"Une chanson - c’est un autre toi-même" On some translations by Marina Tsvetaieva
The paper is about some poetical translations by Marina Tsvetaieva made during the French period of her life. In 1935-36 she translated into French several revolutionary and soviet songs, as follows: two funeral marches, a march from the musical film “Jolly Fellows” and the song “Polyushkо-Polye”. There are in the notebook of the poet some drafts of letters to the person who ordered these translations. Tsvetaieva formulates her translating principles and comments on the particular choices of words. We compared these translations taken from the creative notebooks of the poet and the French texts of these funeral marches which circulate in the internet without the name of translator. The translation of the first march “Zamuchen tyajeloi nevolei...” is slightly changed, but the poem’s structure itself and all rimes are the same. The translation of the other march “Vy jertvoyu pali v bor’be rokovoi...” is entirely identical with the text from the poet’s notebook. As a result of this comparison we can state that these anonymous translations are made by Tsvetaieva. So this work by the poet survived and has been known in France. We cite the recollections where their performance during the revolutionary events in France in 1968 is mentioned. There is a disc of revolutionary songs recorded by the “Group 17” in 1967 that includes these translations. The pages of variants and these drafts of the letters demonstrate that Tsvetaieva considered these translations with the same poetical responsibility and attention as her own poems.