LANGUAGE UNITS AND LEVELS OF THEIR FAITHFUL TRANSLATION 3 страница
2. «Southerners» can be translated faithfully only in a descriptive way as вихідці/жителі Півдня (південних штатів США);
3. «this regular old nigger (contemptuosly) mammy» should be translated as його стара нянька-негритоска;
4. «he just simply loves her» і він не те що, а просто-таки справді любить її;
5. «he does really to this day» і так до сьогоднішнього дня/ донині.
Always important for the translator is to keep in memory the
already solved problems concerning the rendition of some peculiarities of the source language or of the target language, as in the following two utterances: 1. «All he says is, he says, he hasn't got a word to say-»; 2. «The only thing he says, he says he wouldn't sit down with one, -» both these italicized colloquial structures have an identical translation: єдине, що він каже, то це каже ...
A very interesting structural transformation has to be performed on two clauses of one sentence, which follows the above-analyzed ones. Namely: «He's always doing things for them - giving them clothes and I don't know what all».
When translated without any change of placement of its clauses, the utterance will be structurally clumsy in Ukrainian: «Він завжди щось робить для них - дає їм одежу і сама не знаю що ще.» By changing the placement of its clauses, the utterance acquires the following form: «І чим він їм тільки не допомагає - і одежею, і сама вже не знаю, чим.» Thus, the transformation through the change of placement of some parts of the sentence makes the utterance sound absolutely Ukrainian (stylistically natural) and semantically transparent.
The choice of a lexico-semantic equivalent may sometimes cause trouble even in a seemingly explicit utterance. Cf.: «You make me sick talking like that,» where «sick» is semantically associated with sea-sick. At any rate, this meaning may prompt the hard thinking student-translator to use the verb нудити, which perfectly substitutes the English word-group «make sick» in the utterance above. Hence, the faithful Ukrainian version of it may be only: «Ой, мене вже нудить від твоїх розмов/балачок.»
The beginning translator must be aware of some peculiarities of the source language, which may have no equivalents or even analogies for some sense units in the target language. Among these are not necessarily the culturally biased national notions, dialectal, archaic, idiomatic or other elements. These may be simple grammar or phonetic mistakes/corruptions in a text/speech of characters often causing barriers for inexperienced translators, as in the following question of the woman character: «Aren't I terrible?» (instead of «Am I not terrible?»).
It goes without saying that irregularities of the kind may be observed only in speech of small Ukrainian children and almost never in speech of our grown-ups. That is why the utterance can only be
translated in a literary (correct) form: 1. «Може я не права?» or 2. «Скажи, я не маю рації?» 3. «Невже я не маю рації?» Any other, even slightly corrupted Ukrainian versions are next to impossible to suggest in this case (like in other cases). As a result, the speech irregularity remains not completely expressed in Ukrainian. The short reply of the host («Oh, no, no, no. No, no».) can also have some interesting versions, which may be suggested by the translator: 1. «Hi, ні, ні. Де там, ні». 2. «Та ні, зовсім ні». 3. «Вважаю, що ні».
It may be even more difficult to select the right/faithful variant for the utterance, in which the woman character objects to her being not «terrible» to her husband and insists on the contrary: «I am», she said. «I know, I am» (i.e. «terrible»). This emphatically pronounced and rather assuring utterance in her own support can not be translated word-for-word as «Я є, я знаю, що я є (така)». The translator here must again resort to a structural transformation of the utterance in Ukrainian in order to make it sound absolutely natural for the readers. In this case the device of extension may be useful for «I am,» she said. «I know, I am.» Namely: «І не кажіть (і не перечте)», - випалила вона. «Я знаю, що я жахлива (з ним)». This transformation through extension of the complex sentence in the second part of the utterance, as well as the replacement of the verb «am» by «не кажіть/не перечте» makes the whole reply absolutely literary and quite natural for young as well as for old Ukrainian readers.
Similar transformations are necessary in the succeeding highly emotional utterances of the woman character. These utterances, though seemingly simple and easy to comprehend, are not so easy for inexperienced students to translate. Thus, the first utterance «Poor Burton!» is not simply «Бідний Бертон!» which will not fully express the high emotion of the woman character. Stylistically more fitting here would be «Бідолашний мій Бертон!» or «Бідний, бідний Бертон!» or «Бідний, бідний мій Бертон!» The latter would sound also more Ukrainian. The other two emphasized and emotionally pronounced utterances of the block that follow (1. «Now me, I don't feel that way at all. 2.1 haven't the slightest feeling about colored people.») are not less expressive. Hence, their Ukrainian versions may be as follows: 1. «Ось хоча б я.» or 2. «Взяти хоча б мене.» 3. «Візьмемо ось/ хоча б мене.» Each of these semantically synonymous versions of the English utterance is emphatically charged, and can be best expressed through the modal particles хоча б plus the corresponding
intonation. As to the second utterance («I don't feel that way at all»), it can also be translated into Ukrainian by at least one of the following four synonymous substitutes, each of which being equally acceptable: 1. «Я зовсім не така». 2. «Я зовсім не так думаю». 3. «Я абсолютно так не вважаю» or even 4. «У мене зовсім інше ставлення до кольорових».
As could be ascertained, transformation through extension (cf. «Now me» «ось хоча б я, взяти хоча б мене») is often the only way of adjusting the English peculiar expressions (and their expressiveness) to literary colloquial Ukrainian. Transformations of any kind help avoid literalism (cf. «Now me» is not тепер мене, тепер я), which would be absolutely unacceptable in any literary translation. A word-for-word translation (without any transformations with the aim of «adjusting» the English language and its peculiar features to the Ukrainian literary standards) is therefore an obligatory means in the process of translation. Because of this and due to the performed transformations, the utterance «I haven't the slightest feeling about colored people» also acquires a quite natural Ukrainian version (and sounding). When translated word-for-word, it would express an almost opposite meaning: «Я зовсім не відчуваю/ я не маю найменших відчуттів до кольорових». No need to emphasize that «відчуваю» (feel) does not in any way correspond to the real contextual implicit meaning of this verb, which can be seen from the following Ukrainian translation: «У мене немає ні/навіть найменшої відрази/зневаги до кольорових».
Practically the same, as in the initial utterance of the excerpt, is the meaning of the adjective crazy in the sentence that follows the previous one: «Why, I'm just crazy about some of them», which can have only the following realization in Ukrainian: «Ну я просто в нестямі від декого з них», though «в нестямі» may equally be substituted in this utterance for the semantically equivalent prepositional phrase «y захопленні». The essence of her «craziness», however, is far from real or sencere, which can be seen from the following utterance: «They're just like children -just as easy-going, and always singing and laughing, and everything». This utterance is not easy to translate first of all because of the concluding pronoun «everything», whose contextual meaning, naturally, is not «все» or «і все», or even «і все таке інше», but «собі». Only this pronominal particle semantically completes the authoress' content of this utterance, which will then
have the following wording in Ukrainian: «Ну, та вони ж просто як діти: такі безтурботні і завжди то співають, то сміються собі». The introduction of different Ukrainian particles (ж, та, то, собі) helps fully express the inner/psychological state of the woman character and makes the whole utterance sound as natural and as convincing in Ukrainian, as it is in the source language.
The use of particles helps express optative and grammatical modality in the next utterance («Aren't they the happiest things you ever saw in your life?»), in which the noun «things» may become a lexico-semantic stumbling block. Its contextual meaning here is «істоти» or «створіння». It is not easy to quickly choose the most suitable between these two practically equivalent lexically and stylistically variants. Taking into account the woman's falsehood and her doubledealing, any of the two variants may well fit in the context. Cf.: «Хіба ж вони не найщасливіші істоти/створіння, яких вам траплялося будь-коли бачити на світі?» or «To хіба ж вони не найщасливіші створіння, котрих вам траплялося будь-коли бачити на білім світі?» Both these variants, naturally, are fully in line with the philosophy and conduct of the woman character, so brilliantly depicted by the authoress in her story. The choice of the suggested substitutes in the utterance may be well justified by the woman's concluding sentence of the excerpt: «Honestly, it makes me laugh just to hear them». Here the adverb «honestly» can scarely be substituted for one Ukrainian adverb «чесно» only. The deep context requires some other substitutions for it, namely «справді»/ «таки справді»/ «геть і правда» and even «їй-богуЯй-же богу». Neither can the verb laugh («they make me laugh») be translated in this excerpt as simply сміятися or still less as реготати. The deeper context prompts a quite different synonym, as the cunning woman considers the coloured people to be «like children», who could entertain the grown-ups like her by their behavoir. This is the main reason why the Ukrainian equivalent сміятися can not be used and should be substituted for the only suitable in this utterance synonym тішити. For this reason the verb «hear» can not (and does not) mean «слухати», but only «чути». Hence, the only possible, i.e., faithful translations of this utterance may be as follows: «Слово честі, мене просто тішить, коли я чую їх or «їй-богу, мене просто тішить, коли я їх чую.»
The final two utterances of block 16 present no great difficulty for translation with the exception of the concluding one: «I really do.»
Here one of the already employed above versions may be helpful (as in «Oh, I like them. I really do.») «О, вони мені подобаються. Справді.»
It must therefore be repeatedly emphasized in conclusion that the right choice of an appropriate target language synonym for a source language sense unit is always predetermined by some factors: a) by its semantics in the context; b) by the stylistic or genre peculiarities of the text; and c) by the texts' pragmatic orientation/toning. Any disregard of these requirements may bring unnecessary distortions into the author's conception (and content).
The student, who has closely followed the above-performed translator's grammatical/structural, semantic and stylistic analysis of the excerpt from D.Parker's brilliant psychological story must have obtained a much clearer idea about the ways and means of achieving faithfulness in written translation. Naturally not all texts require such kind of deep and scrutinized analysis on the part of the translator and not always so much inventiveness as in the belles-lettres texts. Nevertheless, the beginning translator must be always on the alert and ready to do everything to overcome the many stumbling blocks that are often hidden even in texts belonging to other than the belles-lettres style. There will be a good chance to ascertain it while working at various texts on the forthcoming pages, which are assigned to semantic and stylistic analysis or to written/oral class and home translation. The samples of the analysis must be carefully studied first in order to establish the peculiarities characterizing the publicistic and newspaper style texts. Only in this way can a student acquire the necessary knowledge and skill in translation. Of great help in this can also be the practical use of the principal theoretical rules, which were given in the preceding chapters and which must be followed while working at any type of texts, extended syntactic unit or even at single/ isolated sense units.