The Second Saint Petersburg Gymnasium

“Ideological Adaptations of Robert Burns Lyrics in the Soviet Union”

by Daria Prokopenko

10- 1^th grade

Scientific Supervisors: T.O. Pavlova

S.S. Shirepina

Saint Petersburg

2012

Table of Contents

	Page
Introduction	3
Poets’Biography	6
Robert Burns	6
Translator’s Biography	8
2. Comparative Analysis of the Original and Translation	10
Is There For Honest Poverty	11
McPherson's Farewell	15
Major Tendencies in Difference between the Original and Translation	18
Translator’s Self-censorship towards Monarchy	19
Translator’s Self-censorship towards Religion	21
Translator’s Self-censorship towards Scotland	23
Conclusion	25
Bibliography	26
Appendix	27

Introduction

“Poetry must be translated by a poet”

Eghishe Charents

Speaking of translations we should start with the definition of a translation itself. According to the Oxford dictionary translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. However, there are also some translations inside the language, which help to avoid misunderstanding by defining and clarifying meanings of certain words or phrases.

In the beginning of the Soviet Period despite of vast amount of different translations, there was no established theory of translation. The history of Soviet literary translation begins only in 1918, when Gorky established not only the Vsemirnaya Literatura Publishing House but also a literary translation workshop. The aim of this workshop was to create scientific principles of editing and achieve high standards for the quality of translation.

Gorky believed that only a man of great erudition may be a good translator.

«A translator», he wrote, «must know not only the history of literature but also the life story and the story of the creative development of an author. Only then he will be able to present more or less exactly the very spirit of a book in the format of Russian speech».

However together with liquidation of Vsemirnaya Literatura Publishing House in 1927 the government control of publicists rose quickly and reached its peak at the beginning of the World War II. This was the beginning of the age of censorship.

This raises two main questions: do translators use different strategies at different times? What sorts of changes can the translator make to the original text? In other words, does the translator tend to keep up to the time and author’s concept of the original or is he is more influenced by the surrounding world and the current situation?

To answer these questions I have decided to compare some of the poems written by Robert Burns, a XVIII century Scottish poet, to their Russian translations made by Samuel Marshak, a Soviet journalist, poet and writer.

Due to Marshak’s translations Robert Burns became one of the most famous and influential foreign poets in the Soviet Union. But how did he manage to do it? In my opinion, people started loving Burns creative work because for Soviet Russians his life story was an example to follow. Being a son of ordinary Scottish farmer, the poet managed to find his way to the upper–class society. His poems became famous in the United Kingdom spreading love to Scottish language all over the world.

Learning three languages, I have been always interested in translation. To me it is neither craft, nor science or art but the perfect combination of these three things. I’ve always admired Burns poetry as well as other Marshak’s translations but it has never occurred to me that there might be some inaccuracies.

In autumn 2011 I wrote an essay on the poem called “To a Mouse”. At first I wrote it in Russian, so that my teacher of literature could check it for possible mistakes. But when I started translating it in English, I realised that it was impossible to refer to the text literally due to the numerous cases of discrepancy between the original text and Marshak’s translation.

Another impetus for this research was the article in Burns Chronicle written by Dr. Natalia Kaloh Vid. Frankly speaking, it caused a shock. I decided to look into the matter. As a result I found out a great number of inaccuracies. Having written all the cases down, I realised that I had a perfect subject for the research.

The main goal of the study: analysis of the influence of the Soviet ideology on Robert Burns’ translations by S. Marshak.

Other objectives:

• study of Robert Burns’ literary heritage;

• study of Marshak’s adaptations;

• detailed comparison and analysis of “McPherson’s Farewell” («Прощание Макферсона») and the “Is there For Honest Poverty” («Честная бедность»);

• analysis of the nature of inaccuracies in translations;

• summing up the examples of significant ideological characteristics in Marshak’s adaptations.

Methods of the research used:

• analysis of information;

• structuring of information;

• deductive reasoning;

• induction;

• generalisation;

• description;