Conference “Organizing Translations of Works in Languages of the Russian Federation Peoples into Foreign Languages” was held in the framework of XVIII International Fair of Intellectual Literature “Non/fiction”. Representatives of “Book Review” Newspaper, Institute of Translation, Linguistic University and “O.G.I.” Publishing House took part in it.
In how many languages do they write poems in Russia today?
...Rasul Gamzatov’s name was mentioned during the discussions many a time not for nothing – Gamzatov wrote in Avar – the language, which is not too wide-spread even in his native Dagestan. But this poet from Tsatsa mountain village is famous all over the world, indeed. How do we find, or, to be more precise, how don’t we miss new Gamzatovs? Russia has never grown scarce of talents, including poetic ones. This was the topic for discussion at the conference.
On the one hand, it would seem that a lot is done to support and promote national literatures. State support of Russian peoples’ literature translations has existed for several years in the framework of Federal Target Program “Russian Culture 2012–2018”. Institute of Translation was created in 2012 as a non-commercial organization engaged in promoting Russian literature all over the world and supporting foreign translators and publishers, working with Russian literature, including literature written in the languages of the peoples of Russia. Sergei Filatov’s Social, Economic and Intellectual Programs Foundation is also working quite successfully with the same purposes.
On the other hand… from the moment of its creation, the Institute of Translation has helped over 600 works to be published, only 25 of them are written in the languages of the peoples of Russia. Not quite enough. At the same time, representatives of Russian peoples are always in sight, the most remarkable example is Guzel Yakhina, author of “Zuleikha Opens Her Eyes” novel, which got “Big Book” and “Yasnaya Polyana” awards. But the novel, which is going to be translated in 22 languages soon (including Tatar), is written in Russian. Certainly, as an ethnic Tatar, Yakhina speaks Tatar. As she said, not well enough to write a novel.
One more thing – Yakhina, by the way, is not a member of Tatarstan Union of Writers, where there are almost no authors, who write in Russian and which almost always answers to the questions of the Institute of Translation it has no talented young writers in it. So, Yakhina does not count.
By the way, none of the Conference participants was able to answer a simple question, as it might seem: in how many languages do they write poems in Russia today? (Of course, taking into account the fact that many Russian peoples do not have writing systems and some of them are on the edge of extinction). It turned out, that in 57. “O.G.I.” Publishing House is now preparing a large anthology of peoples of Russia literature, which apart from prose and children’s literature volume is going to include quite a big volume of poems.
“Imperious language” and its tribes
Technically, this problem emerged a long time ago. Let’s remember what Grigoriy Danilevskiy said about Gogol. Or to be more precise – the part, where Gogol is arguing with one of Taras Shevchenko’s fans, who wrote in Ukrainian. Gogol said: “We should write in Russian, we should support promoting the sole imperious language for all our close tribes. Pushkin’s language should be dominant for Czechs, Ukrainians, Serbs. We – Little Russians and Russians should have joint poetry – calm and powerful, immortal poetry of the truth, kindness and beauty… Russian and Little Russian are twin souls that complete one another, they are close and equally powerful. Giving precedence to one of them over another is impossible.”
Gogol’s point of view will afterwards be shared by many writers, including Russian and Soviet ones. Chingiz Aitmatov wrote the best of his works during the second part of his life in Russian, although his first works were written in his native Kyrgyz. Recently deceased Fasil Iskander is rightfully considered the greatest genius of Abkhazian literature, although he did not write even a line in his native Abkhazian language, which he spoke magnificently. All of these luminaries understood well that Russian (let us forget for a second about its official status fixed In the Constitution of the Russian Federation) is a mediator language, which helps young national talents obtain wings and space.
Sometimes, it turned out to be different. Great Russian poet Konstantin Balmont first read the great Shota Rustaveli’s poem in English translation, but he “kindled” and studied Georgian himself… As a result, his translation of “The Knight in the Panther's Skin” was acknowledged the best of five existing translations of the poem to Russian by Georgian experts. But where do we get balmonts today to learn Avar, for instance? There are hardly any people, who want to learn “small” languages both in Europe and America.
...One more epigram about the same Rasul Gamzatov was known: “Gamzatov is not a son of ancient nation, not a phenomenon, but Kozlovskiy’s and Grebnev’s figment of imagination”. Let the meaning of the epigram remain on the conscience of its authors, but it is evident people would not know the great author without his great song about cranes. In short – we cannot do without translating works of national authors into Russian.
Own plot
What if – supposedly! What if you don’t nourish and cherish your own plot – a language plot, in this case – it will then by all means be cherished by competitors. Everything that is written in Tatar and also in Bashkir, Yakut, Chuvash and Balkar languages, belonging to Turkic languages, is of great interest for Turkey and other developed countries, speaking Turkic languages. Turkish publishers are very interested to translate into Turkish and to duly “promote” a talented work written in, for instance, Tatar.
The same concerns quite wide-spread Finno-Ugric languages in Russia – Karelian, Udmurt, Mari, Mordovan and Komi-Zyryan… Young literature will be willingly supported in Finland, Estonia, Hungary. All right then, let them support it! But such a simple humanitarian support may have quite serious political aftershocks.
According to the conference participants, the solution is to continue supporting translations of the Russian peoples’ literature on the state level. Aleksandr Voropayev, Head of Book Fairs and Reading Propaganda Department of the Federal Agency on Press and Mass Communications was supposed to answer the translators’ and publishers’ questions, but he opted out of participation because of taking part in the International Culture Forum in Saint Petersburg, which was held simultaneously with the Moscow “Non/fiction”.
Leaving lots of questions unanswered.
