SOURCE: Heim, Michael Henry. “Two Approaches to Translation: Sumarokov vs. Trediakovskij.” In Mnemozina: Studia litteraria russica in honerem Vsevolod Setchkarev, edited by Joachim T. Baer and Norman W. Ingham, pp. 185-92. Munich, Germany: Wilhelm Fink Verlag, 1974.

In the essay which follows, Heim compares the translation techniques of Sumarokov and Trediakovsky, showing that the two men were engaged in a serious literary rivalry and claiming that Sumarokov's translations were elegant and flowing while the other writer's were far more literal.

Though translation was one of Trediakovskij's major literary activities and no more than a sideline for Sumarokov, both men translated several texts in common. The results are noteworthy from two standpoints: first, their differences of opinion vis-à-vis literary technique stand out in particularly bold relief because the original serves as a reliable control, and second, the polemics surrounding their differences of opinion vis-à-vis translation technique are still...