Literary transcription as a genre form (biblical psalms in the poetic tradition)

   The article discusses some issues related to transcription as a genre-style form. The author believes that literary transcription (often terminologically referred to as a paraphrase) is a completely independent, autonomous semantic construction, which specifically combines both the elements of translation and original work. Transcription is neither a retelling in the elementary meaning of this word, nor a free translation, but a more complex verbal and aesthetic whole. Translation, with all the reservations, can be attributed to “abstract translation” – the concept and term introduced and substantiated by M. L. Gasparov. Transcription is characterized by two main properties: transcoding within the boundaries of one natural language and the subjective principle, which manifests itself in the selection of a specific material, its structuring according to a certain compositional plan, linguistic processing of text – in a word, in the authorial cementation of the work. Undoubtedly, biblical psalms are a vivid example of literary transcription. The tradition of their “transposition”, their paraphrastic development, is quite old, dating back more than one century. In short (because of the vastness and depth of the theme), the history of psalter arrangements is traced (within the Russian cultural system, but with an ex-course-reference to the Ukrainian one, which found its expression, in particular, in the work of T. G. Shevchenko). In addition, the article highlights the correlative measure of translation and transcription in the poetic psalter practices and describes modern transcriptions (based on one example). For experimental purposes, we actively search for new approaches to transcribing psalms, besides studying the existing ones. One of such approaches may be the connection of psalms, as a Middle Eastern lyrical hymnography, with the Quranic tradition (based on the Russian literary language). The article consists of three parts. The first is a general one (about the problem of transcription as a genre). The second is “its subject matter” (about the psalms in terms of their arrangements). The third is an appendix, in which I present my own transcriptions of the psalms based on the methodology outlined in general terms.

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