Practical steps of translators in analysing fictional texts
Certain practical steps may be recommended as a starting point in the complicated process of literary artistic translation:
1. A translator must identify the genre of the text (prose, drama, poetry, etc.);
2. A translator must identify the culture to which the text belongs (who the author is. when and where the text was written and what culture it represents);
3. A translator must try to identify the purpose of the author which he/ she had in mind while creating the text. It has been already mentioned that communicative (pragmatic) nature of fictional texts differs from that of non-fictional texts because works of art do not have "a direct impact" upon the real world. This makes the task of looking for explicit or hidden author's intention even more important and more complicated. It is obvious that everything which is created by human mind (with exception of obvious clinical cases) has a certain underlying purpose and thus influences (directly or indirectly) other individuals and the world in general. This is true even for those authors who claim that they write "for the sake of pure art" or because they "can't help but write". Thus, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" appears to be Lewis Carrol's parody on the 19-th century English society. Taras Shevchenko in his works gives strong criticism of the upper-crust society of his days and advocates Ukrainian national identity and Leo Tolstoy's works were labelled as "the mirror of Russian revolution".
4. A translator should try to render the artistic effect of the source language text by means of the target language of today. This is very important on the one hand, because cultures and languages change with the flow of time and perfect translations done 40 - 50 years ago often read today as outdated. On the other hand, translators have to preserve "the historical and individual flavour" of the language of the original. Solution to this problem may be found in trying to achieve a balance between the specificity of the author's language and the language accepted by the target culture of today.
5. To achieve this task a translator must carefully study all linguistic features of the original text (such as its lexis, grammar, means of cohesion and repetition links, stylistic devices and expressive means) and apply all the necessary transformations in the process of translation to ensure that his/her translation produces the same communicative effect as the original text produces upon the source language reader. The problem of professional literary artistic translation is not confined to the brief outline given above because it is as versatile as art is. Thus, practical tools of translating Shakespeare would differ from those of translating William Faulkner, but the general rule remains the same: to a achieve positive results a translator must be "within the language" and "within the culture" (both source and target) and in the ideal case possess certain qualities of a writer, dramatist or a poet.
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SEMINAR 7
Questions for discussion and practical assignments:
1. Comment on the communicative aims of texts of different functional styles.
2. In what way do belles-lettres texts influence the reader?
3. Give the definition of literary artistic translation. What are the main criteria of faithfulness in literary artistic translation?
4. Comment on the suggested practical steps of a translator in analysing fictional texts.
5. Study the following literary texts and perform their analysis as it is suggested below.
6. Suggest your translation of the following texts:
Text 1.
Aldous Huxley (British author 1894-1963)
CROME YELLOW
(Writtenin 1921. "Crome Yellow" is th ename of a house where the characters of the book live. In this episode Denis Stone, a young poet, is travelling by local train to "Crome Yellow")
Chapter 1
Along this particular stretch of line no express ever passed. All the trains - the few that there were - stopped at all the stations. Denis knew the names of those stations by heart. Bole, Tritton, Spavin Delawarr, Knopswich for Timpany, West Bowlby, and, finally Camlet-on-the-Water. Camlet was where he always got out, leaving the train to creep indolently onward, goodness only knew whither, into the green heart of England.
They were snorting out of West Bowlby now. It was the next station, thank Heaven. Denis took his chattels off the rack, and piled them neatly in the corner opposite his own. A futile proceeding. But one must have something to do. When he had finished, he sank back into his scat and closed his eyes. It was extremely hot.
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Oh this journey! It was two hours cut clean out of his life; two hours in which he might have done so much, so much - written the perfect poem, for example, or read the one illuminating book. Instead of which - his gorge rose at the smell of the dusty cushions against which he was leaning.
Two hours. One hundred and twenty minutes. Anything might bo done in that time. Anything. Nothing. Oh, he had had hundreds of hours, and what he had done with them? Wasted them, spilt the precious minutes as though his reservoir was inexhaustible. Denis groaned in the spirit, condemned himself utterly with all his works. What right had he to sit in the sunshine, to occupy corner seats in third-class carriages, to be alive? None, none, none.
Suggested way of text analysis:
1) Give a brief outline of Aldous Huxley's biography: Aldous Huxley was born in 1894 in England, he was a grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley (a famous biologist), graduated from the University of Oxford, wrote a number of outstanding novels ("Crome Yellow", "Antic Hay", "Point Counter Point", "Brave New World", "Island") in which he combined realism with satire and philosophical investigation, moved to live in Italy in 1923- 30 and to Los Angeles, USA, in 1937 where he died in 1963. His artistic positions are close to those of the writers of the "lost generation" such as E. Hemingway, F.S. Fitzgerald, E.M. Remark (Remarque). Students are suggested to give more details of Huxley's biography.
2) Give your description of the time of action described in the novel: post World War-I Britain, disappointment in the social values of civilization. What were railways like in those days: dusty carriages, steam engines, etc.
3) Analyse lexical and stylistic peculiarities of the fragment: highly literary vocabulary (goodness only knew whither; a futile proceeding; his gorge rose; spilt, etc.), stylistic devices (They were snorting out of West Bolby now; he might have done so much, so much; to sit... to occupy... to be alive; None, none, none). Comment on the ways of rendering geographical names used in the fragment (Dole, Spavin Delawarr, Knopswich forTimpany, Camlet-on-the Water, etc.).
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4) Comment on ways of lexical cohesion in fragment: repetition links like train - they, anything - nothing, hours - hours, etc.
5) Comment on the frequent use of the definite article the which creates a feeling of "familiarity" and "boredom" of the railway journey.
6) Translate this fragment into Ukrainian.
Text 2.
Ernest Hemingway (American author 1899-1961)
CAT IN THE RAIN(Written in 1925)
("Cat in the rain " - a story of a lonely woman, neglected by her husband - is one of the most often reprinted, translated and admired by the readers. This story is highly characteristic of the individual style of E.Hemingway)
There were only two Americans stopping at the hotel. They did not know any of the people they passed on the stairs on their way to and from their room. Their room was on the second floor facing the sea. It also faced the public garden and the war monument. There were big palms and green benches in the public garden. In the good weather there was always an artist with his easel. Artists liked the way the palms grew and the bright colors of the hotels facing the gardens and the sea. Italians came from a long way off to look up at the war monument. It was made of bronze and glistened in the rain. It was raining. The rain dripped from the palm trees. Water stood in pools on the gravel paths. The sea broke in a long line in the rain and slipped back down the beach to come up and break again in a long line in the rain. The motor cars were gone from the square by the war monument. Across the square in the doorway of the caffee a waiter stood looking out at the empty square.
The American wife stood at the window looking out. Outside right under their window a cat was crouched under one of the dripping green tables. The cat was trying to make herself so compact that she would not be dripped on.
"I'm going down and get that kitty", the American wife said.
"I'll do it", her husband offered from the bed.
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"No, I'll get it. The poor kitty out trying to keep dry under a table".
The husband went on reading, lying propped up with the two pillows at the foot of the bed.
"Don't get wet", he said.
The wife went downstairs and the hotel owner stood up and bowed to her as she passed the office. His desk was at the end of the office. He was an old man and very tall.
"II piove", the wife said. She liked the hotel-keeper.
"Si, si, Signora, brutto tempo. It's a very bad weather".
He stood behind his desk in the far end of the dim room. The wife liked him. She liked the deadly serious way he received any complaints. She liked his dignity. She liked the way he wanted to serve her. She liked the way he felt about being a hotel-keeper. She liked his old. heavy face and big hands.
Liking him she opened the door and looked put. It was raining harder. A man in a rubber cape was crossing the empty square to the cafee. The cat would be around to the right. Perhaps she could go along under the eaves. As she stood in the doorway an umbrella opened behind her. It was the maid who looked after their room.
"You must not get wet", she smiled, speaking Italian. Of course, the hotel-keeper had sent her.
With the maid holding the umbrella over her, she walked along the gravel path until she was under their window. The table was there, washed bright green in the rain, but the cat was gone. She was suddenly disappointed. The maid looked at her.
"Ha perduto qualque cosa, Signora?"
"There was a cat", said the American girl.
"A cat?"
"Si, il gatto".
"A cat?" the maid laughed. "A cat in the rain?"
"Yes," she said, "under the table". Then, "Oh, I wanted it so much. I wanted a kitty".
When she talked English the maid's face tightened.
"Come, Signora", she said. "We must get back inside. You will get wet".
"I suppose so", said American girl.
They went back along the gravel path and passed in the door. The maid stayed outside to close the umbrella. As the American girl passed the office, the padrone bowed from his desk. Something felt very small and tight inside the girl. The padrone made her feel very small and at the same time really important. She had a momentary feeling of being of supreme importance. She went on up the stairs. She opened the door of the room. George was on the bed, reading.
"Did you get the cat?" he asked, putting the book down.
"It was gone".
"Wonder where it went to", he said, resting his eyes from reading.
She sat down on the bed.
"I wanted it so much", she said. "I don't know why I wanted it so much. I wanted the poor kitty. It isn't any fun to be a poor kitty out in the rain".
George was reading again.
She went over and sat in front of the mirror of the dressing table looking at herself with the hand glass. She studied her profile, first one side and then the other. Then she studied the back of her head and the neck.
"Don't you think it would be a good idea if I let my hair grow out?" she asked, looking at her profile again.
George looked up and saw the back of her neck, clipped close like a boy's.
"I like the way it is".
"I get so tired of it", she said. "I get so tired of looking like a boy".
George shifted his position in the bed. He hadn't looked away from her since she started to speak.
"You look pretty darn nice", he said.
She laid the mirror down on the dresser and went over to the window and looked out. It was getting dark.
"I want to pull my hair back tight and smooth and make a big knot at the back that I can feel", she said. "I want to have a kitty to sit on my lap and purr when I stroke her".
"Yeah?" George said from the bed.
"And I want to eat at a table with my own silver and I want candles. And I want it to be spring and I want to brush my hair out in front of a mirror and I want a kitty and I want some new clothes".
"Oh, shut up and get something to read" George said. He was reading again.
His wife was looking out of the window. It was quite dark now and still raining in the palm trees.
"Anyway, I want a cat", she said, "I want a cat. I want a cat now. If I can't have long hair or any fun, I can have a cat".
George was not listening. He was reading his book. His wife looked out of the window where the light had come on in the square. Someone knocked at the door.
"Avanti", George said.
He looked up from his book. In the doorway stood the maid. She held a big tortoise-shell cat pressed tight against her and swung down against her body.
"Excuse me", she said, "the padrone asked me to bring this for Signora".
Suggested way of text analysis:
1. Give a brief outline of E.Hemingway's biography: born in 1899 in the USA, worked as a journalist, participated in the World Wars I and II, lived in the USA, Europe (Spain, France), Cuba. His importance as a creator of a unique style, as a speaker for the "lost generation", as humanitarian and antifascist cannot be overestimated. He wrote many outstanding short stories (collection "In our time", "The old man and the sea") and novels "A farewell to arms", "For whom the bell tolls", "A movable feast", "Islands in the stream", etc.).
2. Give the time of the action described in the story: post World War I Italy.
3. Analyse lexical and stylistic peculiarities of the story one of which is constant repetition of words it was raining, the rain, water, the sea, she liked, I wanted, which serve as means of lexical cohesion contributing to creation of the mood of loneliness. Give further examples.
4. Comment on the way the characters are introduced in the story: the American wife, the American girl, she (she doesn't even have a name); her husband, the husband, he, George.
5. What does the cat symbolise in the story: loneliness; someone who would understand the problems of a woman; someone to love; home; happy family? Was it a "he-cat" (кiт) or a "she-cat" (кішка), which may be important for translation of the text into Ukrainian.
6. Did the woman get the cat she wanted desperately?
7. Comment upon the ways ol rendering Italian words used in the text.
8. Suggest your variant of translation of this slory and compare it with the officially published Ukrainian (Хемінгуей Е. Вибрані твори в чотирьох томах. - Київ: Дніпро, 1991, т. 1) and Russian (Хэмингуэй Э. Собрание сочинений в 4 томах. - М: Художественная литература, 1981, т. 1) translations.
Text 3.
Василь Стус (українсъкий поет 1938-1985)
Як добре те, що смерті не боюсь я
і не питаю, чи тяжкий мій хрест,
що перед вами, судді, не клонюся
в передчутті недовідомих верст,
що жив, любив і не набрався скверни,
ненависті, прокльону, каяття.
Народе мій, до тебе я ще верну,
як в смерті обернуся до життя
своїм стражденним і незлим обличчям.
Як син, тобі доземно уклонюсь
і чесно гляну в чесні твої вічі
і в смерті з рідним краєм поріднюсь.
Suggested way of text analysis:
1. Give a brief outline of the author's biography: Vasyl Stus was born in 1938 in Rakhnivka village, Vinnytsya oblast. In early sixties he worked as a literary editor of "Sotsialistychnyi Donbas" newspaper. In 1963 he became a post-graduate student at the Institute of Literature of the Ukrainian Academy of Science, however in 1965 he was dismissed from his course for the so-called "anti-Soviet" activity. Being an activist of human rights protection, V.Stus was arrested twice: in 1972 and in 1980. The second sentence was very severe: 10 years in prison and 5 in exile. V.Stus died in 1985 in a special prison for political prisoners. In 1991 poetic heritage of V.Stus was recognized officially and he was awarded the State Shevchenko Prize of Ukraine.
2. Analyse lexical and stylistic peculiarities of the poem bearing in mind that the constant feeling of pain is combined in his poeins with optimism and love to his people.
3. Translate the poem into English.
LITERATURE
1. Демурова Н. Голос и скрипка // Мастерство перевода. Cб. №7 / Н. Демурова. - М.: Советский писатель, 1970. - С.150-185.
2. Казакова Т.A. Imagery in Translation. Практикум по художественному переводу / Т.A. Казакова. - СПб.: Изд-вo «Союз», 2003. 320 с.
3. Коптілов В.В. Teopiя i практика перекладу / В.В. Коптілов. - К.: Юшверс, 2002. - 280 с.
4. Корунець І.B. Teopiя i практика перекладу (аспектний переклад) / І.B. Корунець. - Винниця: Нова книга, 2003. - 448 с.
5. Мастерство перевода. Сб. №7. - М.: Советский писатель, 1970. - 543 с.
6. Пелевина Н.Ф. Стилистический анализ художественного текста / Н.Ф. Пелевина. - Л.: Просвещение, 1980. - 271 с.
7. Попович А. Проблемы художественного перевода / А. Попович. - М.: Высшая школа, 1980. - 199 с.
8. Baker М. In other words. A coursebook on translation / М. Baker. - London., N.Y.: Routledge, 1992. - 304 p.
9. Sinclair J. Fictional worlds // Talking about text / J. Sinclair. - Birmingham: English Language Research, 1986, Discourse analysis monograph N 13. - P. 43-60.
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