don't pander to me, kid

‘Learning Russian has given me a whole new life’ Mary Hobson: It took me about two years [to read War and Peace]. I read it like a poem, a sentence at a time. English writer and translator Mary Hobson decided to learn Russian at the age of 56, graduating in her sixties and completing a PhD aged 74. Now fluent in Russian, Hobson has translated “Eugene Onegin” and other poems by Pushkin, “Woe from Wit” by Griboyedov, and has won the Griboyedov Prize and Pushkin Medal for her work. RBTH visited Hobson at home in London to ask about her inspiring experience. 

RBTH: Learning Russian is difficult at any age, and you were 56. How did the idea first come to your mind? 

 Mary Hobson: I was having a foot operation, and I had to stay in bed for two weeks in hospital. My daughter Emma brought me a big fat translation of War and Peace. “Mum, you’ll never get a better chance to read it”, she said. I’d never read Russian literature before. I got absolutely hooked on it, I just got so absorbed! I read like a starving man eats. The paperback didn’t have maps of the battle of Borodino, I was making maps trying to understand what was happening. This was the best novel ever written. Tolstoy creates the whole world, and while you read it, you believe in it. I woke up in the hospital three days after I finished reading and suddenly realized: “I haven’t read it at all. I’ve read a translation. I would have to learn Russian.” 

RBTH: Did you read War and Peace in the original language eventually? 

M.H.: Yes, it was the first thing I read in Russian. I bought a fat Russian dictionary and off I went. It took me about two years. I read it like a poem, a sentence at a time. I learned such a lot, I still remember where I first found some words. “Between,” for instance. About a third of the way down the page. 

RBTH: Do you remember your first steps in learning Russian? 

 M.H.: I had a plan to study the Russian language in evening classes, but my Russian friend said: “Don’t do that, I’ll teach you.” We sat in the garden and she helped me to remember the Cyrillic script. I was 56 at this time, and I found it very tiring reading in Cyrillic. I couldn’t do it in the evening because I simply wouldn’t be able to sleep. And Russian grammar is fascinating. 

RBTH: You became an undergraduate for the first time in your sixties. How did you feel about studying with young students? 

M.H.: I need to explain first why I didn’t have any career before my fifties. My husband had a very serious illness, a cerebral abscess, and he became so disabled. I was just looking after him. And we had four children. After 28 years I could not do it any longer, I had break downs, depressions. I finally realized I would have to leave. Otherwise I would just go down with him. There was a life out there I hadn’t lived. It was time to go out and to live it. I left him. I’ve been on my own for three years in a limbo of quilt and depression. Then I picked up a phone and rang the number my friend had long since given me, that of the School of Slavonic and East European Studies, London University. “Do you accept mature students?” I asked. “Of sixty-two?” They did. When the first day of term arrived, I was absolutely terrified. I went twice around Russel square before daring to go in. The only thing that persuaded me to do it was that I got offered the place and if I didn’t do it, the children would be so ashamed of me. My group mates looked a little bit surprised at first but then we were very quickly writing the same essays, reading the same stuff, having to do the same translations. 

RBTH: You spent 10 months in Moscow as part of your course. How did you feel in Russia? 

 M.H.: I hardly dared open my mouth, because I thought I got it wrong. It lasted about a week like this, hardly daring to speak. Then I thought – I’m here only for 10 months. I shall die if I don’t communicate. I just have to risk it. Then I started bumbling stuff. I said things I didn’t at all mean. I just said anything. The most dangerous thing was to make jokes. People looked at me as I was mad. I hate to say it, but in 1991 the Russian ruble absolutely collapsed and for the first and last time in my life I was a wealthy woman. I bought over 200 books in Russian, 10 “Complete Collected Works” of my favorite 19th-century authors. Then it was a problem how to get them home. Seventy-five of them were brought to London by a visiting group of schoolchildren. They took three books each. 

RBTH: You’re celebrating your 90th birthday in July. What’s the secret of your longevity? 

Jyn - 21

8 when Krennic kills her mom and kidnaps her dad

had some great toys as a kid like im super jealous

Cassian - 26

his family died in the clone wars

was not quite a separatist but almost

basically the bottle kids from trailer park boys, he threw bottles and rocks at clones etc

was pretty much an anarchy punk kid until the rebellion recruited him

held the Fulcrum title for a time, but only in one sector

Bodhi - 25

a Jedha native! so he got to watch part of his planet blow up

and got to see the empire strip his planet of all its resources

probably took the job with the empire because his family was starving

gambler, specifically gambled as a coping mechanism

it specifically says he doesn’t take good care of his uniform, probably as part of passive resistance

Baze - 53

built and modded his weapons

guardians aren’t supposed to have long hair

doesn’t really see the difference between Saw and Mothma’s rebels

as long as everyone is shooting at the empire he literally does not care

has apparently been off world, not sure where

really, really hates the empire

like really, wow

loves chirrut so much like whoa

Chirrut - 52

loves baze so much like whoa

might be implied he wasn’t always blind

built his light bow

he has an echo box that probably helps him figure out movement/landscape

the staff has a kyber shard in it for the same purpose

the guardians apparently used the starbird symbol first, and he has a pretty sweet necklace of it

guardians “do not emphasize the discord between lightness and darkness”

my bro my dude what were you doing 20 years ago

do you think you could do a mentoring program or something with a Troubled Young Jedi

And maybe save the galaxy by just like

letting this kid know there are other options

K-2SO - 12

(what are you like 12)

Cassian did most of the work reformatting him

Saw - ????

literally it just says unknown

dying of like everything

geonosian pesticides??? he had to get his lungs like replaced but the shit is still in his system

he’s been picking up clues about the death star and following its trail for years

literally no one listened to him he was right all along he knew something was going down and people are like lol that’s ridiculous

not being taken seriously contributed to his paranoia and increasingly desperate actions

Galen - 55

Lyra - 34 at time of death

fun fact she was a geologist

she figured out Krennic was bad news

convinced the fam to leave coruscant

basically saved everyone because galen was too deep in his work to notice shit was going down

Krennic - 51

fought in the clone wars

General Merrick, that Coran looking blue leader - 46

fought in the clone wars

General Draven, Cassian’s CO - 45

fought in the clone wars, never met a jedi

Admiral Raddus - 65