The Seagull

Peter Roberts is a former Canadian Ambassador to the Soviet Union and
author of George Costakis: A Russian Life in Art.

Not only is this translation not new (it was first published in 1977),
it is not even a translation. Bill Glassco tells us in his 1977
introduction that French neither reads nor writes Russian. It is a
mystery to this reviewer (who has done his share of translating from
Russian) how anyone can claim to have made an English translation of one
of the most finely crafted plays in all European literature while
asserting his ignorance of the language it was written in.

French has relied heavily on secondary sources, notably on people who
do know Russian and acted as his eyes and ears, and on earlier
translations. His objective was to produce a “made in Canada”
translation suited to the special needs of Canadian actors and
audiences. Well, maybe. The differences between French’s version and
those of the classic translators of Chekhov—Constance Garnett,
Elisaveta Fen, and Robert Corrigan—are not vast. Garnett, working in
the early 1920s, tended to say “it is,” whereas French prefers
“it’s.” At the end of Act 2, Tregorin speaks of “people
connected with literature and art”; French, using the trendy Canada
Council expression, renders this as “people in the arts.” And so
on—harmless adjustments that perhaps make Canadian actors and
audiences feel a bit more at home.

The transliteration of Russian names is always tricky, but in this book
it has been done in a particularly confusing way. Whereas the Russian
name Pyotr has been converted into its English equivalent, Peter,
Yevgeny is left in its original Russian form and not changed into its
English equivalent, Eugene. Konstantin loses his Russian spelling and
emerges as Constantine. Small matters, but denoting a lack of
consistency in Canadianization.