Analysis of the Russian Translation of the “Shijing” Song “Longing for the Husband”

Abstract

Translating into Russian and studying “Shijing” (“The Book of Poetry”) is a significant milestone in Russian-Chinese literature exchange which was initiated in the 19th century when Wang Xili school was founded. In the USSR, V. Alexeev school was established, in which one of the most famous translators was A. Shtukin. His Russian translation of “Shijing” is considered the first and the most complete one. The object of research in this article is Russian translation of the song in “Wang kingdom's songs” “Longing for the Husband”| by A. Shtukin. “Longing for the Husband” is the brightest folk song in “Gofen” (“Characters of Kingdoms”) in Shijing. In this article, the analysis of the graceful and most poetic translation of “Longing for the Husband” by A. Shchukin is carried out by commenting the poem, analyzing the translation of the original into modern Chinese by Cheng Junying and Jiang Jianyuan and comparing Russian and English translation. The author attempted to make a secondary improved translation of the original poem on the basis of A. Shtukin’s translation preserving the original rhythm and rhyme wherever possible. The secondary translation is closer to the original poem, it preserves and delivers the genuine resplendence of the poem. It also preserves A. Shtukin’s amphibrach and his individual style which has a lot of tune and distinguished style of classical Russian poetry. The author only introduces some lexical adjustments due to which it will be easier for a Russian reader to understand the poem.