Imagery in Translation

to the first collectors of the Indian stories when they were regis­tered in English in the 19^th century. Back then such formulas as "medicine," "spirit," "power," "mystery" were used to somehow represent the untranslatable original words for ideas of the sacred and supernatural in the Native Americans' mythical picture of the world. For example, the Algonquin word manitou meant many things at once: it was a supernatural force, an unknown power or ability, a magic feature, an invisible cause of life and movement; it is usually associated with both breath and mystery. Actually, manitou is what makes things alive and be as they are to prove their oneness; among the living beings and in the real world man­itou may be specially concentrated in some people (medicine men) or animals, birds and even lakes, mountains, herbs or other ob­jects. Such a concentrated ability was called orenda. Among the supernatural beings, concentrated manitou makes wakan, super­natural forces, like water, winds or rocks. When these words were recorded in the process of myth collections, they took different forms in English (spirit, god, power, medicine, mystery, and the like).

Given this, a name like Sweet Medicine is very difficult to translate into Russian: Сладкое Лекарство is not appropriate to imply the associative power of the name of that legendary chief and shaman, an Indian cultural hero; more suitable probably would be combinations like Великий {Вещий) Целитель (Волхв).

Task for comparison:

Spider Rock — Паучий Камень

SPIDER ROCK (Navajo)

Spider Woman possessed supernatural power at the time of creation, when Navajos emerged from the third world into this fourth world.

At the time, monsters roamed the land and killed many people. Since Spider Woman loved the people, she gave power

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Практикум по художественному переводу

for Monster-Slayer and Child-Born-of-Water to search for the Sun-God who was their father. When they found him, Sun-God showedthem how to destroy all the monsters on land and in the water.

Because she preserved their people, Navajos established Spider Woman among their most important and honoured Dei­ties.

She chose the top of Spider Rock for her home. It was Spi­der Woman who taught Navajo ancestors of long ago the art of weaving upon a loom. She told them, "My husband, Spider Man, constructed the weaving loom making the crosspoles of sky and earth cords to support the structure; the warp sticks of sun rays, lengthwise to cross the woof; the heads of rock crystal and sheet lightning, to maintain original condition of fibres. For the batten, he chose a sun halo to seal joints, and for the comb he chose a white shell to clean strands in a combing manner." Through many gener­ations, the Navajos have always been accomplished weavers.

From their elders, Navajo children heard warnings that if they did not behave themselves, Spider Woman would let down her web-ladder and carry them up to her home and devour them! The children also heard that the top of Spider Rock was white from the sun-bleached bones of Navajo children who did not brave themselves!

(Comments. Spider Rock stands over 800 feet high in Ari­zona's colourful Canyon de Chelly National Park of the USA. Geologists define the age of the rock as "the forma­tion that began 230 million years ago." Windblown sand swirled and compressed with time created the spectacular red sandstone monolith. Long ago, the Navajo people named it Spider Rock. — Voices of the Winds. Facts on File, 1989.

Spider Woman is one of the most popular mythical heroes among the southern Indians. Her image is partly human, partly magic and partly that of an arachnid. She is usually associated with the sun, fire and mountains. Her effigy is a female doll with a black face and half-moon