Pasternak, Łysohorsky and the Significance of “Unheroic” Translation

This article offers an analysis of Boris Pasternak's translation of two poems by the Lachian poet Óndra Łysohorsky (1905-1989), made from “podstrochniki” (interlinears) provided here as an original archival publication together with Łysohorsky's two accompanying letters to Pasternak from 1943. The dual aim of the article is to pinpoint some characteristic traits in Pasternak's work with interlinears and to elucidate the significance of transcultural figures like Łysohorsky in the context of Soviet war-time culture. The translations are also compared to Lidiia Pasternak's English versions of the same poems published in 1968.