Chyumina, the translator of W. Scott's poetry (late 19th century)

The article is devoted to the Russian translations of Walter Scott's poetical works performed by O.N. Chyumina at the end of the 19th century, which included nine romantic songs and ballads, among them: eight separate poems ("Lullaby of an Infant Chief" ("Koly-bel'naya pesnya"), "Gypsy's Dirge" ("Umirayushchii brodyaga" / "Epitafiya"), "The Violet" ("Fialka"), "The Noble Moringer" ("Piligrim"), "The Dying Bard" ("Smert' barda"), "Flora MavIvor's Song" ("Boevaya pesn'"), "Jack of Hazeldean" ("Dzhek Gezel'din"), "Nora's Vow" ("Klyatva ledi Nory"), as well as one song from Ivanhoe, "Rebecca's Hymn" ("Pesn' Revekki"). Olga Nikolaevna Chyumina was born on December 26 (January 7) 1864 in Novgorod. Her literary activity began in the 1880s and covered not only translations of foreign authors, but also her own prose and poetry. Chyumina proved her worth as a talented poet and translator, she was an active citizen and had a proactive approach to life that was reflected in her effervescent satire published in the oppositional press under the pen-names of Optimist and Boy-Cott. Comparative analysis of Chyumina's texts and the originals enables to refer Chyu-mina's translations to the liberal ones. In spite of the fact that the translator tries to reproduce the spirit of the original, i.e. sticks to the main plot, preserves the system of characters and images, follows the rhythmic organization of the poems, most of the elements of the original poetical pieces are transformed or eliminated in the Russian versions. One of the main tasks that Chyumina is trying to complete is to adapt the texts to the Russian reader in order to provide better understanding. The most common modifications of the original poems are the following: 1) elimination of exotic geographical and personal names unknown to the Russian reader; 2) use of archaic words and, as a consequence, Russification. Similar methods can be found in earlier translations of Walter Scott's poetical works that might have been familiar to Chyumina. Despite the fact that Chyumina follows the traditions of her predecessors, Vasily Zhukovsky, Ivan Kozlov, Karolina Pavlova, her translations of Walter Scott's poetry are more precise. Later translators of Walter Scott in Russia, preparing and putting together the collected edition of Walter Scott's literary works in 20 volumes published in the 1960s, paid close attention to previous translations, Chyumina's texts among them. Although none of Chyumina's translations are included into the 19th "poetic" volume of the edition, most of W. Scott's texts chosen by Chyumina for translation were taken into account and translated in a modern way.

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