Introductory Notes. Imagery in Translation

Imagery in Translation

POETRYUNIT9:

TRANSLATING OSIPMANDELSHTAM INTO ENGLISH

The dates of Osip Emilyevich Mandelshtam's life (1891-1938) speak for themselves; his poetic youth was influ­enced by the "brilliant and damned" Silver Age of Russian poetry; his prime was heavily burdened by the Soviet-era dog­matism in literature and public life; his last days were spent and his life was lost in Stalin's concentration camps in Siberia.

He was a poet, a writer, a translator.

His first poems were published as early as in 1907, in the Tenishev College magazine, but his real literary debut took place in 1910 when Apollon published his five poems. His first book of poetry appeared in 1913 under the title Kamen' (The Rock), which was, later, reprinted several times. The last life­time publication of his poetry occurred in 1928, though he was writing poetry and prose till his untimely end.

His literary legacy includes more than 600 poems, apart from translations and prose. His poetic language is full of "flesh and blood," sometimes it seems an independent living being, while the scale of imagery within the same poem may unite the smallest details of the environs with the vast spaces of the universe, the "here and now" with the eternity. In his article Слово и культура, he gives a strikingly deep and ex­pressive definition of poetry:

«Стихотворение живо внутренним образом, тем зву­чащим слепком формы, который предваряет уже написан­ное стихотворение. Ни одного слова еще нет, а стихотво-

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рение уже звучит. Это звучит его внутренний образ, э его осязает слух поэта¹.»

This poet's testimony is more precious still because it borne out by many other definitions given by poets of what \ call "poetry."

Kamen' may provide many examples to prove this idea, also contains many echoes of Tutchev's poetry, which Mand< stam venerated highly and cherished deeply. He uses Tutche\ images, develops his topics, and plays with his symbols. One the poems in this collection is called (after Tutchev) Silentium

Она еще не родилась, Она и музыка и слово, И потому всего живого Ненарушаемая связь.

(She is not yet born, She is music and word in one, She unites everything that's alive Unbreakably. Перевод мой — Т. К.)

The major poetic theme and symbol in Tutchev's poet the cosmos, was also close and dear to Mandelshtam. It can found in the poems of Mandelshtam's first collection, in its iim ery, poetic diction and rhythmic patterns — that is, in Mandel: tarn's own unforgettable language. The poem under discussior one of such "cosmic scenes," a miniature cosmos: the world seen within a room and directed both to the vastness of the u verse at dawn and to the intimacy of the breakfast.

The poem chosen as the task for translation, Возьми память из моих ладоней, is a sample of "blank verse," that unrhymed iambic pentameter. While translating, we should t£ into consideration that in English poetic tradition blank verse v

¹ Осип Мандельштам. Слово и культура / Осип Мандельшт
"Сохрани мою речь". - М.: ШКОЛА - ПРЕСС, 1994._____________

Практикум по художественному переводу_____

tstly used for verse drama or for longer poetry of a narrative i reflective nature and is associated with such dramatists as akespeare, Fletcher and Marlowe; later it was used for longer 2ms by such poets as Milton, Byron and Keats. Lyric poetry in ink verse has been rather rare. Great poets of the 20^lh century id it, but not very often, and alongside their free verse forms; ink verse is evidently considered archaic and unpopular among itemporary.poets.

In the Russian poetic tradition blank verse was also mostly id for verse drama and narrative poems like Pushkin's Mozart iSalieri. It was customary among the Silver Age poets, though, experiment with old forms: almost all major poets at the turn the century tried their hand, among other forms, at the blank rse for lyric poetry as well as for drama and longer poems. It s used in both the conservative line-structured form with con-nt caesura and in looser verse, sometimes close to hexameter even to vers libre like Blok's Вольные мысли.

One of his masterpieces, this small poem by Mandelshtam written in traditional blank verse with a distinct caesura but;asured in triplets. Its poetic nature is purely lyrical.

isk for comparison: гвыразимая печаль

* * *

Невыразимая печаль Открыла два огромных глаза, Цветочная проснулась ваза И выплеснула свой хрусталь.

Вся комната напоена Истомой — сладкое лекарство! Такое маленькое царство Так много поглотила сна.

Imagery in Translation

Немного красного вина, Немного солнечного мая — И, тоненький бисквит ломая, Тончайших пальцев белизна.

Translated by Robert Tracy:

Two huge eyes showed A sorrow words cannot say, The crystal poured away As the flower vase overflowed.

The whole room was deep In languor — that sweet balm! Such a tiny realm To swallow so much sleep.

A little red wine is here A little May sunlight — And slender fingers, their white Breaking a thin petit-beurre.

Translated by James Greene:

An inexpressible sadness Opened two huge eyes; The vase, woken-up, Splashed crystal.

Flowers filled all the room With languor — spicy syrup! Such a little kingdom To swallow so much sleep.

Red wine in the sunlight, May weather — While white fine fingers Break the thin biscuit...

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________ Практикум по художественному переводу

Translated by Tamara Kazakova:

Melancholy that has no name

Has opened two tremendous eyes;

Awakening, the flower vase

Has splashed a sparkle of crystal flame.

The room is saturated through

With languor — there's a sweet medicine!

So small a kingdom, it takes in

So much of sleep, and silence too.

Some more of exquisite red wine, Some more of bright and sunny May, Delicious biscuits on the tray, And fingers, delicate and white.

EXERCISES FOR COMPARISON

• Read more about Mandelshtam and his poetry.

• Compare this poem with his other poetry.

• Reconstruct the imagery and poetic sense of the poem.

• Identify the most important symbols in the text.

• Analyse the rhythmic pattern and rhyme scheme of the
text. Trace the symbolic connection between rhyming words and
the extra-informative functions the rhyme plays in this poem.

• Mark the words and structures that are especially impor­
tant and difficult for translation into English.

• Translate the text word for word. Use comments and ex­
planations, if necessary.

• Reconstruct the rhyme scheme of the text and arrange
rhyming pairs in English.

• Reconstruct the rhythmic pattern of the text and fill it in
with English words, combining them with the rhymes.

• Check if all the important details and structures, symbols
and images are present in the translated version of the text.

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