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Translating India, constructing self

Konstantin Bal’mont’s India as image and ideal in Fin-de-siècle Russia
  • Susmita Sundaram
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Contexts, Subtexts and Pretexts
This chapter is in the book Contexts, Subtexts and Pretexts

Abstract

This article explores the translation activity of the Russian Silver Age symbolist poet Konstantin Bal’mont. He is unique among his peers in his choice of texts to translate, ranged from the ancient Indian drama which Sakuntala to the first Russian translation of the Mayan Epic Popol Vuh. Bal’mont’s role as translator of the Indian text inspired him to posit the Eastern drama as a solution to the cultural crisis of naturalism and positivism in fin-de-siècle Russian theater. More importantly, Bal’mont adopted and articulated a policy of text selection for translation into Russian that eschewed texts from classical antiquity, which were accepted and privileged by the West, opting instead for texts from “authentic” antiquities, such as India and Egypt. Bal’mont in his role as cultural mediator advocated translating truly ancient texts into Russian in order to delineate a more expanded understanding of the Russian self.Where are you, o unknown God,o future Rome?– Dmitrii Merezhkovskii, “Future Rome”Under the Himalayas, whose peaksreach Heaven’s splendor,I understood the clarity of the musesamid the valley mists.– Konstantin Bal’mont, “Fire”

Abstract

This article explores the translation activity of the Russian Silver Age symbolist poet Konstantin Bal’mont. He is unique among his peers in his choice of texts to translate, ranged from the ancient Indian drama which Sakuntala to the first Russian translation of the Mayan Epic Popol Vuh. Bal’mont’s role as translator of the Indian text inspired him to posit the Eastern drama as a solution to the cultural crisis of naturalism and positivism in fin-de-siècle Russian theater. More importantly, Bal’mont adopted and articulated a policy of text selection for translation into Russian that eschewed texts from classical antiquity, which were accepted and privileged by the West, opting instead for texts from “authentic” antiquities, such as India and Egypt. Bal’mont in his role as cultural mediator advocated translating truly ancient texts into Russian in order to delineate a more expanded understanding of the Russian self.Where are you, o unknown God,o future Rome?– Dmitrii Merezhkovskii, “Future Rome”Under the Himalayas, whose peaksreach Heaven’s splendor,I understood the clarity of the musesamid the valley mists.– Konstantin Bal’mont, “Fire”

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgments vii
  4. Notes on contributors ix
  5. Introduction 1
  6. Part I. Contexts
  7. Shifting contexts 19
  8. Nation and translation 33
  9. Vasilii Zhukovskii as translator and the protean Russian nation 55
  10. Romania as Europe’s translator 79
  11. Translating India, constructing self 97
  12. The water of life 117
  13. Translation trouble 137
  14. Part II. Subtexts
  15. Between the lines 149
  16. Translation theory and cold war politics 171
  17. The poetics and politics of Joseph Brodsky as a Russian poet-translator 187
  18. Squandered opportunities 205
  19. Meaningful absences 219
  20. Part III. Pretexts
  21. Translated by Goblin 235
  22. “No text is an island” 249
  23. Russian dystopia in exile 265
  24. Between cosmopolitanism and hermeticism 277
  25. The other polysystem 295
  26. Translation as condition and theme in Milan Kundera’s novels 317
  27. Index 323
https://doi.org/10.1075/btl.89.09sun

Chapters in this book

  1. Prelim pages i
  2. Table of contents v
  3. Acknowledgments vii
  4. Notes on contributors ix
  5. Introduction 1
  6. Part I. Contexts
  7. Shifting contexts 19
  8. Nation and translation 33
  9. Vasilii Zhukovskii as translator and the protean Russian nation 55
  10. Romania as Europe’s translator 79
  11. Translating India, constructing self 97
  12. The water of life 117
  13. Translation trouble 137
  14. Part II. Subtexts
  15. Between the lines 149
  16. Translation theory and cold war politics 171
  17. The poetics and politics of Joseph Brodsky as a Russian poet-translator 187
  18. Squandered opportunities 205
  19. Meaningful absences 219
  20. Part III. Pretexts
  21. Translated by Goblin 235
  22. “No text is an island” 249
  23. Russian dystopia in exile 265
  24. Between cosmopolitanism and hermeticism 277
  25. The other polysystem 295
  26. Translation as condition and theme in Milan Kundera’s novels 317
  27. Index 323
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