ISSUES OF TRANSLATIONAL MASTERSHIP OF TARAS SHEVCHENKO’S POEMS IN THE JAPANESE SLAVIC STUDIES

Abstract

This article aims to outline main tasks when translating poetry of the Great Kobzar into Japanese. Analytical, biographical, contextual-descriptive and comparative methods were used in the study. In particular, the analytical method is applied when examining the Japanese works related to a poetic heritage of T. Shevchenko and its translations, biographical – when considering some facts from life of the Japanese slavists, which contributed to their interest in works of the Ukrainian poet. The contextual-descriptive and comparative methods are used in analyzing translated collections of the Great Kobzar’s poetry in Japanese and problems of the Ukrainian-Japanese literary translation. Poetry of Taras Shevchenko found its readers in Japan thanks to translation efforts of Taisuke Shibuya, Takayuki Murai, Gаchiro Tazawa, Takashi Juge, Shosuke Komatsu, Kazuo Nakai, Takao Hino, Takao Okamoto and Etsuko Fujii. Three main problems of translation mastership can be distinguished in the Japanese slavistics. First, expediency of translating the Kobzar's poems not from the Ukrainian original, but from the Russian and English translations. This issue was brought up by Kazuo Nakai, who noted that this practice of using the Russian or English texts continued until the end of 1990s. Secondly, significant problems in case of the Ukrainian-Japanese literary translation are associated with untranslatables for designation of certain cultural, socio-historical and other phenomena. Third, selection of the modern or obsolete language for translation: Takashi Juge used obsolete words, while Etsuko Fujii chooses the modern Japanese language, so that young people could also read the poems of Kobzar. Thus, the Japanese slavists still have a lot of problems in the field of the Ukrainian-Japanese literary translation, to overcome which each of them uses its own approach. Further study of the Japanese translation of the Ukrainian literary works seem to have potential for deepening cultural and literary relations between two countries.