LINA KOSTENKO’S WORKS IN THE ORIGINAL AND IN GERMAN TRANSLATION

Abstract

The present article analyses the poetic work of Ukrainian poet Lina Kostenko. The formation of the author as a personality, her participation in the protest movement against the Soviet regime are traced. The works and the leading theme of Lina Kostenko’s work, the peculiarities of her style are systematised. The characteristic stylistic devices as well as linguistic means of the poetry by Lina Kostenko are outlined. The main attention is focused on the translation of the Lina Kostenko’s poems done by the Austrian literary critic and translator Alois Woldan. The German translation of Kostenko’s poetry published in the bilingual German-Ukrainian collection “I znovu proloh” (en. “Prologue Again”) is analysed, the main translation strategies and methods are determined. Lina Kostenko is a consummate Ukrainian poet, an extraordinary, independed, unique and uncompromising figure, who, unlike other Ukrainians, does not need to ‘rise from her knees’, since under no circumstances she would kneel down. The comprehensive study of Lina Kostenko’s work, her unique authorial voice, theme of works and their linguistic implementation are topical today. Only few translators dared to translate the works of Lina Kostenko, because it is really a difficult task. So, we can only welcome the attempt of the Austrian literary critic and translator Alois Woldan to reproduce the poetic language of this outstanding Ukrainian poet. Lina Kostenko’s lyrics are exquisitely simple, but this simplicity is achieved by the perfection of all components of the poetic work – by concise wording, its aphoristic presentation, immaculate rhyme, semantic condensation of every word, variety of rhythms. Lina Kostenko has no words only for the sake of rhyme, everything sounds natural, logical, without haste. Man is the main character of her work, man as a part of nature, of the universe. If there is no dignity, inner harmony, understanding with the world around us, then this world around us disappears or degenerates into the “atomic black candle” of Chernobyl. The German translation of Kostenko’s poetry by Alois Woldan solves an extremely difficult combination of preserving the form and the content in the target text.