Василь Мисик і Микола Лукаш: два прочитання Роберта Бернса

The paper examines the representation of Burns's poetical oeuvre in Ukrainian translations by Mykola Lukash (1919–1988) and Vasyl Mysyk (1907–1983), who established the Ukrainian canon of Robert Burns. Their translations are included in school textbooks, radio broadcasts and set to music. These translations confirmed a paradox of co-existence of two equally successful, but quite different interpretations of Burns made through the prism of translators' ideology, personality, poetic motivations and other constraints. Mysyk's ambition was to show real Burns in all the variety of his works. He adopted a strategy of a literary studies scholar who paid scrupulous attention to textual detail, be it biographical, historical or figurative. All his translator's decisions were subdued to his wish for utmost proximity to the original text. In a similar vein, the selection of texts for translation was guided by his desire to introduce Burns's works into Ukrainian literary context in their integrity and variety, rather than by his personal taste. For Lukash, on the contrary, Burns was not related to a comprehensive translation project. He was one of his favorite poets, and these were Burns's songs that appealed to Lukash most. Conceptually as well as stylistically Lukash's translations of Burns are folklore-oriented and folklore inspired. In this way, the translator successfully reproduced the dominant features of Burns's poetics by emphasizing its folk spirit. On the other hand, Ukrainian folklore poetics employed in Lukash's translations proved to be a convenient tool to manipulate the text governed by translator's ideology. Through the prism of folklore style Lukash managed to convey implied political messages to fuel resistance and defiance, which suggests a form of translator's activism.