LANGUAGE UNITS AND LEVELS OF THEIR FAITHFUL TRANSLATION 2 страница

Before starting the commented translation of the text it is expe­dient to repeatedly make mention of the obligatory stages that should

' See: Коптілов В.В. Теорія і практика перекладу. - К.: Вища шк. Вид-во при Київ, ун-ті, 1982.-166с.


 




precede the very process of translation. The first of them is to read through the passage/work selected for translation and to analyse it. All attention in the course of this analysis should be paid to picking out the language units whose denotative or connotative meanings present some difficulties for translating. After this all attention must be paid to choosing in dictionaries/reference books the possible se­mantic, structural and stylistic variants for the language units or signs as they are sometimes called1, which present difficulties for translat­ing. The second stage implies a regular selection from the chosen variants, which are usually more than one, the most fitting into the given sentence/passage semantic, functional or stylistic equivalents and substitutes. Only when this preparatory work is completed, the translation proper can be started.

It must also be noted that the peculiar sentence structures, the tropes, the prosodic and other means in belles-lettres texts serve the aim of creating the necessary impact on the reader/listener. That is why the regular preparatory work on the text selected for translation always takes some time, the latter being often predetermined not only by the skill and theoretical grounding of the translator but by some other factors as well. These include the ease (or otherwise) of the author's style, the abundance or absence of difficult for translation linguistic phenomena in his work as neologisms, archaisms, dialectal material or any other obscure places created by some historic events or customs, culturally biased national notions and the like. Because of this the preparatory time needed for a translation proper to begin may vary from text to text. The main methods by which the «resis­tance» of the source language text may be overcome in translation (with particular attention to selecting the means of expression) will be shown further on the pages to come.

And now in accordance with the requirements of the first stage in the preparatory work for translation, read and thoroughly analyse the passage below paying attention to difficult or obscure (if any) places you come across in each separate sentence. Put the picked out sense units down and offer one or some suitable lexical/semantic equiva­lents for each of them. See to it that they also suit in the speech style of the corresponding sentences and in the excerpt of this D.Parker's story as a whole.


D.Parker ARRANGEMENT IN BLACK AND WHITE (An Excerpt)

1. The woman with the pink velvet poppies turned round the assisted gold of her hair1, traversed the crowded room at an interest­ing gait combining a skip with a sidle, and clutched the lean arm of her host.

2. «Now I got you!» she said. «Now you can't get away!»

3. «Why, hello,» said her host. «Well. How are you?»

4. «Oh, I'm finely,» she said. «Just simply finely. Listen. I want you to do me the most terrible favor. Will you? Will you please? Pretty please?»

5. «What is it?» said her host.

6. «Listen,» she said. «I want to meet Walter Williams. Hon­estly, I'm just simply crazy about that man. Oh, when he sings! When he sings those spirituals2. Well, I said to Burton, «It's a good thing for you Walter Williams is colored,» I said, «or you'd have lots of reason to be jealous.» I'd really love to meet him. I'd like to tell him I've heard him sing. Will you be an angel and introduce me to him?»

7. «Why, certainly,» said her host. «I thought you'd met him. The party's for him. Where is he, anyway?»

8. «He's over there by the bookcase,» she said. «Let's wait till those people get through talking to him. Well, I think you're simply marvellous, giving this perfectly marvellous party for him and having him meet all those white people, and all. Isn't he terribly grateful?»

9. «I hope not,» said her host.

 

10. «I think it's really terribly nice,» she said. «I do. I don't see why on earth it isn't perfectly all right to meet colored people. I haven't any feeling about it at all - not one single bit. Burton, - oh, he's just the other way. Well, you know, he comes from Virginia, and you know how they are.»

11. «Did he come tonight?» said her host.

12. «No, he couldn't,» she said. «I'm a regular grass widow tonight. I told him when I left, There's no telling what I'll do, I said. He was just so tired out, he couldn't move. Isn't it a shame?»

13. «Ah,» said her host.

14. «Wait till I tell him I met Walter Williams!» she said. «He'll just about die. Oh, we have more arguments about colored people.


 


1 For further information on the meaning of various language signs see:KoMMccapoB B.H. Слово о переводе. - M.: Междунар. отношения, 1973. - р.213


1 the assisted gold of her hair - her hair had been dyed gold.

2 spirituals - Negro songs, religious in essence, like folk ballades.


 




I talk to him like I don't know what, I get so excited. «Oh, don't be so silly,» I say. But I must say for Burton, he's heaps broader-minded than lots of these Southerners. He's really awfully fond of colored people. Well, he says himself, he wouldn't have white servants. And you know, he had this old colored nurse, this regular old nigger mammy and he just simply loves her. Why, every time he goes home, he goes out in the kitchen to see her. He does, really, to this day. All he says is, he says, he hasn't got a word to say against colored people as long as they keep their place. He's always doing things for them -giving them clothes and I don't know what all. The only thing he says, he says he wouldn't sit down at the table with one for a million dollars. «Oh,» I say to him, «you make me sick, talking like that. I'm just terrible to him. Aren't I terrible?»

15. «Oh, no, no, no,» said her host. «No, no.»

16. «I am», she said. «I know I am. Poor Burton! Now, me, I don't feel that way at all. I haven't the slightest feeling about colored people. Why, I'm just crazy about some of them. They're just like children -just as easy-going, and always singing and laughing and everything. Aren't they the happiest things you ever saw in your life? Honestly, it makes me laugh just to hear them. Oh, I like them. I really do.»

Note.As could be ascertained, the excerpt contains several features characterestic of the belles-lettres style. This is also proved by some ways of expression and by syntactic peculiarities of speech pertained only to present-day colloquial English of the USA. The translator has to recreate and convey faithfully the content side, the style, the artis­tic and syntactic peculiarities, and the pragmatic intention/the subtext only of D.Parker's highly artistic story. This can be disclosed through a complex analysis of the main planes of the excerpt. Such an expli­catory analysis of the afore-cited sentences is also performed on the forthcoming pages.


Lexico-Semantic, Stylistic and Structural Analysis of Language Units/Sense Units of the Excerpt

The analysis of this excerpt, like any complex analysis of a text, should be started from the title, which is metaphorical by nature (Arrangement in Black and White). Here is a case when the real mean­ing of the title can be established only after a thorough semantic and stylistic analysis of the passage. Apart from this, some extralingual factors, as the once strained racial relationship between the whites and blacks in the USA, should be taken into account. And yet the title, as becomes clear from its component parts (Arrangement, be­tween, Black, White) already discloses the main idea of the excerpt. At any rate it hints to the intention of the white woman character to get acquainted with a well-known Negro singer, performer of spiritu­als. This gives the clue to some suggestions conceiving the meaning of the title, which may have the following versions in Ukrainian: 1. «Влаштування зустрічі білої з чорним», 2. «Зустріч білої з негром-співаком», 3. «Знайомство білої з кольоровим співаком».

None of these suggested titles, however, is felicitous enough to be accepted as final, since neither of them fully expresses the main idea of the excerpt and the story as a whole. Each of the suggested titles fails to express the falsehood of the woman character who is not simply a white, but a racist white. Taking this negative feature of the character into consideration, one can offer some additional Ukrainian versions for the title, which might be more expressive and closer to the original sense: 1. «Біла на концерті чорного співака»; 2. «Біла на концерті кольорового співака»; 3. «Відвідини концерту кольорового співака білою «поклонницею» таланту»; 4. «Біла «поклонниця таланту» кольорового співака».

Out of these four offered versions only the last appears to be close to the content of the story and intention of the authoress. It expresses to some extent the falsehood and the double-dealing con­duct of the woman character, which is partly reflected in the title. It also hints to the hidden negative features of the main character of the story, though even this Ukrainian version does not fully express the meaning of the original title. Nevertheless, it may be the beginning to the solution of this far from easy question and serve as a basis for other versions, which may be closer to the concept of D.Parker, who has given a most vivid portrayal of a regular mentally and psychologi-


 




cally split character who proclaims her principle of respect to the equal­ity of different races and acts, just on the contrary. This striking fea­ture in the psychological state and behavior of the female character gives grounds for suggesting some more Ukrainian versions of the title, some of which may be really final: 1. «Поклонниця» таланту кольорового митця», 2. «Біла «поклонниця» таланту чорного співака», 3. «Вдавана поклонниця таланту», and even a single word version «Хамелеон».

The most fitting in comparison with the preceding four suggested titles may be considered the last two of these offered versions, one of which may be chosen (with some transformation) as absolutely ac­ceptable in Ukrainian: «Вдавана поклонниця таланту» or «Палка «прихильниця» таланту».

The lengthy contemplation upon the title of the excerpt/story testifies to the difficulties facing the translator of belles-lettres, which may sometimes become insurmountable. In view of this, some losses, as a result of the great «resistance» of the original text, must be condoned (виправдані). Despite the difficulties, the translator should never desist from the efforts to select the most fitting target language variants for any language unit/sense unit of the source language.

It must be emphasized that the process of selecting the se­mantic and structural equivalents for certain sense units in the target language requires not only profound knowledge of the source language, but also, and not to a smaller degree, that of his native tongue. Hence, of paramount importance is the translator's skill in selecting among synonymous sense units of the source language the only suitable versions in the target language, as will be observed further, when analysing separate blocks of sentences from the excerpt. This aim is achieved via a thorough lexico-semantic, grammatical/structural and stylistic analysis of sense units during the process of translating each single sentence of the excerpt/passage below. It may also be inter­esting, and not only for an inexperienced translator, to follow the analy­sis beginning with the structure of the first primary predication word-group, which reads as follows: The woman with the pink velvet pop­pies turned round the assisted gold of her hair... The predicate turned round'may be erroneously understood by the student as вінок навколо пофарбованих у золотавий колір кіс/волосся, which would be ab­solutely wrong, since turned here means повернула голову з пофарбованим у золотавий колір волоссям. A proof to this is the


second homogeneous predicate traversed'(the crowded room) with an interesting gate combining a skip with a sidle. The Ukrainian versions/ equivalents of this participial word-group may be: 1. енергійно боком проштовхалась через переповнену залу, 2. прожогом, бочкуючи, проштовхалась... These two variants are possible due to the sense of the word-group (combining) a skip with a sidle (in a word-for-word translation «боком з підскоком»). Equally of interest may also be the last homogeneous predicate with its conclusion clutched the lean hand of her host, which should be transformed through addition into the following sentence: /, наблизившись до господаря, схопила його за худорляву руку.

The dialogue between the woman character and her host is of interest both from the structural/syntactic, stylistic and semantic points of view. All these dialogues are both abrupt, elliptical, and sentence-type, presenting in some places regular monologues. Their peculiar features, naturally, must also be maintained in Ukrainian. The highly emotional nature of speech presented in the dialogues of the woman character, her extensive use of subjective and objective modality of­ten requires the employment of such means of expressing modality in Ukrainian as modal particles. This can be observed practically in most addresses of the woman, as in the following dialogues:

«Now I got you!» she said. «Ось ви і попалися мені!»

«Now you can't get away!» вигукнула вона. «Тепер вам не

втекти!»

"Why, hello,» said her host. «А, вітаю,»-озвавсягосподар.

«Well. How are you ?» «Ну. як ся маємо/як справи?»

Apart from the use of the expressive modal particles (ось, а, ну) the highly emotional speech of the woman character abounds in wrong forms of some words. Cf.:

«Oh, I'm finely.» she said. «О, в мене все красненько

«Just simply finely. Listen. I want відповіла вона. «Просто-таки
you to do me the most terrible красненько. Послухайте, я хочу,
favor. Will you? Will you please? щоб ви мені зробили страшенну
Pretty please?» послугу. Зробите? Будь ласка,

зробите? Дуже вас прошу!»

The wrong use of finely instead of the correct form fine is not easy to translate into Ukrainian, where there is no corresponding cor-


 




rupted form of this adverb. Hence, the stylistically possible wrong employment of the adverb красненько with the aim of compensating the English corruption in Ukrainian translation.

Certainly of some interest, but without any difficulty for trans­lators, may be the oxymoron the most terrible favorwhich should be in Ukrainian simply страшенна послуга or страшенно велика послуга. Of interest is also the fifth sentence («What is it?»), which may have some versions, though not the word-for-word version «Що це?» or «Що це таке?» as the host meant some con­crete idea of the noun «the favor». Correspondingly, the interrogative sentence may have one of the following four faithful variants: 1. «А яку (послугу)?»; 2. «А саме?»; З. «Що за послугу?»; 4.«Тобто?».

In the sixth block of sentences, certainly of interest from the point of view of translation, may be some word-groups and sentences, even the simple and constantly used concluding words «he said/she said» after the direct speech. These several times repeated English sentences, naturally, can not (for stylistic reasons) be translated word-for-word as «він сказав/вона сказала». Acceptable may be, depend­ing on the context, the following versions: поцікавився він/вона, запитав він/вона, звернулася вона/він, вставила вона/він and sometimes an omisionof this tag sentence altogether.

Certainly of some difficulty in the sixth sentence may be the verb meet in the utterance / want to meet Walter Williams, where it has the contextual meaning of познайомитися; hence, the Ukrai­nian version must be Я хочу познайомитися з Волтером Вільямсом and not Я хочу зустрітися з Волтером Вільямсом.

No less interesting, though far from easy to render, are some other sense units in sentence 6 in the woman's dialogue. Among them is the sentence «Honestly, I'm just simply crazy about that man» in which there are some stumbling blocks worth being analysed. For example, «honestly» may have some faithful variants in Ukrainian: «чесно», «слово честі», «їй-богу», «правду кажу». Any of the first three versions may be used in this Ukrainian translation. As to the part of the sentence «I'm just simply crazy» (about that man), it may have two variants in this sentence: 1. «Я в нестямі від цієї людини» (and not- від цього чоловіка, which may have some other meaning) or 2. «Я просто божеволію від захоплення цим співаком." No di­rect (word-for-word) translation can be suggested for the sentence


«Oh, when he sings», which may have two faithful variants: 1. «О, як він співає» and 2. «О, як він тільки співає» (with the use of the emphatic particle тільки).

Some difficulty may arise when translating the utterance «Well, I said to Burton, when I left, it's a good thing for you Walter Williams is coloured» I said, «or you'd ha ve lots or reasons to be jealous.» Its faithful version in Ukrainian can be achieved only through a deep in­quiry into the content and style of the utterance. Probably the most difficult is to translate the repeated utterance «I said», which is a kind of an inserted sentence often used in narration in Ukrainian too, but only in present form of a definite personal sentence (in reported speech). Its form is «кажу» (cf.: А я оце кажу, А я оце сиджу та й думаю, etc). Hence, the only correct/faithful Ukrainian translation of this block of sentences may be as follows: « Ну/то ж я сказала Бертону, як ішла з дому: добре, кажу, що цей Волтер Вільямс кольоровий, а то в тебе було б багато підстав для ревнощів/ревнувати.»

Two more utterances of the block are not easy from the point of view of translation either: 1. «I'd really love to tell him» which can be translated as «Я б дуже хотіла сказати» or «Я б обов'язково сказала йому» and 2. «І heard him sing» which can not mean «Я чула, як він співав», which is of no importance for the host or anybody, since to hear anybody sing is no great privilege whatsoever. Only her having attended some of the singer's concerts could be qualified in certain periods of the U.S. history as a bold deed. Because of this the sen­tence should be translated as follows: «Я б йому сказала, що була на його концерті/відвідувала його концерт.» In this way the woman could show herself in the eyes of the guest as a bold, progressive and devoted to arts person.

The concluding utterance in block six of sentences presents some interest as well having practically two neutral, i.e., semantically equivalent for the context variants: «Будьте ж настільки ласкаві; будьте ж ангелом Божим... і представте мене йому/познайомте мене з ним.» The answer of the host (sentence 7) is pretty clear, but it requires a proper expression in Ukrainian where «Why, certainly» may be translated faithfully in some ways: 1. «Це можна, звичайно», 2. «Будь ласка, це можна» or even 3. «А чому ж, можна»/ «Звичайно ж», 4. «Обов'язково познайомлю».

The third utterance of this block of sentences «The party's for him») may have at least two versions as well: 1. «Адже ця вечірка -


 




в його честь»; 2. «Адже цей вечір влаштовано/влаштований виключно для нього»; 3. «Адже це його вечір».

In the eighth block of sentences of interest may be utterance 3: «Well, I think you're simply marvellous, giving this perfectly mar­vellous party for him and having him meet all those white people, and all.» In this utterance transformations are needed in some places, the first being that of the word-group «simply marvellous», which can not be translated as «просто чудовий», but only as a substan­tival word-group «ви просто чудо» or still more accurately «ви просто молодець/просто-таки молодець.» The participial construction/ word-group «giving this perfectly marvellous party for him» can also be translated in two ways: 1. влаштовуючи цей чудовий вечір для нього or 2. що влаштували цей/такий чудовий вечір/вечірку для нього.

Some difficulty may present the translation of the often used by the woman empty phrase «and all», which corresponds not to our «i все», but to «і взагалі» or «та й взагалі».

Certainly the most difficult may be the translation of the last utterance of the woman in the eighth block of sentences «Isn't he terribly grateful?» and the answer to it (sentence 9) «I hope not,» said her host.

When translated the woman's question word-for-word as «Він вам напевне страшенно вдячний?» and the host's answer as «Сподіваюся - ні,» the sense of the utterances would be completely perverted, i.e., wrong. This is because the woman made her empha­sis on the adverb «terribly» (grateful). Consequently, the Ukrainian equivalent must be «Він має бути вам страшенно-таки вдячним, правда ж?» The host's answer «/ hope not» as a reaction to the emphatically stressed adverb must not be translated word-for-word either as «Сподіваюсь, ні» but as «Думаю, нема за що (бути аж страшенно) вдячним». This answer called forth the protesting reac­tion of the woman character who did not quite agree with the host by saying «I think it's really terribly nice - I do», which corresponds to the Ukrainian «А я вважаю, що все справді страшенно гарно... Певна/переконана на всі сто (відсотків)». The concluding sentence, as had been said already, is merely an empty phrase, often used by the woman to substantiate her assuredness.

Block 10 of the woman's utterances contains some sense units which should be analysed semantically and stylistically with the aim


of finding faithful Ukrainian versionsTorthem. These utterances and word-groups are: 1. «Why on earth it isn't perfectly all right» чому це в біса погано/що в тому в біса/чорта поганого, щоб знайомитися з кольоровим. Here even a broader transformation is possible: хто щось може мати проти/заперечити проти знайомства з кольоровим; 2.1 haven't any feeling about it at all - у мене взагалі немає нічого проти цього or: у мене немає жодних упереджень проти цього, or even: я це вважаю нормальним. It goes without saying that only one of these synonymous versions is to be used. No less interesting from the struc­tural/stylistic and semantic points of view are other utterances that follow. For example, utterance 11: «Did he come to-night?» which may have some faithful realizations: 1. «А він прийшов сьогодні?» 2. «А він тут/теж із вами?» 3. «А він теж на вечорі?» Any of these variants may be taken as a faithful Ukrainian version for this sen­tence, though not all of the woman's cunning contemplations are quite easy to render fully and accurately into Ukrainian, as in case of «There's no telling what I'll do.» Only a thorough analysis of the whole story helps comprehend what the woman character meant by saying so. It becomes clear from the deeper analysis of the text, what she wanted to say by that (she was eager to shake hands with the coloured singer). The Ukrainian variants of this utterance, consequently, may be only the following: 1. «Ти і не здогадуєшся/і гадки не маєш, що я надумалася зробити»; 2. ««Ти і гадки не маєш, на який крок я зважилася»; 3. «Ти собі навіть не уявляєш, що я сьогодні втну». 4. Ти навіть додуматися не здатний, на який неймовірний крок я наважилася сьогодні піти». Needless to emphasize, that any of these versions may well fit in the Ukrainian translation, though only one and no more can be used.

Some colloquial style utterances of the woman character may cause even difficulty for the translator, as it is with one utterance in block 12, where it contains a somewhat obscure/not quite transpar­ent lexical meaning of the verb «move». Cf.: «He was so tired out, he couldn't move.» A thorough semantic analysis of the context proves that the verb's semantics was not in any way connected with the state of Burton's physical ability. What the verb «move» really means in this context is that Burton did not react in any way to what his wife said to him after having decided to make a very courageous (in her judgement) «step», i.e., shake hands with the well-known coloured singer, whom she, as a half-racist, in reality, despises. Hence, taking


 




into consideration the lingual and extralingual factors, the only cor­rect/faithful translation of the utterance and its tag question («Isn't it a shame?») should have the following Ukrainian version: «Він був такий стомлений, що навіть не (від)реагував на мої слова.» The tag-ques­tion may have respectively one of the following three versions: 1. «Сором та й годі, чи не так?» or 2. «Аж сором, може ні/не так?» or 3. «Просто ганьба, скажете - ні?»

Neither can there be only one single solution to the possible translation of the host's laconic and clearly evasive answer «Ah» (sen­tence 13) to the above-cited tag-question. His «Ah» may be inter­preted as a neutral answer, not sympathising with the judgement of the woman. Consequently, the Ukrainian variants of it may be simply «A...» or «гм», «хм», etc. It is clear from the context, that the host did not support but sooner rejected that woman's «accusation» of her husband's lack of attention.

The fourteenth block of utterances, which is a regular long mono­logue of the woman character contains some interesting ways of ex­pression, emphatic colloquial phrases and structures worth a more or less thorough analysis as well. Among them is already the first sen­tence emphatically uttered by the woman: «Wait till I tell him I met Walter Williams!», which contains wishful modality and is to be ex­pressed with the help of some Ukrainian modal particles. The most fitting in this utterance will be хай/нехай-но: «Чекайте-но, хай я скажу йому, що познайомилася з Волтером Вільямсом!» or «Чекайте, хай-ноя скажу йому...»

The following utterance 'He'll just about die» presents no diffi­culty for translators due to its transient meaning, which enables to suggest some equivalent versions in Ukrainian: 1. «Він упаде на місці»; 2. «Він цього не переживе»; 3. «Він просто лусне (від сміху)». All these three variants are synonymous and fit well in the context. Consequently, each of them may be used in Ukrainian. The next utterance («Oh, we have more arguments about colored people») contains a grammatical and logical error in the use of the indefinite pronoun/adjective more instead of many repeatedly testifying to the woman's low (if any) education and her very low cultural level.

Probably one of the most interesting structural transformations must be performed to achieve faithfulness in translation in two utter­ances that follow the previous one. Neither of the two, when trans­planted, as they are placed in the original passage, would well fit


semantically into a good Ukrainian literary version. Cf.: «I talk to him like I don't know what. I get so excited». 1. «Я розмовляю з ним, як не знаю хто». 2. «Я так збуджуюсь». When translated, however, beginning with the second utterance, with the substitution of some words for a more common Ukrainian way of saying, the target lan­guage literary variant becomes more natural and more expressive, and thus more acceptable to Ukrainian colloquial speech style:

1. «I talk to him like I don't know what. 2.1 get so excited.» Hence, it must be transposed into:

2. «Я як розійдуся/розпалюся, 1. то такого йому наговорю, що й сама не знаю, що».

This kind of transformation through the change of placement in the row of utterances makes the Ukrainian version more logically and stylistically grounded, because the woman, as anybody else in her place, got excited first and only then talked to him (Burton) «like no­body knows what». In view of this, her very mild reproach, instead of the naturally expected strong words of accusation or indignation, is much milder and weaker, and contrary to that, which might have been expected: «Oh, don't be so silly». These words disclose the double-dealing conduct of this woman character, who only wanted to camou­flage her false inside. This can also be clearly seen from the Ukrai­nian variant of the utterance: «О, не говори нісенітниць,» - кажу я ^ йому. These words, of course, are far from expressing any threat or strong reproach, as the woman character pretended.

Other utterances of this block containing peculiar features, which are important to know and still more to translate for a student and future translators, are as follows:

1. «he's heaps broader-minded» (hyperbolized), which will be more expressive and more faithful when translated antonymically as «він не такий обмежений»;