Problems of translating German visual poetry by Herta Muller into Russian

Abstract

The article studies the problems of translating Herta Muller’s visual poetry into Russian using the example of her two collections, «How a Lady Lives in a Bun of Hair» and «Pale Gentlemen with a Cup of Coffee in their Hands,» first translated and published in 2018. Special attention is paid to the artistic features of the original German texts and the strategy of their transmission by Russian translators Alyosha Prokopiev and Boris Shapiro. The analysis shows that these translations are not just equivalents of the original, but independent bilingual works where visual collages and text interact in new semantic and artistic spaces. The article discusses the key characteristics of Muller’s poetry, such as the lack of punctuation, fragmentation, and motives for death, power, and personal experience, reflecting the historical context of totalitarianism. Translators act as co-authors, creating texts that preserve the original figurative structure and at the same time adapt the narrative to the Russian cultural environment using the techniques of lexical expansion. The visual and semantic features of collages are seen as a means of resisting censorship and repressive government. The study reveals the uniqueness of the translation of visual poetry as an intercultural phenomenon and suggests new approaches to the interpretation and presentation of such literary texts. The translations of Muller’s poetic collages, made in collaboration with translators and publishers, are a unique phenomenon not only of Russian but also of world poetics. The example of the translation of Muller’s German-language visual poetry shows that such a text is almost impossible to completely trace: new meanings, connections, and intertextual shifts arise.