COMICAL IN V. FOKIN’S TRANSLATION OF “RUSLAN AND LUDMILLA”

Abstract

In the late XVIII – early XIX ct. in the Russian empire appeared several poems that used the literary and folklore sources in the humorous way. Some of them become classics, and helped to define the development of the later literary tradition. In Ukrainian literature we see I. Kotlyarevskiy’s “The Aeneid”, that is much more than another travesty of Virgil’s poem. This text became an encyclopedia of Ukrainian culture, and even its “lower registers” paradoxally creates the feeling of the sublime. Russian classical text was “Ruslan an Ludmilla” by A. Pushkin that is much more lyrical (as opposite to epic) and intimate in nature, and where the comical element is mostly seen in the narrator’s gentle humor. The existing Ukrainian translations of the poem are talented, but lacking in some special feeling of naturalness. To achieve the effect of the spontaneity, V. Fokin decided to create not a word-by-word translation, but a retelling, using the authentic material of Ukrainian language and tradition. In this, the heritage of Kotlyarevskiy, especially, his specific comical touch, was of much help. Generally, the new Ukrainian text of “Ruslan and Ludmilla” is a successful retelling of the classical story for the new audience, and a proof that Ukrainian language is much richer and subtler than it is sometimes thought.