Translation motivation and foreword by Charles Baudelaire "Edgar Poe, sa vie et ses œuvres" to the edition of E. A. Poe's texts

Abstract

Charles Baudelaire is primarily known as a French poet, the author of the internationally acclaimed poetry collection "Flowers of Evil" ("Les Fleurs du Mal"). However, he is also known as a translator: it was he who created the translations that changed the literary fate of the genius not recognized at the time – Edgar Allan Poe. He wrote a 24-page preface to the collection of his translations "Histoires extraordinaires", on the basis of which the author analyzes the poet's approach to translation, records his argumentation and motivation. Within the framework of this article, the author provides an analysis of the preface by Sh. Baudelaire studies why the connection between these figures has been repeatedly called absolutely exceptional by researchers. The subject of the study is the motivation of Sh. Baudelaire's translation of E. A. Poe's texts, which he explains both in the preface to the publication of the texts of the American writer and in personal correspondence. The object of the study is the preface under the heading "Sa vie et ses œuvres", written by Sh. Baudelaire's edition of E. A. Poe's texts in his own translation, published by the publishing house "Michel Lévy" in 1869. The main research method was a detailed analysis of the text of the preface by Sh. Baudelaire's "Edgar Poe, sa vie et ses œuvres" to the edition of E. A. Poe's texts in his own translation of 1869. A special contribution of the author to the study of the topic is a detailed study of the preface by Sh. Baudelaire as an artifact containing the formulation of translation motivation directly by the translator himself. The artifact is presented to the author all the more valuable because the translator is a famous poet with a special, recognizable style, which obviously leaves its mark on his translations. The main conclusions of this study are: the need to study the phenomenon of the Baudelaire translator not only from the prefaces to the translations, but also from his statements in correspondence, as well as in the study of the cultural era accompanying the creation of these translations and containing events such as the confrontation of the Romantics and the Parnassian school. The scientific novelty lies in the creation of a detailed analysis, based on which more specific episodes of the life and work of S. Baudelaire as a translator can be studied.