Autumn in the poems of Juhan Liiv: from Estonian roots to international translations

Abstract

This thesis explores the translation of Juhan Liiv’s (1864–1913) poetry into English, focusing on nature imagery, especially autumn colors. The analysis covers two poems ‘Lehed lang’sid’ (1897) /‘Leaves Fell’ and ‘Sügise’ (1903)/‘Autumn’ from a collection of Liiv’s poetry translations Selected Poems in Estonian and English: Juhan Liiv (2024) by Jüri Talvet and Lee Harvey Hix. The aim of this study is to analyze how the inherently Estonian poetry of Juhan Liiv transfers to a very different linguistic and cultural system of the English language. The comparative analysis concentrates on both the formal features as well as the content of the poems with a special attention on the imagery connected to autumnal colors. The thesis consists of an introduction that provides a background on Liiv and the translation of his poetry, followed by a theoretical section conceptualizing poetry translation and Juhan Liiv’s poetry. The empirical section provides an analysis of the poems and a discussion of the translations. The thesis ends with conclusions where the results of the analysis are presented. Key words: Juhan Liiv, poetry translation, translation studies, nature in poetry