Shakespeare's discourse in the selected poetry and translations by Maxim Rylsky and Mykola Zerov

Abstract

Shakespeare's discourse in general subject of the neoclassic poetry (early Maxim Rylsky and his elder colleague Mykola Zerov) is analyzed. The binary opposition king/fool has been emphasized. The implicit Shakespearian symbolism of M. Rylsky (the poem “Adonis and Aphrodite” is common with “Venus and Adonis” by William Shakespeare) is analyzed. The material of the analysis is the following literary works: “The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark”, “Henry IV”, “The Tragedy of King Lear”, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, and the translations and own poetry by mentioned Ukrainian neoclassics. The paper also researches the French poem by Henri-Francois-Joseph de Régnie about William Shakespeare eternal characters (in the translation by M. Rylsky).The hallucination in Titania’s character is researched in the modern to M. Zerov reception. The image of Falstaff is analyzed textually and intermedially. The research proves that M. Rylsky perceived his own translations of W. Shakespeare as the form of self-realization as an artist and a conscious autobiography. Shakespeare's motives in both poets have autobiographical character: M. Rylsky often writing from the first person identifies Falstaff and his own youth and M. Zerov directly offers his attitude to the present in his sonnets "Poor Yorick!" and "Titania". In the same way works the reproduction of modern tragedies in the cycle of M. Rylsky "Adonis and Aphrodite". The originals and the Ukrainian translations are compared and the exact correspondence of allusions and other means in the analyzed neoclassical texts to the Shakespearean originals is established. Unique materials are involved.