“Other chimers” of Gerar de Nerval as the apophesis of literary hermeticism

Abstract

The proposed article is the first attempt in Ukrainian literary criticism to analyze the mini-cycle “Other Chimeras” by Gerard de Nerval, the French artist of the XIX century. These poems were not published during his lifetime. They have, to a large extent, a draft, which, among other things, further complicates their interpretation and understanding. The proposed article consists of two parts. In the first, the authors try to prove that the sonnets of mini-cycle “Other Chimeras” are a kind of quintessence of Nerval’s hermeticism. Accordingly, any interpretation depends significantly on the creative imagination of the interpreter. The authors of the article show that “Other Chimeras” is a compressed catalog of historical events and people, their actions and words. Also, this cycle is filled with some characters of the religious and mythological heritage of mankind. In the second part of the article, the authors proposed (for the first time in domestic literary studies) their own translation of “Other Chimeras” into Ukrainian. In order for the reader to better understand the specifics of Nerval’s mature work, this translation of the sonnets is literal. In this way, we managed to reproduce as much as possible and not damage the semantic and informational level of the original, without missing a single “tangle” of reminiscences, allusions, metaphors and hints, which are so rich in these five sonnets. Thanks to this form of translation, the reader will be able to imagine the complexity and, to some extent, the inexpediency of literary translation of Nerval’s poems. Finally, the authors of the article show that the mature work and in particular mini-cycle “Other Chimeras” of the named French writer can be perceived as the starting point of literature in its modern form. Which, on the one hand, gives Nerval’s texts even greater cultural and historical significance, and on the other hand, opens up virtually limitless possibilities for its interpretation by future researchers.