Imagery in Translation

becomes clear that the situation deals with some supernatural phe­nomenon without it ever being mentioned directly. When it has to be rendered into Russian, this phrase may trouble the transla­tor, for normally one may turn it into «Ходу туда четырежды четыре дня» or «Добираться туда тебе придется шестнадцать дней». The former is perceived as mythical, while the latter sounds ordinary, without any association with the su­pernatural. Mathematically, both have one and the same refer­ence but the language of folklore has semantics of its own, within which figures may change "their functions completely. More of­ten than not, such cases require a translator's comment.

The other example, the one describing a task in a Russian fairy tale, leaves a narrower field for semantic manoeuvring. If we translate it literally, it gives "go there I don 't know where, and bring that I don't know what." Such a phrase does not function as a prop­er formula, it lacks rhythmic arrangement and its associative pow­er is thus vciy shaky. To be more productive, one can invent some play upon words, for example, "'Go wherever to bring whatever!" Or it could be "Go I know not where, bring 1 know not what."

Verses in a folklore tale. Since a folk tale is supposedly a profane version of a sacred myth, which was usually versified in one form or another and was more of a hymn than a story. Verses are scattered all over such tales as the remnants of their mythical origin. They may fulfil different functions, but most of them mark, as it were, the connection between a story and the other world. They are verses or, rather, rhymes at the beginning and end, in a spell, in a dialogue between this world and that, and so on.

A rhyme, especially in a framing position, that is, at the beginning or end of the tale, can be absolutely separate from the content of the story. The English tale about the tricks of Hedley Kow ends with a rhyme about a cat:

Whenever the cat o' the house is black, The lasses o' lovers will have no lack.

Kiss the black cat,

An' 'twill make ye fat;

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Практикум по художественному переводу

Kiss the white ane,

'Twill make ye lean.

A cat is usually a symbol of domestic stability, of family life, but at same time it may be a symbol of devilry or witch's tricks. This rhyme is connected with the story in an oblique fash­ion, as if a spell of the topsy-turvy world. In translation it must sound natural, funny and easily remembered:

Когда в вашем доме живет черный кот, Влюбленным доставит он много хлопот.

Черного погладь кота —

Одолеет полнота;

Если хочешь стройным стать —

Лучше белого погладь.

Very often lamentations in a folklore text are of a special nature and invest the text with lyricism or some narrative tension. To translate such a lamenting rhyme properly means to recon­struct its function in the text, which is mostly due to a special rhythm.

Rhyming and rhythmic elements of a folklore text may ap­pear a problem for translation when we deal with a folklore song, be it ritual or epic, or just a piece of folk lyrics. Something hap-. pens to the text when, meant as a song or, at least, a chant to be performed to music, it is turned into sober prose in translation. Such a prose version may present the gist of the story but lacks the greater part of its emotive and expressive power. Compare the beginning of a Russian epic poem "Slovo о polku Igoreve" and

its English version "The Host of Prince Igor." The Russian text is taken by Ivan Novikov's version:

He ладно ли было бы,

Братия,

Песню нам начать Ратных повестей Словесами старинными —

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