Russian Translations of Emily Dickinson's Poetry (1969-1992)

Traditionally, the translator of poetry is faced with the task of following the original as faithfully as possible, but within the restriction of the poetic form. Russian translators try to be true to this tradition, because poetic form usually enhances the expressiveness of the text and, in many cases, emphasizes its meaning. The choice of form, however, should not be at the expense of the substance of the original poem. In Emily Dickinson's poetry, notable for its intellectual qualities, depth, and wisdom, content appears to prevail over form. Therefore, the utmost accuracy of vocabulary, and the domination of meaning over form is a matter of primary concern in translating the work of this great poet into a language as different from English as Russian.

Most of the Russian translations of Dickinson published between 1969 and 1992 were by Vera Markova; the other translators were Ivan Likhachev, who translated sixteen poems, Michail Zenkevich (4), Andrey Kovalenko (7), Tat'yana Gringolts (4), and Tat'yana Stamova (3). These numbers do not indicate the total number of poems translated, however, because some poems were translated by two or three translators. "I died for Beauty" (Fr448), for example, was translated by Markova, Zenkevich, and Kovalenko, and "Because I could not stop for Death - " (Fr479) by Likhachev and Stamova. In other cases the same translations of some poems were published by different publishing houses-for example, translations by Markova appeared in the magazine Foreign Literature and in three editions of the Khudozhestvennaya Literatura publishing house. Omitting these recurrences, 238 poems by Dickinson have been translated into Russian. Unfortunately, no translation identifies the original poem by first line or by reference to a particular number assigned by Thomas H. Johnson, although presumably the translators used his 1955 edition of the poems. Consequently, it is not always clear which poem a translation works from. In an appendix, I correlate translations with the originals and with both Johnson and Franklin numbers, to the extent possible, although I could not identify six translations by Markova and three by Likhachev.

It is sometimes difficult to tell which is the source poem because of the difficulties a Russian translator encounters in approaching Emily Dickinson's works. Dickinson's short lines are so expressive that in order to retain their sense and figurativeness the translator must make the poem longer and bulkier. For example, although the second stanza of "On the Bleakness of my Lot" (Fr862), beginning "Soil of Flint, if steady tilled - ," is only four lines long, Markova's translation ("Я возделала мертвый грунт") has eight lines. Its vocabulary also deviates significantly from that of the original. Such changes make the identification of a translation difficult, even when the principal meaning of the poem is conveyed.

In "Soil of Flint," Markova distorts the form to reflect the content. In other cases she alters the poem's content. In her translation of "'Tis so much joy! 'Tis so much joy!" ("Какой восторг! Какой восторг!," Fr170) she keeps strictly to the form of the poem at the expense of its content.

Какой восторг! Какой восторг!А проиграю - кончен торг!Но ведь иной беднякРебром последний ставил грош -И выиграл! Как била дрожь -От счастья лишь на шаг.

Жизнь - только Жизнь. Смерть - только Смерть.Свет - только Свет. Смерч - только Смерч.Пусть карты их рассудят.Ты побежден? Но мысль сладка:Решилось всё - наверняка -И худшего не будет!

А если . . . О - всех пушек рев -О - перезвон колоколов -Подайте весть вполсилы!Ведь так несхожи - Рай мечты -И тот - где вдруг проснешься ты -Меня бы оглушило!

For the sake of rhyme and rhythm Markova introduces words and expressions that differ from Dickinson's. The word "bargain" does not appear in the original, nor do words and expressions pertaining to card-playing. The tone of the translation is therefore less elevated than that of Dickinson's poem. The verbs "lose" and "win," substituted for the nouns "Victory" and "Defeat," seem to allude to card-playing rather than to risking all one has, even...