The Anthology Ruska Moderna (2011): An Experience of Poetic Translation of Russian Poetry in Slovakia

The article discusses the concept and structure of the anthology of Russian modernist poetry, published in Slovakia in 2011, compiled by the poet and literary scholar Valery Kupka. It is one part of the extensive project “Lyric Poetry of the 20th century”, realized thanks to the initiative of the Slovak publishing house Slovart. The anthology acquaints the Slovak reader with the part of Russian poetry that was inaccessible in the Soviet period. The methodological basis of the article is the theory of poetic book writing by O.V. Miroshnikova, D. Kuzmin, U.Yu. Verina, Yu.S. Podlubnova, and others, as well as basic theories of the poetic translation theory (N.S. Gumilyov, M.L. Gasparov, A.V. Fedorov, V.E. Bagno). According to the initial section written by the compiler, the general idea of the anthology is to point to the depiction of the understanding of the world of the “pre-apocalyptic period” in Russian modernist poetry. The article analyzes the book as a means of creating the cultural background of the turn of the 20th century, the visual component of the book cover, the flyleaf, the endpaper, the function of the illustrative material. The compiler’s efforts to make an authentic and documentary depiction of the period are not neglected, as evidenced by many photographs of poets, their portraits, covers of poetry collections and magazines, posters and leaflets with announcements of literary evenings or autographs of poets. The principles of poetic material selection and arrangement in the anthology are also considered. The key principle is historical-literary: grouping of material according to movements (symbolism, Acmeism, poets outside the movements). Special attention in this study is paid to translation practice. The authors of poetic texts included in the anthology are six important Slovak translators - Juraj Andricik, Jan Buzassy, Jan Kvapil, Jan Strasser, Jan Zambor, Ivana Kupkova. Three poems by I. Annensky translated by Jan Buzassy - Dremotnost’ (Drowse), Traktir Zhizni (The Inn of Life), Romans bez Muzyki (Romance without Music) - became the object of analysis in the article. The conclusion is drawn regarding the translator’s focus on the traditions of the “St. Petersburg/Leningrad” school of poetry translation, accentuating the “untranslatable” pieces of the individual components of the poem and discussing the translator’s choice in emphasizing either the rhythmic-intonation aspect or the meaning of the poem. Other possibilities for further research on this issue are also outlined.

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