METAPHOR IN EQUIRHYTHMIC POETIC TRANSLATION: OBSTACLE OR OPPORTUNITY?

The present article analyses ways of treating metaphor as an indispensable element of imagery in poetic translation. The objective of the article is to determine the fine line between crucially deforming or diluting the initial image and deliberately transforming it with a view to finding a more convincing way to transmit it to the target reader, even if the latter approach involves resorting to different imagery.

The main sources of the present article are examples of equirhythmic translation (Russian-French language pair: excerpts from poems by V. Mayakovsky, N. Gumilev, B. Okudjava and other Russian poetic texts), in which the poetic translator is not only compelled to convey the meaning and create the rhyme, but also has to adjust the length of the verse and the rhythm accordingly. This type of translation better than any enables the target audience to perceive the spirit and the melody of the source language, yet imposes a range of restrictions on the translator, which provides us with a number of curious cases where rhythm and rhyme imperatives often render impossible translation solutions that closely reflect the original text. In these cases, metaphor can be viewed either as an invincible obstacle, coercing the translator to preserve all its components, or as a portal, enabling the translator to fit the verse into the rhythm by deviating from the initial poetic image, yet hitting the aimed-at target, by means of analysing the desirable ultimate poetic effect.

The main research methods include experimental techniques, since the majority of the cases are provided by the author of the present article, comparative analysis of imagery found in the matching source language and target language excerpts, qualitative case study which guides us to elicit possible ways to address complicated metaphor problems that poetic translation offers and exclude the defective solutions.

The article puts forward an approach to treating poetic figures such as metaphor, showing which imagery elements can be sacrificed in the translation and which ought to be regarded as focal points in order to better achieve the transmission of the ultimate poetic effect to the target culture.

Keywords: cross-cultural communication, poetry translation problems, equirhythmic translation, metaphor, poetic imagery