[Alexander Givental]

Originally Posted by Orwn Acra

I could say the same thing about how the line I quoted before--"represented in their author's phrasing"--also embodies the essence of your word-problem in that the words serve as a reflection of their author's meaning

Which brings me to my first answer: that the problem and solution are undefined.

Orwn, the problem is well-defined, but my formulation of it, as it turned out, required clarifications (at least for this audience) - and that's fine.
But you are right that some other elements of the poem could cause associations with mirrors - and they wouldn't be helpful as clues for finding the right answer to my puzzle.

By the way, there is another aspect of the poem (forget now about my puzzle) which I think was essential for Usov (and which Gasparov, judging by his essay, didn't notice) - it is related to the phrase you paid attention to.

Namely, in the first stanza, Usov describes the environment of the translator: it is "motionless evening" (недвижный вечер), and he is talking (not exactly as in our translation) about the "disposition" (расположенье) of the original quatrain "in front of [him]" (передо мною).

In the "original" quatrain itself, it is also a motionless evening, but the words aren't used: it is "dusk" (сумерки) and "before night" (перед ночью) the "city is getting quiet" (затихает).

However, in the mock-translation we have: "evening hours" (вечерний час), "motion" (движение) in the city is getting quiet, as well as "in front of me" (передо мной), аnd "representation" or "image" or "reflection" (отображенье - а word quite consonant to расположенье from the first stanza).

So, I think the point Usov is making here is that the translation depends just as much on the original text as it does on the translator's own circumstances (mood, environment, etc.) We tried to reflect this in our translation.