Pumpkins with a Side of Russian Translation

A certain non-vegetable-eating vegetarian British friend of mine asked me this weekend, "what is it with Americans and pumpkins?" This was just after he had turned down a serving of my absolutely-delicious-oh-my-gosh-I-am-in-heaven pumpkin curry. (That's my name, not my recipe. The recipe is here. Also, I added some fish in the photo above, not part of the original recipe.) My answer? I honestly have no idea. I came to pumpkins late in life since my mother never cooked them at home. We never had pumpkin pie at Cuban San Gibbin, nor do I have any memories of anything pumpkin-inspired at all during my childhood. I am sure there is so much more to be done with pumpkins than what I've picked up in the last few years, but maybe that's the root of my excitement. The possibility.

You see a pumpkin, I see one kilo of possibility sitting in front of me at the farmer's market. Oh yes, I said one kilo, otherwise known as 2.2 pounds. This was the smallest quantity of pumpkin I could walk home with when I arrived at the farmer's market late one day last week. So, while I had only planned to make a pumpkin-goat cheese quiche (also yummy), I ended up with the curry as a bonus. Perhaps another American could answer my friend's question more satisfactorily?

Powered by all this pumpkin goodness, I headed to a reading this evening by dynamic translation duo Richard Pevear and Larissa Volohonsky at one of Paris's last remaining English-language bookshops. (I can't get started on the dramatic closings of several stores here this summer right now. Suffice to say that even though I read in French and there are loads of lovely French-language bookshops, my heart dies a little any time an independent bookstore closes.) Malanga Girl came along, with a brand-new sticker book under her arm to keep her busy while the reading took place. Here's the line-up of readings that may have seeped into her subconscious as she stickered away:

- A hilarious dramatic re-enactment by both translators of a scene between Dmitry Karamazov and Madame Khokhlakov from Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamazov. If this ever becomes available as a podcast, this would be the place to find it.

- Larissa Volohonsky read a lovely reflection on beauty, love and perhaps some things I missed due to not having read the whole book, from War & Peace. Okay, I confess that I was still imagining Madame Khokhlakov as I heard Ms. Volohonsky's voice, so I missed some of the substance of this particular piece.

- Richard Pevear read the short story Nevsky Prospekt by Nikolai Gogol. Go read it yourself now. In Pevear and Volohonsky's translation, of course.

- Larissa Volohonsky read the scene from Bulgakov's Master and Margarita where Margarita first appears. Even though I had read that one, it cut my breath short. Was it Bulgakov or Volohonsky?

- Both translators read from a Nikolai Leskov story to be published in a collection in March.

The usual question and answer period followed the reading. It had the occasional question formulated merely to show how clever the question-poser is, but was generally interesting and stayed on-topic. Amid discussion of using latinate versus anglo-saxon words in English translations and whether a translation can "improve" the original (overall consensus: it can't, unless you are Beckett and are translating yourself), I wrote down the following two phrases by Richard Pevear: "Every time you say something about translation, it turns out the opposite is also true" and "English is rather rhyme-poor." I'll jump on those bandwagons.

As for Malanga Girl, when she heard me telling Malanga Papa later that "the reading was fun," she vehemently denied such a thing and said "it was not fun." And yet, she did want to know who "Margarita" was...