Talk:Mikhail's document

From Lostpedia

I noticed belatedly (sorry-- looked for a discussion on this page, but found it later) that someone thinks that in this context считать should be "believed". I don't understand why, as "believe" is really not used as a translation for считать. Especially when we don't have all the context, as in the last sentence, which could turn out to be "considered," I think it should stay "thought." --Jjrafferty 09:42, 19 March 2007 (PDT)

I went to check the dictionary and "to believe" is in the list of possible translations for word считать. So no issue here. But fact of the matter is that word-for-word translation rarely works with Russian. Word "believed" in this context is more appropriate than "considered" and slightly more appropriate than "thought". I'd change a few words in current translation, e.g. "in some measure" should be replaced with "To some degree" or "In some way", and "grandiloquent" doesn't reflect style of this document, although I struggle to find good English word to replace it. Papushin 11:18, 19 March 2007 (PDT)

I shouldn't have said it's not used as a translation and, you're right, Russian can't be translated word by word. Anyway, regarding высокопарный, what do you think of ostentatious or pretentious? Or I noticed multitran.ru translated it as "stilted," which doesn't seem to fit in with the rest of the meanings, but that would make much more sense.--Jjrafferty 04:02, 20 March 2007 (PDT)

Stilted was the original word I put but then someone replaced it. I didn't like it either but I like current translation even less. I personally believe the document doesn't have much meaning so I would not concentrate on finding "perfect" translation. Whatever we have now gives pretty good understanding. The interesting part: it is obviously a manuscript created by Mr. Bakunin himself but who would make such a stupid comment like "My name is also Andrey" on his own manuscript. It could be one of the production errors when they got actor himself (who speaks Russian by the way) write something or make comments and the comment he made was referring to his own name. But who knows... Papushin 12:14, 23 March 2007 (PDT)