Verlibre as Hermeneutics: Experimental Translations by M. L. Gasparov

Abstract

In this article, I analyze the collection of free-verse translations of Russian and foreign works from antiquity to the 20th century by M. L. Gasparov, a well-known specialist in versification and translator. Gasparov’s book is undoubtedly interesting not only as an experiment, but also as a work of a poet and a scholar keen to demonstrate the possibilities of vers libre as a means of interpretation. The analysis has led to the conclusion that interpretation in this case is not only focused on a particular text. It also articulates the laws of genre and even of a particular literary movement. In essence, the author connects voices far apart in time; the text becomes a venue for the encounter of different creative subjects, the basis of a perspective of meaning that is both comprehensive and unique.