POETIC TRANSLATION STRATEGIES IN READER RESPONSE PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The article investigates the effect of the chosen translation strategies on the readers’ perception of poetry. In the receptive aesthetics perspective, the choice of poetic translation tactics can be viewed as a decisive factor in poetic text perception. The purpose of this research is to analyze readers’ aesthetic reception of poetry with regard to the chosen translation strategy. The novelty of this study lies in the attempt to evaluate and analyze readers’ perception induced by different types of poetic translation. Based on the methodological foundations of poetics with qualitative and quantitative data analysis, we hypothesized that the choice of poetic translation tactics could determine poetic artwork aesthetic potential. The material of the research is presented via three kinds of poetic translation of R. Frost’s poem «The Rose Family»: phonetic, lexical, and interpretative. The phonetic translation focuses on reproducing the original melody of the text by choosing lexical units that are phonetically consonant with the original. The lexical translation emulates the lexical units of the original as accurately as possible. The interpretation of the poem ideologically follows the original text without emphasizing phonetic and lexical aspects. The questionnaire involved the students of the master’s level elective course «Strategies and Tactics of Poetic Translation in Historical Perspective». The proposed questions focused on different aspects of poetic text perception: phonetic, lexical, and ideological respectively. The results of the analysis of the initial data show that the choice of translation tactics significantly affects the readers’ reception. Thus, phonetic translation proves to be the most dynamic and rhythmic. The lexical translation is the easiest to read and understand in general. Readers consider the interpretation of the original poetry to be the most wonderful, real, and sincere. The results obtained have proved the hypothesis validity that translator’s choice of tactics and strategies influence readers’ reception. Further studies of poetic texts translatability in the perspective of receptive aesthetics will deepen the understanding of certain textual aspects impact on the readers that will contribute to the improvement of translation strategies and tactics.