‘I Translated the Word "Bastard" Eighteen Different Ways': Rita Rait-Kovaleva's Cold War Literary Diplomacy

• In Event: Mediators: Translations and Translators in Soviet International Relations

Abstract

This paper considers the life story and literary career of one of the Soviet Union’s most acclaimed literary translators, Rita Rait-Kovaleva. The paper focuses on Rita Rait-Kovaleva’s extraordinary agency as the foremost translator of American fiction during the Cold War. Famous for her brilliant translations of J.D. Salinger, William Faulkner, Mark Twain, and Kurt Vonnegut, Rait-Kovaleva introduced generations of Soviet readers to these beloved American authors. A self-proclaimed “living relic of the Silver Age,” Rait-Kovaleva’s reputation as a remarkable translator was enhanced by stories of her friendships with Vladimir Mayakovsky, Lili Brik, Valerii Bryusov, Anna Akhmatova, Velimir Khlebnikov, Boris Pasternak, Kornei Chukovsky, Samuil Marshak, and many others. This paper tracks Rait-Kovaleva’s translation practice on two fronts. First, I track Rait-Kovaleva’s “biographical correctness” as a translator born of Russia’s Silver Age. Then, drawing on the insights of translation scholars Brian James Baer, Alexander Burak, and others, I analyze Rait-Kovaleva’s approach to translation as one of unique forms of “enlivenment” and “re-authorization.” The result was a remarkable contribution to American-Soviet Cold War diplomacy through the translated word.

Author

• Sarah Drue Phillips, Indiana U Bloomington