Friday, November 03, 2006

I wrote a rough draft of an essay for my Russian language class. It is about me. My new bio.

Меня зовут Зак. Теперь я учусь в университете штата Небраска. Прежде, чем я учился в колледже oзaркс. Я английский аспирант. Я изучаю английский язык и поэзию. Я знаю английский язык и поэзию хорошо, но я знаю русский язык плохо. Моя жена, Эллисон, и я имею маленький дом в Линкольне. Перед этим, я жил в Миссури, Штате Огайо, и Штате Монтана. В Штате Огайо, я был преподавателем. В Штате Монтана, я был девятью одним одним диспетчерами. Чтобы работать как, диспетчер был труден. Я имею двух котов. Их названия Maлкmус и сaлинджeр. Мы также имеем собаку. Ее название Граки. Она живет в доме.

Мой pодители жил в Миссури, теперь они живут в Каунсил Блафсе. Мой папа удален преподаватель. Моя мама работает в складе. Я имею сестру. Ее название келси. Я люблю Эллисон, моего папу, мою маму, и мою сестру. Они говорят на английском языке только. Я изучаю русский язык в университете, потому что я хочу перевести поэзию Daниил Xaрmс. Я издаю мою поэзию в журналах и книге в феврале 2007. Это название Иск Человека.

8 comments:

Riley said...

What you say?

kate said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
jwg said...

would love to see your Kharms. Can't imagine a better person to translate his work. What about a bit of prose, say, Isaac Babel? Sure you are going to discover some lost joker out there this is going to blow the doors off.

Zachary Schomburg said...

Jim, thanks for the encouragement. I'm pretty excited to get my hands dirty, but it'll be a while. I'm going to take another semester of language in the spring before I even look at a poem, I think. But it's an exciting prospect.

Riley, these online translators go in a lot of different directions, and draw some pretty hilarious conclusions. I certainly don't trust my vocab/grammar skills right now. And apparently, I shouldn't really trust my little pocket dictionary. Here's what another translator did to this piece (I really want my book's name to be The Claim of the Person (!)):

My name is Zak. Now I study at university of state of Nebraska. Before I studied in college oзaркс. I the English post-graduate student. I study English language and poetry. I know English language and poetry well, but I know Russian badly. My wife, Allison, and I have the small house in the Lincoln. Before it, I lived in Missouri, State of Ohio, and State of Montana. In State of Ohio, I was the teacher. In State of Montana, I was nine one one dispatchers. To work as, the dispatcher was difficult. I have two cats. Their names Maлкmус and сaлинджeр. We also have a dog. Its name Граки. It lives in the house.

Mine pодители veins in Missouri, now they live in Каунсил Блафсе. My daddy is removed the teacher. My mum works in a warehouse. I have the sister. Its name келси. I love Allison, my daddy, my mum, and my sister. They speak in English only. I study Russian at university because I wish to translate poetry Daниил Xaрmс. I publish my poetry in magazines and the book in February 2007. This name the Claim of the Person.

Riley said...

I was in a coffee shop in Washington, D.C. in May of 2003 with my girlfriend at the time, M. M is a Jewish girl who immigrated here with her family from Belarus when she was 14. She speaks fluent Russian, and she looks very eastern European, so she was often immediately recognized as Russian by other Russians.

So we're in this coffee shop in downtown D.C., and this guy walks up to us and asks us if we want to here his translations. He's Russian, and he's speaking Russian with M, quite obviously hitting on her, but also quite obviously getting nowhere. So I sit back while he goes into poetry-speaking mode and recites, off the top of his head, several minutes worth of translated-from-Russian poetry.

Despite his hitting on M, I was decently impressed. I don't really know where I was going with that story, but I've already typed it, so I guess I'll post it.

Reen said...

I am very excited by the fact that, six years after getting my Russian degree, I can read this passage.

Whee! Not everything has been lost!

Bugalter said...

Hi. May be bette replace befor to earlier(раньше).

Ruslan said...

Ну что же, мой респект тебе, за то что учишь русский язык! Если хочешь то могу помочь тебе с ошибками!;)