'THE CHERRY ORCHARD'
SIR,—I do not wish to appear pedantic, but as the Person responsible for the English adaptation of The Cherry Orchard at the Aldwych, I would like to question Mr. Prycc-Jones's quotation from Firs's important final speech. Nowhere does Firs refer to the other characters in the play as 'a job lot.' He does refer to himself, at the end, by his favourite phrase 'nedotyopa'—an un- translatable word suggesting something half-baked, sub-standard, failed. Sir John Gielgud's version, which we used as a basis, renders this as 'muddler'; We have preferred 'miserable specimen.' There does exist a translation which prefers 'a job lot,' but in its context (`You've not much strength left, nothing Much left, nothing—eh, you nedotyopal) and being in the second person singular, it can only refer to himself.
The Moscow Arts Company has been very helpful to us in preparing the simultaneous translations for their season, and it would be a pity if your readers and this distinguished company were misled about
the reliability of our versions. ADRIAN BRINE c/o Aldwych Theatre, WC2
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