An experimental way of rendering Old English alliterative verse into Ukrainian

Abstract

The article deals with the form of Old English alliterative verse and the problem of its translatability into Ukrainian. The author argues that the four-beat accentual metre of this verse may be adopted without any hindrance, but a specific character of stress in Ukrainian keeps seeking a compromise to imitate alliteration. Therefore two alternative ways are offered: to fix consonance either on the initial consonant (the group of consonants) of a word, or on the pretonic consonant (the group of consonants). Only in the second case the alliteration discharges its intrinsic metrical function, because of congruence of verse accent with the alliterating sound (sounds). Therefore regular using of pretonic consonances (according to the traditional patterns of Old English verse) is the most reasonable way to imitate the alliterative verse in Ukrainian. The first full Ukrainian translation of Beowulf by Olena O’Lear, based on this principle, is presented and analysed.