Of a new era in ukrainian translation
The standstill in Ukrainian translation, which characterized the 17th and the larger part of the 18th centuries was broken in the last decade of the eighteenth century by the appearance of Pious Songs (Побожник) in 1791 in Pochaiv. This collection contained original Ukrainian poetic works, translations, free interpretations and free adaptations of pious songs and Psalms horn different languages into Ukrainian, Old Slavic and Polish. But the real outbreak and a regular epoch making event in Ukrainian literature, culture and translation happened at the very close of the eighteenth century, in 1797, when the first parts of I.Kotlyarevskyi's free adaptation (перелицювання) of Virgil's Депе/'o'came off the press in colloquial Ukrainian. The appearance of this brilliant work marked a significant historical turning-point in Ukrainian literature and culture. It had started a quite new period in the history of Ukrainian literary translation as well. Kotlyarevskyi's free adaptation of the Aeneid immediately began the eventual rejection of further translations in old bookish Ukrainian. It paved the way to a spontaneous, and uninterrupted functioning of spoken Ukrainian in original literature and in translated works. The first to have employed the manner of free interpretation after Kotlyarevskyi at the beginning of the nineteenth century was the poet and linguist P.Bilets'kyi-Nosenko who made a free adaptation of Ovid's epic poem under the title «Горпинида чи Вхопленая Прозерпина» (1818), which was published only in 1871. The artistic level of this free adaptation, however, could not compete in any way with the already popular free adaptation of the Aeneid by I. Kotlyarevskyi. As a result, it remained unpublished for more than five decades and consequently was unknown to Ukrainian readers.
Much more successful were free interpretations/free adaptations accomplished at a high literary level by the well-known Ukrainian poet P.Hulak-Artemovskyi. His free interpretation of I. Krassitski's Polish short poem under the title The Landlord and His Dog (1818) which he extended to more than fifty lines to become a regular poetic narrative, brought him recognition in Ukrainian literature. Free unextended translations were also made by this poet of Mickiewicz's ballads (Mrs. Twardowska), Gothe's poems (The Fisher), Horace's odes and some Psalms (from Old Slavic).
A positively different approach existed among translators in the
first half of the nineteenth century to Russian national poetry which
was sometimes almost faithfully versified. It can be observed in
Borovykovskyi's translation of Pushkin's poems as in this one:
Буря мглою небо кроет, Буря в хмари небо криє,
Вихри снежньїе крутя, Сипле сніг, як з рукава,
То как зверь она завоет, То звірюкою завиє,
То заплачет, как дитя. То застогне, як сова.
Similar, near faithful versification, can be observed in Y.Hrebinka's
translation of Pushkin's Poltava (1836), which the poet himself
identified, however, as «a free translation»:
Богат и славен Кочубей. Багатий дуже Кочубей:
Его луга необозримьі, Його ланам конця немає;
Там табуньї его коней Його отара скрізь гуляє
Пасутся вольньї, нехранимьі. В зеленім лузі без людей.
Though not without traces of free translation (cf. Його отара скрізь гуляє В зеленім лузі без людей), both these versifications convey almost completely the content of Pushkin's stanzas, the iambic or choraic rhythm, their vocalic or consonantal lines, their ease and melody. Therefore, despite some minor divergences in picturesque-ness, phraseology, poetic licence (Його отара скрізь гуляє) and some other drawbacks, these translated works already bear all the characteristic features of a faithful versification. Consequently, the first half of the nineteenth century may be considered to have been the starting date in the history of faithful Ukrainian versification/translation. Actively participating in the literary process of that same period, were the poet A.Metlynskyi (translations of German, French and other poets) and M.Maksymovych (versification of The Tale of the Hostoflhor).
Almost the same year with Hrebinka's published versification of Pushkin's poem Poltava, in a publishing house in Budapest was
produced the historic Rusalka Dnistrovaya collection (1837) composed by M.Shashkevych, I. Vahylevych and Y.Holovats'kyi. This collection contained apart from these authors' own verses, translations by Vahylevych from the Czech (Kraledvorsky Manuscript), and from Old Ukrainian (The Tale of the Host of Ihor), as well as Y.Holovats'kyi's translation of Serbian songs. This collection marked the beginning of regular belles-lettres translations in Halychyna. Hence, the process of translation in Eastern (Russian) and Western (Austro-Hungarian) parts of divided Ukraine began and continued to develop at almost the same time and in the same manner, though the Eastern part of Ukraine had already several talented poets, prose writers, playwrights and translators. The greatest and the most influential of them in early 1840's was our national genius, poet and painter Taras Shevchenko. He had already succeeded to create his principal poetic masterpieces and had even successfully versified (1845) ten of David's Psa/msfrom Old Slavic into Ukrainian.
Participating in the process of unification of Ukrainian literature and culture into one national stream were also some other prominent figures of the first half and of the first decades of the second half of the nineteenth century. Among these were some already well-known Ukrainian poets and authors as Y.Hrebinka, M.Maksymovych, L.Borovykovs'kyi, Y.Fed'kovych (Austrian and German poetry), O.Shpyhots'kyi (Mickiewicz's works), K.Dumytrashko (The War between Frogs and Mice, from ancient Greek), M.Kostomarov (Byron's works), M.Staryts'kyi and others. All the above-mentioned poets and authors, though generally amateurish translators themselves, nevertheless inspired the succeeding men of letters to turn to this field of professional activity. Apart from these regular men of the pen, taking part in the process of translation were also some noted scientists as O.Potebnya and I. Puliuy and some others.
Soon, there appeared such great translators in Ukrainian literature as poets, authors and public figures P.Kulish, I.Franko, Lesya Ukrainka, O.Makoway and some others. P.Kulish (1819-1897), a close friend of T.Shevchenko, was also the first professional translator in the nineteenth century Ukraine. His large output includes the most outstanding works of Shakespeare (fifteen best-known tragedies and comedies, of worldwide renown, which were edited by I.Franko and published in 1902), Byron's Childe Harold's Pilgrimage (in blank verse), part of Don Juan and some other poems. He also translated several poems by Gothe, Schiller and Heine (from German), produced several
free interpretations and free adaptations from Russian poetry (Pushkin, Fet, Nikitin, A.Tolstoy, D.Minayev). He was also the first to translate The Psalter (1879) and the Bible (together with Puliuy and Nechuy-Levyts'kyi) into contemporary Ukrainian. In addition, Kulish is the author of the contemporary Ukrainian alphabet.