наводнения районам.
Concerning the translation of comparison as a stylistic device, the
difficulties arise only if the words of English and Russian languages are
various in the semantic structure. We have already considered in the
chapter of lexical transformations the question of translation of such
terms and now we would like to give the example of stylistic comparison.
Instant history, like instant coffee, can sometimes be remarkably
palatable. At least it is in this memoir by a former White House aide who
sees L.B.J. as " an extraordinarily gifted President who was the wrong man
from the wrong place at the wrong time under the wrong circumstances ".
Современная история, как и такой современный продукт, как растворимый
кофе, иногда может быть необыкновенно приятна. По крайней мере, такой ее
преподносит в своих мемуарах бывший помощник президента Джонсона, считающий
его «исключительно одаренным президентом, который был неподходящим
человеком, из неподходящего места (штат Техас), в неподходящее время, при
неподходящих обстоятельствах».
In order to preserve this playing comparison, the interpreters were
forced to apply additional words.
We discussed above the importance of articles in translation and now
we should mention once again that they can serve in stylistic purposes.
An expressiveness gets the definite article, before a indefinite
pronoun one.
... this is the one way we can achieve success in elections.
...это единственный способ достигнуть победы на выборах.
The given synonyms compensate render the stress contained the original
text.
There is another kind of stylistic transformation – actualization –
which involves transition of something simple into something unusual,
strange. It reveals potential expressiveness put in the lexical morphologic
and syntactic means of a language.
Actualization of the passive form often occurs while translating
political literature but it is not as colored as in the translations of
fiction.
The General Assembly was gaveled to order by its outgoing President.
Уходящий со своего поста председатель Генеральной Ассамблее навел
порядок в зале, энергично стуча молотком.
The expressiveness and emphasis created by the passive form of the verb
that had been formed as a result of conversion are compensated by lexical
means. The compressed nature of sentence was lost for the verb to gavel has
two semantic components one of action and an instrument that were to be
rendered in translation.
Now from everything that has been discussed above we can infer that
the usage of some of stylistic devices in English is peculiar – and bears
specific national character, therefore their direct translation in many
instances is impossible. Moreover, the impression left by some of stylistic
device maybe different in both languages, compare soft panic and тихая
паника. It can be explained not only by national features of stylistic
means and devices of some of the language but by the their multi
functioning character also – that do not always coincide – as it was shown
on the matter of alliteration. This is the main criteria causing the
necessity of stylistic transformations that involve substitution and
changes. Therefore we should warn the future translators and interpreters
that it is not important to classify the device itself but the point is to
be able to realize their ongoing effect and to identify the purpose of
their application in the translation they are working on.
§ IV. The difficulty of translation of set phrases and idioms
As far as idioms and phraseological units are concerned in translation,
the first difficulty that a translator comes across is being able to
recognize that s/he is dealing with an idiomatic expression. This is not
always so obvious. There are various types of idioms, some more easily
recognizable than others. Those which are easily recognizable include
expressions which violate truth conditions, such as It's raining cats and
dogs, throw caution to the winds, storm in a tea cup, jump down someone's
throat, and food for thought. They also include expressions which seem ill-
formed because they do not follow the grammatical rules of the language,
for example trip the light fantastic, blow someone to kingdom come, put
paid to, the powers that be, by and large, and the world and his friend.
Expressions which start with like (simile-like structures) also tend to
suggest that they should not be interpreted literally. These include idioms
such as like a bat out of hell and like water off a duck's back. Generally
speaking, the more difficult an expression is to understand and the less
sense it makes in a given context, the more likely a translator will
recognize it as an idiom. Because they do not make sense if interpreted
literally, the highlighted expressions in the following text are easy to
recognize as idioms (assuming one is not already familiar with them):
This can only be done, I believe, by a full and frank airing of the
issues. I urge you all to speak your minds and not to pull any punches.
Provided a translator has access to good reference works and
monolingual dictionaries of idioms, or, better still, is able to consult
native speakers of the language, opaque idioms which do not make sense for
one reason or another can actually be a blessing in disguise. The very fact
that s/he cannot make sense of an expression in a particular context will
alert the translator to the presence of an idiom of some sort.
There are two cases in which an idiom can be easily misinterpreted if
one is not already familiar with it:
(a) Some idioms are 'misleading'; they seem transparent because they
offer a reasonable literal interpretation and their idiomatic meanings are
not necessarily signalled in the surrounding text. A large number of idioms
in English, and probably all languages, have both a literal and an
idiomatic meaning, for example go out with ('have a romantic or sexual
relationship with someone') and take someone for a ride ('deceive or cheat
someone in some way'). Such idioms lend themselves easily to manipulation
by speakers and writers who will sometimes play on both their literal and
idiomatic meanings. In this case, a translator who is not familiar with the
idiom in question may easily accept the literal interpretation and miss the
play on idiom.
(b) An idiom in the source language may have a very close counter
part in the target language which looks similar on the surface but has
a totally or partially different meaning. For example, the idiomatic
question Has the cat had/got your tongue? is used in English to urge
someone to answer a question or contribute to a conversation, particularly
when their failure to do so becomes annoying.
Apart from being alert to the way speakers and writers manipulate
certain features of idioms and to the possible confusion which could arise
from similarities in form between source and target expressions, a
translator must also consider the collocational environment which surrounds
any expression whose meaning is not readily accessible. Idiomatic and fixed
expressions have individual collocational patterns. They form collocations
with other items in the text as single units and enter into lexical sets
which are different from those of their individual words. Take, for
instance, the idiom to have cold feet. Cold as a separate item may
collocate with words like weather, winter, feel, or country. Feet on its
own will perhaps collocate with socks, chilblain, smelly, etc. However,
having cold feet, in its idiomatic use, has nothing necessarily to do with
winter, feet, or chilblains and will therefore generally be used with a
different set of collocates.
The ability to distinguish senses by collocation is an invaluable
asset to a translator working from a foreign language. It is often subsumed
under the general umbrella of 'relying on the context to disambiguate
meanings', which, among other things, means using our knowledge of
collocational patterns to decode the meaning of a word or a stretch of
language. Using our knowledge of collocational patterns may not always tell
us what an idiom means but it could easily help us in many cases to
recognize an idiom, particularly one which has a literal as well as a non-
literal meaning.
Once an idiom or fixed expression has been recognized and interpreted
correctly, the next step is to decide how to translate it into the target
language. The difficulties involved in translating an idiom are totally
different from those involved in interpreting it. Here, the question is not
whether a given idiom is transparent, opaque, or misleading. An opaque
expression may be easier to translate than a transparent one. The main
difficulties involved in translating idioms and fixed expressions may be
summarized as follows:
(a) An idiom or fixed expression may have no equivalent in the target
language. The way a language chooses to express, or not express, various
meanings cannot be predicted and only occasionally matches the way another
language chooses to express the same meanings. One language may express a
given meaning by means of a single word, another may express it by means of
a transparent fixed expression, a third may express it by means of an
idiom, and so on. It is therefore unrealistic to expect to find equivalent
idioms and expressions in the target language as a matter of course.
Страницы: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
