“I am writing a play. It’s a comedy. There are three women’s parts, six men’s, four acts, landscapes, a view over a lake; a great deal of conversation about literature, little action, tons of love.”
– Anton Chekhov
A few years ago I wrote a translation of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull. That translation is now available as a DRM-free Kindle e-book. This, of course, also means that it can be read on any iPad, Android, Windows PC, Mac, or Blackberry device using the free Kindle Reading Apps for those platforms. Or transferred to any other e-reader you might care to employ with a minimum of effort.
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The Seagull is the haunting tale of young love, lost dreams, and broken promise. Its unique cast of incomparable characters echoes dully in a perfect balance – each drawn and repulsed in equal measures through an enchanting and terrifying dance choreographed by Anton Chekhov, the master of Russian theater. It is that rare and precious jewel which perfectly reflects a slice of life, finding those moments which are simultaneously comic and tragic; mortal and divine; eternal and common.
This performance-tested translation captures both the comic and tragic elements of Chekhov’s stirring drama. Those wishing to find a text which is both faithful to the play’s original Russian and also capable of achieving lyric truth in English will not be disappointed: The characters speak Chekhov’s words in another tongue.
ABOUT THE TRANSLATION
Back in 2010 I also wrote a series of essays discussing the translation. If you didn’t read them back then, you might find them interesting now:
The Seagull – Proxy Translation
The Seagull – Jupiter is Angry
The Seagull – (Not So) Virgin Wood
And if you’re generally interesting my playwriting, you might also be interested in John and Abigail:
