A ‘Small’ Literature, that is: Literature with Limited Translational Opportunities, of Structural Undercapacity and Voluntary Self-diminishment

Abstract

One possible definition of a small literature would be of a literature depending on indirect translation. For translations from a number of literatures it would rely on the mediation of a literature perceived as more important than both the source and the target literatures. In some kind of cases, possibly rare, this dependence on mediation, in general hardly avoidable due to lack of qualified translators, may turn out to be voluntary. Such a case is demonstrated by Bulgarian literature, when it translates from the Georgian. In my article I analyse a translation of Valerian Gaprindashvili’s ‘Sea’ by Nikolaj Kŭnchev, which translation seems to be far more dependent on Pasternak’s translation of that poem into Russian than on the original, despite translator’s published declaration that he has relied on an interlinear translation from the Georgian. The case enables us to view ‘smallness’ not only as ‘objective’ property/distinctive feature but as horizon of self-identification, as self-inscription.