Black Sea, trilingual reflections. Georgian and Russian literature
Black Sea, trilingual reflections. Georgian and Russian literature

Author(s): Khatuna Beridze
Subject(s): Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, Russian Literature, Translation Studies, Georgian literature
Published by: Сдружение „Транспонтика“
Keywords: translation; Black Sea; Georgia; Russian (language); English (language)
Summary/Abstract: The article follows the Black Sea reflections in the Georgian and Russian poetry and their Russian and/or English translations. The article explores how the authors and translators personalise, interpret and/or reconfigure Black Sea. Cohabitation of nature, love and politics in the Black Sea poetry is paradigmatic, but how loyally do the translations follow the set rules of cohabitation? How devalued is the intention of the author, or the original imagery? Were the transformations in the target language text premeditated or not? Black Sea is used in poetry to express political ambitions, as in the poem by F. Tyutchev ‘Black Sea’; the fidelity of its English translation by F. Jude is studied closely. ‘Thought at the seaside’ by Galak’tʼion Tʼabidze implicates the poet’s political hopes. The poem expresses remorse for the peaceful sea and the poet’s lust for the next wave, symbolising the harbinger of his homeland’s freedom. The Russian translation by O. Ivinskaia transforms the idea and changes the original topos, shifting the Black Sea ‘far’ from Georgia. An allegory of the lost route to Europe after the 1917 revolution, the poet’s lament over the postrevolutionary political turbulence and annexation of Georgia is also misinterpreted. ‘Sentimental travel’ by Tʼitsian Tʼabidze in its Russian translation by I. Mel’nikova reveals how just a subtle difference might distort the original image and build a politically favourable one. Tʼitsian devoted his poem to the Black Sea and the city of Batumi. The translation manifests conceptual antagonism between the target language and the source language depictions of the city and the sea. Mel’nikova presents the city as ‘tender’ and the sea as ‘tamed’, associated with fragility and political domestication, while the original images of the city and the sea are ‘beautiful’ and ‘calm’.

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