Artistic features of poetic translations of I. A. Krylov's fables in China (on the example of the fable "Dragonfly and Ant")

Abstract

This article is devoted to the artistic features of Chinese poetic translations of Krylov's fables. Unlike traditional Chinese prose fables, Krylov's fables were written in verse, few people know about this in China. Since the first translations of Krylov's fables were made in prose by translators Lin Lezhi, Ren Tingxu, Meng Hai and Wu Yan until the 1980s. The situation changed in 1983 thanks to the wonderful translations of Gu Yu and He Shiin, who creatively translated Krylov's fables in Chinese verse. The author chooses one of the most popular Krylov's fables in China, "The Dragonfly and the Ant", analyzes its translation features of good translations by Gu Yu, He Shiying, Zhu Xiansheng and Qiu Jingjuan, tries to sum up the corresponding methods of translating Krylov's fable creativity. The purpose of the study is to identify specific approaches to the translation of Krylov's fables from the point of view of Chinese versification. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that the article studies and compares different Chinese poetic translations of Krylov's fable. When analyzing Chinese translations and versification, a comparative approach, methods of analysis, interpretation and generalization are applied. As a result, it was revealed that more and more Chinese translators preferred to translate poems in verse in recent years. In the process of translation, they used stop-pause theory to convey the Russian syllabic verse, solving questions about stress, foot, etc. The material of the article can be used when studying the reception of Krylov's fables abroad, especially their translation in China.