Translator's notes: Poetry of V.S. Vysotsky in the Maltese language

The 80th anniversary of V.S. Vysotsky is widely celebrated not only in Russia, but also in the neighboring and many far abroad countries, where a large number of his fans live. The jubilee year has seen hundreds of new translations into different languages, including the national language of the Republic of Malta. The paper analyses translation solutions aimed at the adequate adaptation of culturally saturated concepts of V.S. Vysotsky's works to the mental picture of the world of the Maltese. The translations under analysis are timed to coincide with the jubilee events in February 2018 at the Russian Centre for Science and Culture in Malta. In the commemorative evening celebrating V. Vysotsky's eightieth anniversary, the author presented ten most popular translations, including "I do not like" (1969), "He hasn't returned from the fighting" (1969), "Capricious Horses" (1972), "A Lyrical Song" (1970), "Ships" (1966), "Song About a Friend"(1966), "The Common Graves" (1963-1965), "Wolf Hunting" (1968), "My Gipsy Song" (1967), and "Song About the Earth"(1969). All ten poems contain themes that are universal for all the humanity such as war, friendship, love, self-determination. On the one hand, this facilitates a translator's task of transferring the poet's original idea to another lingua-cultural milieu, while on the other hand, requires careful decisions of a translator. The analysis of solutions related to the adaptation of culturally saturated concepts to the Maltese mental picture of the world is aimed to confirm the adequacy of the translation. A priori, it was decided to translate all ten poems in free verse to convey the original images and spirit as accurately as possible, without unnecessary words or omissions for the sake of rhyme. This decision is also supported by the fact that vers libre is dominant in modern Maltese poetry. The conclusion about the adequacy of the translation is confirmed not only by the analysis performed, but also by the reaction of the audience during the commemorative evening. In general, judging by the questions and comments, the audience demonstrated a very positive attitude towards the translations presented and gave a very high appreciation to Vysotsky's works in general. This shows that all the ten most popular translated works are relevant all the humanity and the images used by Vysotsky can be adequately perceived in the Maltese linguistic and cultural milieu.

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