Figurative transformations of Afanasy Fet's landscape lyrics in Friedrich Fiedler's translations

This article employs a historical-functional approach to expand upon Vadim Kozhinov's observation that Afanasy Fet's contemporaries often oversimplified the nature imagery in his poetry, perceiving his brilliant lyrics as an uncomplicated, "secondary phenomenon." The authors analyze Friedrich Fiedler's German translations of three landscape lyrics from distinct periods of Fet's career: "Wonderful Picture" (1842, early period), "Spring Rain" (1857, a peak of inspiration), and "This Morning..." (1881, from the "Evening Lights" period). These poems are representative of the consistent artistic features in Fet's oeuvre. A comparative analysis of the originals and translations reveals that Fiedler, despite his profound sympathy for Fet's work and his success with other poems (even those approved by Fet), aligns his translations of the landscape lyrics, which are free from romantic experience (as in "Whisper, timid breath") or philosophical reflection (as in "Storm in the evening sky"), with contemporary perceptions of Fet as a follower of the Romantics (particularly Goethe and Heine) and a creator of momentary poetic sketches of nature. The study finds that Fiedler overlooks the internal compositional logic of Fet's imagery - such as the progression from visual to auditory, or from external to internal perspectives. He fails to render the lyrical subject's specific "point of view," which serves as the foundation for a "cinematic" shift of image "planes." This technique, involving the movement of the gaze, creates spatial depth and internal dynamism. Consequently, key aspects of Fet's poetic world - later identified by scholars such as Mikhail Gasparov, Yury Lotman, Vadim Kozhinov, and Igor Sukhikh - remain unrepresented. The translations disrupt the compositional movement from an objective picture to an experienced, interiorized one and replace Fet's characteristic "unsteadiness," "reverence," and "airiness" with simpler impressions like "light" or "bright." Furthermore, Fiedler omits recurring images (e.g., willows, birches, nightingales) that connect these poems to Fet's larger artistic universe and function as his distinctive poetic signatures. The authors declare no conflicts of interests.

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