Charles Tomlinson as a translator of poems by Fyodor Tyutchev into English

The article deals with the translations of Fyodor Tyutchev’s poems into English made by the British poet and translator Charles Tomlinson (1927-2015). Poetic works present a serious challenge for those engaged in literary translation. Until the present day, the criteria for estimating the adequacy of poetic translation have been a question under discussion and deep consideration; the issue of poetic translation has been studied by both Russian and foreign scholars. In this regard, the works of Charles Tomlinson as a poetry translator from Russian into English offer new opportunities for a detailed study of his translation method, characterized by the desire to penetrate into the essence of the original works and preserve their lyrical and aesthetic components, as well as by Tomlinson’s intention to introduce Russian classical literature to English-speaking readers. The article analyzes in detail the main characteristics of literary and in particular poetic translation, shows different approaches to translating poetry and reveals both the specific features of translation transformations and the principles of their use. It also provides a comparative analysis of Tomlinson’s English translations of poems by Tyutchev, namely Silentium! and Spring, and the original texts. This study shows that the English poet often imparts his own unique and recognizable style to Tyutchev’s works, which is manifested in omitting repetitions and epithets in the original poems and adding new details to his translations. Tomlinson’s style can also be seen in the overcomplicated syntax of the transformed poems. On the other hand, there is a strong similarity between Tomlinson’s translations of Tyutchev’s famous poems and the original poetic works due to the translation transformations used. As the research reveals, modulations and transpositions are the most frequent transformations in Tomlinson’s modified versions of the original.