On the Emotional and Emotive Power of Translation: Translation Experiment

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to see whether the power of the literary work rules the reader’s emotions and whether the extra-lexical elements of the text are participating in the transfer of emotions. The author is going to answer these questions based on two authored translations of Sergey Mikhalkov’s poem into Polish. The understanding of the reception of the literary text as an aesthetic impression forces one to seek affective tensions, or elements which influence the emotional reactions of the reader. In reference to the conducted study it is essential to describe (and delineate) two concepts: the text’s emotive power and the reader’s emotional power. The literary work selected for analysis is not a typical one. Its structure was based on rhythm, which was used in an excellent way. Rhyme, on the other hand, appears only in the last two verses. The proposed translation uses a potential rhyme to add the emotional value in relation to the original text. Such a play with the reader is only possible when he/she understands the whole mechanism. A similar device used to increase the emotional value is maintaining the formal aspect of the original (octosyllable or heptasyllable verses), which sounds slightly artificial in Polish, given its permanent, paroxytone, accent. The analysis confirms that a translator is able to increase or reduce the emotional power of reception by modifying the text’s emotive power.