February 06, 2014

A Baker's Dozen of Invaluable Translation (and Language Learning) Resources


A Baker's Dozen of Invaluable Translation (and Language Learning) Resources
or... For When You Have Outgrown Google Translate

Whether you are a budding translator of Russian-English texts, are reading Russian literature in the original, or just want to improve your Russian, there are countless resources waiting for you on the internet. You just need to know where to look. We asked some of our finest translators to suggest their favorite online resources and added a few favorites of our own. Here’s the list, in no particular order:

Tap the Global Brain. There are thousands of other souls like you out there, trying to bridge language divides. And some of them are putting their translated phrases online into vast, searchable archives. Two that we recommend are TausData and Linguee.

The Standbys. Anyone learning Russian over the past several decades should be familiar with Ozhegov’s Russian to Russian dictionary, which gives invaluable examples of usage. It is now online and searchable (albeit in a somewhat clunky interface), as is Zaliznyak’s morphological dictionary, and Fasmer’s etymological dictionary.

Idioms. The go-to guide for translating Russian idioms into English is Sophia Lubensky’s masterpiece (now out in a second edition, but not in electronic version). You can, however, access an online version of Dubrovin’s 1987 Book of Russian Idioms Illustrated here. It’s an alphabetical listing of idioms with cartoony illustrations that escaped from the 1980s.

Proverbs. There’s a nice Wiki that collates many proverbs in alphabetical order here. A note on the page indicates that “the following phrases... have been verified through the following book,” which is Mertvago’s fine print volume, published by Hippocrene in 1996. Other sources also seem to be cited and referenced throughout.

Acronyms. So, you’re reading an article about global warming and all of a sudden come across the acronym БАС. Whatever could this mean? Never fear, sokr.ru is here to help. Yet another fantastic project of Art Lebedev, it has over 120,000 acronyms in its database and reportedly adds another 30 every day. The Russian language is mighty that way.

Dictionaries and More Dictionaries. If you have an odd word to look up, take it to Gramota. With one search you can scour multiple dictionaries (including the Bolshoi Tolkovoy Slovar), and also check usage questions and spelling. The portal also allows you to pose complex grammatical questions to resident Russian experts (in Russian). Another nice aggregator of dictionaries is Slovopedia, which has a simple design and a single search box that gives you access to everything from Dahl, to dictionaries of construction, synonyms, bookkeepers and the church. Another invaluable resource is Multitran, makers of a rich desktop translation program which also has an online counterpart.

Slang and Swearing. As if you doubted that there’s a site for that. Russki-mat.net allows you access to several bilingual jargon dictionaries (including Russian-Aragonese, of all things), as well as the Russian-German Partizan’s Companion, and a Russian to Russian dictionary of nineteenth century slang of both the upper crust and underbelly of society. Looking for more? This site offers access to aphorisms, anecdotes, slang, and collections of quotes (in Russian) by Shakespeare, Twain, Prutkov and others. You’ll have to just search on pages with your browser...

The National Corpus. This is the motherlode. Or maybe the mother ship. The site has more than 500 million word forms compiled in part in the manner of the British National Corpus. It is a searchable database of texts that are characteristic of the language in written and spoken form, with many of those texts annotated or explained. So, for instance, a search on a single word might bring up hundreds of works in which it appears – so that one could study usage in place – then select out by types of publications. As well, one can make rather specific searches on words by part of speech and declension, etc. And that is just the tip of the iceberg. Search for a word in “parallel” form, and it will pull up instances of the word alongside translations to or from the chosen language – an astoundingly useful tool for translators.

 

Like this post? Get a weekly email digest + member-only deals

Some of Our Books

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The Frogs Who Begged for a Tsar (bilingual)

The fables of Ivan Krylov are rich fonts of Russian cultural wisdom and experience – reading and understanding them is vital to grasping the Russian worldview. This new edition of 62 of Krylov’s tales presents them side-by-side in English and Russian. The wonderfully lyrical translations by Lydia Razran Stone are accompanied by original, whimsical color illustrations by Katya Korobkina.
Okudzhava Bilingual

Okudzhava Bilingual

Poems, songs and autobiographical sketches by Bulat Okudzhava, the king of the Russian bards. 
Turgenev Bilingual

Turgenev Bilingual

A sampling of Ivan Turgenev's masterful short stories, plays, novellas and novels. Bilingual, with English and accented Russian texts running side by side on adjoining pages.
Tolstoy Bilingual

Tolstoy Bilingual

This compact, yet surprisingly broad look at the life and work of Tolstoy spans from one of his earliest stories to one of his last, looking at works that made him famous and others that made him notorious. 
Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod: A Novel in Many Voices

Stargorod is a mid-sized provincial city that exists only in Russian metaphorical space. It has its roots in Gogol, and Ilf and Petrov, and is a place far from Moscow, but close to Russian hearts. It is a place of mystery and normality, of provincial innocence and Black Earth wisdom. Strange, inexplicable things happen in Stargorod. So do good things. And bad things. A lot like life everywhere, one might say. Only with a heavy dose of vodka, longing and mystery.
93 Untranslatable Russian Words

93 Untranslatable Russian Words

Every language has concepts, ideas, words and idioms that are nearly impossible to translate into another language. This book looks at nearly 100 such Russian words and offers paths to their understanding and translation by way of examples from literature and everyday life. Difficult to translate words and concepts are introduced with dictionary definitions, then elucidated with citations from literature, speech and prose, helping the student of Russian comprehend the word/concept in context.
Moscow and Muscovites

Moscow and Muscovites

Vladimir Gilyarovsky's classic portrait of the Russian capital is one of Russians’ most beloved books. Yet it has never before been translated into English. Until now! It is a spectactular verbal pastiche: conversation, from gutter gibberish to the drawing room; oratory, from illiterates to aristocrats; prose, from boilerplate to Tolstoy; poetry, from earthy humor to Pushkin. 
The Moscow Eccentric

The Moscow Eccentric

Advance reviewers are calling this new translation "a coup" and "a remarkable achievement." This rediscovered gem of a novel by one of Russia's finest writers explores some of the thorniest issues of the early twentieth century.
White Magic

White Magic

The thirteen tales in this volume – all written by Russian émigrés, writers who fled their native country in the early twentieth century – contain a fair dose of magic and mysticism, of terror and the supernatural. There are Petersburg revenants, grief-stricken avengers, Lithuanian vampires, flying skeletons, murders and duels, and even a ghostly Edgar Allen Poe.
A Taste of Russia

A Taste of Russia

The definitive modern cookbook on Russian cuisine has been totally updated and redesigned in a 30th Anniversary Edition. Layering superbly researched recipes with informative essays on the dishes' rich historical and cultural context, A Taste of Russia includes over 200 recipes on everything from borshch to blini, from Salmon Coulibiac to Beef Stew with Rum, from Marinated Mushrooms to Walnut-honey Filled Pies. A Taste of Russia shows off the best that Russian cooking has to offer. Full of great quotes from Russian literature about Russian food and designed in a convenient wide format that stays open during use.

About Us

Russian Life is a publication of a 30-year-young, award-winning publishing house that creates a bimonthly magazine, books, maps, and other products for Russophiles the world over.

Latest Posts

Our Contacts

Russian Life
73 Main Street, Suite 402
Montpelier VT 05602

802-223-4955