67 Canto from Alfred Tennyson`s ‘In Memoriam’ and its Role in the Development of Vladimir Nabokov`s Translation Strategy

Abstract

This paper examines 67 canto from Alfred Tennyson’s “In Memoriam” translated to Russian by Vladimir Nabokov, as well as the reception of Tennyson’s poetry in Nabokov’s works. The key conceptual features of the translation are analyzed with consideration of the evolution of Nabokov’s opinions on translation and literary theory in general. The paper addresses mentions of Tennyson in Nabokov’s prose and other publications in order to broaden the understanding of Nabokov’s perspective. Nabokov’s translation is compared to the original English text and to the translations by D.L. Mikhalovskii and N.M. Minskii. The study describes transformations and the differences between the strategies used by the translators. Nabokov’s commentary on his translation of “Eugene Onegin” is taken into consideration when iambic structure of the English text is examined. The author has concluded that Nabokov’s approach to the translation of Tennyson’s poem is different from his work on translations of prose from the same period and is defined by translator’s effort to reproduce both the imagery and the structure close to the original. This translation illustrates the early stage of Nabokov’s path from translation as “adaptation”, when the original is transformed in one way or another, to the literalism of “Eugene Onegin”.