, since, published in 1957, it marked the end of the era of «фантастика ближнего прицела» — basically, Stalin "killed" sci-fi as a genre, since only the descriptions of the nearest future were allowed. You can easily find an audiobook.
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Eafonte
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Re: Russian by audiobooks with matching texts

Postby Eafonte » Sat Jan 29, 2022 11:55 pm

einzelne wrote:
Eafonte wrote:Today I finished reading the story "Путешествие Баурджеда" by Ivan Efremov.


Do you know about his sci-fi novel «Туманность Андромеды»? It has a cult status, since, published in 1957, it marked the end of the era of «фантастика ближнего прицела» — basically, Stalin "killed" sci-fi as a genre, since only the descriptions of the nearest future were allowed. You can easily find an audiobook.


Yes, Туманность Андромеды is in my to read list. I have already found three audiobook recordings of this work. Have you read it or other Efremov's books?

P.S. Thanks Einzelne for this interesting wikipedia article about Stalin's interference on soviet sci-fi. I didn't know that.
Last edited by Eafonte on Sun Jan 30, 2022 12:48 am, edited 1 time in total.
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einzelne
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Re: Russian by audiobooks with matching texts

Postby einzelne » Sun Jan 30, 2022 12:02 am

Eafonte wrote:Have you read it or other Efremov's books?


Yes, together with its sequel The Bull's Hour which is still not available in English. It's an intriguing attempt to build a communist utopia. Jameson has a fascinating discussion of it in his article "Progress Versus Utopia; or, Can We Imagine the Future?"
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Eafonte
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Re: Russian by audiobooks with matching texts

Postby Eafonte » Sun Jan 30, 2022 12:13 am

einzelne wrote:
Eafonte wrote:Have you read it or other Efremov's books?


Yes, together with its sequel The Bull's Hour which is still not available in English. It's an intriguing attempt to build a communist utopia. Jameson has a fascinating discussion of it in his article "Progress Versus Utopia; or, Can We Imagine the Future?"


Another interesting Efremov's work in the "Great Circle" series in my to read list is the story "Cor Serpentis", a first contact type sci-fi tale.
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Eafonte
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Re: Russian by audiobooks with matching texts

Postby Eafonte » Sun Feb 06, 2022 7:54 pm

February 03, 2022: I finished reading and listening "Господин Никто", a 1967 bulgarian spy novel. The main character is a bulgarian young male which escapes communist Bulgaria into Greece, gets arrested after ilegally crossing the border and ends up in a greek prison, suspected of being an undercover bulgarian spy. After some months there an american secret agency invites him to become a western spy. He accepts the offer and is released from prison. No more can be said without spoilers! All in all an entertaining spy novel featuring a charming, high IQ communist James Bond without state-of-the-art nifty gadgets.

Language-wise I found the book's plot sometimes hard to follow, demanding many rereadings, due to unexpected twists, fast dialogues and intricate deductions. On the other hand, I found the book's vocabulary not overwhelming, as it demanded not many dictionary look-ups. Some unknown words and idioms I stumbled upon:

статист = extra (in a film/piece)
сиречь = that is to say
норовить = to strive to
под градусом = tipsy
попасть впросак = to put one's foot in it
фата = (bridal) veil
зазноба = sweetheart
шлюха = prostitute
яко = as/like
стопка = small glass, a shot of a drink.
обойма = cartridge clip (of a pistol)
физиономия = face
легавый = detective; policeman

February 04, 2022: I started reading a 1922 sci-fi novel, "Долина Новой Жизни", 476 pages, by russian writer Федор Ильин (1873-1959).

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Books read: 21.
Pages read: 5,615.
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Eafonte
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Re: Russian by audiobooks with matching texts

Postby Eafonte » Fri Feb 11, 2022 10:20 pm

February 10, 2022: I finished reading the novel, "Долина Новой Жизни". This book, whose title can be translated as "The Valley of a New Life", is a dystopian and adventure novel written in 1922. In a remote and secluded asian valley not far from the Himalayas a technological advanced technocratic and despotic State, headed by an american cientist, thrives on scientific achievements and breakthroughs unseen in the outside world: nuclear power plants, airplanes propelled by engines feed by wireless power transmitted from ground stations, magnetic levitation trains, ubiquitious cameras and microphones monitoring the people, mass breeding of human beings in incubators and a diabolical machine which induces thoughts and emotions in people's minds , just to name a few. The main character is a brilliant but terminally ill frenchman engineer who accepts an invitation of this mysterious State, lured by the promise of a cure of this condition, and ends up there, unable to return back to his homeland. The nuclear power stations mentioned in the book impressed me the most. How could the author have envisioned them in 1922? The Orwellian Big Brother is also antecipated in the book. The book is divided in two parts. The first part got published in 1928. Both parts only were published in 1967 , after the author's death, at behest of his widow. The book's end is surprising for a piece of literature written in 1922...

Language-wise I haven't found the book hard to read, as it demanded not many look-ups, long winded descriptions are absent, the sentences, in his majority, are short, and the percentage of unique words is small (see this linguistic analysis in full: https://www.fantlab.ru/work367059/lp )

Some words I've met and looked up:

ажу́рный = openwork
и́зморозь = hoar-frost
вы́емка = excavation
окуна́ть/окуну́ть = to dip, plunge
купе́ль, -и = baptismal font
оскла́биться = to grin
дщерь = дочь
што́льня = mining gallery
щитови́дная железа́ = thyroid
оскопля́ть/оскопи́ть = to castrate
стушёвываться/стушева́ться = to vanish, disappear
треволне́ние = волне́ние
верзи́ла = lanky person
шевелю́ра = head of hair
до поры́ до вре́мени = for the time being
корь,-и = measles
сы́воротка = serum
бирюза́ = turquoise
заправи́ла = boss
ши́ло = awl
примина́ть/примя́ть = to crush, flatten
похлёбка = soup, broth
днёвка = однодневная остановка
мая́тник = pendulum
прота́лина = thawed patch of earth
увещева́ние = exhortation
корёжить/искорёжить = to bend, warp
о́ползень, зня = landslide

By the way, it's always nice stumbling upon again a word you encountered before and managing to remember his meaning. For instance, in this book I've stumbled upon again the verb понукать (to goad), which I first encountered in august 31 2021 when reading Bryusov's "Огненный ангел" (see the first page of this thread, fifth post).

February 11, 2022: I started reading and listening "Сокровища Улугбека", 392 pages, a translation into Russian of the historical novel "Ulugʻbek xazinasi" by uzbek writer Adil Yakubov (1926-2009).

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Books read: 22.
Pages read: 6,091 pages.
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