CC BY
16Journal of Siberian Federal University. Humanities & Social Sciences 10 (2011 4) 1495-1504
УДК 81.33
Reconstruction of the Image of Bulgakov's Margarita in the Chinese Translations
Yang Mingbo*
East University of Heilongjiang 331 Xuefu RoadNangang Dist, Harbin, 150086 China,
Siberian Federal University 82A Svobodny, Krasnoyarsk, 660041 Russia 1
Received 3.10.2011, received in revised form 10.10.2011, accepted 17.10.2011
In this article the issues of the theory of the literary image and language means for creating the image of Margarita are analysed. Special attention is paid to the methods of reconstruction of Margarita's image in the Chinese translations.
Keywords: literary image, M.A. Bulgakov, Margarita, fiction translation, adequacy, ambiguousness, perception, Russian language, Chinese language.
Introduction
The literary image is a general category of the art of fiction and a specific form of thinking in literature (Borev, 2002: 87). It is an allegoric, metaphoric designation revealing one phenomenon through another one. The literary image has its own logic; it develops by its own internal rules with a compulsory self-movement. The literary image is polysemic and complex. One of the aspects of the image's polysemanticity is the understatement. The literary image is an inseparable unity of thinking and feeling, rational and emotional. The internal form of the image is personalised, it bears an indelible mark of the author's idea, his separating and manifesting initiative due to which the image appears as a valued human reality, cultural value in the range of other aesthetic values. The main features of the
literary image are: literary typing, expressivity and self-sustainability. The objective of this work is to study the peculiarities of the literary image of Bulgakov's Margarita and the methods of delivering and reconstructing this image in the Chinese translations.
The literary image: definition and main characteristics
Literary works possess general features connected with the aesthetic nature. To aesthetically perceive any phenomenon means to perceive it as a unity, interaction of something unique and peculiar with something general. Mental ascension from the object's individuality to its inner, spiritual meaning comprises the essence of the aesthetic feeling (Borev, 2002: 135).
* Corresponding author E-mail address: mlmingbo@mail.ru
1 © Siberian Federal University. All rights reserved
The reader of fiction, first of all, meets the system of literary images. It is the literary image which represents the main language of art. But art is considered to be the highest form of aesthetic consciousness, while something general reveals quite vividly in something individual.
The word "image" is used as a term in different fields of knowledge. Basically, we face specific homonyms: in philosophy under the "image" any reflection of reality is understood; in psychology the "image" is a synonym of representation, i.e. mental observation of the object in its unity; in aesthetics it is the reproduction of the objects in a specific system of symbols. The material carriers of images and word pictures in literary works are words and the speech (Rudnev, 1999: 79).
Images and image information surround us every day and everywhere: we meet them in our home photo album with favourite photos, in a newspaper essay. But this fact-graphic and/or illustrative images "do not substitute individuality of the phenomena showing them as they were in reality". Nevertheless, the value of images is not in realization of the material of life, but in accuracy of reflection.
The origins of the image history are presented in the ancient world. But the expanded grounding that would be close to the modern one, was given in the German classic aesthetics. For Hegel art was a sensitive realisation of an idea: "Art thinking differs from theoretical, scientific study by the fact, that it is interested in the object in its single existence and does not intend to transform it into a universal thought or notion" (Hegel, 1969: 105). At the same time the unique, the individual in art can deliver the universal vividly, tactilely and visibly. Hegel compares a literary work with the eyes being the mirror of the soul. "...One can claim that art reveals the soul and transforms any image at all points of the visible surface into an eye which forms the place for the soul. It does not only transform
the body, impression of the face, gestures and the way of presentation, but the same way the actions and events, modulations of the voice, speech and sound throughout and in all conditions of its manifestation..." (Hegel, 1969: 109). The literary image according to Hegel is the result of "clearance" of the phenomenon from anything casual, darkening the essence, the result of its "idealisation". Thus, not only Rafael's Madonnas, but all mothers feel "awesome and submissive" love for their children, "nevertheless, it is not any form of a woman's face that can fully reflect such depth of the soul" (Grekhnev 1997:33). The statements of Hegel's aesthetics have appeared to be more long-lasting than their methodological context and now in a transformed way they are full parts of the modern theory of art.
Let us dwell on the main features of the literary image, keeping in mind the characters which may be as animate, so inanimate objects in literature.
1. The image has a typical meaning (from Greek "typos" - imprint, impression). If in the reality itself the unique can darken the universal, than literary images are called upon for being vivid personification of the universal, the substantial in the individual. A character becomes a "familiar stranger", a type as the result of literary typing, i.e. selection of specific sides of life phenomena and underlining, marking out and extravagating these sides in the literary text. To reveal these or that features which the author of the text considered to be essential, the author's fantasy and imagination are needed. Histories of many literary works which are based on real events and where characters have prototypes, allow to track the path of the writer from a specific life material to a literary plot (Hegel, 1969: 178).
Typing may lead to hyperbolas, grotesques and fabulousness. We can illustrate what was said above by such famous literary texts as O. Balzac's "Shagreen skin", N. Gogol's "Nose".
There are types of images where a hidden, allegorical sense prevails over the direct sense. Here we can speak about an allegory, a symbol. In the allegory decoding of the sense by the recipient does not cause any difficulties and the conditionality of the image is obvious. The symbol is not always recognised by the reader, while the symbol is frequently more attached to polysemanticity, than the allegory (Hegel, 1969: 231).
2. The literary image is expressive, while it demonstrates the attitude of the author to the object in terms of ideas and emotions. A deeply rooted tradition of dividing characters into "positive", "negative", "contradictory" and "dual" is the evidence of ideological and emotional evaluation of the depicted characters by the author. The most important types of evaluation are aesthetic categories when the writer perceives the phenomena of the social life and people: he can make them the heroes, and vice versa, reveal comic contradictions of their personality and behaviour (i.e. it is the source for humour and satire); he can outline the romantics or tragedy of the characters' feelings; he can be sentimental or ironic, etc (Volkov, 1995: 184 ).
The author has all the "armoury" of literary techniques, which help him to give his assessment explicitly or implicitly.
3. The literary image is self-sufficient, it is the main form of expressing the content in art. It is especially evident on the background of images in the structure of a scientific paper demonstrating these or that statements, and also the fact-graphical images of political essays, documentary genres where the author's thoughts, sometimes very emotional ones, form a line parallel to the phenomena being analysed in the work (Volkov, 1995: 186).
Self-sufficiency of the literary image explains the possibility of its various understanding. The image is polysemantic, its meaning does not only
comprise adages, even if they have been "defined" by the author as it is appropriate in some didactic genres ("morality" in fables, the final phrase of the character in comedies of Classicism, etc).
Figurativeness of the art creates objective assumption for arguments regarding characters' personalities, general meaning of the work, various interpretations of the work, both similar to the author's concept and polemic as well. The desire of many writers to avoid determining the idea of their works and "translating" it to the language of notions is quite typical. The paradox though is in the fact, that some explication of the general meaning, "content", "idea" which are enclosed in images is the inevitable condition of a "dialogue" with the author each reader begins.
The literary heritage
of Mikhail Bulgakov and his system of literary images
The literary heritage of Mikhail Bulgakov remains one of the most significant phenomenon of the modern Russian and world literature. The images of his characters have spread in the Russian mentality, they became familiar in the everyday life of Russians. Starting for the moment of publication all works by M. Bulgakov contributed to appearance of new cultural ties, changes in the systems of values, ideals and stereotypes. The literary images by M. Bulgakov is an efficient method to accentuate the perception of the reader on what is intended by the author, on allegory, on the meanings of irony. Readers' interest was increased by interpretation of the hidden context in the famous novel "Master and Margarita" by many researchers of the novelist's works starting from its first publication. M. Bulgakov is one of these rare writers whose works are being read by modern Russian readers. Readers still argue about meanings and images of his works, research polymerise actively. The works by M. Bulgakov
continue to be very popular, exciting; they awake strong emotions.
The literary images in the heritage of M. Bulgakov have been studied (and the interest still does not fade away) by representatives of various humanitarian fields: literary critics (for example, K.V. Simonov and A.N. Barkov), philosophers, psychologists, art historians of Russia and other countries. Culturological understanding of the accumulated research experience contributes to a deeper and more precise learning of the literary heritage of M. Bulgakov. In studies of the novel "Master and Margarita", in various versions the thought about the hidden content, unguessed meanings and images of the work which escape analysis is repeated. The literary heritage of M. Bulgakov is the result of the author's coding, fixation of knowledge, experience, feelings which still remain incompletely studied (Zhirmunsky 1996: 123). The functional meaning of literary images in culture is impossible to overestimate while they accumulate and keep aesthetic information, they are the means of realising significative function of culture.
The images of the novel "Master and Margarita" are famous as in Russia, so in other countries. The book was translated and published several times in England, USA, Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Greece, Turkey, Japan, Rumania, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Yugoslavia. There are also translations of the novel into Swedish, Norwegian, Finnish, Danish, Spanish, Chinese and other languages.
Popularity and topicality of "Master and Margarita" have led to appearance of a large number of theatrical performances of this novel in various parts of Russia, as well as in Great Britain, Canada, USA, Austria, Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, Poland, Israel, Belorussia, Ukraine, Lithuania, Moldavia and Georgia. The novel was filmed in the Russian television and
in the television of Italy, Yugoslavia, Poland, Great Britain, France, Hungary and Israel; there are opera versions by composers Aleksander Gradsky, Sergey Slominsky, Andrey Petrov and Evgeny Glebov; as well musicals, songs, photo illustrations, reproductions and sculptures. Everything mentioned above demonstrates that the novel has become the object of the cross-semiotic translation.
The image of Bulgakov's Margarita by its figurativeness corresponds to the best female images of the 20th century. Even though from the first sight it may seem that Margarita's image to some extent destructs the harmonious concept of an ideal female character formed in the 20th century (Barkov 1990: 8). The fact that Margarita does not fit this concept seems to be a wonderful opportunity, which requires special, metaphysical and even mystical understanding. Otherwise, the perception of this central image of the novel is simplified to stereotyped-didactic one, thus inevitably leading to incomplete and simplified perception of the whole novel. The "Master and Margarita" is the final work of M. Bulgakov in relation to everything else that was written by him. The novel summarises his ideas about the meaning of life, the human, his mortality and immortality, the fight of good and evil, truth and lies in the society and in the moral world of a person. Interweaving and interaction of several philosophically important themes - cowardice, immortality, rest, light and darkness, love and mercy expressed through the images of the protagonists reveal the true deep philosophical meaning of the novel.
The literary image of Margarita
One of the most vivid images in M. Bulgakov's novel is the image of Margarita (the symbol of feminity, commitment, beauty and self-sacrifice in the name of love). It is the love of the woman and not himself, where the Master gets his power
upon his return to the apartment at Arbat lane. "Enough!", says the Master to Margarita, "You've made me ashamed. You may rest easy knowing I will not go into weakness and raise this question again. I know we both suffer from this mental illness, which I may have passed to you...Very well then, together we shall carry it" (Chapter 24 of the novel "Master and Margarita"). Spiritual closeness of Margarita with the Master is so strong that the Master cannot forget his beloved one even for a minute.
The image of Margarita clearly represents literary courage, impudent challenge of M. Bulgakov to stable aesthetic and moral laws. On the one hand, the author puts into Margarita's mouth poetic words about the Creator, his immortality, about beautiful "immortal home" which will be his reward. On the other hand the Master's beloved one flies on a floor brush above boulevards and roofs of Moscow, crushes windows, puts "pointed claws" into Behemoth's ear and calls him swearwords. Margarita asks Woland to turn her housemaid Natasha into a witch, revenges upon a paltry literary critic Latunsky. It is almost impossible to find in the world literature such behaviour and style mixing within one character and literary image.
Thus, in the image of Bulgakov's Margarita a handful of contradictory features of a human personality are concentrated: love and hatred, generosity and greed, good and evil. Margarita is a unity of an angel and a witch. It should be noted that the image of Margarita is quite complicated for perception, even for Russian readers, L.M. Yanovskaya in her research "Literary path of Mikhail Bulgakov" wrote: "Margarita in the novel became a beautiful, universal and poetic image of a woman who loves. This image rises above the layer of satiric daily routine of the novel by embodiment of living, passionate love. This passionate love Margarita herself compares with passionate commitment of Saint Matthew, but
Saint Matthew is fanatic and, correspondingly, limited. Margarita's love is like life all-embracing and living" (Yanovskaya, 1983: 169). There are other opinions, for example, ".the novel is about the tragedy of love, the hopeless tragedy. For the Master love is only the condition of "comfort", but not the meaning of life. For Margarita her love for the Master, even though it is very romantic, is only a "compensation" of another, true, but unsuccessful life. Let us remember a confession that burst out for a 4-year old boy: "... there was a lady. And she didn't have children, and she didn't have happiness at all. At first she had cried a lot, and then became malicious." (Akimov, 1995:19).
The literary image of Margarita in the Chinese translations
The image of Bulgakov's Margarita creates objective prerequisites for arguments about her personality even for Russian readers of the novel. Thus, the perception of this image by Chinese readers is of an unquestionable interest. The novel by M. Bulgakov "Master and Margarita" attracts more and more attention, which can be observed from a significant number of its translation into the Chinese language. We took several text examples of description of Margarita's image in the Russian and the Chinese languages to study this cross-disciplinary issue which lies between literature study, linguistics and translation study. In this article we will analyse the main features of the literary image of Margarita from M. Bulgakov's novel "Master and Margarita" and their translation into Chinese. The translation of this novel started in China from literary exposition. Exposition, a story, and an essay were used as translation tools. The first full-text translation of this novel was published in May of 1987. In Chinese the novel was named
". The novel was translated by a famous Chinese expert in the Russian language
and literature, Qian Cheng. Later the novel was translated by Han Qing in 1998; it was named "Satan is dancing" C'^fi^^"). In 1998 another version appeared named "Affi^^^-® #"/. Translation was done together by Dai Cong and Cao Guowei. After 4 years Xu Changliao translated the novel "Master and Margarita" into Chinese once again At the beginning of the 21st century Chinese translators recommenced active translation activity in relation to Bulgakov's novel. The modern Chinese translators of the novel are Gao Huiqun, Wan Funan and Su Ling who published their translation in 2007, 2008 and 2009 with the resembling name of the novel in the Chinese language: "^ffiff^^®^", #" and ". It should be noted
that an outstanding phenomenon of the modern Russian literature, the so-called "a novel in a novel", became a sensation among the Chinese readers, which is witnessed by a significant number of scientific papers, reviews and reports
about the novel. For the last 10 years the novel has been attracting more and more readers by its deep linguistic and literary meaning as in the whole world, so in China in particular.
Let us take three translations of this novel to the Chinese language. The first one was done by the translator Qian Cheng in 1987. It is the earliest translation of the novel "Master and Margarita" in China. The second translation was done by Gao Huiqun in 2007 and the latest translation was done by Su Ling in 2009. We will study the main features of the literary image of Margarita in the Russian and the Chinese language in order to compare various translation in Chinese and determine the adequacy of translation. Below there is a Table where the key words, which create the image of Bulgakov's Margarita, are given in the Russia and the Chinese languages.
The comparison of the key words creating the image of Margarita (the occurrence of the character) in the original text and in the Chinese translations (based on Chapter 13 of the novel):
Key words Russian original Translation of Qian Cheng (1986) Tranlsation of Gao Huiqun (2005) Translation of Su Ling (2009)
Name Margarita BfioMig
Margarita Nikolayevna A» HMíS-Jñ^SB A» A®
Clothes Black spring coat
Appearance Beautiful MM mm Mm
A witch squinting in one eye —rbibím—íw ilMtA
Voice Low, hostile, with frustration. m, -timko m^mm o
Margarita's speech Do you like my flowers? t^swm?
You don't like flowers at all? ns,? t^s^s?
And what flowers do you like then? M^W—ft?
Behaviour In her arms she was carrying disgusting, iYkmmm^m
uneasy yellow flowers
Behaviour She ... gave an anxious, ... painful look SttfTS-I.
She looked at me in surprise itfifTfS. M.
She smiled guiltily and threw her flowers into a trench mmmm-%, ITiAS. î^sj/kma T. íAswiswaT as.
She pushed the flowers away with a smile 70*. Mga
That day she left the house with yellow flowers for me to find her finely. If this had not happened, she would have poisoned herself because her life was empty.. »A«—^^ S T. ihKftsmülífe, ft íéMíMMñ su. a mm, 7, M— », SARASA asi.
She took the flowers out of my hands, threw them to the pavement, then put her hand in a black, bell-shaped glove into mine. TSÔ»«. fe^WSJT ^»JAPM^ÍW «iSÔ»«. mñmmm±, # MAÍWA^ftTS Ô»«.
Characteristics clever SE s® s®
30 years old, childless AAA
She did not need money, she could buy anything. tÊA* ñriu ñTlM 0.
Margarita had never touched a primus stove, she did not know the horrors of living in a combined flat with someone else. . ^ÈAAft— Mi». m, SiJAAft— sw. »aaaah, ttûî sw.
She did not know happiness. ft.
Comparative analysis of the above examples in terms of adequacy and equivalence showed that the majority of the Chinese translations virtually correspond to the Russian original. However, certain discrepancies were detected between the original and the Chinese translations. For example, in describing the voice of Margarita as "low with frustration" the translators translated only the
word "low"- "iftffi" (in Chinese literally means low and heavy). The phrase "with frustration" got different translation variations: (translation by Qian Cheng that literally means a trembling voice) (translation by Gao
Huiqun, literally: hoarse) "WWM^" (translation by Su Ling, literally: penetrating). In the Russian original novel we find: "She looked at me not just
uneasily, but painfully", the word "painfully" the translators Qian Cheng and Gao Huiqun translated as (literally: with grief), and the third
translator Su Ling gave the closest translation to the original - (literally: painfully).
In the Bulgakov's original novel Margarita Nikolaevna's everyday life was described as follows: "Margarita Nikolaevna had never touched the primus stove. Margarita Nikolaevna never knew the horrors of living in a shared apartment." In the translations of the Chinese writers it acquired a slightly different description: "i^M
— S^Wii^Mta" (translation by Qian Cheng literally means Margarita never approached the hearth. She did not know the numerous troubles of living with strangers in a shared apartment), "
" (translation by Gao Hueytsyun, literally: she did not need to independently use the oven to cook food. She did not know the deadly nuisance of living with strangers in a shared apartment) and
A^ttWMa" (translation by Su Ling, literally: She had never been to the kitchen, and did not know the nuisance of living with strangers in a shared apartment).
None of the first two translations found the equivalents to such translation units as "primus stove" and "horrors". Qian Cheng replaced them with the lexeme "hearth" and the phrase "numerous troubles", and Gao Huiqun with the word "oven" and the phrase "deadly nuisance", respectively. In the third variant the phrase "never touched the primus stove" was translated as "had never been to the kitchen". Meanwhile, relying on the D.N. Ushakov's dictionary and the new Russian-Chinese dictionary, we know that the "primus stove is a device for cooking and heating something, consisting of a reservoir with a soldered tube that carries kerosene injected by a pump to a burner" (Chinese: A primus
stove was some kind of a symbol of life of Russians in the thirties of the 20th century. And the fact that Margarita did not know what a primus stove was gives evidence of her specific establishment and aristocratism. For today's Russian readers "a primus stove" is a vivid Sovietism, a cultural reality and helps to create a literary image of the heroine. In the Chinese translations the cultural and time markedness of the lexeme "primus stove" was not transmitted. The Chinese translators use other lexemes ("hearth", "oven", "kitchen") and do not preserve the cultural colouring of the Russian lexeme through footnotes and translator's commentary.
The most controversial point in our analysis is the translation of the description of Margarita's looks: "a witch squinting in one eye". In the S. Ozhegov's Russian Dictionary the word "witch" has the following meanings: 1. "In fairy tales, folk beliefs: an evil sorceress. 2. Fig. A wicked, shrewish woman (colloquialism)." The Chinese translators translate this lexical unit "MA^ ^ (translation by Qian Cheng, literally: an attractive girl)" (translation by Gao
Huiqun, literally: a monster, a witch)" "^A (literally: a woman)". Thus, the two Chinese translations (Qian Cheng and Su Ling) lost the negative connotation included in the meaning of the original word. The translation by Gao Huiqun adequately conveys the expressive meaning of the original. The lexical unit "witch" is critical in creating a literary image of the heroine of the novel and can be defined as the translation unit, in respect of which the translator decides to translate. Given the above, we can conclude that the image of Margarita presented in the Russian original text was recreated in the Chinese translations completely enough, but there are some flaws in the translation of certain lexical units of the above context, since their translation into Chinese can be considered as incorrect or lacunar.
Conclusion
The literary image of Margarita in the Russian original text and in Chinese translations is created by using words that describe the looks, clothing, voice, speech, characteristics, behaviour of the heroine. After reading the 13th chapter of M.A. Bulgakov's novel "Master and Margarita" in Russian that describes the appearance of the heroine in the Master's story, we have the following image of Margarita: "A young thirty-year-old rich woman - a witch with a carefree life". However, our analysis suggests that the Chinese translators perceive and translate this novel differently, which is evidenced by the various interpretations and translations. As a result of these differences the Chinese translations of the Mikhail Bulgakov's novel "Master and Margarita" contain slightly different (inadequate) literary images of Margarita. Thus, the image of Margarita in the Qian Cheng's translation was conservatively described as a typical image of a woman of the beginning of the 20th century, since the lexical
units used in the translation have a rather archaic nature. The translator Gao Huiqun perceives the image of Bulgakov's Margarita with a more modern point of view: Margarita is a woman who would rather get freedom and reject the carefree life. Unlike male translators Su Ling uses many neutral lexical units in her translation in order to create an image of a gentle and ordinary woman - Margarita. This phenomenon allows us to conclude that the literary image of Margarita may also vary with individual features of the novel's perception by the Chinese readers. Thus, we can conclude that from the point of inexhaustibility of the original text the literary image of Bulgakov's Margarita was preserved in the Chinese translations to a considerable degree. However, there is a regular difference in the reconstruction of the image in the works of different translators, which makes the image of the heroine of the Mikhail Bulgakov's novel "Master and Margarita" in the Chinese translations ambiguous, polysemantic and expressive.
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Воссоздание образа Маргариты из произведения М.А. Булгакова в китайских переводах
Минбо Ян
Институт Восток пров. Хэйлунцзян КНР 150086, Харбин, ул. Сюефу, 331 Сибирский федеральный университет Россия 660041, Красноярск, пр. Свободный, 79
В представленной статье анализируются вопросы теории художественного образа и языковые средства создания художественного образа Маргариты. Особое внимание уделяется способам воссоздания образа Маргариты в китайских переводах.
Ключевые слова: художественный образ, М.А. Булгаков, Маргарита, художественный перевод, адекватность, неоднозначность, восприятие, русский язык, китайский язык.
