Assessment of the quality of poetic translation (based on the material of translations of British poetry into Russian)

Dondik Lyudmila Yurievna ORCID: 0000-0001-5955-5017 PhD in Philology Associate professor, Department of Foreign Languages and Russian Philology, Russian State Vocational Pedagogical University 622031, Russia, Nizhny Tagil, Krasnogvardeyskaya str., 57 dondik2006@yandex.ru Other publications by this author

In modern society, there is a need for high-quality translations that can reveal the original text as fully as possible, both in terms of content and expression. However, the issues of standardization of measuring the quality of translation, ensuring transparency, and the objectivity of its assessment still remain unresolved. Despite the fact that many scientists consider this problem, there is no single concept for evaluating the quality of translated materials.

To develop a system of criteria for evaluating the quality of poetic translation, it is necessary to determine the main features of a poetic text as an object of translation activity, as well as clarify the concept of translation quality.

The main function of poetry as a kind of artistic speech based on a special form of text organization, which assumes the important role of rhythm and rhyme, is to convey the subjective attitude of a person to the world, to express the emotions and feelings of the author in poetic form ^[1]. Poetry is an emotionally filled genre of literature, it is the public self-expression of the poet, his experiences through stylistic techniques. Writers often use their own image as the main lyrical hero of a poetic work, and the presentation is conducted in the first person.

Genre-forming features of a poetic text include a small volume, compositional order, rhythm and rhyme, lyrical plot, semantic completeness, increased emotionality, the presence of a clear author's position (author's modality), author's assessment ^[2],[3]. In the use of stable formal semantic individual author's codes, such a feature of a poetic work as tightness is realized. Metaphors, epithets, allegories, hyperbole and other figures of speech allow the author to make his message to the reader not straightforward, but "encrypted", allusive, which, on the one hand, complicates the primary perception of the form and content of the text, but, on the other hand, determines the possibility of multiple interpretation of the poetic work.

In Russian linguistics, the problem of translation quality correlates with the concept of adequate translation. An adequate translation is more a reality than a myth, in contrast to the translation of an equivalent, invariance–oriented, complete denotative preservation of the content plan ^[4]. Adequate translation implies not only the preservation of the original syntactic and structural-semantic components, but the equivalence of the impact on readers of the original and translated texts, that is, the transmission of the content of the source text by equivalent means of another language. Such a translation is devoid of significant distortions, it is understandable to the reader and ensures the completeness of interlanguage communication ^[5],[6].

Yu. Nayda distinguishes between dynamic and formal equivalence. The latter is oriented towards the original and is achieved by preserving similar parts of speech and constructions in translation, the absence of permutations, splitting into paragraphs and preserving the original punctuation. This type of equivalence is characterized by the calculation of idioms, any deviations from the original are necessarily explained in footnotes. Formal equivalence is achieved through forenization, a translation strategy focused on preserving and carefully reproducing the features of the original, the entirety of the information contained therein. Dynamic equivalence is reader-oriented ("receptor response"), its priority is to provide the same level of impact as the pragmatic possibilities of the original text. Dynamic equivalence corresponds to such a translation strategy as domestication. The main function of translation domestication is a full-fledged communicative replacement of the original. The translator's use of this strategy implies maximum adaptation to the norms of the host culture, the desire to make the translated text easy and convenient for the recipient to perceive, and the elimination of any linguistic or substantive features of the original that make it difficult to understand a foreign text ^[7].

Thus, the quality of translation is a complex concept, a characteristic of the result of translation activity, which is determined by a high degree of compliance with the translation norm and the nature of involuntary or conscious deviations from the norm.

The question of the possibility of measuring the quality of translated versions and the leading criteria for comparing the original text and its translations remains unresolved. However, the literature review allows us to conclude that the following criteria for measuring and evaluating the quality of translation should be taken into account. A high-quality translation should be accurate, ensuring the transmission of the original content in detail, and not violating the norms of the translation language; from a functional (pragmatic) point of view, the translation should correspond to the purpose of communication established by the author of the original text. When developing a model for measuring the quality of poetic translation, it is important to take into account not only those aspects that will be evaluated, but also how it is possible to assess the degree of equivalence and adequacy as the main requirement for the quality of translated materials ^[8]. Since poems belong to literary texts, their high-quality translation may not be equivalent at the level of individual text segments, but should be adequate at the level of aesthetic impact on the reader ^[9].

Translation is an activity that requires great artistry and creative orientation, since in order to achieve maximum equivalence of translation, to study the active vocabulary that a writer uses, to determine his attitude to phenomena and events, a linguist must be familiar not only with the era in which the author of the text lived, but also with his many other works. In order to most clearly reflect the emotions and feelings of the author, the translator should get used to his role: master the manner and speech of the writer, pick up the intonation and rhythm of the poem, while preserving the poetic individuality of his native language ^[10]; the specialist is constantly in a situation of choosing between accuracy and beauty of translation. On the one hand, the work should be lyrical and aesthetic, on the other – as close as possible to the realities of the writer ^[11].

One of the key requirements for a translator is that the translation text must be comparable to the original in terms of its volume, ensuring a similar stylistic effect in terms of its conciseness or expansion. The linguistic difficulties of poetic translation can be divided into three groups: phonetic, lexical and syntactic. The phonetic aspect of poetry translation is complicated by the need for the translator to take into account the rhythmic features of the work, which are closely related to the content of the poetic text and determine its impact on the reader. The intonation of poems is similar to the intonation of music, therefore it acts as an important artistic device. A certain arrangement and choice of sounds, phonostylistics of a poetic text are also more important than in prose, and cannot be leveled during translation.

As for the lexical level, there are no superfluous words in the lyrical work, each verbal unit has its own deep meaning.  In a poetic text representing a certain historical epoch, the word also becomes a kind of material evidence representing the language of its time ^[12]. At the same time, archaisms, dialectisms, historicisms create additional difficulties in the work of the translator. An important component is considered to be the transfer of national identity, cultural features inherent in the homeland of the writer of the translated work, the transfer of exoticism, or lexemes denoting the realities of everyday life and social life specific to any people, country or locality. This is a difficult task, because many cultural phenomena and traditions are unique and have no analogues in other cultures, so translators resort to substitutions far from the original, and therefore violate the concept of the author's text ^[13].

The syntax of lyrical works differs from the spoken syntax and from the syntax of a prose literary text. The authors use inversion, ellipsis, repetition, syntactic parallelism and other techniques to enhance the dynamics of perception of the poem ^[14]. As a result, numerous rearrangements and permutations of syntagmas are not only permissible in the translation text, but often even inevitable, which violates the structure of the original constructions.

The poetic text has a culturological component that is difficult to adapt. The original text includes other texts with a different subject of speech, or their fragments in the form of quotations, reminiscences and allusions ^[15]. If there is an intertext in the original, the translator must carry out additional work to identify the proto-text, determine its function and decide whether it is possible or impossible to preserve this element. He must determine the invariant, that is, those elements of artistic content that are mandatory for transmission, and which cannot be sacrificed ^[16].

So, to perform a poetic translation, it is necessary to take into account a whole complex of obvious and hidden features, ethnically specific and general meanings of a poetic work. Errors that make it difficult to understand the text, misinform the reader and distort the author's thoughts set out in the original reduce the quality of the translation ^[17]. A high-quality translation is aimed at providing an adequate impact on the reader, it should not contradict the original, have significant differences with it in terms of content and expression. Therefore, the evaluative characteristics of a poetic translation should reflect how successfully the translator managed to overcome the difficulties that create obstacles to translation.

Poetic works are more difficult to translate than prose ones, since the unit of translation is the whole text, and not phrases and sentences ^[18]. In order to standardize the procedure for evaluating the quality of poetic translation, it seems necessary to compile a list of evaluation criteria – such means of evaluating translated texts that would reflect all the basic requirements for high-quality poetic translation. As a result of the theoretical review, we have attempted to identify such criteria.

If we understand by a comprehensive assessment of the quality of poetic translation a comprehensive assessment of the quality of translated texts, which is based on determining the degree of adequacy and equivalence of poetic translation, then to implement this procedure, the following criteria must be taken into account: 1) preservation of the poetic form in the translated text, the use of rhyme and rhythm similar to the original; 2) following the author's position in in relation to the persons, objects, phenomena and events depicted in the poem; 3) the transfer of the emotional component of the original poetic text, its mood and atmosphere; 4) the use of lexical material corresponding to the author's time epoch and conveying the national identity of the original poetic text; 5) the selection of exact equivalents, correct compensation for non-equivalent vocabulary, as well as the transfer of used the author of the means of expression; 6) the absence of abuse of translation transformations (rearrangements of syntagmas, unnecessary additions and omissions); 7) the absence of distortion of the main idea laid down by the author, the correspondence of the pragmatic aspect of the translated text to the influencing potential of the source text; 8) compliance with the norms of the translation language.

During the assessment of the quality of poetic translation, a rating scale can be used for each of the named characteristics of the translated text, that is, the degree of severity of one or another criterion will be determined, for example, in the range from 0 to 1 point with an intermediate result of 0.5 points. The more the described positions are observed, the better the translated material can be recognized.

In order to test the stated criteria for evaluating the quality of poetic translation, a sample analysis was conducted, which included the original texts of British poetry, as well as their translation into Russian. A total of 19 translations of texts of British poetry served as the research material.

The results of a comprehensive assessment of the quality of translations performed by professional translators are presented in Table 1. Each compliance with the criterion is indicated by a "+" sign (1 point), partial compliance with a "±" sign (0.5 points) and complete non-compliance with a "?" sign (0 points).

Table 1

The results of the assessment of the quality of professional poetic translations of British poetry

The object of the analysis was the lyrical poem by Ulyam Blake "The Shepherd" and its translations into Russian, performed by S. Ya. Marshak and I. G. Gusmanov. It should be noted that already in the first line of the translation, S. Ya. There are noticeable discrepancies with the original: the translator departs from the original presentation of the poem, switching to the first person instead of the third. We notice more and more inconsistencies in the second line of the translated text, although the lexeme "morn" in translation is adequately associated with sunrise. I. G. Gusmanov tries to preserve all the important components of the content plan, but at the same time swaps the second and third lines. When comparing the two translation options in terms of their semantic proximity to the original, Marshak's translation seems to be more accurate. However, this translation option contains more significant lexical and grammatical transformations: for example, inconsistencies at the level of verb forms, omission of a significant number of lexemes, addition of new words. In the last two lines, both translators masterfully manage to convey the main idea of the author, which is a hidden comparison of a sheep flock with people, and a shepherd with God, vigilantly watching over humanity. From the point of view of form, composition, translation by S. Ya. Marshak seems to be more free, authorial. I. G. Gusmanov managed to convey the form more accurately: he does not resort to unnecessary additions and does not allow the omission of important lexical units.

A comparative analysis of the text of W. Shakespeare's "From fairest creatures we desire increase" in comparison with his translations into Russian made by N. V. Gerbel, A.M. Finkel and M. I. Tchaikovsky, allows us to note that the translated material of N. V. Gerbel should be recognized as the most successful translation option. The translator omits the analogy between a rose and beauty, but gives the very concept of beauty the features of this flower. The structure of the sonnet is broken, the text is divided into quatrains, but the traditional number of lines remains – 14. The translator associates the lexeme "heir" with "sprout", again emphasizing the comparison of roses and beauty presented by W. Shakespeare. N. V. Gerbel masterfully selects equivalents and contextual synonyms: "ornament" – "decoration"; "grave" means "earth", but the translation of the lexeme "gaudy" – "captivating" is, in our opinion, not entirely accurate, since the author of the work pointed to other signs of spring – its colorfulness, brightness.

A.M. Finkel preserves the metaphor of the rose, which acts as the main symbol of perfection and beauty, and retains the original form of the sonnet, conveys the rhyme. Not quite exact equivalents are used to convey the metaphors of "glutton" (robber) and "abundance" (tuk). In the line "Now you are also fresh and beautiful ..." the author's idea is simplified. Like the previous translator, he omits the lexeme "bud", which continues W. Shakespeare's thought about the connection between beauty and a flower.

The original form of the sonnet has been preserved in the translation by M. I. Tchaikovsky. Shakespeare's rose has once again acquired a new interpretation in the word "color". The specialist also expertly selects contextual synonyms ("abundance" – "harvest"). The poetic style of M. I. Tchaikovsky adorns and complements the original, it perfectly copes with such an important task as transmitting the author's message. The translator's vocabulary corresponds to the era of W. Shakespeare. Thus, if N. V. Gerbel makes a choice in favor of the content, in favor of the author's style (he does not allow unnecessary substitutions and omissions, treats each lexical unit of the original with reverence), then the version of the translation by M. I. Tchaikovsky is more literary in nature, it is full of elegant epithets that are absent in the original.

A vivid and brief example of domestication is E. D. Feldman's translation of E. Lear's poem "There was an Old Person of Cadiz", which is known for its humorous character and brevity. But small poetic texts are no less difficult to translate. The translator resorts to replacing the name of the main place of action (Cadiz) with the more well-known toponym Amsterdam, which allows the Russian public to preserve the rhyme. The translator excludes from the narrative such a character as the daughter of a man from Cadiz, but retains the denouement.

Many poetic translations of the poem "Tiger" by W. Blake have been performed. The translation prepared by literary critic V. L. Toporov and having significant discrepancies with the original text attracts attention: the metaphor "burning bright", meaning "shine of bright wool", is translated as "bloody", "night" – as "dales". The translator omits the metaphor of "fearful symmetry", which indicates the striped skin of a tiger. However, an interesting decision of the translator should be recognized as the selection of an analog to the comparison of "distant deeps or skies" – "in the underworld or in Eden", which corresponds to the original author's idea, because throughout the work W. Blake talks about the creator of the world who created the tiger. The translator omits the words "chain" and "furnace", but he manages to preserve the allegorical image of the forge, chosen by Blake as the workshop of god. Next, the translator omits the elegant author's epithets in the stanza "When the stars threw down their spears", but adequately concludes the poem with the main rhetorical question that the author of the original asks the reader.  Like the author of the original, the poet-translator tries to question the Creator's ability, he challenges his creator. As for the form, the translator successfully coped with the rhyming of couplets, preserved rhythmic synchronization and a regular meter, similar to the sound of a hammer in a forge. But the mood of the poem itself has changed. The author is fascinated by the tiger, describes it with gusto, but with every thought he approaches the question of the creator. In translation, due to the loss of many stylistic techniques, this smooth transition is erased.

Despite a number of successful decisions by V. L. Toporov, the translation by K. D. Balmont seems to be of better quality, which emphasized the content and managed to convey the expressive means necessary for an adequate understanding of the poem by the Russian reader. Thus, K. D. Balmont retains an allusion to the bright coloring of the tiger, but, like V. L. Toporov, omits such a characteristic as symmetry in the image of a predator – in the coloring and the dual nature of a beautiful but cruel animal. The translator leaves the author's allusion to Eden unchanged, but uses the substitution for "swell", omitting the comparison of hell and paradise as an eternal confrontation between good and evil. Wings as a symbol of hell and heaven, K. D. Balmont skillfully introduces the verb "soar" in combination with the expression "devil's fire". Unlike the previous translation, there are nominations of the blacksmith's tools: a chain and a hammer, with which God creates all life on earth. This translation also contains rhyming couplets as in the original. It should be noted that K. D. Balmont used such a technique as splitting the original fifth quatrain into two, due to which he managed to convey the main idea and preserve important lexical elements. However, the philologist omitted the sixth quatrain, which created a contrast using the verb "dare" opposed to "could".

In A. Kudryavitsky's version, the most successful translation of the metaphor "burning bright" is presented, emphasizing the majesty of the image of the tiger. It should be noted the well-constructed rhymes and the size of the rhythm of the poem. But the writer, like his colleagues, omits the metaphor of "fearful symmetry". The disadvantage of this translation is also the discrepancy between the quatrains and the inconsistency of lexical correspondences in the translated and original texts. The author traces the omission of certain stylistic techniques and, as a result, the simplification of the semantic and pragmatic aspects of the poem. The translator duplicates the fourth line of the first and sixth quatrains without taking into account the author's idea with the verbs "could" and "dare". A. Kudryavitsky puts the divine message of the poem in the background, which does not allow him to more accurately convey the main idea of the author.

Variants of the translation of the poem by G. U. Longfellow's "A Psalm of Life" was also the subject of our evaluation. The translation by M. Zenkevich is very close to the original, the writer adequately translates the author's arguments about the meaning of life, using direct speech to increase the expressiveness of the dispute between the main characters. In the first quatrain, the translator introduces his own metaphor relating to life – "the golden ghost", emphasizing the transience and ghostliness of life, but draws attention to its value through the image of a precious metal. I. Bunin conveys with absolute accuracy the main line that sets the mood of the entire work – "Life is but an empty dream!", uses contextual synonyms "grave" – "hill of the earth", "act" – "labor". M. Zenkevich omits the epithets "stout and brave", but does an excellent job of conveying the form of the original. In our opinion, his translation is more accurate and of high quality, as it meets most criteria for a comprehensive assessment of the quality of poetic translated texts. At the same time, it does not lose its poetry, retains the pragmatic functions of a literary text.

In I. Bunin's translation, there is no comparison with numbers, which metaphorically indicates the linearity and simplicity of human existence. The translator replaces "numbers" with "stanzas", thereby omitting the stylistic figure. The lexical unit "earnest" has been replaced with "feat". I. Bunin also replaces "art" with "path", and in the fourth quatrain omits the comparison of life with the beating of the heart, which is like the sound of a drum. As in the translation by M. Zenkevich, synonymous substitutions are used that adequately convey the author's general understanding of the meaning of life. M. Zenkevich interprets the line "And the grave is not its goal" in his own way: "And it is not the spirit that will die, but the flesh." On the one hand, this corresponds to the general author's idea of the original text. On the other hand, the idea of the purpose of life is lost, and a religious component is introduced, adding God to the narrative, which was not directly mentioned in the original poetic text. The lexical unit "tomorrow" was replaced by the translator with the lexeme "forward", indicating an aspiration to the future.

At first glance, A. P. Barykova's translated material differs in its form, which is far from the original. However, the translator manages to keep the cross rhyme. A. P. Barykova also copes with the transfer of the meaning laid down by the author and retains important lexical units, but her translation contains a large number of additions that reduce the quality of translation, since they erase the specifics of the original work. Thus, according to the results of a comprehensive assessment, the best translation belongs to M. Zenkevich. It adequately conveys the author's intention, and the form and plan of the poem's content are close to the composition of the original work.

The poetic work of R. Kipling "The Hyaenas" and its translations are interesting material for analysis. The author of the first lyrical translation is the Russian poet, novelist and translator K. M. Simonov. In the third and fourth lines of the second quatrain, he slightly distorts the meaning. In the original, hyenas are ready to overcome any difficulties, but in translation, they need to make it overnight. In the next quatrain, K. M. Simonov adds a component of the war, which was only implied in the original, was hidden behind many descriptions. He also uses colloquial words with understated stylistic coloring: "creature", "eat", "stink". The fifth quatrain demonstrates significant discrepancies with the original: for example, K. M. Simonov discards "whoop" and "halloo" into the elements of onomatopoeia of hyenas. In the seventh quatrain, the translator omits the epithets "soulless" and "free from shame", emphasizing the temper and nature of hyenas. At the same time, the translator copes with the task of preserving the form and conveying the main idea of the author – to show the horror of war through comparing animals with senseless human wars.

In S. Alexandrovsky's translation, many important lexical units are omitted from the first lines, for example, "burial-parties" and "baffled kites", which increase tension to display the atmosphere of a place of military operations. The translator also uses colloquial words – reduced vocabulary, emphasizing the base essence of hyenas: "harya", "creature", "to eat". As a disadvantage, it should be noted a significant number of substitutions that the author of the translation uses to preserve the form and rhyme of the poem:  "goat" – "sheep", "worm" – "dung beetle". But S. Alexandrovsky, of course, successfully copes with the transfer of the main content.

In the translated version of E. D. Feldman, significant discrepancies with the form of the original are noticeable at first glance, but it is possible to preserve the cross-rhyme in the translation. E. D. Feldman, unlike other professionals, uses rhetorical questions and expands the descriptive elements of the poem, making his translation more colorful and lexically rich, but allows significant omissions ("worm may sting"; "They whoop and halloo and scatter the dirt") and distorts the translations of some lexemes: "goat" – "the ram."

It should be noted that all the translators managed to embody the author's intention to remind the Russian-speaking reader about the horrors of the war. However, the translations of S. Alexandrovsky and E. D. Feldman, which are examples of forenization, demonstrate a large number of lexical and semantic transformations, which undoubtedly reduces the quality of translation. Translators sacrifice exact correspondences, the semantic side of the work in order to preserve the rhyme and form of the original. The translators omit a number of important epithets and comparisons that help convey the atmosphere of post-war devastation. Thus, the results of the analysis draw attention to the serious desire of translators to preserve in translation the features of the content plan of the original poetic text. On the contrary, neglecting the elements of the plan of expression of the original text reduces the quality of poetic translation.

An interesting object of analysis is P. B. Shelley's poem "The Tower Of Famine" and its translations by V. V. Levik and K. D. Balmont. V. V. Levik resorts to domestication, omitting the concept of "oblivion" – oblivion. The translator ignores some elements of the prisoners' lives: "Pain, linked to Guilt", "bread", and also transfers the metaphor "Until its vital oil is spent or spilt", personifying the course of life, into another quatrain. V. V. Levik omits a large number of author's descriptions demonstrating the poet's vision of the world. The word "spectre" acquired the meaning of "skeleton", and "marble" – "sculpture". As for the form of the poem, it was also seriously changed by the author of the translation and, as a result, lost its heaped-up structure, which was a distinctive feature of the original lyrical work.

K. D. Balmont omits a number of stylistic figures, simplifying his translation. At the same time, many lexical units selected by him claim a high degree of equivalence. The form and rhythm of the poem are very close to the original.

Summing up the analysis, it should be noted that all the considered versions of the translation of P. B. Shelley's poem, despite many shortcomings and omissions, can still be recognized as qualitative, since the original is full of epithets and metaphors, creating objective difficulties in the work of the translator. V. V. Levik and K. D. Balmont, although not fully, but they managed to show the majestic and frightening image of the tower of famine, described the misadventures of criminals. Indeed, not always and not all the expressive means of the original poem can be reflected in the versions of its translation. Losses seem inevitable, especially in such poetic works, characterized by an increased content of tropes and figures of speech.

Another object of study was R. Brooke's lyrical poem "The Soldier", written in the form of a sonnet. Translator A. G. Rytov does an excellent job of preserving the content plan, his translation is almost verbatim and accurately conveys the author's intention – to show the high patriotic spirit of the British during the First World War. A. G. Rytov speaks of the metaphorical ashes and the body of a soldier ("A body of England's", "A dust who England") as a particle of England, continuing the author's thought. The omissions in this translation are not significant, they do not violate the general concept of the poem. Only in the last lines does the professional omit several important concepts that idealize the image of England.

E. Lukin violates the form of the sonnet by dividing his translation into quatrains, and this reduces the quality of the translation. In the original work, each subsequent thought follows from the previous one, so the quatrains and tercets are harmoniously connected with each other. The philologist masterfully copes with the transfer of the lexical side of the poem, but in the first line of the last stanza, many lexemes are subject to complete replacement. In the phrase "her sights and sounds", the author seeks to emphasize the beauty of England, and not the warm feelings that the soldier experienced. Despite small errors in the transmission of the original plan of expression, the author of the translation managed to preserve the cross-rhyme of the original and correctly convey the general concept laid down by R. Brook.

So, poetic translation is a special kind of activity for the interpretation of a poetic text and its representation by means of another language. A poetic text is a complex system in which a certain form (composition), rich lexical and emotionally expressive content, phonostylistic features are all subordinated to the tasks of implementing the author's idea and influencing the reader. Such features significantly complicate the translator's work and make the lyrical text difficult to translate. The translator is limited in the choice of lexical means and forms of expression of thought, since the translation is secondary to the original: it should not contradict the original or contain significant discrepancies with it.

The quality of a poetic translation can be the object of a comprehensive assessment, which is carried out using a number of criteria, such as the preservation of the original author's idea, composition and rhyme of a poetic work, the selection of appropriate equivalents by the translator, the absence of significant permutations, omissions and distortions, as well as compliance with the norms of the translation language.

A comparative analysis of parallel original and translated texts using criteria for a comprehensive assessment of the quality of poetic translation has shown that the problem of finding a compromise between adequate transmission of the content and form of the original is acutely felt, since performing a high–quality poetic translation involves preserving the features of the surface structure of the original work - rhythmic characteristics, rhyme, division into stanzas and other components of the graphic representation of the poetic text. When faced with untranslatable vocabulary and stylistic phenomena, the translator decides what is more important – the meaning or form of presentation of the poetic text, and what can be sacrificed in case of insurmountable difficulties.

The experience of evaluating the quality of poetic translations performed by professionals suggests that experts are much more likely to make a decision in favor of the content plan, giving priority to preserving the author's intention and semantic fullness of the translated text. At the same time, the most difficult aspect is often the transfer of author's means of expression and stylistic figures in a foreign language. It is among poetic translations that such a phenomenon as free translation is more common. This is due to the fact that the authors of poetic translations are often recognized poets and writers who have their own idiosyncrasy, their own individual taste, their own vocabulary skills.

Professional translators pay special attention to the preservation of the semantic component of poetic works, which includes semantic, stylistic and emotional components. On the other hand, in high-quality translation, great attention is also paid to the transmission of the original poetic form and rhyme. An interesting discovery was the fact that many of the most high-quality amateur and professional translations contain a number of additions and omissions that were deliberately performed by translators to convey the meaning laid down by the author. Such discrepancies with the original are inevitable due to the difference in languages. Thus, the complete preservation of the original's expression plan is often detrimental to the quality of the translation, since it becomes a subscript devoid of poetry and semantic value.

A comprehensive assessment of the quality of poetic translations makes it possible to reduce the effect of subjective factors in analyzing the quality of poetic translation, and also makes it possible to rank translation options, identify the most qualitative of them, that is, those whose authors did not commit gross violations, and who managed to cope with the task of preserving the content and form of the original. Therefore, the described criteria can be recommended to the organizers of translation contests for evaluating amateur poetic translations of the works of the participants of the contests.