Poetry Translation Techniques as Exemplified by German and English Translation of Peter Yershov’s Tale «Конёк-Горубнок» («Das bucklige Pferdchen», «The Little Humpbacked Horse»)

Abstract

The subject of the study is techniques and methods used in translation of poetical texts. The object of the research is a poetical text. The author considers in detail stylistic and structural aspects of the topic. The translatability of poetry is achieved by using some strategies which tend (come) to submitting or adapting the rules of the source language to those of the target language with use of such methods as analysis and comparison of a poem in different languages, interpretation which implies, unlike passive perception of the original text, an active, analytical approach to the poem. Special attention is paid to consideration of translation techniques such as generalization, specification, compensation, meaning extension, holistic transformation. The main conclusion of the study is that while a translation of poetry, the meaning of a poem, its structure and original stylistics must be preserved. A special contribution of the authors to the study of the topic is the analysis of the poetic texts in German, translated by the author herself, which allows for more precise semantic and stylistic analysis. The novelty of the research lies in comparing the ways of translating poetry using the example of the same literary work in Russian, German and English versions. The relevance of the study lies in the changes occurring in the structure of the poetic work when translated, resulting from the different grammatical structures of the languages.