“The Simplicity of Complexity and the Complexity of Simplicity”: On Translating a Philosophical Essay

The article examines the specific challenges involved in translating artistic-philosophical discourse, using an analysis of the author's own translation of excerpts from Jean d’Ormesson’s Presque rien sur presque tout. The article finds that one of the greatest difficulties lies in conveying the author’s individual worldview, which mani-fests in his attempt to speak simply about complex matters. It is postulated that the free-form style of philosophical essays fosters a pronounced I-discourse (subjective discourse), which poses additional challenges for translators. The article explores the intricacies of rendering the author’s wordplay — particularly those based on the grammatical homonym tout and the polysemous word fin, whose meaning shifts with grammatical gender — as well as specific cases of everyday vocabulary use. Special at-tention is given to the importance of distinguishing between the verbs être and exister when translating into Russian. The study employs methods of direct translation, com-parative analysis, and contextual analysis.