Information about the author: 

Abstract:

The article examines the new French translations of S.A. Esenin’s lyrics, namely three collections: Christiana Pighetti, Henri Abril and Christian Mouze. All three books are bilingual and original, representing a selection of the texts written by the translators themselves and accompanied by their prefaces. “The Diary of a Poet” by H. Pighetti (“Journal d’un poète”, 2004, republished in 2014) and “The Black Man” by Abril (“L’Homme noir”, 2006; republished in 2015) have a pronounced conceptuality, which is consolidated not only by the title and corresponding selection of the texts, but also by serious introductory articles. Abril provides rich biographical, socio-historical, political information, and also touches on many problems of aesthetics and poetics of Esenin’s creativity. H. Muz limits himself to a very brief critical “word”, the main motive of which is related to politics. Esenin’s poetic creativity is distinguished by its musicality, rich imagery and lexical expressiveness; therefore, without attention to these features, prosody, rhythm and rhyme, it is difficult to talk about the translator’s approach to the author’s concept. When comparing a number of translations, it turns out that the highest level of translations and criticism of Esenin’s poetry in France is demonstrated by Henri Abril. His achievements do not stop other enthusiasts, which indicates the continued interest in Esenin’s lyrics in France.