On the Question of Rendering Rhyme in Russian Translations of Dante’s T he Divine Comedy by M.L. Lozinskij and A.A. Iljušin (As Exemplified by Canto iii of the Inferno )

Abstract

The article analyzes the role of rhyme in The Divine Comedy of Dante Alighieri and in its Russian translations, mainly from the point of view of its phonological characteristics through the example of Canto iii of the Inferno . Translations by Lozinskij (1950) and Iljusin (1995) were selected for comparison as pertaining to different traditions of rendering Italian hendecasyllabic in Russian and the most representative of these traditions at all levels of poetic structure. Lozinskij’s iambic pentameter belongs to the trend of Puskin and Brjusov, while Iljusin’s translation is the first attempt to revive Russian syllabics since the time of Sevyrev, who had translated an extract from Canto iii of the Inferno in 1833. In her paper the author compares differing methods of rendering the metric, rhythmical, semantic and phonetic characteristics of rhyme of the original by the Russian transla- tors, paying special attention to the problems of the interrelation of rhyme and alliteration.