“Translatability” of German poetry into Russian

Translation, which is often seen as an art of transferring meanings from one language into another, in some contexts can be a very debatable issue. In this regard, we can think of translating literary works and poems in particular that has been criticized by many linguists. One of the wide-spread reasons for negative attitudes towards this issue is “the myth of untranslatability” that “looks upon poetry as beauty itself which is untouchable for once it is touched it is destroyed” (S. Aiwei). Another author S. Hariyanto refers to the linguistic, literary and aesthetic, and socio-cultural problems while translating poetry. Apparently, they concern all languages irrespective of the language families and the branches they belong to.
When translating from Germanic languages to Slavic ones, it is important and at the same time difficult to remain faithful both to the content and the form. Ideally, both content and form should follow that of the original text. However, in practice it is impossible due to different average numbers of syllables in the words of various languages. For instance, according to Etkind (1963: 63), “German words have twice as many syllables as Russian words”. This discrepancy is sure to cause problems for translators who work with this pair of languages. Besides, it is especially difficult to translate poetry into a foreign language rather than into the mother tongue. For the case analysis, I would like to focus on particular examples taken from a translation of the poem written by Erich Kästner entitled “Zeitgenossen, haufenweise”, the text of which can be found below the article.
In order to save the expressiveness of the original lines, I used words strong in meaning, but different in structure when compared to the German text: “Ihr letzter Schrei wär noch ein dernier cri” – «Последний крик, предсмертным обернись» (“The last cry, turn into death”).
Nevertheless, changing the form reflects the emotional background which stands behind any piece of work. The author deprecates his contemporaries in this poem which sounds as a kind of appeal for changing the lifestyle and getting rid of light-heartedness and emptiness. Going deeper into the content and the background of this poem, I realized that there is a big gap between the two cultures, German and Russian, closely linked to the languages. One needs to be aware of the political situation abroad in order to fully understand the meanings of figurative sense-making stylistic devices. What is important here is the ability to read between the lines.
Due to different sources of metaphorization, it was also impossible to use the same images for meanings transfer. In some cases, in order to be more precise, I used generalization as an effective method: “dass Kreide rund sind” – «вечные истины» (“eternal truth”), “Invalidenbeine aus Holz” – «очевидно верное» (“apparently true”), “nicht einmal im August” – «в разгаре лета» (“in the height of the summer”).
Nevertheless, it is still possible to translate some phraseological units and expressions which exist in both languages: “Haare spalten” – «быть мелочным» (“to strain at a gnat”).
In poetic translations, the so-called “semantic development”, or “modulation of meaning” often takes place for conveying meanings with the help of target language resources. The phrase “Sie haben Witz” can be interpreted in different ways by translators, and in my variant it is translated into Russian by the word “sarcasm”. It definitely has a negative connotation, but according to the context, it can be applied to the translated version of the poem.
While translating the long line “Sie wissen viel, was sie nicht verstehen“, I had to use more emotional expression which, however, does not strain the sense of the whole sentence: «грош цена» – “not worth an old song”. This choice can be justified by the rhythmic organization of the poem which needs to be maintained throughout the translated version, even though the average number of syllables significantly varies in German and Russian, as it was mentioned above. In contrast, such trope as simile is preserved in the following line: “Köpfe wie auf Abziehbildern” («головы, как звон монет пустых» – “heads like “empty” ringing coins”), despite the fact that the emotionally-affected state of the poem is not exactly the same in the translated version.
As a result of this overview, based on my own experience of translating poetry, I can conclude that translatability of poetry in terms of transferring meanings is a less complicated issue while it is much more difficult to preserve the form and rhythm of the original texts. Besides, it is very important to gain some background knowledge about the author and the poem itself. The question of translatability is still debatable and depends on the language choice and the expectations of the translator. Therefore, s/he should focus on preserving more either the content and meanings or the form and stylistic devices used in original texts.

Literature:
1. Aiwei S. Translatability and Poetic Translation – 1. Part 2. Translatum Journal – Issue 5. Xinzhou Teachers University, Shanxi, China: http://www.translatum.gr/journal/5/translatability-and-poetic-translation.htm
2. Etkind E. (1963), Poetry and Translation.
3. Hariyanto S. Problems in Translating Poetry, Perum. Joyo Asri Blok X/157, RT 02 – RW 08, State Polytechnic, Malang, Indonesia

Written by Asmik Avagyan. Translator and student of the “Master in Learning and Communication in Multilingual and Multicultural Contexts” of the University of Luxembourg.Terminology trainee at TermCoord