The Best Translation of Eugene Onegin
Eugene Onegin was written in Russian. 3 recommended editions, ranked — with Gröblé’s verdict on which to read first.
James Falen
Oxford World's Classics · 1995 · 240 pages
Falen is the consensus best rhymed Onegin in English. Keeps Pushkin's fourteen-line stanza and the masculine/feminine rhyme pattern intact, and reads as English verse rather than as a translation.
Every recommended edition, compared
Mitchell's later rhymed version (Penguin, 2008). Not as consistently graceful as Falen, but individual stanzas are lovely. A fine second take if you want another rhymed pass.
Nabokov's notorious literal prose, with two volumes of commentary. Useless as poetry, indispensable as a line-by-line map of what Pushkin actually wrote. Read it next to Falen.
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Reading Eugene Onegin in translation
Eugene Onegin was written in Russian, so unless you read Russian, the translator decides the book you actually experience — its register, its pace, how it sounds read aloud. Two editions of the same work can feel like different books.
The ranking above is Gröblé’s: one reader’s verdict on which English gets you closest, not a publisher’s blurb. Start with the top pick; reach for the others when you want a different angle on the original.