Literary Translation as a Translingual Practice: C.D. Balmont and “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by E.A. Poe

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Introduction

C.D. Balmont is notable for his mysterious endeavor to come to know the world. Both — learning foreign languages and reading belle-lettres in the original were an integral part of that endeavor. In C.D. Balmont’s eyes E.A. Poe was one of those favourites, “who were given an ability to see ghosts every night, and with each dawn hear the new life’s heartbeat” [1], the absolute artist [1], the genius of the word. That is why he translated the works of the American writer with special affection.

When translating poems, C.D. Balmont allowed himself free translation [2; 3], in the stories it was the opposite: he completely observed the author’s language. Both approaches could be explained just through the single wish — to render and transfer as ultimate as possible the meaning E.A. Poe implemented in his writings, the excellent knowledge of the English language, the emotional perception of a text and refined “linguistic feeling” helped C.D. Balmont. It’s difficult to say if K.D. Balmont used to choose — intuitively or knowingly — the strategies to translate a source text into Russian, but it’s clear (this is going to be demonstrated in the main part of study) that he relied on the socio-cultural context of the Russian Empire at the end of the 19^th century. C.D. Balmont transforms the English text into Russian and linguistic personality of the author, in such a way revealing his translingualism.¹

Translinguality, or translingualism has become a subject of discussion quite recently. The notion of translanguaging, also ‘translinqualism’ arose in response to the critique of the traditional understanding bi-/polylingualism, considering language relations in the consciousness of a bilingual person as a co-existence of separate, autonomous systems. Translingualism accentuates attention on the practical use of linguistic repertoire by a bilingual person and presents it as a unified integrating system. The term translanguaging (translingualism) was initially introduced by Ophelia Garcia in the start of the 2000s to describe the educational practice when bilingual students easily switched between languages to express their ideas maximally exactly. In later works by O. Garcia and her co-authors [4; 5] translanguaging is presented as a socio-linguistic paradigm in which linguistic borders are meant to be absolutely social and political constructions, and special attention is paid to a dynamic, flexible, creative use of language resources.

Nowadays, the trend of the studies became international, and the term itself is recognized worldwide in the scientific community. In Russian research studies the commonly used translation “translingualism” which was rather probably chosen by sound similarity with the term “polylingualism”. In the Chinese tradition, the term used to be rendered as “跨语” (Kuàyǔ, literally meaning ‘the transfer over languages’) or in transcription of “转语法 / translanguaging”. In the academic studies one can quite often come across the research devoted to the application of translingual practices at the lessons to learn foreign languages [6–8]. Permanently growing list of the Chinese colleagues’ studies on the topic proves the interest to it. The aspect studied acquires specific significance in the frames of our grant project connected with the elaboration of a multimodal dictionary of special lexis named Termlex [9], which supposes the systemic description of philological terms in Russian, English and Chinese. The adequate definition and description of translingualism in the very translinguality format demands to take into account the variations and cultural peculiarities to interpret the term in various scientific trends.

The translingualism conception is used not only in relation to educational contexts but to the analysis of literary (fiction) texts, oral speech and translation practices. A translingual translator (especially translating literary texts) is capable of transferring images, unique linguistic and cultural phenomena by means of the other language with minimal deviations of their meanings. Furthermore, translingualism plays the role of not just being a linguistic technique, but of cognitive and cultural ability to perceive and reproduce a multi-layered linguistic and cultural space of a text. A translingual person is a specific type of linguistic personality who is characterized by flexibility, cross-cultural sensibility and the ability to interpret subtle senses of a text.

In this study, translingualism is treated on the material of translation of the detective story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by E.A. Poe made by Constantine Balmont². He uses his own linguistic and cultural repertoire to reproduce the literary structure of the original, source text with minimal deviations. His approach demonstrates a translingual strategy aimed at the conservation of cognitive, aesthetic and cultural specifics of the source text translated. For systemic study of the revelation of C.D. Balmont’s linguistic personality as a translingual translator, in this study we apply a multi-layered methodology.

Methodology of the study

To achieve understanding of the quality of the translation of any text and make conclusions on the translingualism/non-translingualism of its author one has to answer two questions: if a translation could conserve the spirit of a source text and simultaneously make it possible for perceiving text by the target readers’ auditorium? For this, in its turn, one has to reconsider what features of the linguistic personality of the source text author are reflected in it, what are the peculiarities of the source text itself, what and why a translator renders or not in the text.

Analyzing the story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” by E.A. Poe we carried out the following kinds of analyses: 1) linguistic analysis I) what lexis and grammar the author uses (the writer’s idiostyle); what means of expression are chosen; if he writes using just one language or makes insertions of some other languages, and if he specifies those insertions); 2) what values of his own culture reflects the author in the text; if they differ from stereotypical values of that culture, and if “yes”, — how they differ: if “no” — why they don’t differ; what is the linguistic worldview); 3) if aesthetical and ideological analysis (if the author’s idea is reflected in the story to full extent, how this idea correlates with the general world ideas, e.g., Russian and Chinese ideas of the time; the integrity or continuity of the work (artistic sense, the story’s content, its inner and outer forms, artistic time and space); what were the critics’ evaluations and the readers’ emotional reaction to the story); 4) functional analysis (why E.A. Poe chose that theme for the story (biographic, individual psychological, historical prerequisites); why he writes in English; what influence on the readers should make the text according to the author’s idea; the pragmatic level of E.A. Poe’s linguistic personality).The final stage of the analysis is a comparative study of the source and target (translated) texts.

Results of the study

According to the plan described in the given above section, we analyzed the source text of the story in inguistic and stylistic, culturological, aesthetical and functional aspects.

Linguostylistical analysis of the source text

The first stage of the analysis allowed us to reveal the peculiarities of the text at a linguistic level and created the general impression about the verbal-semantic and cognitive sublevels of its author’s linguistic personality.

The source text uses archaic, formal bookish lexis with the inclusions of philosophical and scientific terms (“acumen”, “phrenologists”, “syllabification”, “præternatural”, “supererogation”, “obtuse”, etc.), it also includes archaic or rarely used words (“chagrin”, “recherche”, “charlatanerie”, “sallied forth”, “habiliment”, “expostulation”, etc.). It contains allusions and intertextual references (the quotation from Thomas Brown in the epigraph, references to precedential names, e.g., Orpheus, Epicurus, Crébillon, Horace). It speaks for the inclusion of these mentioned units in the author’s linguistic worldview.

E.A. Poe widely uses complex subordinate constructions with inserted syntax sublevels of the kind: “The analytical power should not be confounded with simple ingenuity; for while the analyst is necessarily ingenious, the ingenious man is often remarkably incapable of analysis.” — ‘Аналитические способности не следует путать с простой изобретательностью, поскольку, хотя аналитик обязательно изобретателен, изобретательный человек часто на удивление неспособен к анализу’. He actively uses the direct speech sometimes transformed into the indirect one in the form of a character’s reasoning (e.g., monologues of O. Dupin), and also repetitions and parallel constructions (“He examines... He considers... He notes... He recognizes …” — ‘Он изучает… Он рассматривает… Он отмечает… Он распознает…’). Punctuation is typical for the mid-19th century: the often use of dash, semi-colons, ellipsis, which together with the already mentioned peculiarities of sentence constructing helps the author to place a reader into the intellectual process of a character and creates the effect of meditation activity.

The text is rich in the expressive means. We can come across, e.g.: 1) a comparison of the analytical reason with physical power (“As the strong man exults in his physical ability… so glories the analyst in that moral activity which disentangles.” ‘Как сильный человек пребывает в ликовании от своих физических возможностей… так и аналитик гордится той силой мысли, что распутывает дела.’); 2) the image of a star as a metaphor of the truth (“Truth is not always in a well... The modes and sources of this kind of error are well typified in the contemplation of the heavenly bodies. To look at a star by glances —– to view it in a side-long way, by turning toward it the exterior portions of the retina (more susceptible of feeble impressions of light than the interior), is to behold the star distinctly — is to have the best appreciation of its lustre — a lustre — which grows dim just in proportion as we turn our vision fully upon it.” ‘Истина не всегда находится в колодце…. Способы и источники такого рода ошибок хорошо видны при созерцании небесных тел. Смотреть на звезду мимолетно – рассматривать ее сбоку, поворачивая к ней внешние участки сетчатки (более восприимчивые к слабому восприятию света, чем внутренние) – значит видеть звезду отчетливо, значит лучше всего оценить ее блеск – сияние, которое мы ощущаем на самом деле. который тускнеет как раз по мере того, как мы полностью обращаем на него свое внимание.’); 3) oxymoron (“elaborate frivolity of chess”, “superficial truth”, “grotesquerie in horror” ‘продуманная фривольность шахмат’, ‘поверхностная правда’, ‘гротеск в ужасе’). However, the function of these expressive means isn’t aesthetic, but rather explanatory — with the help of vivid examples the thoughts of both the author and the character are commented.

The author regularly uses inclusions in French (“Rue Morgue”, “Faubourg St. Germain”, “mon Dieu”, “sacré”, “diable”, “affaire”, “loge de concierge”, “au troisiême”) and Latin (“Perdidit antiquum litera prima sonum”). French quotations and phrases aren’t translated but their meaning can be understood from the context. In some instances the author gives short explanations, e.g.: “The word ‘affaire’ has not yet, in France, that levity of import which it conveys with us…” — ‘Слово “affaire” еще не приобрело во Франции того легкомысленного значения, которое ему придается у нас...’. Quotation in Latin is explained just by one phrase: “I had told you that this was in reference to Orion, formerly written Urion…” ‘Я уже говорил вам, что это относится к Ориону, ранее писавшемуся как Урион…’. E.A Poe doesn’t think it’s necessary to give an exact translation of foreign words given in the footnotes while quite obviously he bases on the widely spread French and Latin languages among the educated part of the American and European population of the 19^th century. The direct inclusions from other languages (Spanish, Italian, German, and Russian) are lacking, but they are discussed in the context of the attempts to identify the voice of the killer.

The stylistics of E.A. Poe’s story is bases on the literary norms of the 19^th century, but still differs by complexity of syntax organization and using “high style” lexis. The analysis has demonstrated the analytical tendency of the text and the high level of education of the author as a linguistic personality.

Culturological analysis of the source text

Culturological analysis of the story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” was aimed at the description of cultural phenomena reflected by E.A. Poe in the text and the deep study of the cognitive level of the linguistic personality of the author.

While representing the 19^th century American literature Edgar Poe uses the values of Western rationalism, Enlightenment and Romanticism cultural traditions. In the text the positioning of rationalism and analytical thinking as the forms of human activity is established mostly. Ch. Auguste Dupin, the main character of the story is endowed with an ability for intellectual analysis of the reality. In the very beginning of the narrative E.A. Poe points out that he is “the analyst… derives pleasure from even the most trivial occupations bringing his talent into play” — ‘аналитик... получает удовольствие даже от самых тривиальных занятий, в которых проявляется его талант’. Ch. Auguste Dupin is modelling the behavior of a scholar, he observes, classifies, constructs hypothesis, checks the data. The cult of reason directly corresponds to the ideas, E.A. Poe differs from the classics of the 18^th century introduces in the rationality the elements of self-reflection of the character. In the story the rational mind isn’t opposing feelings, but it subordinates and organizes them.

In the story there is another spectacular value — individualism. It is revealed in the character’s refusal to participate in the social life. Describing the everyday life of Ch. Auguste Dupin and the narrator, the author emphasizes their voluntary isolation: “We existed within ourselves alone” ‘Мы существовали только внутри себя’. Such “privacy in the reasoning mind” simultaneously corresponds to the European romantic archetype of a philosopher-singleton and is closely connected with the American cultural positioning of the inner freedom of personality.

The important feature of the story’s cultural code is the criticism of the official institution of administration — the police. E.A. Poe coherently opposes the method of Ch. Au. Dupin to the method of investigators: “The Parisian police, so much extolled for acumen, are cunning, but no more. There is no method in their proceedings, beyond the method of the moment… The results attained by them are not unfrequently surprising, but, for the most part, are brought about by simple diligence and activity. When these qualities are unavailing, their schemes fail.” ‘Парижская полиция, которую так превозносят за проницательность, на самом деле хитра, но не более того. В их действиях нет никакого метода, кроме сиюминутного… Достигаемые ими результаты нередко удивляют, но, по большей части, они достигаются простым старанием и активностью. Когда этих качеств не хватает, их планы проваливаются’. This is the way E.A. Poe forms the idea of the private mind’s superiority over the institutionalized logic which is typical for the American culture of the first part of the 19^th century with its accentuating on the power of a “self-made man” and skeptical opinion of the administration.

E.A. Poe preserves the cultural nucleus of the then America, but approaches it critically. Rationalism, the cult of individual mind, the belief in science and justice, the high status of the individual’s independence, the contempt of inefficient bureaucracy — all those belong to the American cultural paradigm. The motif of an independent investigation made individually by the hero opposing the system is also typical for the American cultural mythology. However, E.A. Poe prefers not the American, but French cultural scene. He almost completely abolishes the national (American) context. The aesthetics of the story is gothic, baroque, European one, contrary to the puritan protestant and pragmatic ethics of the young America. His characters are intellectuals, melancholic, flaneur, but not active “self-made men”. Thus E.A. Poe demonstrates the alternative version of the American cultural identity being intellectually aristocratic and anti-popular.

As a contrast, let’s give an example of the cultural specifics in the Russian Empire and China; 中國 — “Zhōngguó”, or “The Middle Kingdom” as was translated this self-name by the historiographers of the 19^th century. In that time Russian writers N.V. Gogol, V.G. Belinckij later on F.M. Dostoyevskij discussed the ethic and social issues: the fate of the nation, the moral choice, the spiritual suffering. Rational idealism of E.A. Poe would have been looked at that background as an alien, rather distracted from “human” measurements. In China of the late Qing dynasty (opium wars, Confucian orthodox philosophy), there dominated the ideas of harmony, hierarchy and moral duty, There the cult of rational analysis as a means of individual cognition of the truth through calculations and deduction would have also contradicted the cultural matrix while the truth would have been understood rather like an intuitive, moral revelation, but not like a logic conclusion. And E.A. Poe’s values were deeply rooted and localized in the Western cultural paradigm.

The linguistic worldview reflected in the story is also rational. All the phenomena including incidents and emotions can be explained logically, if to be very attentive: “To observe attentively is to remember distinctly…” ‘Внимательно наблюдать – значит отчетливо запоминать’. Language isn’t just a means to transfer information, but a constituent of thinking and cognition. The hero can consider the thoughts of his communicative partner, reconstruct the chains of speculations. The language of the story structures the worldview as the profound logic system in which even chaos (e.g. a murder) could be decomposed into the reason-consequences links. At the same time, E.A. Poe preserves the gothic tension attributing the duality to the world, frightening, but subordinating to the explanation.

Therefore, from the culturological point of view, the story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” translates the values of the rational individualism, the superiority of the intelligence and skeptical attitude to the institution of social power. It differs from the stereotypical US culture of the 19^th century with its elite style French cultural background and the aesthetics of horror. The linguistic worldview expressed in the story is analytical and paradoxical, oriented on the intellect as the instrument of cognition and overcoming of the irrationality.

Aesthetical analysis of the source text

At the ideas-and-aesthetics level the story presents the first realization of the analytical detective genre in the history of literature. It’s a complex aesthetic construction which interweaves philosophical ideas with the poetics of gothic novel and the rationalism of the Enlightenment meanwhile presenting the complete artistic picture.

The main idea of the story is the establishment of the intellect as the universal instrument to cognize the world. E.A. Poe wanted to create a hero-analysist (a pre-image of Sherlock Holmes), a man capable of solving “the unsolvable”, while using only logic. For E.A. Poe the truth could hide under the absurd beastly appearance and demands keenness to distinguish it.

In the artistic aspect E.A. Poe combines the subject of “a mysterious incident” with the consistent logic analysis previewing all that with a philosophical speculation on the analytical abilities of a man. In its core the introduction makes an essay in the end of which the author wrote, “The narrative which follows will appear to the reader somewhat in the light of a commentary upon the propositions just advanced.” ‘Последующее повествование покажется читателю в некотором роде комментарием к только что выдвинутым положениям’. With this E.A. Poe hints at the primary importance of the story’s exposition as to the rest of the narrative.

Outwardly, the story is composed like a classical novella with introduction, plot, culmination and epilogue. Inwardly it’s a hybrid of essay genres on logic → a philosophical parable → gothic thriller → police satire → a model of a detective novel. E.A. Poe coherently uses an experimental structure where logic makes the formative principle.

The artistic space is localized simply and understandably — it’s Paris, the Rue Morgue with definite floors and rooms. However, the gothic elements — a bloody crime, a monkey, a hidden dead body, a night scene — create a troublesome atmosphere which is balanced with the analytical calmness of the narrative. With such means E.A. Poe reaches the paradoxical aesthetical effect: the fright is aestheticized through the analysis.

In the story, the time is close to real, but is retarded at the expense of steeping into the way of hero’s thinking and his reflexes. The narrative is built on the reconstruction of events, the retrospective which attributes to the most intellectual act the non-temporal qualities.

Correlating the ideas of “The Murder in the Rue Morgue” with the general world trends of the development of the 19^th century aesthetical ideology one can assert that those ideas are going along with the ideas of reason and progress dominating in the American and European cultures (in the spirit of Fr. Bacon, D. Hume, R. Descartes). For the Russian context with its ideas with the emphasis on moral, spiritual and social issues it was even much more than on the formal logic existence structure. So E.A. Poe’s story looks like alien, even cold intellectual experiment without a moral lesson. The same is in the Chinese worldview in the basis of which there lays harmony, strict hierarchy, philosophy of moderation but not the overcoming of a mystery with logic. E.A. Poe’s plot — individualistic and rational — is contrary to the Confucian idea of order and moral action.

E.A. Poe’s story is a complete and rich in ideas creation combining the rational model of the world with the aesthetics of horror. The author’s idea, in our opinion, has been completely realized but it’s not universal and makes a resonance with the ethical and aesthetical ideas of the Russian Empire and China of the later Qing epoch. The story was appraised as the world’s first detective narrative and started the large literary tradition.

Functional analysis of the source text

Carrying out the functional analysis we observed: 1) the biographical and cultural backgrounds on which the text was created; 2) the reflection of the pragmatic level of the E.A. Poe’s linguistic personality.

In our opinion, one of the reasons to choose for the theme of the story a cruel crime solved with the help of logic is the general E.A. Poe’s personality preference of mystery, absurd, gothics. E.A. Poe was a man of the refined soul feelings, and he overcame misfortunes very hard. At the moment of composing the story, his ardently beloved wife for a long time was ill with the TB, and the writer was really troubled with that. In this context the elaboration of the character of Ch. Aug. Dupin is not just the act of imagination, but a compensatory gesture of the intellect that could subdue the gloomy reality.

Besides, in 1830–1840s in the USA the interest to criminal chronicles, police was increasing, and the court’s reform was arising, so E.A. Poe proposed an intellectual alternative to the so-called sensationalism creating a hero which acted not with physical strength, but reason. The choice of the theme that interested many people couldn’t but influenced the growth of subscribers of Graham’s Magazine, where at that time E.A. Poe was the editor, which also speaks of him “as a good PR manager,” using modern language.

E.A. Poe writes the story in his native English language with French inclusions and using complex syntactic structures. It demonstrated a conscientious positioning himself as an elite linguistic personality.

The main feature of the E.A. Poe ‘s pragmatic linguistic personality could be said the strife for making a reader interested in writings. For that reason, he pictures in detail the model of an intellectual detective and thoroughly reveals the development of his thinking.

Making the role model of analytics, E.A. Poe endows Ch.Aug. Dupin with the qualities that distinguish him from “ordinary” people:

1. Subtle observation (e.g., the dialogue of the narrator and Ch.Aug. Dupin about the palace of Chantilly). Ch.Aug. Dupin resembles the reader of the reality, which is capable of interpreting the situation as a text. Pragmatically, it’s the line of the total observation, on the changing of any object in the source of knowledge.
2. Deepening in his thoughts (reveals in the distracted manner of behavior during wording and speaking and his ideas): “His manner at these moments was frigid and abstract; his eyes were vacant in expression; while his voice, usually a rich tenor, rose into a treble which would have sounded petulantly but for the deliberateness and entire distinctness of the enunciation.” ‘В такие моменты он держался холодно и отстраненно, взгляд его был пустым, а голос, обычно звучный тенор, повышался до дисканта, который звучал бы раздраженно, если бы не неторопливость и четкость произношения’.
3. Exclusive logic at some moments reaching the full construction of thinking processes of another person (a dialogue in Chantilly, a dialogue about a sailor).
4. A special way of life (it’s rather an addition to everything said above, and it accomplishes the character of Ch. Aug. Dupin), the separation from all the rest of the world, modest living with a rational control of spending the money, a live interest in literature, “love for the night in its own name.”

The hero is young, clever and belongs to a noble family. Thus, he’s attractive for the reader.

Ch.Aug. Dupin’s creed could be proved with already made quotation of the text: “The analyst derives pleasure, not from the result attained, but from the means of attaining it.” ‘Аналитик получает удовольствие не от достигнутого результата, а от средств его достижения’. The expression forms for the reader the cognitive statement: values exist in course of logic solving, and not only in results. This process the author explains in detail, so that any next logic step be clear, could be understood (logic chains of Ch. Aug. Dupin occupy 43% of the text).

The means showing the growth of the readers’ attention to the evolution of Ch.Aug. Dupin’s thinking are the following: 1) rhetoric questions (“What shall we first seek here?.. Then how?.. What result, then, has ensued?..” ‘Что мы будем искать здесь в первую очередь?.. И как?.. Каков же результат?’); 2) the introduction of a narrator of the story (to whom the hero explains the direction of his thoughts); 3) periodical repeating of the information which was told before (“Keeping now steadily in mind the points to which I have drawn your attention — that peculiar voice, that unusual agility, and that startling absence of motive in a murder so singularly atrocious as this — let us glance at the butchery itself.” ‘Теперь, не забывая о тех моментах, на которые я обратил ваше внимание, — об этом необычном голосе, о необычайной ловкости и поразительном отсутствии мотива в таком исключительно жестоком убийстве, как это, — давайте взглянем на саму бойню’). The author purposefully slows down the time of the narrative making the reader stop and become himself the participant of the process of logical solving.

To finalize the short functional analysis let’s once again denote the principle moments of it. According to our supposition, the theme of the story was chosen due to three following factors: the author’s private preferences as a reaction to his life’s circumstances and the wish to popularize the Graham’s magazine. This corresponds to the relevant modern agenda of the 1810–1840s America. Edgar A. Poe proposes to readers a unique model of a hero-analyst who is capable of structuring something that seems chaotic and impossible to describe. Through the detailing of logic operations in the consciousness of the hero the author accentuates the attention on the importance of the process of solving problem which forms the reader’s relevant position and involves him in the intellectual game.

Comparative analysis

The translation of the story by Edgar A. Poe fulfilled by C.D. Balmont and firstly published in 1911 makes an attempt to recreate the artistic and analytical structure of the source text. C.D. Balmont is eager to reach the equivalency of the texts. Let’s observe a few key aspects of the translation:

C.D. Balmont is exact at the language level, but in some instances he chooses more emotionally specific stylistically marked or not quite adequate variations. Thus, for example, the poet translates the lexeme “puzzling” into Russian as ‘ошеломительны’, which strengthens the stylistic hue of the epigraph: the neutral ‘загадочны’ would have been closer to the meaning. The neutral “perpetrator” and “disagreed” he translates as a high-style ‘свершитель’ and ‘разнствуют’. The word “petulant” acquires the meaning of ‘шаловливый’, though it bears the semantics of irritation and caprice. On the whole, the poet uses lexis typical for the Russian literary language of the turn of the 18^th–19^th centuries.

Differently from the author of the source text, C.D. Balmont explains in footnotes and more often in the text itself, specific terms (such as “stereotomy” and “ferrades”: «стереотомия (пресечение твердых тел.)», «французские плотники называют ferrades, железом окованные  ставни, весьма редко употребляющиеся в настоящее время») and almost all “non-English” inclusions (e.g., «…напоминают месье Журдена, спрашивающего sa robe de chambre pour mieux entendre la musique (свой халат, чтобы лучше слышать музыку (фр.)  —  Примеч. переводчика)» or «Мог различить слова “sacre” и “diable”, “черт” и “дьявол”»). C.D. Balmont like the other translators of “The Murder in the Rue Morgue” — N.V. Shelgunov [1] or M.A. Engelgart [2] — could translate into Russian some text fragments completely or leave them in a state of nature, meaning the educated reader. However, C.D. Balmont makes choices. He leaves without any commentary just the most common stable for the Russian society of that time expressions such as “par excellence”, “a posteriori” and “Theatre des Varietes”. C.D. Balmont compares the Russian language repertoire and the proposed by the author of the text the French repertoire and chooses for the translation those text fragments that he thinks to be necessary to explain in the definite context.

As to expressive means C.D. Balmont doesn’t add any of his own, but the mentioned above comparisons and expanded metaphors are rendered. More complex situation concerns oxymorons. Thus the mentioned above examples of “elaborate frivolity of chess”, “superficial truth”, “grotesquerie in horror” he translates as ‘утонченная суетность шахмат’, ‘истина находится на поверхности’, ‘о гротескности и ужасе’. And the situation isn’t single that’s why it’s impossible to define it as a free will of a translator or his inattentiveness. In our opinion, the reason is due to the wish of C.D. Balmont to convey the idea of the author as exact as possible. If we observe the context of the first fragment, we see that E.A. Poe compares the draughts game with playing chess, still preferring the first. The meaning of the comparison denotes that checks demand from the player more of the analytical ability than the chess, which according to the text with all the majority of rules and strategies need just much more concentration of attention. Using the formation of “elaborate frivolity of chess” E.A. Poe wanted to show us just that aspect of chess playing: their predetermination means a little. C.D. Balmont’s ‘утонченная суетность’speaks about this. Chess though they are considered a game of eggheads have no true value (which the text proclaims analytics). The same is the case of “superficial truth”. If C.D. Balmont translated the collocation as ‘правда поверхностна’, the negative connotation would have arisen, and it doesn’t correspond to the context. In the context of describing the murder “grotesquerie in horror” and ‘о гротескности и ужасе’ are equivalent variations.

As to syntax, C.D. Balmont tries to follow the E.A. Poe’s sentences’ constructions.as far as it possible in translation from English into Russian. He preserves the order of sentences’ parts and even at the most cases the word order as well. To understand positive differences of the Russian variation of the story under the analysis could be possible comparing with the other variations. Let’s take for the purpose a small text fragment (Table).

 Comparison of a source text fragment with various translations 

E.A. Poe  (1841)	C.D. Balmont  (1911)	R.M. Galperina [13] (50–60-е гг. XX в.)
Madame L’Espanaye and her daughter, habited in their night clothes, had apparently been occupied in arranging some papers in the iron chest already mentioned, which had been wheeled into the middle of the room. It was open, and its contents lay beside it on the floor. The victims must have been sitting with their backs toward the window; and, from the time elapsing between the ingress of the beast and the screams, it seems probable that it was not immediately perceived. The flapping-to of the shutter would naturally have been attributed to the wind. As the sailor looked in, the gigantic animal had seized Madame L’Espanaye by the hair, (which was loose, as she had been combing it,) and was flourishing the razor about her face, in imitation of the motions of a barber.	Мадам Л’Эспанэ и ее дочь, одетые в ночные свои костюмы, по-видимому, были заняты приведением в порядок некоторых бумаг в уже упомянутом железном сундучке, который был выдвинут на средину комнаты. Он был открыт и то, что в нем находилось, лежало рядом, на полу. Жертвы, должно быть, сидели спиною к окну и, судя по времени, прошедшему между входом зверя и криками, надо думать, что он был замечен не немедленно. Хлопанье ставни, естественно, могло быть приписано ветру. Когда моряк заглянул в окно, гигантское животное схватило мадам Л’Эспанэ за волосы (она их причесывала, и они были распущены) и размахивало бритвой возле ее лица в подражание движениям цирюльника.	Мадам Л’Эспапэ и ее дочь, обе в ночных одеяниях, очевидно, разбирали бумаги в упомянутой железной укладке, выдвинутой на середину комнаты. Сундучок был раскрыт, его содержимое лежало на полу рядом. Обе женщины, должно быть, сидели спиной к окну и не сразу увидели ночного гостя. Судя по тому, что между его появлением и их криками прошло некоторое время, они, очевидно, решили, что ставнем хлопнул ветер. Когда матрос заглянул в комнату, огромный орангутанг держал мадам Л’Эспанэ за волосы, распущенные по плечам (она расчесывала их на ночь), и, в подражание парикмахеру, поигрывал бритвой перед самым ее носом.

 Source: complied by Nina L. Chulkina & Marta N. Timofeeva.

In our opinion, the translation by C.D. Balmont reflects the structure and semantics of the source text with minimal distortion. First, we see it on the examples given above. To reveal the second, one has to read the words of the source text with exclusive attention. In the translation by R.M. Galperina “chest” turns into the Russian ‘укладку’, “the victims” into ‘женщин’, “the beast” into ‘ночного гостя’, “animal” into concrete ‘орангутанга’, and “about her face” in Russian set phrase of ‘перед… носом’. If укладка and перед носом could be explained by the will to bring the text closer to the Russian linguoculture, the rest seems improper. Such translation softens the scene of the murder which can’t be said about C.D. Balmont’s translation.

On the whole C.D. Balmont explicates the E.A. Poe’s stylistics “Russification” elements of the text (e.g., the translation of “kings” in checks, not as ‘королей’, but as ‘дамок’, or “Did you observe any thing peculiar about it?” not with the direct question ‘Вы заметили в нем что-нибудь необычное?’, but with typical in Russian question with negation ‘Не заметили ли вы здесь чего-нибудь особенного?’ and etc.) occurs in all translations; however, they are proper and don’t create social distortion.

The minimal deformation of the text under translation preserves the reflected in the source E.A. Poe’s linguistic personality:

1. On the verbal semantic level, C.D. Balmont doesn’t simplify lexis and original syntactical constructions of the source text which shows the educational level of the author in the Russian translation.
2. On the cognitive level, C.D. Balmont correctly translates the ideas of the rational individualism, the superiority of intellect over chaos and the sceptical attitude to the institution of administration; there isn’t missed or lowered down the aesthetization of horror (e.g., the scene of the murder of Mme L’Espanaye and her daughter), and also lacks the transformation of the fusion of the American and European cultural ideas — self-made man, Romanticism, Rationalism, — into the Russian trend on the ethic and social problems.
3. On the motivational and pragmatic level, C.D. Balmont recreates in detail logic chains of Ch.Aug. Dupin that like in the source text, makes a reader occupy an active stand being involved in the narrative. In this case, the C.D. Balmont’s motifs differ just a little from the E.A. Poe’s commercial motifs: horror fantastic stories were popular with the Russian readers of the 19^th century beginning.

So, C.D. Balmont uses translingual translation practices. He is selectively special translator, who exactly renders the source text but while doing so, he makes the text clear for the compatriots.

Conclusions

The study of the translation of the story “The Murder on the Rue Morgue” by E.A. Poe made by C.D. Balmont let us reveal the specifics of his translational strategy. This allows us to discuss his work through the prism of the translingual approach. The analysis showed that C.D. Balmont tried to preserve cognitive, aesthetical and cultural peculiarities of the source text while in parallel, to make the text clear, understandable and meaningful for the Russian audience of the start of the 20^th century.

The obtained results allow us to assert that C.D. Balmont’s translation could be treated as an example of the translingual practice though at that time, the term itself didn’t exist. His work demonstrates that a translator is able not just to fulfil the mediator’s function between the languages, but could create the new culturally valid text which synthesizes various traditions aтd expressive means.

Indeed, the conclusions of the present study are considered as preliminary observations and couldn’t be thought as the final ones. However, they lay the basis for the further apprehension of C.D. Balmont’s role in the history off the Russian understanding of E.A. Poe’s writings, as well as for the wider application of the translinguistic conception in the field of literary translation analysis. So in potential the study could serve for the précising of the notion of translinguism itself and also for revealing its productivity in the cross-linguistic contact studies.

 

_{¹ The term translingualism is preferable taking into consideration the derivational model, e.g., multi-/polylingualism, bilimgualism. — a translator’s footnote.}

_{² URL: http://az.lib.ru/p/po_e_a/text_1841_the_murders_in_the_rue_morgue.shtml (accessed: 25.05.2025). URL: http://az.lib.ru/p/po_e_a/text_1841_the_murders_in_the_rue_morgueshelgunov.shtml (accessed: 25.05.2025). URL: http://az.lib.ru/p/po_e_a/text_1841_the_murders_in_the_rue_ morgue-engelgardt.shtml (accessed: 25.05.2025). URL: https://cdn.img-gorod.ru/nomenclature/ 25/077/2507704.pdf (accessed: 25.05.2025).}

About the authors

Nina L. Chulkina

RUDN University

Email: chulkina_nl@pfur.ru
ORCID iD: 0000-0002-6758-4683
SPIN-code: 8034-9263
Scopus Author ID: 57203533337
ResearcherId: AAB-9438- 2021

Dr.Sc. (Philology), Professor at the General and Russian Linguistics Department, Faculty of Philology

6 Miklukho-Maklaya Str., Moscow, Russian Federation, 117198

Marta N. Timofeeva

RUDN University

Author for correspondence.
Email: timofeeva_mn@pfur.ru
ORCID iD: 0009-0002-6437-715X
SPIN-code: 2930-1307
ResearcherId: MFJ-2008-2025

PhD student at the General and Russian Linguistics Department, Faculty of Philology

6 Miklukho-Maklaya Str., Moscow, Russian Federation, 117198

References

Supplementary files