Imagery in Translation

Then those details will stir the poet's fantasy and take h away to the realm of beauty. However, he could also start wit philosophic maxim, as in the sonnet selected here for сотр. son, which would uncoil its sophisticated structure in lovely i tails.

In Russia, the poetry of John Keats was not accepted as rea ly and easily as that of Byron's. Though one of the greatest poets English Romanticism, to Russian readers he remained for a k time in the shadow as it were of Byron, Shelley and Wordswort Some critics try to explain this as being to his extreme "Engli ness" that is almost impossible to translate. So, he came into be in Russian translation and literary studies² only in the 20^th cent when his poetry found brilliant and ardent readers and interpret* such as Marshak, Pasternak, Sukharev, and others. While Marsl and Pasternak belong to the first half of the 20^th century, Serj Sukharev is our contemporary, a talented poet and translator fr St. Petersburg, who has done much research on John Keats and poetry and is the first to translate and publish the complete sei Keats's sonnets (1998) in Russian.

The task for comparison includes one of the most popi Keats's sonnets in Russia, On the Grasshopper and the Crici The three Russian versions of the sonnet differ considerably < reveal the translators' personalities, their poetic and translati principles and skills³. Of special interest is the choice of wo for the opening line, the key phrase for the whole text. We n

¹ In the Russian press his name was first mentioned as early as 1
(in the magazine "Вестник Европы"), and the very form of his name in F
sian had still not become fixed: "Джон Кеатс" or "Кете". The first Rus
poetic version (the sonnet To My Brothers) was published tn 1895. Since
1970s, John Keats has become quite popular in Russia, not least thanks to
brilliant translations of Sergey Sukharev:

² H. Я. Дьяконова. Ките и его современники. - М.: Наука, 1973;
же. Английский романтизм. - М.: Наука, 1978; С. Л. Сухарев. Ките и
сонеты. - Джон Ките. Сонеты. В переводе Сергея Сухарева. - СПб., 1!
Г. Г. Подольская. Джон Ките в России. - Астрахань: Изд-во АГПИ, 19!

³ М. Новикова. Ките - Маршак - Пастернак / Мастерство nepi
да. - М.: Сов. Писатель, 1971.

Практикум по художественному переводу

npare the three sentences in Russian to see the difference in le, manner and rhythm of the three Russian Keatses.

Free stanzas as a pattern for a poem, alongside with the; and longer narrative poems, were very popular among poets Romanticism. They allowed freedom of metre, rhyme and or-of ideas and images. Our task for translation features the Stan-in a Drear-nighted December, a charming poem, rather play-in rhythm, which makes it sound more lively though the topic 1 verbal imagery are rather sad. The poem has not been a hit:h translators. Probably the main problem is in its metric and jnic arrangement, especially that of the rhyming scheme when the three stanzas are linked by one rhyme, which puts the last г of every stanza in the strongest position and creates an inner nzaofakind.

sk for comparison:

i the Grasshopper and the Cricket

ON THE GRASSHOPPER AND THE CRICKET

The poetry of earth is never dead:

When all the birds are faint with the hot sun,

And hide in cooling trees, a voice will run

From hedge to hedge about the new-mown mead;

This is the Grasshopper's — he takes the lead

In summer luxury, — he has never done

With his delights, for when tired out with fun

He rests at ease beneath some pleasant weed.

The poetry of earth is ceasing never:

On a lone winter evening, when the frost

Has wrought a silence, from the stove there shrills

The Cricket's song, in warmth increasing ever,

And seems to one in drowsiness half lost,

The Grasshopper's among some grassy hills.

Imagery in Translation

Перевод С. Маршака:

Вовеки не замрет, не прекратится Поэзия земли. Когда в листве, От зноя ослабев, умолкнут птицы, Мы слышим голос в скошенной траве Кузнечика. Спешит он насладиться Своим участьем в летнем торжестве, То зазвенит, то снова притаится И помолчит минуту или две.

Поэзия земли не знает смерти. Пришла зима, в полях метет метель, Но вы покою мертвому не верьте: Трещит сверчок, забившись где-то в щель.

И в ласковом тепле нагретых печек Нам кажется — в траве звенит кузнечик.

Перевод Б. Пастернака:

В свой час своя поэзия в природе: Когда в зените день и жар томит Притихших птиц — чей голосок звенит Вдоль изгородей скошенных угодий? Кузнечик — вот виновник тех мелодий, Певун и лодырь, потерявший стыд, Пока и сам, по горло пеньем сыт, Не свалится последним в хороводе. В свой час во всем поэзия своя: Зимой, морозной ночью молчаливой Пронзительны за печкой переливы Сверчка во славу теплого жилья. И, словно летом, кажется сквозь дрему, Что слышишь треск кузнечика знакомый.

43

Практикум по художественному переводу

Перевод С. Сухарева:

Поэзии земли не молкнет лад:

Не слышно среди скошенных лугов

Сомлевших в зное птичьих голосов,

Зато вовсю гремит поверх оград

Кузнечик. Обессилев от рулад,

Он сыщет под былинкой вольный кров,

Передохнет — и вновь трещать готов,

Раздольем лета верховодить рад.

Поэзия земли не знает плена: Безмолвием сковала мир зима, Но где-то там, за печкой, неизменно Сверчок в тепле стрекочет без ума, И кажется — звенит самозабвенно — Все та же трель кузнечика с холма.

EXERCISES FOR COMPARISON

• Read about John Keats and his poetry. Read some other
poems by John Keats to appreciate the peculiarities of his dic­
tion.

• Read the poem thoroughly and study its vocabulary, style
and imagery.

• Analyse the poetic pattern of the sonnet, its rhyming
scheme and metre.

• Reconstruct the logic of the text and compare it with its
imagery.

• Compare this sonnet with the one by Shakespeare (Po­
etry Unit 1). Comment upon the difference.

• Think of the impression produced by the poem. Does it
coincide with or contradict the surface content?

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