ՀՈՎՀԱՆՆԵՍ ԹՈՒՄԱՆՅԱՆԻ ԹԱՐԳՄԱՆՉԱԿԱՆ ԱՐՎԵՍՏԸ / Translation art of Hovhannes Tumanyan

The article discusses one of the important aspects of the work of the great Armenian writer Hovhannes Tumanyan (1869–1923). He was a lot of and seriously engaged in the translation of both poetic and prose works. The pinnacle of his translation skills is considered to be the translation into Armenian of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin's poem «Winter Evening». This article compares texts in two languages in order to determine the degree of identity of both their pragmatic meaning and linguistic means of expression. Hovhannes Tumanyan also paid close attention to the methodological issues of translation activities. He succinctly formulated the essence of the philosophy of translation in three basic requirements: skillful selection of the original, excellent language, and impeccable edition. There are a few more rules: the translator must have a high sense of responsibility towards the author and his work; it should, as far as possible, remain true to the content and meaning of the original; it is desirable to provide the translation with explanatory notes; it is unacceptable to "bribe" the reader in advance with references to translation difficulties; a good translation needs serious criticism. Hovhannes Tumanyan highly appreciated the role of successful translations in the intercultural communication of peoples, in particular, he noted that if there are a sufficient number of translations from other languages into Armenian, then there are very few reverse translations, meanwhile it is extremely important for other peoples to be able to compile the correct idea about us.