Speaking Silence and Silencing Speech

This chapter considers the case of Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich Romanov (K.R). Methodologically, the focus is on examining translation juxtaposed with different types of evidence—K.R diaries, original poetry, and source texts. The chapter argues that diaries with their openness allow interpreting K.R.'s homographetic translations by identifying what could be termed as speaking silence and silencing speech. Along with the diaries, K.R. wrote poetry and plays. In terms of openness about his sexuality, K.R.'s original literary works, when compared to his diaries, are what the negative is to the photograph. While making use of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick's and Lee Edelman's work, the chapter utilizes them to translation as a particular mode of queer writing. As a seminal figure in queer theory, Sedgwick calls for overcoming simplistic and exclusive binaries of the discourse on sexuality in general and of the closet in particular.