M.L. Matusovsky as a Translator of Ukrainian Poetry: Using the Example of M. Bazhan’s Poem “Prologue to Memories”

The study is devoted to comparative analysis of a lyrical poem by Mykola Bazhan, a classic of Ukrainian literature of the 20th century, “Prologue to Spogadiv” and its translation into Russian by the famous Russian poet Mikhail Matusovsky (“Prologue to Memories”). The main emphasis is placed on the translator’s endeavour to preserve as much as possible, when translating the work by means of other (closely related) linguistic means of another (closely related) linguoculture. It is essential when translating poetic works. The article demonstrates that the translator has fully preserved the author’s compositional design of the poem, and the speech means and methods used by M. Bazhan for the figurative-value comprehension of the key images of the work (memories, mother’s hands) are transferred in the translated version with extraordinary care and skill, which determines both their essential closeness to the original in terms of stylistic tone and the preservation of the features of the author’s individual-stylistic manner to a great extent (in particular, the author’s chosen author. The approach realized by the translator to the transposition of a lyrical poem in Ukrainian into Russian - by means of a different, though closely-related, linguoculture - not only testifies, in the opinion of the author of the publication, to Mikhail Matusovsky’s undoubted talent as a translator, but also allows us to consider him, to a certain extent, a co-author of Mykola Bazhan’s translated work.