Robert Flaxman said: >>With translations, though, it's my feeling that the most common English translation is what should generally be sought. Have you ever seen Gogol's story referred to in English as "An Overcoat?" I haven't. Ditto for "The War and the Peace." If it isn't published under that title in English, why should it be acceptable, even if technically you could make the case that it's possible to translate it like that? People who are going to be that anal about Russian's lack of articles should be forced to give the original Russian title. I don't agree with that. If a person shows a clear knowledge of the answer, given that the original language does not have articles, I would be inclined to go so far as to even accept "The War and the Peace". I find it highly unlikely that anyone would ever give such an answer, but I personally would accept it, since there's no ambiguity involved in introducing the articles. Of course, as someone who speaks Russian, I'm biased. Another good example is the Bulgakov work "Heart of a Dog." At last year's ACF regionals, I answered "A Dog's Heart" and was prompted by the moderator. Luckily, I was able to give the answer in the original Russian ("Sobachye Serdtse" for anyone who cares) but most people don't have that knowledge. Since I don't think there is any ambiguity in either answer, I would accept the former answer because the translation is equivalent. Here's another good example (also from Russian): the 1996 Russian film, "Burned by the Sun." The problem is that the translation is not exact. The actualy title is "Exhausted by the Sun" (again, in the original, "Utomlennye solntzem"). I can see someone giving the former answer because that's the title by which they knew the movie and I think that given the ambiguity of the translation, I would accept that. I don't think that noting Russian's lack of articles should be a reason to force anyone to give the original Russian title; most people can't do that and it's unreasonable to expect that. However, in cases where the translation may be ambiguous enough to cause someone to give an equivalent answer to what is specified by the question writer, I think that if the player displayes definite knowledge of the work, he should receive the points. Jerry
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