In Kazakh translations of M. Yu. Lermontov’s works in the 80-90-s, the combination of precise and free translations is observed with prevailing exact ones. From the 20-30-s up till present days, the same works of the Russian classicist are the objects of word-for-word translation.

The aim of this article is an intention to understand the reasons of prevailing word-for-word translations and to generalize wide-spread methods of its transfer. Non-randomness of prevailing word-for-word translation in the reviewed sphere is justified by the structure of the Kazakh language, correlation of the direct and indirect expressions in the translated text, relations of the significant with the signified. Such an approach allowed justifying the conception about word-for-word translation as an analytical one.

Other repeated, stable methods of meanings transfer in word-for-word translation also attract attention. It is a subjective and depictive descriptiveness and such relations between the expression and the graphics as the system of label relations, traditional symbolic character of the Kazakh poetic language which stipulate the rhetorical textual figures.

The results of the project can be applied in theory and practice of literary translation, history of literature.