National Identity in Lyrics of Yeghishe Charents in Translation by Mikhail Dudin

Abstract

The article is devoted to translations by M. Dudin of the lyrics of Yeghishe Charents, outstanding Armenian poet of the early 20^th century. It is noted that the Armenian poetry took a prominent place in Dudin’s translation heritage, as evidenced by his numerous works that can be found in different collections of the poet. It is indicated that the life and creative path of the Armenian poet is largely responsible for the harmony of his lyrics with the lyric works of Russian poets. The article through the comparative analysis considers the translations of lyrical poems by Charents taking into account such criteria for the evaluation of translations as “adequacy,” “equivalence,” “usefulness,” “freedom of translation” etc. The examples show that Dudin translated the original verses of the Armenian master of word loosely, but he managed to keep their sense, style, rhythmic and prosodic organization. It is noted that the national identity of the Armenian poet is recreated in the Russian translations, that is a merit of the Russian poet and translator. It is concluded that the lyrics of Charents in Dudin’s translations found the new birth, because it began to sound with a new, overwhelming force, evidencing the translation professionalism of the Russian poet.