Тranslation
Introduction.
Translation is a mean of interlingual communication. The translator makes possible an exchange of information between users of different languages by producing in the target language a text which has an identical communicative value with the source text. This target text is not fully identical with the source text as to its form originality content due to the limitations imposed by the formal and semantic differences between the source language and target text.
National coloring of the work is one of examples of these differences. Now it is one of important themes to be studied/ During many years the USSR’s confines were closed and we had not much opportunity to interact with many foreign countries. Of course, we had a great number of foreign books but most of them were either classic books or books of working class. So we had not opportunity to value all the literature of foreign countries. the same case was in the foreign countries when they could not get all the variety of Russian literature. They also preferred to read our classics. The result of it was that they could know only archaic coloring of the works and they had little information about national coloring of Russia. And now then USSR does not exist any more every state that was a part of the USSR can perform its own literature and hence national coloring.
The author of this course paper considers that every literature work has its own national coloring. Every work is written in the conditions of the country where the author lives. Therefore the country with its language, mode of life, political, historical, economical atmosphere and many other factors influence on the work and it acquires the national coloring of the country even if the author does not think of creating of any work that would be nationally colored.
The author of this course paper considers the preservation of national coloring to be one of the most difficult tasks for translator. National coloring is the property of the country or its part. Every nation is proud of its history; traditions and it would consider an offence if the translator does not manage to convey the national coloring or if he conveys it wrong. That is why the translator must be very attentive and careful with any kind of literary work.
Dialectics of national coloring in the translation.
Any literary work appears on the national ground, reflects national problems, features and at the same time the problems common to all mankind. Passing from one nation to another literature enriches and extends the notion of peoples about each other.
It is one of the most difficult cases to convey national coloring. Owing to the translation very important literary works were able to appear in many other countries and became available for people speaking other languages. The translation helps mutual knowing and peoples' enrichment.
National coloring must be reflected adequately in the translation.
Dialectics of national coloring reveals itself specifically in different fields of spiritual culture of people and thus in various types of translation.
In the scientific and technique literature the national psychological categories are less expressed. The contents of such translations is valuable for all nations in spite of their national specific.
Thus, for example, concerning natural sciences Darwin's theory or classic physics of Newton or modern physics of Einstein or Bore have the same meaning for all the countries and nations. The original texts of natural-scientific works and their translations do not differ much from this point of view.
Here there is another case in the field of social-political literature. It is closely connected with the ideological society of the country with its history and its historical specifics and it can never be separated from country peculiarities and demands, political conditions, the events of its time and it is changed by the factors that reflect the notion development. National peculiarities, problems and interests put impress both on the contents and style of any author. In general the translation of social-political literature is more similar with scientific literature.
Comparing the works of J. Steinbeck, J. Austin and others we shall see the specific of author's personality and country specific.
The national beginning of one or another country reflected in its literature culture and in written culture that is especially interesting for us from the translation point of view is the aggregate of characteristic peculiarities and features that are specific for this nation and the constant historical development of this nation.
It also has common to all mankind, international character to which historical conditions give its own national coloring, its self-expression. That is why we speak about national specific character that was formed in the certain historical, social, geographic and other conditions of this country. This specific character has enough concrete expression where one or another sign is predominant and that is seen in one or another nation form. There is national originality reflected in the literature and other fields of social science and it has the more significance the more it is rich in content, progressiveness, brightness: other nations are enriched meeting with it discovering something new, interesting, useful and important for them in this specific character.
The difficulties while translating are connected most of all with conveyance of national character of one or another work: the brighter it reflects national life the more illuminate characteristic situations the more difficult for the translator to find adequate functional figurative means.
It will be enough to recollect the difficulties that the translator faced with translating wonderful works of outstanding American writer John Steinbeck. Steinbeck is not only a deeply national, original writer but also a modern writer. His creative work could appear only in our days. Many translators mark out originality of his feature world and that is why the originality of his language and style and the specific usage of popular speech and dialectisms. For example: It’s the grapes! – Вотэтожизнь! Got to blow town. – Mнепорасматыватьсяизгорода. Steinbeck often uses parallel literary words and its dialect synonyms. For example: dish also translated into Russian as красотка, деваха, jazz is translated as болтовня, брехня, болтология.Therefore, the translator must determine national peculiarities of the contents and the form (that is language peculiarities, melodies, rhyme and so on) and substitute national figurative means (realias, poetic images) for others that are equivalents to the firsts in their national determination to convey its national contents. The task of the translator is to find and rail the essence of national peculiarities and specific character. Correct conveying of these nationality elements opens the way to reveal internationality in the work. The popular speech, dialectisms, social coloring, realias in Steinbeck’s works do not only total the basing of his original stylistics but also express certain over-text or behind-the-text peculiarities of his work, modern feelings system, the exclusive rich fantasy, deep thoughts, piercing visible and spiritual words, plastic gift and ability of transformation. All of these are united into complete combination of original artistic picture of life together with unique intellectual foreshortening of views on it. For example: Don’t you have a silly bone in your body? - Неужелиуваснетникаплиюмора?
Therefore it is not possible to create only conveying realias, social coloring and so on to display of national character while translating. It can be got only if the translator is able to create the combination of varied forms of national character in the creative work of one author or another in his works. National coloring is not an appendix in the work but it is one of its main parts that total the work structure.
Originality and specific character do not show that the work cannot be translated but they show the creative character of the translation process. World literature knows many examples when translators managed to convey all the originality of works and these translations became masterpieces as their originals. Originality, national coloring of the work is not lost in the succeed translations and that is one of the main principals of creative translation activity. National coloring like everything in the world is in the constant movement. Here the translation ‘s role is enriched with one positive moment. His task is to carry this constantly changing stability to readers of other nations. It is interesting that for some works this process lasts more than ten years till the form is adopted and reconstructed.
Reconstruction of national coloring in the translation very often depends on the prevailing methods used in different literary schools.
The volume of the translation is not underlining of national specifics of origin text but it is the creation of its truly wholeness, finding of adequate concrete form that is to help to show the unity of national and common to all mankind coloring in the origin.
Translator must convey adequately the national character connected with the real representation of life. It means that he must know social conditions and nation development whose literature he translates, he must know and understand the specific spiritual way of life, find explanations of problems caused with peculiarities of this nation and originality of his development. For example, the figure of Marullo in John Steinbeck’s novel The winter of our discontent is a collective figure of one of the representatives of Italian emigrant in America who became rich in the period of 20-s years. Such figures were in many other works of that period and like them Marullo is the bearer of common for native Americans problems but at Steinbeck’s work this figure differs with his national and artistic originality, caused by peculiarities of American emigrants development at that period.
What does every translator imply and what kind of tasks are in front of him? Why does he begin to translate works from another national literature?
At first he must know and understand the individuality, unique of figures. Every artistic figure is unique according to its nature and irrespective of its national origin.
Secondly he must know and understand the essence of figures and ideas of works of social class.
Thirdly he must take into account the national originality reflected in the work: its plot, form, images, style, language etc.
Fourthly he must reveal international coloring of the work that is significant for different countries, states and nations elements.
Fifthly he must reveal elements common to all mankind irrespective of their belonging to any country, epoch, and nation.
National and international, folk and common to all mankind activities are tightly connected with each other and perform the complicate dialectic unity.
Translation is not only outward form of these mutual relations; it is also dialectic unity of the national and international coloring of its essence.
The point of the translation is a bridge between national and international coloring. That is why its main function is the turning of spiritual values of one nation into the property of other nations; translation is transmission assisting to mutual penetration and influence of national cultures. In our days we can be witnesses of the powerful aspiration to mutual knowing, intellectual and spiritual communication. Every nation culture goes out the limits of its own country. Its relations with cultures of other nations development on multilateral basis, they become more and more all embracing, acquiring bigger significance.
It is easy to note that major part of themes and problems in the different national literature coincide. But treatment to these themes and solutions of these problems are various and original in the works of different cultures. For example the theme of Motherland in three poems of A. Block, R. Burns and I. R. Beher.
Common to all mankind theme of Motherland these three poets express in different ways: their lyrical characters express their feelings differently and have different notions of Motherland. Ideal of Motherland in these poets' minds was formed in the different nations and spiritual environment. Originality of their attitude and artistic representation, originality of expressive means are the result of environment and other factors.
For Russian poet Alexander Block his Motherland is the most desirable dream, hope that it will be the place of his last rest. In his poem Russia embodies its beautiful nature; for Robert Burns Motherland is associated with the figure of the mother's sadness missing her sons who fight for the freedom and will never come back; in Beher's poem we do not hear cry but anger and appeal to revenge for the outraged and ashamed Motherland. Grief, ache, anger and love are lyrical moods common to these three poets.
But for this specific feature in the expression of common to all people feeling of love to Motherland these poems would lose their concrete character.
International character in spiritual literature does not exist abstractly; in every national culture it acquires concrete forms. It is this dialect that must become ruling principle in the translating activity. The translator must convey truly both components on this unity keeping in his mind the frequent absence of confines between national and international coloring because they interlace with each other.
The translator only conventionally finds and marks out national, social, individual, international, common to all mankind coloring.
They cannot be separated in any artistic work. Their separating leads to the art destroying. if the translator does not manage to convey this floating it means that he has not able to create high-quality authentic translation.
Coloring and erasure of coloring.
The notion of coloring appeared in the literary criticism terminology and meant a special quality of literary work, speech characteristic of personage, a special emotional or linguistic look of separate literary work or an writer’s works, that is all peculiarities and originalities. Coloring of a word shows its belonging to a certain people, country, concrete historical epoch.
National (local) and historical coloring of realia is a new additional meaning to its main signification. A.S. Pushkin uses realias евнух, гарем, гяур, чубук, щербет in Bahchisaray’s fountain; their specific coloring gives an oriental coloring to the poem. According to dictionaries щербет is an oriental fruit soft drink and it differs from lemonade by its regional belonging and it is considered as a coloring. This neutral word turns into realia owing to relation with this region. But if an inhabitant of this region who works in the West faces with this word it gives him an association connected with his motherland, his recollections and feelings.
It makes us consider coloring a part of connotative meaning of a realia.
It is appropriate to compare realias – words with specific national and historical coloring – connotative lexis – with words deprived of such coloring. We may use two words – bird cherry and rook. They are only details of nature: bird cherry is a tree that grows in Northern America, Europe and Asia; and rook is specie of birds from crown family. These words are not realias because of their wide-spreadness and they are not connected with people or country. However associations connected with bird cherry (the height of spring) and rook (expectation of spring) make a heart of Russian man quicken. He connects their connotatively with realia not turning them into realia.
Another example touches up some difficulties translating of the title of famous Russian film Летятжуравли into the French language: the French word grue also means silly girl and a woman of easy virtue.
So they had to substitute the word “crane” for the word “stork”.
In these examples connotative words in contradiction to realia have full and significant equivalents.
“Inconvenient” word is often substituted for its functional analogies. Foe example, bird cherry can be substituted for early blooming tree or bush – for England it can be substituted for plum or cherry-tree or even for lilac; instead of rook they can use any convenient bird. The main idea is to evoke a reader of translated text the same associations that has a reader of origin text.
The transmission of connotative word by means of devices that are characteristic feature for the transmission of realia usually leads to an undesirable results: a corresponding word must evoke a definite reaction.
Classifying the realia we noted that realias were allocated according to their place or/and time. It is often happens that realia that means the same or close material notions can be from different places and historical rubric: that is, they differ from each other according to connotative meaning, coloring. For example, supreme organ is called seim in Poland, Supreme Court in Russia, cortes in Spain and Portugal, Public Meeting in Bulgaria, bundestag in Germany, rikstaf in Swiss, storting in Norway, folketing in Denmark, knesset in Israel. All these words mean Parliament and they do not differ much from each other but their traditional names represent characteristic national realia. Each of them has its own features that belong only to it. However, but for these distinctions, national and historical coloring would not allow substitution for another word in translation. Such substitution would destroy all coloring, to be more exact; it would lead to anachronisms and analogisms that can destroy the harmony, so called truth of life.