PETRARCH IN THE ARTISTIC INTERPRETATION OF OSIP MANDELSTAM: TRANSLATION STRATEGIES AND DECIPHERING BIOGRAPHICAL SUBTEXTS

Abstract

Osip Mandelstam translates Francesco Petrarch’s sonnets between December 1933 and January 1934. We consider the reason for the poet’s addressing these sonnets, their place of in his own poetry and the specific features of Mandelstam’s translation. The Russian texts are close to the original in terms of syntax and rhythm, however, lexically, Mandelstam introduces into the text images close to his own poetics. Petrarch wrote sonnets dedicated to Laura during the formation of the literary Italian language: the language that he uses is a kind of interlinguistic substance, a search for a path from archaism to novelty. For the modern reader, this language is not just archaic, it gives the impression of a kind of tonguetied language, attempts to create words for a poetic work in a situation where words are not enough. Accordingly, Mandelstam compensates for this linguistic effect by including in the text the author’s neologisms. An analysis of the four sonnets that Mandelstam chose for translation shows that the translator’s vocabulary goes back to his own creative images. Mandelstam, as it were, appropriates these sonnets, makes them his own in the literal sense of the word, and it is not by chance that though he designates them as translations, he nevertheless publishes them among his poems.