Sergei Esenin Blog

While both poems are about the "golden grove" I think the second translation is better. I think this because it uses simpler phrases that clearly describe what is going on versus the first translation where the reader has to try more to interpret what the speaker is trying to say. For exmaple in the first translation the speaker says, " There is no point lamenting squandering years" versus the second translation the speaker says simply, "I don't regret the years that I have wasted". By reading the second phrase the reader clearly, already knows what the speaker is trying to say, where as in the first phrase the reader might have to look up some words or try to interpret what the speaker is trying to say. In these two translations they both have color imagery in common such as the first one, "bunched rowanberries" and the second one " red rowan berry clusters", they both mean the same thing as well as using the same colors. Each poem also gets the same theme and point across to the reader but the the second translation is just a simpler version that requires less thought interpretation from the reader.