Literary translation

This Lecture:

• describes written translation subcategories;

• introduces the notion of hypertext;

• discusses challenges facing a literary translator.

As mentioned in the previous Lecture, written translation is divided into several subcategories depending on the genre of the texts being translated. Literary translation forms one of such subcategories being, perhaps, unique and the most sophisticated of all.

This translation variety requires special skills and talents and, unlike some other varieties (e.g., translation of official documents) it cannot be formalized or standardized. The explanation of the uniqueness and un­precedented nature of each literary translation piece lies in the following statement. In literary translation the translator is to render the images of the source text rather than only facts like in other translation and inter­pretation varieties.

Below, to illustrate the statement, let us compare the following pas­sage from A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway with its translation into Ukrainian.

I stopped at a barber shop and was shaved and went home to the hospital. My leg was as well as it would get for a long time. I had been up for examina­tion three days before. There were still some treatments to take before my course at the Ospedale Maggiore was finished and I walked along the side street practicing not limping. An old man was cutting silhouettes under an arcade. I stopped to watch him. Two girls were pos­ing and he cut their silhouettes together, snipping very fast and looking at them, his head on one side. The girls were giggling. He showed me the silhouettes be­fore he pasted them on white paper and handed them, to the girls.

«They're beautiful» he said. «How about you, Tenente?»

The girls went away looking at their silhouettes and laughing. They were nice-looking girls. One of them worked in the wine shop across from the hospital.

«All right,» I said.

«Take your cap off.»

«No. With it on.»

«It will not be so beautiful,» the old man said. «But,» he brightened, «it will be more military.»

He snipped away at the black paper, separated the two thicknesses and pasted the pro­files on a card and handed them to. 'How much?»

«That's all right». He waved his

Я зайшов до перукарні й по­голився, потім попростував до госпіталю. Моя нога вже так змі­цніла, що кращого й бажати було годі. За три дні перед тим я був на комісії. Мені залишалось усього кілька процедур до кінця ліку­вання в Головному госпіталі, і я йшов бічною вулицею, намагаю­чись не кульгати. Під склепінчас­тим під'їздом одного будинку якийсь старий вирізував паперові силуети. Я зупинився подиви­тись. Йому позували двоє дівчат, і він вирізував їхні силуети вкупі, швидко орудуючи ножицями й раз по раз нахиляючи голову вбік, щоб позирнути на дівчат. Дівчата хихотіли. Він показав силуети мені, а тоді вже наклеїв їх на білий папір і віддав дівча­там.

- Он які красуні,- сказав
він.- А ви не хочете, лейтенанте?

Дівчата пішли, роздивляю­чись свої силуети і сміючись. Обидві були гарненькі. Одна з них працювала у кав'ярні проти нашого госпіталю.

-Ну зробіть, - сказав я. Зніміть кашкета.

- Ні. В кашкеті.

- Буде не так гарно,- сказав
старий.- Зате,- усміхнувся він, -
дуже войовниче.

Він заходивсь обрізувати складений удвоє чорний папір, потім розняв готові профілі, на­клеїв

hand. «I just made them for you.»

«Please,» I brought out some coppers. «For pleasure.»

«No. I did them for a pleas­ure. Give them to your girl.»

«Many thanks until we meet.»

«Until I see thee.»

I went on to the hospital. There were some letters, an offi­cial one, and some others. I was to have three weeks' convales­cent leave and then return to the front. I read it over carefully. Well, that was that. The conva­lescent leave started October fourth when my course was fin­ished. Three weeks was twenty-one days. That made October twenty-fifth. I told them I would not be in and went to the restau­rant a little way up the street from hospital for supper and read my letters and the Cornere della Sera at the table. There was a letter from my grandfather, containing family news, patriotic encouragement, a draft for two hundred dollars, and a few clip­pings; a dull letter from the priest at our mess; a letter from a man I knew who was flying with the French and had gotten in with a wild gang and was telling about it, and a note from Rinaldi asking me how long I was going to skulk in Milano and what was я ще думаю огинатися в Мілані all the news? He wanted me to bring him phonograph records and enclosed a list.

 

 

їх на картку й подав мені.

- Скільки з мене?

- Пусте.- Він махнув рукою.-Я зробив їх вам за спасибі.

- Ну будь ласка.- Я витяг з

кишені кілька монет.- Зробіть¹ мені приємність.

- Ні. Мені самому було при­ємно вирізати їх. Подаруйте сво­їй дівчині.

- Дуже вам дякую. Бувайте здорові.

- Ходи здоровий, синку.

Я повернувся до госпіталю. Там на мене чекало кілька листів, один з них - службовий. Мені надавали тритижневу відпустку на одужання, а потім я мав пове­рнутися на фронт. Я уважно пе­речитав листа. Еге ж, отак воно. Відпустка починалася з четверто­го жовтня, того самого дня, коли я закінчував курс лікування. Три тижні - це двадцять один день. Отже, двадцять п'ятого жовтня. Я сказав у госпіталі, що знов іду, й подався до ресторану на тій-таки вулиці, майже поруч госпі­талю, повечеряти і почитати лис­ти й «Cornere della Sera». Один лист був від мого діда: родинні новини, патріотичні гасла, чек на двісті доларів та кілька газетних вирізок; ще був нудний лист від нашого священика, лист від од­ного знайомого, який служив у французькому авіазагоні й весело проводив час у гурті відчайдуш­них гультяїв, про що й сповіщав мене; та ще коротка писулька від Рінальді. Він запитував, чи довго я ще думаю огинатися в Мілані й що нового взагалі. Крім того просив привезти грамофонних платівок і додав до листа їх список.

 

The most striking examples, however, of this unique feature ofliter­ary translation gives us poetry.

The Testament

by Taras Shevchenko

Dig my grave and raise my barrow

By the Dnieper-side

In Ukraina, my own land,

A fair land and wide.

I will lie and watch the cornfield?,

Listen through the years

To the river voices roaring,

Roaring in my ears.

When 1 hear the call

Of the racing flood,

Loud with hated blood,

I will leave them all,

Fields and hills; and force my way

Right up to the Throne

Where God sits alone;

Clasp His feet and pray...

But till that day

What is God to me?

Bury me, be done with me, Rise and break your chain, Water your new liberty With blood for rain. Then, in the mighty family

Of all that are free,

May be sometimes, very softly)

You will speak of me?

 

 

Заповіт

Тарас Шевченко

Як умру, то поховайте Мене на могилі,

Серед степу широкого На Вкраїні милій, Щоб лани широкополі, 1 Дніпро, і кручі Було видно, було чути Як реве ревучий. Як понесе з України У синєє море Кров ворожу... отоді я 1 лани, і гори -Все покину с полину До самого бога Молитися... а до того Я не знаю бога. Поховайте та вставайте Кайдани порвіте І вражою злою кров'ю Волю окропіте. І мене в сім'ї великій В сім'ї вольній, новій, Не забудьте пом'янути Незлим тихим словом.

Translated by E.L.Voynich London, 1911

It is easy to note that in the above translation example of the well-known Shevchenko's «Testament» individual information items (facts) are sometimes radically different or missing but the images forming in the translation readers' minds are virtually similar to those triggered in the minds of the source text readers. The same applies to the translation of prose pieces, though, maybe, to a lesser degree.

To fully understand the task of the literary translator it is worthwhile to recall the communicational scheme of translation. As you might re­member, the author of the source text sends a message to the source lan­guage speakers and the translator's task is to render this message for the speakers of the target language. For the translated message to be under­stood properly by the target language audience it is necessary that the knowledge bases (thesauruses) of the author, translator and translation users were similar.

This task is rather easy when the translator deals with facts as in translation of technical or official documents - one is only to match grammar patterns (perform regular transformations) and properly choose the equivalents.

Should the translator manage to achieve these goals, the translation will be a success, because facts are objective and understood in the same way by all people with similar educational background.

The situation with literary translation, however, is radically different. In literary translation

♦ the translator is to render mental images and trigger emotions similar to those initiated by the source text in its readers;

♦ the images and emotions are known to be extremely subjective;

♦ the words causing similar images and emotions may be different in different languages.

That is why literary translation is an artistic creation and to be suc­cessful it must be accepted by the language speakers' community of the target language as a piece of literary prose in their native language, unlike other translation varieties which may be tolerated by the users even in poor quality (factual information sometimes is more important for the users than grammatical and stylistic correctness).

Besides, there is another factor that makes literary texts so difficult for translation - it is so called hypertext.

•► Hypertext is the collective meaning of a literary text comprising all associations and allusions acquired by the words and word com­binations of this text in their previous usage.

These associations and allusions may be acquired when words and word combinations were used in other texts: books, popular songs, say­ings, films, etc. For instance, word combination реве та стогне is closely connected in the minds of Ukrainian speakers with the popular song and when used in a different context still preserve this connection. The same applies to words бузина and дядько. Used together in any context they still remain associated with the saying На городі бузина, в Києві дядько and this association rings a bell in the native speakers' minds, though often subconsciously.

Of course, these examples are the simplest - generally the hypertext allusions are extremely subtle and often not even recognized at the con­scious level. Yet, they are very important for the adequate perception of a literary text which makes translator's task especially hard.

In order to explain possible ways to render the hypertext in transla­tion let's recall again the communication theory. The author's text must comply with the hypertext thesaurus of the source text readers and in a similar way the hypertext of translation must 'ring a bell' in the minds of the target text readers.

Since means and devices of hypertext may be different in source and target languages, the translator is to find appropriate target language substitutes for the source hypertext elements.

It is hardly possible and desirable to give a universal prescription for hypertext substitutions in translation - the grounds of the choice are unique in each case.

Moreover, because of the unique cultural background of each nation a large share of the source hypertext is lost in translation.

Thus, in literary translation an important role is played by literary images and hypertext, however, speaking about this translation variety one should also keep in mind the following.

♦ The target text of literary translation is a piece of fiction belonging to the target language literature. That is why the knowledge of the target language is so critical for this translation type.

Literary translation should be recognized by the target language speakers as a literary text in their native language.

♦ In literary translation of dialogues the translator should take exact account of the speakers' character and situation of the dialogue. This in­formation determines the style of translation.

♦ Stylistic devices and expression means as well as connotations and shades of meaning of individual words are critical elements of 'image-making' in literary translation.

 

 

Література:

1. Комиссаров В.Н. Современное переводоведение. Учебное пособие. – М.: ЭТС. – 2002. – 424 с.

2. Комисарова В.Н., Кораллова А.Л. Практикум по переводу с английского языка на русский. - М., 1990.

3. Комиссаров В.Н. Лингвистика перевода. - М, 1981.

4. Корунець І.В. Теорія і практика перекладу. - Вінниця, 2003. - 448 с.

5. Мірам Г.Є. Дейнеко В.В. Основи перекладу. - К., 2003.

6. Мирам Г.Е. Переводныe картинки. Профессия: переводчик. - К., 2001.

7. Мирам Г.Е. Профессия: переводчик. - К., 1999.

8. Нелюбин Л.Л. Переводческий словарь. - М., 1999.

9. Федоров А.В. Основы общей теории перевода. - М., 1975.

 

 

Questions

1. What varieties are distinguished in translation?

2. Are translation approaches and devices similar in different translation varieties?

3. What are the principle differences between consecutive and simultaneous interpretation?

4. What are chuchotage and at-sight interpretation?

5. Describe differences in working environment of a translator and interpreter?

6. What are the distinctive features of literary translation?

7. What is hypertext? Define it. Give examples of hypertext allusions and associations.

8. can a translator render the whole of the source hypertext? If not, then what part of the hypertext is lost?

9. What is the attitude of the target language audience to a piece of literary translation?

10. What is to be taken into account in translation of dialogues?