პაულ ცელანის ლექსის „სიკვდილის ფუგა“ ქართული თარგმანები

Abstract

“Fugue of Death” (“Todesfuge”) is among the most well- known and often anthologized poems by Paul Celan (1920-1970), Romanian-born Jewish German language poet. It can be regarded as one of the finest pieces of the so-called holocaust lyric poetry. A masterful description of horror and death in a concentration camp, the poem reached international relevance as soon as it appeared in Romanian in 1944-45 and in German in 1947. Following its publication, it was almost immediately translated into many languages. There are a few Georgian versions of the poem, including translations by Zviad Ratiani, Dato Barbakadze and Zaal Jalaghonia. Nugesha Gagnidze’s translation is included in her book Essays on the Post World War II German Literature.

The purpose of the present paper is to compare Georgian translations of the poem, demonstrating the ways in which translators are trying to approach the original, and to assess which of them manages to express most adequately the universal concerns embodied in the poem.