In 2018, longtime Wichita Falls arts supporter Jane Spears Carnes recognized that Midwestern State University faculty members might need opportunities to enhance their research and artistic endeavors without the obligations of teaching a class. She created the Jane Spears Carnes Faculty Fellowship in Creative Endeavors, a support grant that gives faculty in creative fields a semester off from teaching so they might concentrate on their art or research. The fellowship supports the faculty activities and their replacement in the classroom for one semester.

The 2023 fellowship recipient was Professor of English and Humanities Kirsten Lodge. She spent the spring semester of this year translating short stories by Anton Chekhov for Broadview Press, an independent academic publisher. Lodge used her knowledge of Russian to translate six or seven of Chekhov’s medical-themed stories for Broadview’s library of Russian classics.

This will be Lodge’s seventh such edition for Broadview, contributing to the field of Russian literature and enhancing her reputation as a scholar and translator. The Broadview collection of Russian classics so far includes Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Notes from The Underground, Leo Tolstoy’s The Death of Ivan Ilych and Hadji Murat, Yevgeny Zamyatin’s We, and Leonid Andreyev’s The Red Laugh and The Abyss.

Chekhov was a doctor, and his stories of empathy, or lack of, and relationships between patient and doctor were good for students going into the medical field. Lodge realized that these lessons in empathy for doctors could also apply to the student-teacher relationship.

Lodge was already familiar with Chekhov, as she studied his short stories in graduate school at Columbia University, where she earned a Ph.D. in Russian language and literature, as well as a Ph.D. in Czech language and literature. She has published a paper on his story, “The Black Monk.”

“This edition of Chekhov’s stories will include my own new translations of six or seven works,” Lodge said. The works selected include the classic “Ward No. 6,” “Misery,” “A Doctor’s Visit,” “An Attack of Nerves,” and “Typhus.” She is considering “The Bishop” and “The Black Monk.” In addition, the new edition will include an introduction, annotations, and contextual materials relevant to Chekhov’s career as a doctor, the status of doctors, and the history of medicine at the time (1880s-1890s), especially in Russia.

This project is not only scholarly but also creative, as translation is an art that requires craft and skill to produce a faithful rendering of the original, which is true to the author’s literary style and is preferable to existing translations. “I spend hours deliberating over word choice, syntax, and style, and I hone the translation in multiple drafts based on feedback from colleagues, specialists, and editors,” Lodge said. “To give just one example: the Russian title of ‘Misery’ can also mean grief, sorrow, or misfortune. It is up to the translator to decide which word is most appropriate based on her interpretation of the work.”

Lodge reads the complete work first, then translates, constantly aware of a balance