ТОСКА, czyli jak się mówi o smutku po rosyjsku i po polsku (na wybranych przykładach literackich)

The article focuses on ways of expressing sadness in Russian and Polish, particularly on the features of the linguo-cultural concept of ТОСКА, which is difficult to express in translation. Selected translation decisions are analysed of quotations from literary classics from various epochs, such as Maria Dąbrowska, Jarosław Iwaszkiewicz or Aleksander Wat – as translators of Chekhov. Some examples from Old Russian and Romantic epochs are discussed too in Julian Tuwim’s translation into Polish and Wilhelm Lewik’s into Russian. It is confirmed that for some concepts, such as ТОСКА, ДУША, СУДЬБА, no corresponding ones exist in other languages and other linguo-cultural equivalents need to be proposed.