LITERARY TRANSLATION IN THE PASTERNAK’S WORKS

LITERARY TRANSLATION IN THE PASTERNAK’S WORKS

DobronravovaOlga Vladimirovna, Candidate of Pedagogical sciences,
Associate Professor of the Department of «Pedagogical Psychology and Pedagogics»

Galimova Khalida Nurislamova, Candidate of Philological sciences, Associate Professor the Department of «Foreign Languages and Translation»

Pankov Alexander Vladimirovich, Candidate of Pedagogical sciences,
associate professor the Department of «Information Technologies»

Kazan Innovative University named after V. G. Timiryasov (IEML), branch in Chistopol (422980, Russia, Chistopol, 40 let Pobedy st., 32G)

Abstract. The article presents the results of the research of the Chistopol period of Boris Pasternak’s creativity during the Great Patriotic War. From the beginning of the Great Patriotic War Chistopol had hosted hundreds of evacuated people – the representatives of the creative intelligence of the country. Among them there was also the remarkable writer, poet, future Nobel Prize winner Boris Pasternak. Pasternak lived in Chistopol from the end of 1941, almost all of 1942 (in winter, he visited Moscow, but came back later) and bid farewell to the Kama town in summer 1943. Despite the hard working conditions, hunger, the rough and tumble of life in the province, Pasternak felt better as he became more prolific creatively and psychologically . Boris Pasternak performed a lot of translation work during three-year evacuation in Chistopol, in the small provincial town on the Kama. The poet had translated Shakespeare's play "Romeo and Juliette", and then the great cycle of poems by Juliusz Slowacki, runes, the tragedy of Mary Stuart. For the rest of the life he had kept gratitude to this town. The relation to his translations and poetry was highly ambiguously and always caused polar estimates. Opinions of domestic and foreign critics are given in the article.

Key words: Boris Pasternak, a literary translation.

A problem statement in a general view and its connection with the important scientific and practical tasks. The productive approach to the Soviet discourse about the literary translation is represented to us in consideration of strategy of work of this or that translator.According to V. R. Poplavsky, the practicing translator and the researcher of translation theory, it has been noted about the analysis of concepts of Russian translations of Shakespearean plays: "… that if the domestic school of the translation had followed the example of A. S. Pushkin who had brilliantly translated the first scene of the comedy "Measure for a Measure" (January — September, 1833), then in the 19th century we would have perfect art texts of Shakespeare in Russian.

During that time the most of the translations of Shakespeare's works were often made by mediocre poets, and only in the 20th century the real poets such as M. A. Kuzmin, M. L. Lozinsky, V. V. Levik, A. D. Radlova, S. Ya. Marshak and, of course, B. L. Pasternak started working on them. In creativity of the translation virtuosos necessary accuracy, poetic freedom and naturalness of the Russian speech, such natural for Pushkin are combined together" [Zakharov N. V. To Boris Pasternak's 125 anniversary//Scientific works of the Moscow humanities university. 2015. No. 6. Page 9.].

In 2015 two bright events became remarkable: the announcement of year of literature in Russia and the celebration of the 125 anniversary since the birth of the world famous Russian poet, the prose writer, the Nobel Prize laureate Boris Pasternak. In the last decades interest in Boris Pasternak's creativity has considerably increased in the world. More and more his works are translated into foreign languages, archival materials are published, numerous scientific researches are devoted to creative heritage of the writer.

The analysis of the last researches and publications in which aspects of this problem were considered; allocation of the parts of a common problem which aren't resolved earlier.

The works of the Russian translators of obelles-lettres works in XX in, more than once already became a subject of scientific studying. Classical works of other researchers considering methods of transfer in Russian translations of stylistic, metric, phonetic and other features of the original in a wide context of development of the Russian poetic diction of the 20th century were dedicated to the style of the translations of Marshak, Pasternak, Lozinsky and another "masters of poetic translation" too. As a rule, the literary translation becomes the main object of a research in literary, philological, linguistic [1, 2, 3, 4, 5] and philosophical works [5, 6]. Isn't an exception in this row and B. Pasternak's translations, nevertheless, many aspects of this complex translation creativity are investigated only fragmentary.

Defining of the article objective(statement of a task). Making attempt to understand the complicated and contradictory relation to B. Pasternak's translations, we will analyze his creativity during the chistopolsky period.

Boris Pasternak performed a lot of translation work during the Chistopolsky period. “My private creative work is over. I have started translating"- wrote Pasternak many years later about this period of life.

A number of researchers notes that any statements about an artistic method in literature and about the nature of literary creativity made during a Stalin era need to be studied in an ideological and political context of formation of totalitarian society. Maurice Fridber, one of pioneers of the historical and cultural studying of the translation in Russia, believed the views of the Soviet theorists of the translation by to be ideologically motivated.

The criticism of literalism and moving the idea of the translation as creativity to the forefront, in his opinion, was ideologically more acceptable in the conditions of the Soviet censorship and domination of party ideology in all spheres of cultural life[Friedberg М. Literary Translation in Russia: А Cultural History. University Рагk, Penn., 1997]. [Friedberg М. Literary Translation in Russia: А Cultural History. University Рагk, Penn., 1997]. Susanna Witt believes that the refusal of the idea of the "literal" translation in an official discourse of a totalitarian era has been connected with ideologization of translation norms that meant the basic impossibility to speak about translation "per se", without thinking about an era context [Witt S. Тhе First Аll-Union Conference of Translators, Моscow, 1936 and the ideologization of Norms //The Art of Accommodation: Literary Translation in Russia / BurnettL., Lygo Е. (eds.). Oxford, 2013. Р. 141-184].

This translation activity was connected with personal circumstances: as Pasternak refused to praise collectivization, he could not get his works published, and it was extremely difficult to get his translations published as well. The writer had to earn money; he had to provide for himself and his family. Therefore, Pasternak had brought two translation contracts to Chistopol: "Romeo and Juliet" and a collection of poems by a Polish Romantic poet Juliusz Slowacki.

Presentation of substantive inputs of the research with full justification of the received scientific results.

A special place in the military and literary epic of Chistopol belongs to the world-famous Russian poet, novelist and 1958 Literature Nobel Prize winner Boris Leonidovich Pasternak. Pasternak has created a large number of the talented translations of the world literature. He has made the contribution to our acquaintance to samples English (Shakespeare, Keith, Suinbern, Raleigh, Shelley, Byron), German (Saks, Rilke, Goethe, Kleyst and др), French (Verlaine, Verkharn), Spanish (Alberta, Calderon), Polish (Slovak, Lesmyan, Bronevsky), Czech (Nezval) and Hungarian (Петефи) poetry, and also lyrics of the Georgian poets (Tabidze, Baratashvili, Pshavela and др). It is important to note that at that moment Pasternak was considered by the Soviet criticisists as the exemplary translator, and his translations from the Georgian poets, along with Nikolay Tikhonov's works, were considered as the betst translations from languages of the people of the USSR though neither that, nor another knew Georgian and translated according to word-per-word translations [Zemskova E. Georgian Poets Translation by Boris Pasternak in the Soviet Culture of 1930s//The Art of Accommodation: Literary Translation in Russia/BurnettL., Lygo E. (eds.). Oxford, 2013 R. 185-212.]. In this regard at a meeting Pasternak has appeared among people sitting in presidium of the First all-Union meeting of translators which was taking place at the beginning of January, 1936 in Moscow [of Zemskov E. E. Strategy of loyalty: a discussion about the accuracy of the literary translation at the first all-Union meeting of translators of 1936//the New philological messenger. 2015. No. 4 (35). Page 70-83].

. At the first all-Union meeting of translators different approaches to the translation, traditional couple of supporters of "accuracy" and "liberty", "letter" and "spirit", etc. have been presented. In many respects distinction of positions is caused by the fact that translators of the western classics are defenders of "accuracy", and extent of canonization of the original in this case is much higher, than when translating according to the word-per-word translation from languages of the people of the USSR. However Romm transfers criticism of a method of "accuracy" to the western texts too. What is more important, none of participants of the meeting have made publicly with the statement that at the translation from languages of the people of the USSR the status of the original is lower, and it allows to translate "liberal"; the rhetoric of supporters of "liberty" is formed on other bases [Zemskova E. E. Strategy of loyalty: a discussion about the accuracy of the literary translation at the first all-Union meeting of translators of 1936//the New philological messenger. 2015. No. 4 (35). Page 70-83].

After publication of the article "Confusion instead of Music" in "Pravda" on the 28th of January , 1936, and a created campaign for "fight against a formalism" display of loyalty as participation in the common cause was not already becoming enough , and at meetings in the Writers' Union personal participation of everyone in the company against "formalists" , the instruction on the specific people who were guilty of nonparticipation of common cause were necessary. It is known that Boris Pasternak has publicly refused from using of such strategy of loyalty and has doomed himself for many years occupations the translations [Fleyshman L. Boris Pasternak and the literary movement of the 1930th years. SPb., 2005. Page 413-501].

. Pasternak had given theoretical justification of his principles of the translations and translator's tasks in the his works (devoted to this problem) such as "Translator's notes" (1943), "The anthology of the English poetry" (1943), "Remarks to the translations from Shakespeare" (1956), "Notes about the translation", and also in a large number of separate notes and rich correspondence with the family and acquaintances in which he shares the thoughts concerning this or that translation [7].

A special stage in the life and work of Pasternak were years of World War II, his three-year evacuation in Chistopol, in a small town on the Kama River.

Boris Pasternak Pasternak has lived in Chistopol during autumn l and winter of 1941, almost all 1942 (in the winter he went to Moscow, but has returned) and said his final goodbye to Chistopol On June 25, 1943

In the letter O. Freydenberg of February 4, 1941. Pasternak wrote: "The atmosphere was again condensed … You have told Akhmatova as if I am busy with prose. Where there! I have hardly achieved that dependent work which to me only and remained could be devoted to something worthy, like Romeo and Juliette … I carry something in myself, I know something, I am able to do something. And all this remains not expressed" [Pasternak B. L. the complete works .: In 5 t. T. 5. Letters. M, 1992. Page 392].

Despite the hard working conditions, hunger, the rough and tumble of life in the province, Pasternak felt better as he became more prolific and here he was free as "scary eyes turned away" from him. About Chistopol period Boris Leonidovich wrote: "I lived differently, mostly happily. Happily, in the sense that, as far as possible, I tried to overcome all household emergencies and changes, I worked and lived the winter months in my usual way: in vitality and purity. Nothing stopped me in this respect. ... "

Unlike many writers who had been evacuated, Pasternak saw the Chistopol prison not as a punishment, but almost as poetry: "Here we are much closer to the truth than in Moscow. Morally all have taken off the buskins and the masks, are feeling young again, and physically are terribly wasted away .... "(March 22, 1942. (From a letter written by Boris Pasternak to A.Pasternak).

В бытовом отношении ему жилось хуже, чем большинству писателей: «Приходя в столовую, где температура была такая же, как и на улице, His way of was worse, than to most of writers’: "Coming to the dining room where temperature was same, as well as outdoors, Pasternak surely took off a coat and hung up a cap on a nail. Besides, he also took work with himself to the dining room: An English-Russian lexicon, tiny small volume of Shakespeare and next page of the translation. Waiting for a portion of watery Russian cabbage soup (also they have soon come to an end) he was working. Firewood was one of the most difficult problems of the life in Chistopol. All owners let only lodgers with firewood. Once the district executive committee has allocated several tens of cubic meters of the crude chilled firewood, put far on the bank of Kama, to writers. For some reason there wasn’t any entrance to them, and at first they needed to be carried away to the road. The wealthy minority had employed loaders and moving men, but the majority of the people had gone to drag firewood by themselves. I worked near Pasternak. He didn't grumble, didn't complain, and moved logs if not with pleasure, then, in any case, vigorously and cheerfully. And There was a thirty-degree frost out-of-doors In the room which was rented by Pasternak with the wife it was always cold because of some ridiculous arrangement of furnaces. He complained that when he writes, his fingers feel chilly. It was necessary to go through public kitchen where three kerosene stoves rustled. Sometimes, to make temperature even, B. L. opened a door on kitchen. Often record player sounds joined to the noise of kerosene stoves. A set of gramophone records was various: Rocks, fashionable tango, Pyatnitsky's chorus. All this rushed to the room where B. L was working. His wife was out during the whole days . Zinaida Nikolaevna served as a teacher in a boarding school of litfondovsky orphanage where she was also had lunch and dinner. She brought a dinner home and shared it with B. L. In these conditions he didn't despond. "You see, From morning till night I am alone, and I can work without hindrances", - had told me B. L. vigorously when I had come to him for the first time. He tried to find the bright sight in inconveniences and difficulties of life. «Зато мы здесь ближе к коренным устоям жизни, - часто говорил он. - Во время этой войны все должны жить так, особенно художники...». "But we are closer to radical foundations of life here, - he often spoke. - During this war all have to live so, especially artists..." I seldom met such patient, hardy, unpampered people as Pasternak" [Gladkov A. K. Meetings with Boris Pasternak. Page 68-70].

In the poem "The Winter Comes Nearer" (1943) Pasternak addresses philosophical understanding of spiritual image of the province. The uderstanding of a province phenomenon by Pasternak in poems "Old Park" and "Winter Comes Nearer" happens in several foreshortenings. Firstly, the province phenomenon traditionally appears as implanted in rhythms of the natural world as the median zone keeping and accumulating cultural wealth. Secondly, the modern province is understood by the author in a cultural and historical context, inheriting, thus, the ideas of the province created by Slavophile tradition and representatives of the Russian art of the end of the XIX century. So, the esthetic phenomenon of the province in art system of "military" poems of Pasternak combines in itself all range of the given values and begins to approach the embodiment of beauty [Molchanova A. V. An art and esthetic phenomenon of the province in B. Pasternak's creativity//Philology and culture. 2009. No. 16. Page 69-72].

Pasternak considered Shakespeare to be the pillar of English literature (as Pushkin was for Russia), and thus he decided to demonstrate the tragedy of his poems in Russian. Within two months the poet translates the play "Romeo and Juliet", and then the great cycle of poems by Juliusz Slowacki, runes, the tragedy of Mary Stuart. At the same time he brings to life a great idea he had planned long before – the translation of "Antony and Cleopatra" by Shakespeare, which had been requested by the Maliy Hudozhestvenniy Academicheskiy Theatre.

. The translation of the tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" was ready on the 26th of February. The presentation of Shakespeare’s translation took place in the City Hall "Teacher’s House". The fees received from the presentation were fully transferred for gifts to the Red Army. That evening a power plant accident occurred in the town, and Pasternak had to read in the light of two oil lamps. But this did not prevent a full house, the hall was almost full, all the writers, and many local intellectuals attended the presentation ... K.Fedin, who attended this evening as well, enthusiastically praised Pasternak’s translation skills. He reported in a letter to P.I. Chagin (journalist, publishing and party workers) on the following day, "Pasternak finished the translation of "Romeo and Juliet "and read it out loud with great success. Indeed, most of the translation was carried out perfectly ...

Always Yours, Const. Fedin. " In the summer of 1944 the play "Romeo and Juliette" in Boris Pasternak's translation has been published as a the separate book.

(И. Мартынов. Письмо Асееву в Чистополь, 1943 г.). Though many people couldn't accept the fact that during "very angry, very sick and our hard time for Romeo" Pasternak was engaged in the translations and they considered it to be "wrong". (I. Martynov. The letter to Aseev to Chistopol, 1943).

So, Mikhail Mikhaylovich Morozov in the article "A response on the translation of "Romeo and Juliette" of Shakespeare made by the poet B. Pasternak" has noticed the following: "In translation there are a lot of inaccuracies, semantic, and even text admissions. It is Perfect, of course, that Pasternak is far from literalism, is able to disclose remarkably implication, but numerous derogations from the original from time to time are simply inadmissible in Shakespeare's translation.Другое дело, если назвать эту работу "переделкой" или "по Шекспиру". But in the case job evaluation goes beyond competence of the expert - the Shakespearean scholar" [To the translations of Shakespearean dramas (from Boris Pasternak's correspondence) / Publ. E. Pasternaka//Skill of the translation. M.: Sov. writer, 1970. Issue 6. Page 341-363.].

In the report given in the Writers' Union on December 30, 1942 A. Fadeyev called intentionally anti-patriotic Pasternak's "leaving" in Shakespeare in time strained for the country. The report Fadeyev has also deleted Pasternak from candidates for the Stalin award in whose number he has been nominated this year for the translations.

But the choice of Shakespeare as an "eternal companion" and a live communicator in these difficult years was dictated not only by the need to make a living, but also by deeper causes of morality: "Shakespeare will always be a favorite poet of generations that are historically mature and that had encountered a lot in life ... Only a natural approach and full intellectual freedom are appropriate in relation to Shakespeare’s works. I obtained the former in the modest course of my own work, whereas the latter is the result of my views." (Pasternak "My new translations," "Ogonyok", No. 47). It was a convincing answer to those who reproached Pasternak for being busy with stories that were remotely connected to real life in such hard times for the country. It was the convincing answer for those who reproached Pasternak that in such difficult for the country time he is engaged in plots, which were far from the life.

One of the most great masters of poetic translation, Pasternak adhered to own concept in understanding of the problem of the literary translation. He claimed that the translation had to be the independent work of art. "Like the original, the translation has to make an impression of life, but not literature" — he writes in the "Remarks to Shakespeare's translations". Petty similarity to the original didn't attract Pasternak.

Pasternak’s translations are of high artistic quality, they reflect the inner core of what is happening in all its depth

The outstanding phenomenon of the Russian literature and poetic culture, the Pasternak's translations from Shakespeare from the moment of emergence of the first of them and for several next decades were the subject of not stopping professional disputes. One highly appreciate them extraordinary (L. Ozerov), others frostily (G. Ratgauz), but it were also much responses in which the "free" translation manner of Pasternak was exposed to severe criticism or in general was rejected.

The relation to his translations and poetry are far ambiguously and always caused polar estimates. According to the Georgian poetess E. N. Kiasashvilya, "the arguing parties first of all note that Pasternak's translations had already become "a fact of the Russian poetry", and only then begin to criticize them for a liberty and inadequacy or to praise for fidelity on spirit and the correct reconstruction of attitude of the author of the original" [8]

The writer V. Bokov remembered what attention paid Pasternak to each word of the work he translated , and, according to A. Sergeyeva-Klyatis (Russian the philologist, the literary critic, Doctors of Philology), "such attentive relation to someone else's word is noticeable already in the earliest translation works of Pasternak, starting with the first, based on the principle not so much semantic how many formal fidelity to the original, and, sometimes turning in difficult, sometimes almost enigmatichesky texts" [9].

M. Alekseev and L. Reztsov saw in razgovornost of the contamination language and vulgarisms. Perhaps, this fact is also observed in Pasternak's translations, but he did these consciously, seeking to be available to any reader, and wrote so that "it was clear to all".

If Shakespeare's language can be called embellished, Pasternak mostly adheres to the "language of a provincial": colloquial expressions, with the use of vocabulary that is slightly sharp, frank, and stylistically reduced, which gives the translation the features of national and ethnic mentality. Pasternak’s style of translation combined both, the desire to "make Russian poetry" and strict adherence to the spirit of the original work.

The writer, translator and journalist A. Navrozov notes his use of rhyme, a technique better suited to Russian with its alternating masculine and feminine inflections. While many in the West, especially in reference to English, had come to see rhyme as a limitation in poetry,

“It’s hard work talking to Pasternak. His speech is a combination of tongue twisting, a desperate straining to drag out a word from within, and a stormy cascade of unexpected comparisons, complex associations and frank confessions in what is evidently a foreign language. He would be unintelligible were not all this chaos illuminated by the singleness and clarity of his voice” (p. xi).

Furthermore, despite Navrozov’s view of Pasternak’s later use and mastery of the Russian language as more agile and mature, he remains impressed with Pasternak’s unique and creative turn of phrase, admiring his “lyric technique” and “vast unpredictable vocabulary” . Navrozov reports, “…rhyme is not only the spirit of Pasternak, it is his letter”

Max Hayward, the British lecturer and the translator of the Russian literature points out that perfect knowledge of Russian allows to bring brightness and sensuality in the translations, poetry and Pasternak's prose: “With an unusually plastic language such as Russian, it is easy enough for a poet of Pasternak’s temperament to be carried away by the positively sensuous joy that comes from handling his material” (Hayward, p. 9).

According to the American writer Gifford, Pasternak was a prolific translator, translating great works of foreign literature from at least twelve languages, sharing his abilities and these writers with his readers, the Soviet public. Although this work was a disruption of what he felt was his truest calling–his own writing–he still found ““an inner freedom inconceivable”” to those of his own time” (Gifford, p. 161).

Long-term work of Pasternak on Shakespeare, on the nature of his creativity had led the poet to establishment of more general laws which were equally relating to original and translated works. From attachment to the text Pasternak had passed to free possession of the original. "At first, having approached the original, he has in essence moved away from him. Late, having moved away from the original, he has approached him in essence" [Ozerov L. O. Pasternak and Shakespeare//Shakespearean readings. 1976. M, 1977. Page 182.]

Pasternak at all the openness to the European culture is the Russian poet. And the critical relation to his translations consists not in a language barrier, and in discrepancy of national stereotypes, mentality of the people.

Conclusions of a research and prospect of further researches of this direction. The on-stage performance group of Institute of Economics, Management and Law (Kazan) (now Kazan Innovative University named after o V. G. Timiryasev) in 2015 conducted a research about the chistopolsky period of creativity of Boris Pasternak in the days of the Great Patriotic War. Collective noted the ambiguous relation of the ritics about a special stage in destiny and Pasternak's creativity during his three years' evacuation in Chistopol. By results of the research the group of authors has written the scientific work of art "Provincial Pages of Boris Pasternak’s biography" in the Russian and English languages [13].

In this book an attempt to demonstrate the role of Chistopol in the history of the Soviet literature in the Great Patriotic War period and important milestones of the biography of Boris Pasternak, in particular, his life and creativity during his evacuation. A translation of the from Russian into English has been made by the Doctor of Philology Marina Solnyshkina, Professor of Department of the German Philology of Institute of Philology and Communication named after of L. Tolstoy K(P)FU. Practically all copies of the book have been transferred to the memorial museum B. Pasternak to Chistopo land to educational institutions Chistopol.

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