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Is the transliteration of “Requiem” by Anna Akhmatova correct?

Question by : “Requiem” by Anna Akhmatova – transliteration?
I’ve spent the morning combing the Internet for a transliterated version of “Instead of a Preface” from Akhmatova’s “Requiem.” This is the Russian text:

ВМЕСТО ПРЕДИСЛОВИЯ

В страшные годы ежовщины я провела семнадцать месяцев в тюремных очередях в Ленинграде. Как-то раз кто-то «опознал» меня. Тогда стоящая за мной женщина с голубыми губами, которая, конечно, никогда в жизни не слыхала моего имени, очнулась от свойственного нам всем оцепенения и спросила меня на ухо (там все говорили шепотом):

— А это вы можете описать?
И я сказала:
— Могу.

Тогда что-то вроде улыбки скользнуло по тому, что некогда было ее лицом.

I’ve tried a couple transliteration sites, but I fear that they might not make sense; here’s what I’ve come up with:

VMESTO PREDISLOVIJa

V strashnye gody ezhovshhiny ja provela semnadcat’ mesjacev v tjuremnyh ocheredjah v Leningrade. Kak-to raz kto-to «opoznal» menja. Togda stojashhaja za mnoj zhenshhina s golubymi gubami, kotoraja, konechno, nikogda v zhizni ne slyhala moego imeni, ochnulas’ ot svojstvennogo nam vsem ocepenenija i sprosila menja na uho (tam vse govorili shepotom):

— A jeto vy mozhete opisat’?
I ja skazala:
— Mogu.

Togda chto-to vrode ulybki skol’znulo po tomu, chto nekogda bylo ee licom.

Could anyone fluent in Russian let me know whether the transliteration is accurate or at least makes sense? I want to use the poem in a card for a friend whose parents raised him speaking Russian but who doesn’t actually read Cyrillic.

Thank you very much in advance!

Answers and Views:

Answer by arxigene
Anyone who can speak Russian will understand this transliterated version. The only thing I would change is to remove “j” from “jeto”: “A eto vy mozhete opisat’?”

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Comments ( 1 )

  1. nikolay says

    There’s no single or “correct” way to transliterate Russian. This one is readable. A few points:

    The “a” in PREDISLOVIJA doesn’t have to be lowercase.

    “Eto” rather than “jeto”, as said above.

    It’s more common to translit “щ” as “sch” or “shch” rather than “shh”.

    Reply

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