Imagery in Translation
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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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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led at the gap between the Russian traditional metric sys-ind English tradition of free verse that, effectively, has re-;d metre and rhyme in modern poetry. This has formed a in readers' expectation; unlike in Russia, serious poetry mly associated nowadays with free verse while rhyme is ture of popular song. This differentiation causes some ten-in perceiving quite serious Russian poetry 20th century :ranslating.it into English. The reverse is also interesting: lussian reader, vers libre sounds (or, rather, looks) some-marginal, at least, considered not in the category of the г" poetry. Besides, certain peculiarities of Russian phonet-nd syntax require more definite forms of expression in ry than a simple flow of words not bound by any syntactic i. Yet another problem is the incompatibility of associa-; that connect words with cultural, historical and psycho-:al preferences and symbols more or less evident and com-ensible to one national mentality and alien, if perceivable , to another.
In prose, things do not get easier. Here we come across lifference in the ways and principles of manifesting a pic-of the world in words. A literary picture of the world may ide hidden but quite well known quotations from famous trical, literary, political or religious sources that, even if liar and recognizable to the translator, the child of two ires, will require commentary or other guidance to be per-sd by the foreign reader. The measurements of sentiment, our or philosophy in depicting ideas and imagery very rare-lincide between the cultures; what sounds bright and amus-o one may become dull and clumsy to another in any cor-translation. Thus, Babel's usage of the Odessa Jewish di-t loses almost all its expressive flavour in translation: a ilar phrase «я имею сказать вам пару слов» turns into leutral and dull "I have a couple words to say." However, wrong to do as some translators have and to substitute a st dialect for a source dialect, for their stylistic and cultural