Roger holds a master’s degree in Classics from Cambridge University, having studied Greek and Latin and the literature, history and culture of ancient Greece and Rome. During a career in the senior civil service Roger retained his interest in languages, studying French and Russian to a high level. He developed a special interest in the writings of Alexander Pushkin (1799-1837).
After retirement Roger gained recognition as a literary translator, primarily of Pushkin. His aspiration is to make Pushkin’s work, too little appreciated hitherto outside Russia, known to a wider English readership worldwide, in translations that are accurate, true to Pushkin’s effervescent spirit and expressed in a modern idiom that is attractive and accessible.
Roger’s most recently published editions of Pushkin include –
• Eugene Onegin – translation and extensive commentary – bilingual edition published by Alma Classics in 2015.
• Boris Godunov and Little Tragedies – translations and extensive commentary – published by Alma Classics in 2017.
• Ruslan and Lyudmila – translation and commentary – bilingual edition published by Alma Classics in 2017.
• An anthology of Love Poems – translations and commentary – published by Alma Classics in 2017.
• Belkin’s Stories and A History of Goryukhino Village – translations and commentary – published by Alma Classics 2014.
• a bilingual edition in four volumes, with extensive commentary, of Pushkin’s Complete Lyrics and Shorter Poems, the first such edition to have been published in the English-reading world; the English versions are by a variety of translators, many by Roger himself. The four volume set comprises nearly 800 items: Volume I, covering Pushkin’s verses up to 1817, published in 2018; Volume II, covering 1817–24, in 2019; Volume III, covering 1824–29, in 2020; and Volume IV, covering 1829–37, in 2022.
Roger is Series Editor for Alma Classics’ project of publishing all Pushkin’s works in English, and has edited and part-translated two other volumes of Pushkin for them –
• The Queen of Spades and shorter prose fiction – published by Alma Classics in 2013.
• The Captain’s Daughter and A History of Pugachov, published by Alma Classics 2012.
Roger’s current project for Alma is a bilingual edition of Pushkin’s longer poems, including The Bronze Horseman, due for publication in 2025.
Roger’s other published work includes –
• Praise of Folly and Pope Julius Barred from Heaven by Desiderius Erasmus – translation from Latin with extensive commentary – published by Alma Classics in 2013.
• Utopia by Thomas More (with related correspondence and verses) – translation from Latin with extensive commentary – published by Alma Classics in 2017.
• Prisoner of God by Michel Benoît – a modern memoir of life in a Benedictine monastery – translated from French – published by Alma Books, 2008, but now out of print.
For more detail about Roger and his work go to www.roger-clarke.co.uk