M. Lomonosov’s “Panegyricus Elisabetae”: lexical aspect of a bilingual text
The article focuses on Latin-Russian equivalents and translation methods in the context of Mikhail V. Lomonosov’s Panegyricus Elisabetae . The Latin version closely follows the original Russian text by means of Classical Latin lexicon, as well as words peculiar to Neo-Latin authors. However, there are certain Latin words whose meanings are not covered in dictionaries. In some cases the parallel text is notable for assonant equivalents in the initial position of a phrase (инде - inde, видит- videt etc.). The article also points at Russian constructions corresponding to Abl. absolutus. When the differences between the Russian and Latin versions do occur, oftentimes they relate to syntactic constructions or may be explained by the need to add or emphasize a certain detail, since the Latin text was written for a foreign audience. There is no doubt that, while composing the Latin version of the Panegyricus , M. Lomonosov relied on classical examples and borrowed specific lexical stock phrases, as was common among humanist authors. At the time when Latin was yielding to national languages, the bilingual text of Panegyricus Elisabetae demonstrates that Russian language too had all the means to express the matters which in Europe had long been expressed in Latin.