Translation Principles of Vadim Shershenevich and Their Implementation in Translations of Playwrights of William Shakespeare: “King John” and “Cymbeline”

Abstract

The article is devoted to comprehension of the translational reception of William Shakespeare’s work in the legacy of Vadim Shershenevich (1893—1942) in the context of his author's translation strategies. The novelty of the study is connected with the identification of Shershenevich’s translation strategies as an adherent of “accurate translation”, with the reconstruction of the history of the poet’s translation achievements in the field of Shakespeariana. The authors comprehend Shershenevich’s report on the principles of Shakespeare’s translation, preserved in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art funds, and analyze the application of these principles (equilinearity, equirhythm, preservation of rhyme and figurative structure) in the little-known translation of the chronicle “King John” and in the translation of the play “Cymbeline”. The question is raised about Shershenevich’s two main translation strategies in relation to Shakespeare: accurate translation (in the texts under study) and free adaptation of texts for the stage, corresponding to the avant-garde understanding of theater as an art that develops outside of direct dependence on literature (when he works with Shakespeare as a librettist, in particular, participating in the creation of the comic opera Gemini based on Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night). The relevance of the study is related to the need to rethink the scope and significance of Shakespeare's reception in the culture of the Silver Age.