“LEAVES OF GRASS” BY WALT WHITMAN: FREE VERSE PRINCIPLES AND THEIR ROLE IN RAISING ACCURACY OF RUSSIAN TRANSLATIONS

Abstract

The paper explores major principles underpinning verse libre by Walt Whitman, the focus on which is expected to improve the quality of translation and assess the extent of accuracy achieved by some famous Russian translators belonging to different epochs unequally distanced from the times of Walt Whitman. The research rests on comparative literary studies as one of its pillars and examines the translations from Walt Whitman by Konstantin Balmont, Korney Chukovsky, Andrey Sergeev, and Vladimir Britanishsky. The study aims to show if the translators managed to preserve Whitman’s parallelism (“the rhythm of thought”), including envelope composition, phonetic reiterations, as well as catalogues and imagery. The analysis undertaken herein proves that it is so far hardly possible to talk about the translation of “Leaves of Grass” that would take account of all the principles underpinning Whitman’s free verse.