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Gorbanevskaya Translating Miłosz: Allegiances to Competing Cultural Memories

Thu, November 20, 1:00 to 2:45pm EST (1:00 to 2:45pm EST), -

Abstract

My paper discusses the translation of Traktat poetycki (1956) [The Poetic Treatise] by Czesław Miłosz – a major 20th poetic work by the Polish poet – into Russian by Natalya Gorbanevskaya in co-operation with Joseph Brodsky. The paper discusses Gorbanevskaya’s choice to render Miłosz’ syllabic meter as reminiscent of the blanc verse of Akhmatova’s “Northern Elegies”. Akhmatova’s poem is thematically close to Miłosz’ Treatise as it is also concerned with questions of memory and trauma of a generation of Russian pre-revolutionary artists decimated by Stalin’s terror. At the same time, Miłosz showed reservations about the over-melodic quality of Russian poetry and did not wish the differences between Polish and Russian poetics to be elided. The paper explores how the competing Polish and Russian cultural memories and sensibilities clashed in this Russian translation of a Polish classic.

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