Imagery in Translation

all levels of perception, from sounding of names to general com­positional structure.

• Do not forget to read aloud what you have written in trans­ lation to compare it with the source rhythmic and phonic image.

• Try to find a similar text in the target cultural tradition that will prove useful in your translation efforts.

Some general recommendations to follow in the tasks for comparison and translation:

• Always learn as much as possible about the author and literary tradition of the source text.

• Do not start to translate straight off with the first sen­ tence of the text until you have read it at least twice.

• Study semantic, stylistic and rhythmic values of the names in the text so as not to pass over the chance to select the right forms for them in the target language.

• Consider not only the forms but also expressive func­ tions of the words and sentences in the text.

• While making pre-translation analysis, identify ajl units of the text which may present a translation problem of a certain linguistic status.

• Consider the comparative associative force of the equiv­ alent vocabulary units.

• Thoroughly measure the rhythmic pattern of the text on 104

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Практикум по художественному переводу

PROSE UNIT1:

TRANSLA TING JANE A USTEN

Into russian

Introductory Notes

Jane Austen (1775-1817) was born into the family of an English clergyman, the seventh of his eight children. She was educated in the main by her father, the minister of a small parish. She started her literary career by writing parodies and sketches for the amusement of the family but went on to become one of the most brilliant novelists in English literature. Her first twenty-six years were spent in the quiet of her father's house. In 1801 her father fell seriously ill and the family moved to Bath in an at­tempt to restore his health. After her father's death in 1805, the family eventually returned to Hampshire. This quiet, uneventful life formed one of the shrewdest writers in English literature. Jane Austen definitely had the gift of sensitive observation as well as that of quiet humour. She was very attentive to the life and man­ners of her time and her class. She completed and published six novels and left one unfinished when she died in 1817, as quietly and serenely as she had lived.

Literature, not the literary life, was always her intention. The only literary attitude she enjoyed was the one which kept her bent over the little sheets of paper while her sister Cassandra sewed and her mother, a lively woman, held her tongue. She was the complete artist; it was enough. Her literary development might be traced back to Defoe, Fielding, Richardson and Crabbe, al­though the truth is that she was unique in the art of story-telling, and came onto the scene "without ancestors and left it without progeny." The material from which she created her novels only adds to their miracle. She called it "human nature in the midland counties," By words of Ronald Blythe, her biographer and critic,

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