Maya Shumyatcher

on translating Yuliya Drunina

As with any translation, I tried to stick as close to the original as I could. What does that mean? Two elements of Drunina’s poetry were immediately apparent to me: the rhythmic, marching quality of the stanzas, so resonantly underlying the meaning of the words themselves, and a plain-spokenness that belies its profound emotionality and intelligence. I could feel Drunina herself in the writing and worked to preserve these elements above all.

Besides staying true to the style, I had to balance the precision of the translation against the intangible imperative of conveying the feeling of the poem. So, while I went to painstaking lengths to translate verbatim, some phrases changed. For example, the phrase “яблочное захолустье,” which the poet coins to describe the location where Zinka’s mother lives, would translate literally to a somewhat nonsense “apple-ish backwoods” in English. To a Russophone, it evokes a sense of sweet, countryside nostalgia. What phrase would convey the sensation in English? I settled, after much debate, on the somewhat lexically removed “fields freshly tilled,” which also fit nicely with the rhythm and rhyme of the poem.

In another instance, “Пахнет в хате квашней и дымом” (“The house smells like levain and smoke”) became “Bread is baking, sweet smoke surrounds her.” I toyed with the more literal translation but, unlike квашня, which is a well-known term to the average Russian speaker, the English “levain” necessitates a dictionary for many (a well-read friend asked if I had mistyped “leaves”), and “sourdough starter” would wreck the poem’s precise rhythm. I settled on the version that best conveyed the plain-spoken power of the original.

A detailed account of the decisions that went into each line of the translation could easily go on for another several pages, so I will simply wish you as enjoyable a time reading this poem as I had translating it.

***

I began translating this poem years ago, and it lived on the back burner until, early this winter, I decided to finally check off some projects from my personal to-do list. While the timing of the translation is entirely coincidental, given the poem’s topic and country of origin, it feels imprudent not to mention current events. Along with the rest of the world, including many Russian citizens, I have felt horrified at Russia’s unwarranted and unconscionable aggression in Ukraine. As “Zinka” reminds us, each life cut short is an immeasurable tragedy. I hope for a world in which peace prevails, civilians do not fear for their lives, and no mother must receive news of a child killed at war.