Representation of the rhythm of self-translations of J. Brodsky’s poetry

The article deals with one of the current problems of poetic translation: the problem of representing the specific rhythmicity of the poetic original into the target language. The article is devoted to the representation of the rhythm of Joseph Brodsky's poetry in his self-translations into English. Brodsky, one of the most significant poets of the twentieth century, was often involved in the translation of his own works, which brings to the fore the problem of preserving the poetic form of the text. The target of this article is to analyze the mechanism of transmission of the rhythmic structures of the original and to find out what techniques the poet uses to adapt his texts to the peculiarities of the English language. The article is based on a detailed comparative analysis of selected Russian and English versions Brodsky's poems. First of all, attention is focused on metre, which shapes the sound and perception of a poetic work. We analyze how Brodsky uses a variety of metres: iambs, choruses, anapests, and accentual verse, and how they change in the self-translations. We also consider issues of sound design: alliteration, assonance, and other phonetic figures that form the basis of the rhythm of his poems and that cannot be fully conveyed due to the heterogeneity of languages. The article deals with the theoretical aspect of the problem related to the concept of rhythm and its role in poetry.