The Russian gospel translations by V. Zhukovsky and K. Pobedonostsev: two versions of the same approach

Purpose: The article is devoted to the linguistic analysis and comparison of the Gospel translation into Russian by V. Zhukovsky (1844-1845) and by K. Pobedonostsev (1906). At that moment there were already published New Testament translations into Russian: the translation of Russian Bible Society (1823) and the Synodal one (1876). Meanwhile, Zhukovsky and K. Pobedonostsev create their own version because they both consider the language of the current texts too far from the Church-Slavonic version. Results: Both authors aim to make the translation’s language as close to the Church-Slavonic version as possible. Therefore, the main characteristic of both translations is the frequent use of phonetic, morphological, vocabulary and syntactic Church-Slavonic text’s particularities. However, this mutual approach is realized by the authors in different ways: in particular, Pobedonostsev uses a specific form of the future tense with the auxiliary verb imet’; he also strictly follows the Church-Slavonic text’s word order. Zhukovsky uses specific case endings and some constructions with dative absolute. Furthermore, the Slavonicisms borrowed by the authors from the Slavonic text are different. For example, Zhukovsky uses without translation such words as koshnitsa, mrezhy, mednitsa; Pobedonostsev translates them, but he retains the words alkat’, vskuju, lovitva etc. Conclusion: In general, the version of Zhukovsky is more creative than the Pobedonostsev’s one: the poet-translator uses his own word order, creates some Slavonicisms by himself, whereas Pobedonostsev strictly follows the Church-Slavonic text, changing it to satisfy the criteria of the Russian text’s apprehensibility and normativity. The both translations are unique and represent different versions of the specific church register of Standart Russian.