Untranslated and Untranslatable? Pushkin's Poetry in English, 1892–1931

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (3) ◽  
pp. 348-372
Author(s):  
Philip Ross Bullock
Keyword(s):  
Literary Culture ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
Russian Literary ◽  
Modern Russian

Although Pushkin is widely regarded as Russia's finest poet and the origin of the modern Russian literary tradition, his works were less frequently translated into English than other major authors. This article traces a reluctance to translate Pushkin to two phenomena: the perception that poetry was untranslatable; and the difficulty of understanding Pushkin within a context dominated by realist prose. It then considers a number of important translations, noting that they were frequently embedded within a discussion of translation theory that itself challenged the myth of transparent translation then dominant in British literary culture. It also argues that alongside literary translation, music played a central role in the reception of Pushkin in Britain.

The poetic self

2003 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katharine Hodgson
Keyword(s):  
Literary Culture ◽  
Lyric Poetry ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Early Writing ◽  
Poetic Voice ◽  
Russian Literary ◽  
The Voice ◽  
Conflicting Discourses

This chapter looks at the poetic self in Berggol′ts's writing as a literary construct, informed not purely by biographical experience, but by literary tradition and other texts. An outline of Berggol′ts's views on lyric poetry is followed by a discussion of how the poetic self is constituted in her work, and an exploration of the multiple and conflicting discourses which construct the ‘I’ in her early writing, as well as of the preoccupation with contrast and contradiction in her poetic self-representation during the 1930s and 1940s. The rest of the chapter focuses on Berggol′ts's exploration of the possibilities for creating a unified poetic self which is capable of assuming a representative role as the voice of a generation. The whole discussion is informed by the question of the female poetic voice and its associations within Russian literary culture.

Shaping History in the 1st and 2nd Centuries CE in Its Literary Culture

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eve-Marie Becker
Keyword(s):  
Literary Culture ◽  
Literary Tradition ◽  
Substantial Contribution ◽  
Literary Canon ◽  
History Writing ◽  
Western History ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Greco Roman ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Literary Phenomenon

This chapter studies the interrelation of history-writing and literary culture. It considers the function of history-writing within the context of Hellenistic literary culture, as historiography at the time can be seen as a literary phenomenon. History-writing represents a substantial contribution to ancient literature; it circulates within the sphere of the ancient literary canon. Chronologically speaking, Mark and Luke follow in the literary tradition set by the earliest in Western history-writing, yet literary tradition among the earliest Christian authors also differs from the Greco-Roman world. Where historiographical topics and concepts vary significantly from one author to the next, in Mark and Luke, the subject of the narrative, namely, the gospel, remains surprisingly constant.

scholarly journals Encomium on the Twenty-four Elders ascribed to Proclus of Cyzicus (М. 591 f. 1r–11v)

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 1379-1396
Author(s):  
L. R. Frangulyan ◽  
V. V. Shtefan
Keyword(s):  
Russian Translation ◽  
Unknown Origin ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Book Of Revelation ◽  
John Chrysostom ◽  
Kingdom Of Heaven ◽  
Russian Literary ◽  
Eastern Traditions ◽  
The Church

The 24 elders are the biblical image that is found only in the Book of Revelation of John the Apostle. They surround the throne of God and are endowed with certain attributes of glory. In the Ancient Church this image was interpreted in different ways. This article presents the first Russian literary translation of Coptic text signed as Encomium in honor of the 24 elders. The translation was carried out from the edition, which was published with the Italian translation in 1977 by Antonella Maresca. The author of Encomium is declared Proclus of Cyzicus, who later became the Patriarch of Constantinople. However, this is a pseudo-attribution, namely, this hierarch did not write this Encomium, and its real author remains unknown. The Italian translator divides the text into 33 paragraphs, and in the preface to Coptic edition highlights the four parts of Encomium. Two of them, dedicated to John Chrysostom and the exegetical interpretation of the first chapter of Genesis, seem to be interpolations. But after analyzing the entire narrative it is possible to say that these parts are embedded in the narrative. Also the features of the Coptic veneration of the 24 elders, which are reflected in Encomium, are discussed in the introduction to Russian translation. In particular, the bodiless nature of the 24 elders. Their unknown origin is emphasized several times in Encomium, the priestly role of these elders in the Kingdom of Heaven is also noted. It can be stated that the author of Encomium in the first two parts acts as a storyteller-historian of the Church, conveying information about John Chrysostom, and in the last two as an exegete. The image of 24 elders in Eastern traditions is a little studied topic and acquaintance with the Coptic tradition thanks to the translation of this Encomium opens up opportunities for comparative studies.

scholarly journals The Disappearing Medium: Remarks on Language in Translation

2011 ◽  
pp. 165-179
Author(s):  
George Varsos
Keyword(s):  
Walter Benjamin ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Original Text ◽  
Recent Criticism ◽  
Translation Theory ◽  
German Romanticism ◽  
Alternative Strategies ◽  
Translation Strategies ◽  
Language And Culture

This essay discusses problems pertaining to the disappearance of the language of the original text in the case of literary translation. After a reminder of recent criticism directed against ethnocentric translation strategies, the question is raised of the theoretical promises of alternative strategies. The text examines the different ways in which the relations between language and culture are theorized, taking two lines of inquiry that have strongly infl uenced contemporary translation theory: that of German Romanticism and that of Walter Benjamin.

scholarly journals Guidebooks to the Holy Land in the repertoire of the pilgrim literature of Muscovite Rus'

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 220-238
Author(s):  
Irina V. Fedorova ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Russian Translation ◽  
Material Selection ◽  
Literary Culture ◽  
16Th Century ◽  
Holy Land ◽  
Old Russian ◽  
15Th Century ◽  
Russian Literary ◽  
The Wanderer ◽  
Holy City

The repertoire of guidebooks to the Holy Land in the Old Russian literary culture of Muscovite Rus’ is significant and diverse. Its basis is texts translated from Greek and Polish. Using the example of the Old Russian translation of a monument preserved in handwritten lists of the 17th–18th centuries entitled “A Tale for the Benefit of Hearing and Reading About the Holy City of Jerusalem and its Surrounding Places”, the article discusses the content and narrative features of guidebooks to the Holy Land. The analysis showed that the studied Tale in terms of composition, principles of material selection and organization is close to similar monuments of the Byzantine tradition, which to one degree or another are associated with the 15th century proskynetarian Anonymous Allyatsiya. Comparison of the text of the Tale with this proskynetarian suggested that the original of its Old Russian translation was one of the alterations of this guide, dating no earlier than the 16th century, when the Turks mentioned in the text ruled Palestine. The relevance of guidebooks to Palestine for the Old Russian book culture is also demonstrated by the original monuments of this genre, the creation of which began in the 15th century. The article names and briefly describes several such texts of the 15th–18th centuries, found in manuscripts under the titles “The Wanderer of Jerusalem”, “The Legend of the Jerusalem Way”.

BEOWULF IN RUSSIA. THE LANGUAGE OF THE OLD ENGLISH HEROIC EPIC IN RUSSIAN LITERARY TRANSLATION

2020 ◽  
pp. 226-239
Author(s):  
Natal'ya Yu. Gvozdetskaya ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Old English ◽  
Russian Translation ◽  
Literary Translation ◽  
Poetic Language ◽  
Heroic Epic ◽  
The Everyday ◽  
English Translations ◽  
Russian Literary ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Compounds

The paper is an attempt to analyze the methods of representing specific features of the language of the Old English poem Beowulf in the Russian literary translation of Vladimir Tikhomirov: alliterative collocations, synonymic groups, compounds and epic variations. These specific features of Old English poetic language are rendered in the translation through the diction of different stylistic coloring – both the high-style, even archaic words as well as the everyday words close to colloquialisms. Following the Old English poet, the translator uses the oral-epic manner of narration, neither reducing it to a limited stylization, nor turning it into an innovative experiment. The translator manages to convey the ability of the Old English poetic language to coin new compounds through creating ‘potential’ words that reveal the ‘open’ character of the Old English synonymic systems. The Russian translation of Beowulf is considered in the context of the history of English translations of the poem as well as studies of Old English and Old Scandinavian literature in Russia.

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