The Difficulty of Translating the “New” Russian Poetry into Polish

Abstract

Translation of poetry is not an easy matter, according to some – impossible. However, Russian poetry has always been very interesting for Polish translators, in the culture of which poetry still occupies the pedestal. It would seem that the Slavic component should facilitate the transfer of the poetic world from one language environment to another, close in many parameters, but this is an imaginary representation. The main problems of this article are: a) the difficulty of translating the new Russian poetry into another Slavic language; and b the choice and strategy of translating the new Russian poetry in Poland today. The subject of the study is translations from the anthology Wdrapałem się na piedestał. Nowa poezja rosyjska (2013, Czarne), which represents the poetry of sixteen poets, written since the 1950s until today. This is an author’s anthology, whose creator is the famous translator and Russophile Jerzy Czech. The uniqueness of this book lies in the fact that it represents different generations of poets, different poets, various forms, but combines the whole of this poetic cocktail – the spirit of samizdat, whose history and work never left Polish reader indifferent. Selected examples (translational and comparative) will become a small window into the world of the issue of new Russian lyrics in today's Polish context.