Indian Journal of Science and Technology

Abstract

Objectives: Significant episodes of the Russian reception of the poetry of Robert Burns are comprehended in this article, wherein the main attention is concentrated on the work of I.I. Kozlov, M.L. Mikhailov, P.I. Weinberg, S. Ya. Marshak, E.D. Feldman, who are the most authoritative interpreters of the great Scottish poet. Methods: The facts of Russian translation reception are analyzed in this article; in this connection the basic material for analyzing became the translations of the works of R. Burns into Russian made by I. I. Kozlov, M. L. Mikhailov, S. Ya. Marshak, E. D. Feldman and others. Literary-critical and literary criticism publications, as well as the factual account of memoirs, epistolary, and reference books are involved as an additional material. Findings: When considering the sources of the reception of Burnsian creative work, it is analyzed the possible motives from the works of the Scottish author in the poems of A. S. Pushkin “The Landslide” (1829) and “The Echo” (1831). In addition, it is compared the arguments “pro” and “contra,” formulated in different years by A. V. Druzhinin, N. V. Yakovlev, B. V. Tomaszewski and E. V. Vitkovsky. Another great Russian poet, M. Yu. Lermontov, was interested by the quatrain “Had we never loved so kindly” from Burns’ poem “Ae fond Kiss, and then we sever,” where when translating into Russian it was made an error: an English word “kindly” (“dearly”, “affectionately”) M. Yu. Lermontov correlated with a German word “Kind” (“a child”). Until now this fragment of translation, not intended for publication, causes debates of specialists in literature and translation studies specialists: what guided by M.Yu. Lermontov when he incorrectly interpreted a meaning of the word (purposefully or not); whether the translation “improved” or “worsen” the impression of the original; whether to consider such transformation into Russian as a translation. The author traces the stages of evolution of Russian reception of Burns’ poetry noting the most important events – free adaptations by I. I. Kozlov, very unlike the originals, but quite accurately conveying the feelings and thoughts of the translator himself; the translations made by the authors of the democratic magazines of the epoch of the reforms of Alexander II, who, the authors, discerned closeness of the Scottish poet to the lower orders, their customs and traditions. Of all the Russian translations of Burns’ works, the translations by S. Ya. Marshak are the most studied ones; S.A. Orlov, E. S. Belashova, Yu. D. Levin and others wrote on them in their articles in detail; however, even referring to them it turns out well to represent an unexpected new perspective of the subject: the S. Ya. Marshak’s translations are comprehended through the prism of their perception by A.T. Tvardovsky ; thereby it is widely involved journalistic articles, diaries and letters of the Soviet poet, who as the editor in chief of one of the most popular literary magazines, “Novy Mir” (“New World”), did much to popularize the Marshakian Burns. Significant interests represent modern Russian translations of Burns, which are comprehended in this article for the first time, and first of all the translations by E.D. Feldman, who entering into correct absentee polemic with S.Ya. Marshak, managed to suggest new perusals of many works, and wherein E.D. Feldman’s perusals are characterized by depth of penetration into conceptions of the Scottish author, into his inner world. Applications/Improvements: The systematization of materials on a subject allowed to make generalizations, to form the complete idea of tendencies of development of the Russian poetic translation that will promote the solution of one of the most important problems of modern Russian literary criticism – to write the history of the Russian translated fiction.

Keywords: Artistic Translation, Historical and Cultural Relations, Intercultural Communication, Robert Burns, Russian-English Literature, Tradition