Literay Fact

2541-8297 2542-2421

IWL RAS

https://doi.org/10.22455/2541-8297-2023-30-211-237

Research Article

Articles

Do We Need a “Reverse Translation”? Shakespeare’s Sonnets Translated by Samuil Marshak and by Yves Bonnefoy

Cherkashina

Margarita V.

editor@litfact.ru

2023

Shakespeare’s Sonnets Yves Bonnefoy Samuil Marshak the translation issue reverse translation

2026

The paper provides a detailed analysis of Yves Bonnefoy’s translations of Shakespeare’s sonnets XI to XXII into French (1996‒2007) in their discrete juxtaposition with Samuil Marshak’s translations of the sonnets into Russian (1949), the latter considered a “Russian” rather than an “English” version of Shakespeare. The methodological framework for the study is the “reverse translation” proposed by A.V. Mikhailov. The essence of this approach is that the translated work of literature has to reproduce the unique world of the author and their epoch in their totality, including their semantic connections. The analysis demonstrates that Marshak’s consistent simplification of Shakespeare’s complex metaphor reduces it to simple analogies, while leveling out the multifaceted image of nature connected with the categories of time and death, as well as with the image of the man gaining power over nature (at the cost of breaking the “great chain of being”). At the same time, Bonnefoy’s later translations (using free verse, enjambments and breaking the sonnet form) demonstrate much greater precision and provide an actual interpretation of the sonnet in the process of translation itself. The author of the article sees the approach offered by Olga Sedakova in her new translation of Dante’s “Divine Comedy”, which corresponds to the idea of “reverse translation,” as one of the best approaches to contemporary translation of “Russian Shakespeare.” Acknowledgements: The work was carried out at IWL RAS with the financial support of the Russian Science Foundation, project no. 23-18-00375 “Russian Literature: The Problem of Multilingualism and Reverse Translation” (https://rscf.ru/project/23-18-00375/).

1. Avtonomova, N.S., and M.L. Gasparov. “Sonety Shekspira — perevody Marshaka” [“Marshak’s Translations of Shakespeare’s Sonnets”]. Voprosy literatury, no. 2, 1969, pp. 100‒112. (In Russ.)

2. Azov, A.G. Poverzhennye bukvalisty: Iz istorii hudozhestvennogo perevoda v SSSR v 1920‒1960 gody [Defeated Literalists: From the History of Artistic Translation in the USSR in 1920‒1960s]. Moscow, Higher School of Economics Publ., 2013. 304 p. (In Russ.)

3. Ben’iamin, V. “Zadacha perevodchika” [“The Translator’s Task”], trans. from German by Evgeny Pavlov. Ben’iamin, V. Uchenie o podobii. Mediaesteticheskie proizvedeniia [The Doctrine of Semblance. Mediæsthetic Works]. Moscow, Russian State University for the Humanities Publ., 2012, pp. 264‒270. (In Russ.)

4. Burkkhardt, Ia. Razmyshleniia o vseobshhei istorii [ Reflections on Global History]. Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tsentr gumanitarnykh initsiativ Publ., 2013. 560 p. (In Russ.)

5. Bitsilli, P.M. Mesto Renessansa v istorii kul’tury [ Place of the Renaissance in the Cultural History], comp., introd. and comm. by B.S. Kaganovich. St. Petersburg, Mifril Publ., 1996. XIV, 256 p. (In Russ.)

6. Bonfua, I. “Frantsuzskaia poeziia i printsip tozhdestva” [“The French Poetry and the Principle of Identity”]. Bonfua, I. Neveroiatnoe. Izbrannye esse [ Improbable. The Selected Essays]. Moscow, Carte Blanche Publ., 1998, pp. 168‒198. (In Russ.)

7. Bekon, F. Novyi Organon [New Organon], ed. and introd. by G. Tymianskii. Leningrad, OGIZ-SOTsEGIZ Publ., 1935. 384 p. (In Russ.)

8. Kuznetsova, N.I. “Prezentizm i antikvarizm — dve kartiny proshlogo” [“Presentism and Antiquarianism as Two Pictures of the Past”]. Arbor mundi, issue 15, 2009, pp. 164–196. (In Russ.)

9. Landino, K. “Rech’ Kristofano da Pratovekk’o pered nachalom chteniia sonetov messera Franchesko Petrarki v Studio” [“Speech by Cristofano da Pratovecchio Before Reading Sonnets by Messer Francesco Petrarch in the Studio”]. Bragina, M.L., editor. Sochineniia ital’ianskikh gumanistov epokhi Vozrozhdeniia (XV vek) [Works of Italian Humanists of the Renaissance (15th Century)]. Moscow, Moskow University Publ., 1984, pp. 190‒194. (In Russ.)

10.

10. Meshonnik, Anri. Rifma i zhizn’ [Rhyme and Life]. Moscow, OGI Publ., 2014. 400 p. (In Russ.)

11.

11. Mikhailov, A.V. Obratnyi perevod [ Revesre Translation]. Moscow, Iazyki russkoi kul’tury Publ., 2000. 848 p. (In Russ.)

12.

13.

13. Sedakova, O. Perevesti Dante [ To Translate Dante]. Moscow, Ivan Limbakh Publ., 2022. 128 p. (In Russ.)

14.

14. Sonety Shekspira v perevode S. Marshaka [Shakespeare’s Sonnets Translated by S. Marshak]. Moscow, Gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo khudozhestvennoi lieratury Publ., 1960. 206 p. (In Russ.)

15.

15. Cherkashina, M.V. “Tri soneta ili odin sonet? (Iz istorii perevodov Shekspira Pasternakom i Bonfua)” [“Three Sonnets or One? (Certain Details of Shakespeare Translation Tradition by Boris Pasternak and Yves Bonnefoy)”]. Novyi filologicheskii vestnik, no. 4 (39), 2016, pp. 137‒148. (In Russ.)

16.

16. Shaitanov, I.O. “Angliiskii petrarkizm / antipetrarkizm: ʽpoetics of doublemess’.” [“English Petrarchism / anti-Petrarchism: ʽPoetics of Doubleness’.”]. Shagi / Steps, vol. 6, no. 3, 2020, pp. 258‒268. DOI: 10.22394/2412-9410-2020-6-3-258-268 (In Russ.)

17.

17. Shaitanov, I.O. “Kommentarii k perevodam, ili Perevod s kommentariem” [“A Commentary on Translations or a Translation with Commentary”]. Inostrannaia literatura, no. 9, 2014, pp. 264‒278. (In Russ.)

18.

18. Shaitanov, I.O. “ʽSonety’ Shekspira: o perevodakh novykh i vnov’ obretennykh. U. Shekspir, Sonety 75–86. Perevod M. Kuz’mina” [“Shakespeare’s Sonnets: On the New and Newly Found Translations. W. Shakespeare, Sonnets 75–86. Translation by M. Kuzmin”]. Voprosy literatury, no. 3, 2022, pp. 118‒132. DOI: 10.31425/0042-8795-2022-3-118-132 (In Russ.)

19.

19. Bonnefoy, Yves. “Douze Sonnets de Shakespeare.” Entretien avec Yves Bonnefoy. Paris, L’ Oeil-de-Boeuf, 1994. 89 p. (In French)

20.

20. Bonnefoy, Yves. “Traduire les sonnets de Shakespeare.” Bonnefoy, Yves. Théâtre et poesie: Shakespeare et Yeats. Paris, Mercure de France, 1998, pp. 221‒224. (In French)

21.

21. Martin, Graham Dunstan. “Bonnefoy’s Shakespeare Translations.” World Literature Today, vol. 53, no. 3, 1979, pp. 465‒470. (In English)

22.

22. Matthias, Zach. Traduction littéraire et création poétique. Yves Bonnefoy et Paul Celan traduisent Shakespeare. Tours, Presses universitaires François-Rabealais, 2013. 432 p. (In French)

23.

23. The Riddle of Shakespeare’s Sonnets, the text of the sonnets, with interpretative essays by Edward Hubler, Northrop Frye, Leslie A. Fiedler, Stephen Spender, and R.P. Blackmur and including the full text of Oscar Wilde’s “The portrait or Mr. W.H.” New York: Basic Books Inc., 1962. 346 p. (In English)