10 Неделя

Тема 2 ч. Перевод и стиль. Стилистические нормы воспринимающей литературы и текст перевода. Принцип социальной обусловленности выбора изобразительных средств. Дифференцированность изобразительных средств. Микро - и макростилистические уровни перевода. Перевод художественной поэзии.

To sum up, when translating a poem we are dealing not only with the surface contents of it conveyed through the seman­tics of words but with a cluster of interacting components, from metre and rhyme to cultural symbolism, where every subtle de­tail contributes to the imagery of the whole text. Alter the metre, abandon the rhyme, or neglect the cultural symbol-and the re­sult is a text that differs from the original in its basic qualities. Some translators try to justify such transformations with refer­ence to the target reader's interests or preferences but the argu­ment lacks cogency as, more often than not, it reflects the inter­ests and preferences of the translator himself. The cogent argu­ment should be the one that results in better understanding the unique achievements of the source poetry.

This section includes classic as well as modern poets with samples of translation for comparison. Each unit begins with in­troductory notes containing some biographical data, comments on the works of the poet and on the particular problems of trans­lating them. Tasks for translation are supplied with directions and recommendations for the translator.

Иллюстративный и раздаточный лекционный материал в разрезе тем дисциплины: словари «Oxford 2006», рефераты по мировой литературе

Список рекомендуемой литературы: Казакова Т.А., Практикум по художественному переводу, С.-Петербург, 2004., Алексеева И.С. Профессиональный тренинг переводчика. С.- Пб, 2004.

Глоссарий :

11 Неделя

Тема 1 ч. . Стилистические нормы воспринимающей литературы и текст перевода. Дифференцированность изобразительных средств. Микро - и макростилистические уровни перевода. . Drama Translation Techniques.

Translating drama, we face a number of specific problems. A drama text differs from any other fiction text because it is meant not for reading but for performing; it consists of a dialogue, which is connected with the proper sound and fitness. Thus it should be assessed from the point of view of time and intelligibility for the supposed audience. The text is to be pronounced and performed, and this action differs from the ordinary conversation. In every­day speech we may act resolutely or shyly, confidently or thought­fully, indifferently or affectionately — and use whichever sen­tence structures and accents. But when a text is meant for scenic performance, the playwright selects sentences so that they should predetermine the way of utterance. When the character is shy, he uses shy, uncertain, "shaky" constructions; when he is authoritative, his syntax must be authoritative too. When, in an English play, a personage commands

Off you go! We need to choose between a few Russian variants, and the ultimate decision should be based not so on linguistic principles as on the mood and character judgement. In Russian, he may say: «Пошел вон! » — «Прочь отсюда!» — «Убирайся!» — «Вали отсюда!» Each of them manifests a different degree of self-confidence and, preferred by a translator, will form different characters; Убирайся reveals an Irritated and defensive mood, while Вали отсюда implies a rude mid aggressive personality; Прочь отсюда is too intellectual, and Пошел вон may be too archaic for a contemporary. When a personage is rude and aggressive, by the author's grace, it is difficult for a Russian spectator to perceive him as such if he uses phrases like «Прочь отсюда!» or «Убирайся!» though they may be quite equivalent from the grammatical point of view.

Timing and intonation are essential for a drama text. Too many words in a phrase necessary to restore its grammatical mean­ing may not have serious consequences when we translate! a nov­el but in a play or film such a transformation will make the scenic speech incomprehensible. Very often, to translate some syntactic structures from English into Russian, one must enlarge the space of the sentence, which becomes a complication in a drama text. The English phrase (Gwendolen, from "The Importance of Being Earnest") "If you would care to verify the incident, pray do so" may be presented in different forms in Russian:

Если вам угодно проверить, действительно ли это событие имело место, прошу вас убедиться.

Если вам угодно это проверить — пожалуйста.

In the first variant, the semantics of the source text is trans­lated more explicitly but the phrase becomes twice as long in Russian. The second variant compresses the spacious phrase into one word это and thus economises on the syntactic space. Cer­tainly, the second variant is more convenient to use on the stage, from the phonic point of view. Yet there is another aspect, the stylistic one. Gwendolen is said to be very polite, which means her speech may be perceived as next to caricature, something exaggerated. With this, the first variant seems more expressive, though it takes more time to pronounce the remark and to per­ceive it in Rassian.

To translate a drama text is to reconstruct an adequate ba­sis for performance, which includes proper timing and audible comprehension, cultural and linguistic stereotypes to be perceived as authentic. Translated dramatic works, there sometimes reveal conflicts as follows: in a dialogue it is mentioned that this or that personage is rich or elegant, while a puzzled spectator can see the mentioned rich person wrapped in something like rags. Such a situation was actually reconstructed in the stage version of

Chekhov's «Чайка» (The Seagull) as translated into English and staged at Rutgers University (USA). The collision may be based on the cultural stereotype of "Usually Russians look shabby."

Another aspect of the same problem is compatibility be­tween the mood of an episode and the structure of a sentence or the choice of words. There is essential difference in syntactic rules and communicative functions of words of the same mean­ing between English and Russian. What sounds brief and ex­pressive in English may appear too wordy, complex and lanky in Russian. Accordingly, what is vivid and expressive in Rus­sian, often becomes too lofty and archaic or, on the contrary, too rude and low in English. The translator has to interpret the drama text he translates, as if he himself were a director of the performance. It is important to analyse characters, moods and relations in the play. Thus, translating, we are to have our own point of view on what and how is going on at the stage, other­wise, the text will remain rigid and alien to the audience while the play is being performed.

Another problem is the cultural gap. When we come across this or that realia in the text meant for reading, we may find the way out using comments, descriptions, or the like, that is, by us­ing extra-text. Nothing of the kind is appropriate in a drama text meant for performance. In Chekhov's Seagull Arkadina has a quar­rel with her son, and is so irritated that she insults him, shouting at him in Russian, «Киевский мещанин!» The word meshchanin, quite neutral in itself (town dweller or burger as opposed to an esquire, a noble man), from the point of view of its stylistic status, could be considered an insult in Russia in the times of the turn of the 20^th century, when certain "low" or "mean" qualities were implied, peculiar to this social group! Using the word, Ark­adina meant that her son Konstantin was much below her in so­cial status: she was a noblewoman by birth, while he was a son of a common man, no gentleman, thus himself not a gentleman by birth, conceivably, low and mean as a personality. But the En­glish translation gives a quite inappropriate substitute "You are a Kievan burger!" This phrase is a literal translation of the Russian words but absolutely wrong in the cultural context of the play because the English phrase lacks any emotive implications. An American spectator may be puzzled knowing not why it is so mean to be a dweller of Kiev. Probably, it might be more appro­priate to use English substitutions "You are a mere nobody!" or "You are not a gentleman]"

When we translate a play, we distinguish whether it is a tragedy or a comedy, a modern or a classical work, a fantasy or a psychological drama. But the hardest challenge is a nationally biased play. In the comedy they use a lot of folk phrases, the street language, idioms and names of which are clear and com­prehensible to a native speaker but inevitably lose their bright colouration in translation. The selected text is a play of Alex­ander Ostrovsky, an outstanding Russian playwright whose lan­guage was deeply rooted in the national character and history. He invented a lot of words and names that became popular. In a way, he may be compared with Sheridan, whose language is almost untranslatable into Russian. The characters of Ostrovsky speak the language of their own, in which even the form of a word is important to convey a lot of subtext and implicit shades of mean­ing. Suffice it to mention such forms as «маменька», «эка»,, «сердце-вещун», «заела», etc. Usually, such words and forms lose their expressive power when translated into English, and with them Ostrovsky's characters lose part of their individuality.

The problem of the "national colouring" is not only associ­ated with drama. However, it is in this kind of text that national colouration is especially complicated because it penetrates into all components of the text: it colours the language of dialogues, contents, form, and authorial remarks. The first task that each translator faces is about what is to be saved first and foremost. Strictly speaking, the major "national" component of a play, that is, its language, is inevitably lost in any translation. Dressed in their national clothes but speaking a foreign language, the characters appear very unusual, even funny, on the stage. Probably, the way out may be found in some "fourth dimension": on the one part, the characters are dressed somewhat unusual, slightly marked with "foreignness," while in their translated speech ap­peared words or structures from the source language.

Linguistic means not only differ in form in different lan­guages, they also differ greatly in their emotive power. National peculiarities in the manner of speaking are quite often untranslat­able. Such may be considered Russian diminutive suffixes, which caused many typical misinterpretations in English, like little fa­ther for «батюшка». But is it to become dad, daddy or Papa? Another problem is that of English "you" when addressing close relatives and friends. Each time the translator has to assess whether this or that relationship is close enough to translate the English you by «ты» or «вы». The flower girl from Pygmalion speaks cockney, which is imitated in written, "Ow, eezye-oon san, is e?" In Russian, her speech loses much of colour, and she speaks quite literary, even rather intellectual, «А, так это ваш сын?» The problem is that it makes no sense to imitate her cockney accent phonetically, but a translator may use some other markers of a common speech, grammar, for instance, «Ага, ваш, значица, сыночек! »

How many imitative words and structures can be used in translation not to break the impression of the whole play? There is a rule in the theory of translation which recommends to retain (or imitate) only those source units that the target language speak­ers can perceive as "purveyors" of important national informa­tion. Then, such details should be comprehensible to the audi­ence, for there is no way for supplying any volume of cultural comments to a theatre pit. A widely spread situation is the En­glish

I love you! Used very often, especially in modern stage or screen works. It would be a mistake to always translate it into Russian as Я люблю тебя! In Russian, the phrase is more solemn and sounds inappropriate in many common situations when you can just say something like «Держись!», «Я с тобой!», «Все хорошо!» or use gestures and mimics.

Some other national details may sound too heavy when redundant, for example, a great number of inches, pints, or gal­lons, turned into Russian «дюймы, пинты и галлоны» and poured onto a poor spectator from the stage, make him more than puz­zled, they make him bored. The rule may be "Do not overdo!" It is preferable to use international measures in most cases, and only those which are specific for the particular text and make a colour­ful detail are to be saved in the imitated form. To such a category we may refer national currency: it would be inappropriate to trans­late cents as «копейки». Yet a sovereign may be comfortably replaced by «фунт» in Russian, for it sounds national enough and at the same time comprehensible, whereas «соверен» is rath­er enigmatic to most Russian spectators.

Probably, the most reasonable way for a translator of a drama text is to work out a balance of transformation principles; we must measure not only the text but also the character and sit­uation to decide when to prefer a semantic equivalent — and when to reconstruct a stylistic effect or intonation.

To sum up are the following recommendations:

• Assess the timing and rhythm of the source play and try to reconstruct an analogous structure in the target language.

• Study the mood and temper of characters to follow them regaining their speech in translation.

• Study the style and semanticseof the source text and fol­low the functional strategy of their reconstruction.

• Study cultural and historical details in the text and look for their reconstruction.

• Assess national colouring in the text under translation and select a proper strategy of its reconstruction.

Иллюстративный и раздаточный лекционный материал в разрезе тем дисциплины: словари «Oxford 2006», рефераты по мировой литературе

Список рекомендуемой литературы: Казакова Т.А., Практикум по художественному переводу, С.-Петербург, 2004., Алексеева И.С. Профессиональный тренинг переводчика. С.- Пб, 2004.

Глоссарий: