Abstract
The article examines and compares two translations of the same poem by the Indian poet Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), produced by Boris Pasternak in the late 1950s and David Samoylov in mid-1960s, who both relied on line-by-line translation from Bengali. While Pasternak’s translation is a successful Russian poem on its own, it has little similarity with the original’s form and meaning. It may have been for this reason that D. Samoylov was commissioned to make a new translation. His version is closer to the original’s form, but fails to render the meaning. The article suggests that the meter chosen by Pasternak for the translation, with its ‘semantic aureole’ – ‘death (and its defeat)’, is more appropriate for the theme of the Bengali original.
Highlights
both relied on line-by-line translation from Bengali
It may have been for this reason that D. Samoylov was commissioned to make a new translation
His version is closer to the original's form
Summary
Удачливым — что может быть лучше этого В следующем году вышел седьмой том сочинений Рабиндраната Тагора, где мое имя — я была счастлива — чередовалось с его. Как и большинство других поздних стихотворений Тагора, это стихотворение датировано: оно было написано 14 февраля 1941 года, то есть меньше чем за полгода до смерти поэта (он умер 7 августа).
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