INTERPRETING PANTHEISTIC MEANING OF “KATERYNA”, “TESTAMENT”, “BEWITCHED”, “THE SUN SETS, AND DARK THE MOUNTAINS BECOME” POEMS BY TARAS SHEVCHENKO IN THE TRANSLATIONS BY JOHN WEIR AND VERA RICH

Abstract

The article analyzes interpretative meanings of the original poems by Taras Shevchenko “Kateryna”, “Testament”, “Bewitched”, “The sun sets, and dark the mountains become” based on the English translations by John Weir and Vera Rich. It reviews two separate approaches of the English poetic translation towards achievement of semantic equivalence while preserving pantheistic information. The article explores the problem of equivalence of the original texts by Taras Shevchenko and the above mentioned translations into English by means of comparative analysis and synthesis, from the perspective of translation studies and literary criticism, their historical and linguistic-social aspects. Taras Shevchenko’s creative output is analyzed in the English cultural space. As a result, in the English translations of Taras Shevchenko’s poems “Kateryna” and “Testament”, “Bewitched”, “The Sun Sets, And Dark the Mountains Become”, made by Vera Rich and John Weir, the variations of the nature’s images, the interpretation of pantheistic message of Taras Shevchenko’s poems is revealed. In the suggested interpretation, the personification of nature, which goes beyond the boundaries of objective imagery, acts as an important means of reproducing the complex inner world of a person. The landscape dimension of the nature’s image turns out to be an expressive mode of emotional tension experienced by the subject of the great Ukrainian Prophet’s romantic lyrics.