Imagery in Translation. choice of the decisive components of a poetic form that needed to be translated first and foremost.

choice of the decisive components of a poetic form that needed to be translated first and foremost.

Another translator of this type was Nikolai Gumilyov who, following Bryusov, wrote in his article on poetic translation, «...переводчик поэта должен быть сам поэтом, а кроме того, внимательным исследователем и проникновенным критиком».⁸The most important contribution of Gumilyov's into the development of poetic translation in Russia was his require­ment to be precise in translation of the source verse's metre, rhym­ing pattern and other formal components of the text, for «y каждого метра есть своя душа, свои особенности и задачи.» His brief but brilliant outline of the characteristic features of dif­ferent metric patterns may even nowadays serve as useful instruc­tion for a novice translator of poetry:

«Ямб, как бы спускающийся по ступеням..., сво­боден, ясен, тверд и прекрасно передает человеческую речь, напряженность человеческой воли. Хорей, под­нимающийся, окрыленный, всегда взволнован и то ра­строган, то смешлив; его область - пение. Дактиль, опираясь на первый ударяемый слог и качая два неуда­ряемые, как пальма свою верхушку, мощен, торжестве­нен, говорит о стихиях в их покое, о деяниях богов и героев. Анапест, его противоположность, стремителен, порывист, это стихии в движенье, напряженье челове­ческой страсти. И амфибрахий, их синтез, баюкающий и прозрачный, говорит о покое божественно-легкого и мудрого бытия».

There is yet another role which translators come to rather often - that of the enlightener. According to its principles, it is the translator himself who is to decide what and how to translate for the benefit of readers. He does not aspire to rival the translat­ed author, nor is he too scrupulous about the details of the source text; he would rather play a certain game of inevitability, for the

H. Гумилев. Письма о русской поэзии. - Пп, 1923.

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_______ Практикум по художественному переводу______

sake of the reader. That would mean dropping something in one place and adding in another, omitting one thing and improving another - and thus creating a passable system of imagery that would please the reader. Russia produced a line of such enlight-ener translators. One of the most curious of the kind was Irinarkh Vvedensky, the purveyor of the "Russian Dickens" to the public in the mid-19"' century. Whatever his drawbacks as translator might be, he created what he intended, "a Russian Dickens under the Russian sky," which turned out to play an important role not only in the further undying interest of Russian readers and trans­lators in Dickens but also in the development of interest in the social and psychological novel in Russian literature. Thus, his enlightening role proved truly fruitful, though his early transla­tions were later surpassed by more scrupulous and talented ver­sions. One of the brightest figures in this category of translators was, undoubtedly, Samuel Marshak whose translation of Shakes­pearean sonnets and other English classics, with all its "enlight­ening liberties," represented a milestone not only in the history of translation in Russia but also in Russian literature and philology.

Careful inspection of the results of all such translator's preferences and methods reveals an obvious fact: translations close to or especially far from the source text are usually failures. There should then, be some golden mean that will provide balance in a translatior's endeavours. What suits best the development of the literary process and interliterary communication may be considered such a measurement. If a translation functions well at a certain time in a certain place, it is true and well made. As soon as it ceases to function fruitfuly in any respect, it will inevitably be replaced by some other version. From this simplistic point of view, there is no looking for identity in translation but for this or that degree of similarity required by the joint preferences of a national language, literature, culture and mentality.

Any comparison of the national traditions in translation proves the basic role of such preferences. For example, for an

average and even well informed reader the "foreignness" of the _

Imagery in Translation

English language in a translation may prove a far worse fa than lack of similarity in form and function. This linguistic pr erence readily accepts the usage of free verse to translate a Ri sian traditional metre, provided all grammatical and lexii norms are observed. Another reader would rather reconcile hi self to some linguistic strangeness in the text than consent failure in reconstruction of the original form. No less diverse the attitude towards the similarity in the subject matter of i text. According to some American literary critics and trans tors, the subject matter of a literary work is implied in the mantics of words, those semantics are duly and carefully recc structed in the target language, while the metre and rhyme considered mere formal ornamentation and as such may be с regarded if difficult to reconstruct.

In many English translations of Russian literary wor we may come across a chain of transformations that follow trend of de-emphasizing Russian emotive implications. For < ample, Russian Машенька и Машка more often than not rendersd in English either as just Masha or as somewhat vaj Little Masha. Meanwhile, these forms of the name often prc to be socially and psychologically meaningful denoting difi ent levels of relationship and attitudes without any vast desci tions. Presumably, it would not be too difficult to find some fix tional substitutes in English for what is expressed through suffixes in Russian: like darling Masha for Машенька to construct the tender or ameliorative implication of the Russ form or that Masha {you Masha) for Mashka to express a pe rative attitude.

Since any serious approach to poetic translation deals w its intercultural function, it is inevitable to have to identify so basic problems that challenge the translator when he faces difference between Russian and English (British or Americ cultures. Different forms of names and ways of addressing p pie, however important and meaningful, lie only on the surf of a sea of such problems. Dealing with poetry, the translato

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