'Когда он — Фауст, когда — фантаст': Boris Pasternak’s Translation of Faust

• In Event: New Perspectives on Canonized Poets: Boris Pasternak

Abstract

Pasternak’s translation of Goethe’s Faust is generally considered the work of a ‘genius’ who takes certain liberties. However, few studies show what Pasternak changed and how it affected his text (Pohl, Ėtkind). This paper provides what Antoine Berman calls the “analytic of translation”— a localization of the “systems of deformation” which result from cultural resistance to translation and depend on the registers of ideology, the translator’s “mental makeup,” literature, and language. I use the framework offered by Berman to examine how Pasternak’s beliefs, views on translation, unique style, and the Russian poetic tradition influenced his rendition of Faust I. The focus is on subtle changes, such as the tempering of anti-Christian elements, the concurrent intellectual elevation of Gretchen and the simplification of Faust’s vocabulary, the heightening of syllabotonic elements, and an abundance of Pasternak’s poetic trademarks.

Author

• Veronika Andrianova Schmitt, Northwestern U