Imagery in Translation. also a problem for translation

also a problem for translation. When a shaman says, «Я был за большим хребтом Сумбер,» there is no point in looking for such a ridge on a map for «Сумбер» exists only as a magic boundary between the middle and upper worlds in Tuvin folklore.

A tale may begin with the naming of a personage and place, like this: «Давным-давно жила на свете девушка Хонхинур. Она жила на берегу золотого озера, на: местности кочковатой». The italicised words are very important symbols and should be taken as allusions to a sacred nature of the place and personage. If we translate it straight, this allusive mythical flavour may disappear: "Once upon a time there lived a girl on the russocky shore of a golden lake. Her name was Khonkhinur." Such a story may be about any girl and any place, while the read­er should recognise a fairy creature in this initial formula. To pro­vide such recognition, we should transform the names and some features: "Once there was a maiden called Khonkhinur, Jingle Bell. Her abode was on a tussocky shore of a mysterious golden lake." Such a formula will give much more information to the English reader; maiden instead of girl, was instead of lived, and the inclusion of the extra word mysterious points to the magic nature of both the girl and the lake.

The narrative style of a Siberian folk tale is usually quite colloquial. It is recognisable by such syntactic features as the or­der of words, omitted personal pronouns, partitions, many ellip­tic and exclamatory sentences, phraseological units, etc. Let us consider the beginning of a story:

«В одной деревне три брата жили — Халба, Адунга и Покчо. Два брата охотничий промысел любили, на охоту хо­дили. Ловушки для зверей делать умели. Стрелой белке на лету в глаз попадали. А младший за старших хоронился. Бра­тья на охоту — соболевать. Покчо — за ними. Братья шалаш сделают, огонь разведут. Таежному Хозяину поклонятся, что­бы удача была, — ив тайгу. Покчо в шалаше сидит, кашу варит, звезды на небе считает, думает: «Вот бы мне столько

соболей!»

_

Практикум по художественному переводу

The rhythm of the narrative in Russian is based on a short measure, with the stress load stronger to the end of a sentence. If translated into regular English, the folk melody will be not there:

"In a village there lived three brothers, Khalba, Adunga and Pokcho. The two elder brothers were true hunters and went hunting very often. They were skilful in making traps and snares and would shoot a squirrel in his eye. The youngest preferred to keep behind them. When the two went sable hunting, Pokcho would follow them. The two hunters would make a cabin and light a fire. They would not forget to pray to the Master of the Forest for luck before going to the taiga. And Pokcho would stay in the cabin cooking and counting stars in the sky, thinking, 'What if I had as much sable!' "

The text in translation becomes smoother, more regular, and its rhythmic pattern changes considerably. The only features that show the text to be a piece of exotic folklore are the names and such realia as "taiga." Thus the emotive value of the text is somewhat reduced. The use of the techniques of partitioning and emphasis is probably useful in such cases. Then the text may take the following form in English:

"In a village there were three brothers called Khalba, Adun­ga and Pokcho. The two elder brothers loved hunting, and hunt­ing did they go. Ever so skilful in trapping and snaring. In shoot­ing a squirrel right in his eye. The youngest brother hid himself behind them. They went sable hunting — he would go behind them. The two would make a cabin and light a fire. Would pray to the Taiga Man for luck. Then they would enter the Taiga. Pokcho would stay in the cabin, cooking and counting stars in the sky, thinking, 'If only I had that amount of the sable!' "

The text has become shorter and more expressive, proba­bly more emotive due to the tension caused by the shortened sen­tences and emphatic structures.

294

Дата добавления: 2015-08-03