Dem’yanova Yu. O.
To the
problem of translation
of Taras
Shevchenko’s poetry into English
The greatest poet of the Ukrainian
nation and the founder of modern Ukrainian literature Taras Shevchenko
has won world-wide recognition long
ago, his poetry presents a great interest for the foreign-speaking readers. His
word, which he once placed to guard the freedom and happiness of his nation, is
known and respected in many countries. This interest is realized not only through
translations of Shevchenko’s works into many languages of the world (English
among their number) but also through polemical discussions and studies of both
home and foreign scholars, literary critics, publicists and historians.
In
the English-speaking world the first article about Shevchenko, attributed to
Charles Dickens, appeared in 1877, in his weekly “All the Year Around” [1]. The first translations of
Shevchenko into English were prose renditions of his poetry, prepared and published
in various periodicals by William Richard Morfill, a noted English scholar of
Slavic languages and literary history, and author of a number of articles about
Taras Shevchenko. The first book of English translations of Shevchenko's poems
was a small volume by the British writer Ethel Lilian Voynich [2]. It was published in London in
1911. Other translations followed. A thorough commentator, interpreter, and a
loving translator of Shevchenko's work was Clarence A. Manning, former
professor of Columbia University, who published in 1945 a book of his
renditions of the Ukrainian poet [3].
The most important phase in the progress of the recognition of
Shevchenko in the English-speaking world was the volume of 35 translations by a
British poet, Vera Rich published in
1961 in London [4]. A great
number of translations were made by C.H. Andrysyshen and Watson Kirkconnell, W.
Semenyna, Honore Ewach, P. Selver,
Sunray Gardiner, A. J. Hunter, Mary Skrypnyk
take into account the peculiar features which
were printed in various publications. In 1964, the Naukova
Dumka Publishers issued a
booklet called “Zapovit Movamy Narodiv Svitu”
with translations of Shevchenko's widely known poetical testament in 55
languages; later, in 1989, another booklet followed. In it translations
of “Zapovit” into 163
languages of the world including English were
presented [5].
The
list of publications
of translations would be a lengthy one.
But it’s just the first stage of Shevchenko’s poetry recognition in the world literature. The
problem is that the scholars differ by their knowledge, skills, their world
outlook and very rarely they are professionals [1, 9-10]. Translations of
Shevchenko’s works are of dissimilar informative, historical and aesthetic
value. Therefore we face the new, higher stage of promotion the popularization
of Shevchenko’s poetry concentrated on the qualitative side of translations.
Translation is a process, determined by quite a number
of factors. In addition to conveying the semantic information, contained in the
text, the denotational meanings and emotive-stylistic connotations, the
translator has to take into account the author's communicative intent, the type
of an audience for which the message is intended, its social and psychological characteristics and
background knowledge. The message, produced by the translator, should evoke
practically the same response in the target-language receptor as the original
message evokes
in the source-language receptor.
Shevchenko’s poetry is marked by a specific author’s vision and verbal
expression of a generally accepted reality. When
rendering his poems translators tend to employ different
strategies in order to make available to the target-language receptor the maximum amount of
information, carried by linguistic signs, including both their denotational
meanings and their emotive-stylistic connotations.
One of the major problems is to reproduce not
only the content but the author’s
style, taking into account its peculiar features, a
culture specific information of the text as well as its
rhythm and melodics. This process
demands from the translator to
be
a patient, persistent, brilliant editor, otherwise the losses are evident. The contemporary
linguistic theory of translation makes more rigorous and strict
demands on a translator to the quality of his renditions. Taking into
consideration all the above mentioned the author of this report proposes her
own translation of one of Shevchenko’s poems – “The Years of
Youth Have Passed Away” (Ìèíóëè ë³òà
ìîëî䳿). In this translation we tried to reproduce both
content and form of original.
The years of youth
have passed away,
And hope chills as
frosty air.
Your spring is
over. Winter’s come.
You sit alone in
the house
With no one to talk
in silence.
Nobody’s here to
advice. There is no one.
You’re still alone.
Sit here lonely till your hope
Turn blind your eyes with frosty
gleam,
As a snowflake in endless
plain.
Sit here still with no aim.
Wait not for Spring – a sacred
fate!
It will not knock at your
gate.
And help your hope to come
true.
Come not to free dream
freedom-loving.
Sit
here still and wait for nothing.
Literature:
1. Ðîêñîëàíà
Çîð³â÷àê. Ñïðèéíÿòòÿ òâîð÷îñò³ Øåâ÷åíêà â ë³òåðàòóðíèõ òà íàóêîâèõ êîëàõ ÑØÀ. – Ñëîâî ³ ÷àñ. – 2001. – ¹9. – Ñ. 8 -20.
2. E. L. Voynich. Six Lyrics From the Ruthenian of T.
Shevchenko. – L., 1911. 3. Taras
Shevchenko. The poet of Ukraine /
Translated
by Clarence A. Manning. – Jersey
City, N. J.: Ukrainian National Association,
1945. – 217 p.
4. T.
Shevchenko. Song out of
darkness : Selected poems / Translated from the Ukrainian by Vera Rich.– London: Mitre Press, 1961. – 128 p. 5. Shevchenko, Taras. Zapovit Movamy
Narodiv Svitu. – K.: Nauk. Dumka, 1964. – 117 p.; Shevchenko, Taras. Zapovit Movamy Narodiv
Svitu.– K.: Nauk. Dumka, 1989. – 246 p.