The timeless power of a word

Reflections of the truth of Rudyard Kipling’s “If” in the multicultural dimension

Abstract

The article highlights the chrono-specific peculiarity of R. Kipling’s poem “If” from the point of view of its wide popularity within not only the Anglo-Saxon linguistic culture but also within the Ukrainian society especially on the edge of its modern historical events. The well-known truth of this poem is reflected in the aphoristic compression of the text, the way the simple human being’s challenges and values are described and the way-outs it proposes. The article aims to define the reasons for the timeless popularity of the analyzed verse within Anglo-Saxon linguistic culture, which takes place in forming core personal values, realized in the general “portrait” of a modern successful figure of different social activities in this linguistic culture. The biographical approach allows us to trace the role this poem plays in forming a personality from various social spheres of a man’s activity, that of sport, politics, business and even military forces. On the other hand, the interpretative analysis helps to point out the conceptual messages of the poem, which serve to the formation of the pragmatic specificity of the text, that influences the audience regardless of its social or age divergence. The usage of the elements of translational analysis makes it possible to understand the way the pragmatic potential of the source text is revealed in the Ukrainian translational versions. The relevance of the poem to the socio-political challenges of modern Ukraine is revealed in more than fifteen translational versions (or interpretations) of this poem in the Ukrainian language.

The study proves that this poem occupies a special place in Anglo-Saxon culture due to its appeal to the traditional values of this culture, while also having the ability to influence the formation of a modern personality not only within Anglo-Saxon culture, but also, for instance, in Ukraine. The perspectives of this research are seen in the suggestion that the appearance of several translations speaks for the necessity to undertake the comparative translation analysis with the aim of studying all such versions from the point of view of their resemblance to the source text with further supposition of the most adequate translational variant.