“Horizontal” and “Vertical” Semantic Associations in a Poem: A Translator’s Perspective
The paper hypothetically suggests the tentative possibility, for a translator of poetry, of shifting semantic units (words, semantic components, telling details) from one stanza to another within the architectonic structure of a verse. The author examines conditions which may call for such a shift. While local shifts between the neighbouring lines may be necessitated by the peculiarities of the receptor language syntax, more distant (“vertical”) shifts may be risked by the translator in order give more emphasis to a vital image, to give his/her lines “breathing space”, or even for the sake of getting the right rhyme. The paper argues that the intra-stanza and inter-stanza semantic ties are implicitly, but traceably, embedded in the original text. And if these are strong enough and elastic enough to with stand the shifting of concepts, the translated verse retains the poet’s voice and emotional impact, though vital components of this or that key concept may be rendered by a different part of speech. The author’s postulates are illustrated by examples, chiefly drawn from Arseny Tarkovsky’s verse “И я ниоткуда…” (“And from nowhere I came …”), the original being accompanied by our translation into English.