KARL MICKEL AS A TRANSLATOR FROM RUSSIAN (on the example of A. A. Blok’s poem “Vulture”)

Abstract

The article deals with some artistic and translation principles of the German poet of the second half of the twentieth century Karl Mickel (1935-2000). The analysis is based on Mickel’s translation of A. A. Blok’s poem “Korshun” [Vulture] (1916). A general characteristic of Mickel’s work is given which highlights the two main features inherent in both his original work and translations. They involve 1) showing structural contradictions within a poetic statement (“art of contradiction”) and 2) emphasizing internal constraints, barriers, dividing lines in a poetic text (“art of separation”). The paper uses documents from Karl Mickel’s archival collections at the German Literary Archive in Marbach. The proposed article analyses stylistic means used by Mickel in his translation of “Vulture” involving an examination of the metrical structure of both original and translation, as well as questioning the means of syntactic, lexical, and phonetic expression. The conclusion is made that Mickel restructures Blok’s original poem, while introducing and reinforcing in it the elements of intellectual reflection and artistic experiment. The results obtained in the paper may be useful for practicing translators, specialists in the theory and history of translation, literary scholars, cultural historians, as well as for teachers, bachelors, masters and graduate students in the field of translation studies.