The Eve of St. Agnes ve dvou novějších českých překladech

The contrastive analysis of two modern Czech translations of John Keats’s The Eve of St. Agnes by Jiřina Hauková (1961) and Hana Žantovská (1977) shows differences on three levels: the translators’ refashioning of the Spenserian stanza, different preferences in rendering Keats’s imagery, and different levels of deliberate archaizing in lexical choices and syntax, especially in direct speeches. Žantovská’s version is more euphonious with a higher percentage of full rhymes and, with a rhyming scheme of ababcdcdd and a final alexandrine line, keeps closer to the original rhythmical and rhyming pattern. It also keeps closer to the original in preserving the highly stylized nature of most direct speeches in the poem. Hauková’s earlier version relies more on imperfect rhyming or assonance and departs more radically from the Spenserian scheme, with a rhyming pattern of ababcdcdc, and a frequent lack of a clear caesura in the last line. It also tends to make the direct speeches less ornate and, even outside direct a dress, resorts less frequently to highly formal, poeticized or archaic lexical choices or syntax. Žantovská’s rendering of Keats’s imagery shows preference for precision and logical consistency while the poetic effects in Hauková’s version depend more often on combining seemingly disparate images and notions.