A. O. ZAKHAROV- I am haunted by Dahl's laurels. "And I want Lotman." From a conversation of philology students The article examines some controversial passages of the Russian translation of the Kama Sutra, made by A. Y. Syrkin in the 1960s and published in 1993, and suggests a new translation of them. In particular, fragments II are analyzed.1.26 ( 6.26) - on the difference in the ways of pleasure between men and women, VI. 6.50-on the categories of corrupt women, II.1.39-45 (7.1-7) - chapter "On the types of love". English translations by Richard Burton and Foster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot (1883), Alain Danielou (1994), Wendy Doniger and Sudhir Kakara (2002), and Lars Martin Foss (2012) are used for comparison. In the Russian translation by A. Y. Syrkin, the original text is softened in some cases. The translator used direct borrowings (kumbhadasi, auparishtaka) or Western European concepts (Latin coitus, penis erecti) for translation and commentary. This was reflected in the Soviet society's strict external and internal censorship of the public dissemination of explicitly sexual information. Keywords: erotology, translation problems, philology, censorship, Soviet culture, Sanskrit. FEW NOTES ON THE RUSSIAN TRANSLATION OF KAMASUTRA Anton O. ZAKHAROV During the 1960s the Soviet scholar Alexander J. Syrkin had made the first Russian translation of Vatsyayana's Kamasutra. It was published in 1993. The paper examines few fragments of Syrkin's translation, II.1.26 (6.26) - about the differences of man's and woman's ways of sexual enjoy, VI.6.50 - about the categories of prostitutes, II.1.39-45 (7.1-7) - the chapter "The kinds of sensual love" among them. The paper juxtaposes Syrkin's Russian translation with several English translations, namely that of Richard Francis Burton and Forster Fitzgerald Arbuthnot (1883), Alain Danielou (1994), Wendy Doniger and Sudhir Kakar (2002), and Lars Martin Fosse (2012). Syrkin's translation Anton O. ZAKHAROV-Doctor of Historical Sciences, ... Read more