The jovial Russian

The jovial Russian is the title of a sonically associative translation of the Apollinaire poem "La jolie rousse" (literally: "The pretty redhead") from the French original into German. It comes from Ralf-Rainer Rygulla and Rolf Dieter Brinkmann and appeared for the first time in 1969 in the anthology “März Texte 1” by the März Verlag .

Origin and content

In a footnote to this translation experiment, the time and place of origin of the text are given: “May 1969, Cologne, Brusselser Platz 17”. The footnote also mentions a “ collaboration ” between Rygulla and Brinkmann and Apollinaire. The text represents "the attempt to translate a poem without knowledge of the foreign language (in this case French) according to the surface understanding that occurs at the moment of reading ".

Excerpt

(the first four lines)

The jovial Russian (the transmission of Rygulla and Brinkmann) My voice calls for a home plan like a scythe Connoisseurs of life and death as bold as the wall knows Ahja powder with no smell and less joy than love Ahja so sweat in the pose of your idea [...]

La jolie rousse (the original by Guillaume Apollinaire) Me voici devant tous un homme plein de sens Connaissant la vie et de la mort ce qu'un vivant peut connaître Ayant éprouvé les douleurs et les joies de l'amour Ayant su quelquefois imposer ses idées [...]

source

• Ralf Rainer Rygulla & Rolf Dieter Brinkmann: The jovial Russian. In: März texts March 1 , Darmstadt 1969, pp. 70–73 and pp. 304–305 (footnote)
  • again in Jörg Schröder (ed.): Mammut. March texts 1 & 2 ibid., Herbstein 1984 ISBN 3888800323
  • again in Renate Matthaei (ed.): March texts 1 & trivial myths. Area, Erftstadt 2004 ISBN 3899960297 pp. 72–75 bilingual and pp. 306f. footnote

Web links

• "La jolie rousse" (French original)
• A correct German translation of the poem (translator: Fritz Usinger ) and a short interpretation in a acceptance speech by Adam Zagajewski on the occasion of the award of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung's literary prize (2002)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ From the Calligrammes collection of poems . Poèmes de la paix et de la guerre 1913–1916 , published in 1918. The addressed married Apollinaire in the year of his death.