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УДК: 81 ГРНТИ: 16.31.41
TRANSLATORS' RECEPTION OF ENGLISH EPIC LITERATURE: FACTORS, STRATEGIES, COMPETENCE (ON THE MATERIAL OF RUSSIAN PIONEER TRANSLATIONS OF J. R. R. TOLKIEN'S "THE LORD OF THE RINGS")
E. S. Sherstneva
North-Eastern State University, 13 Portovaya St., 685000 Magadan, Russia
El Ekaterina Sherstneva - [email protected]
Comparative-contrastive analysis of the original and its multiple translations, including language parameters and extralinguistic factors mediating their character, held within the context of diachronic viewpoint, allows to detect the national language development, evolution of translators' strategies, degree of literation, Russianization and foreignization of translations, level of translator's personal and professional competence. Analysis of J. R. R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" pioneer-translations has shown that there is coexistence of two types of translation: introductory translations, not aimed at the reconstruction of the whole semantic-stylistic depth of the original, and translations reconstructing literary features of the original making it conformable and akin for the receiving linguistic environment. Second type of translation, adopted for a native Russian speaker, bearer of the Russian culture, prevails in Russian books market by the number of editions.
Keywords: multiple translations, introductory translation, synchronic, diachronic, archaization, translator's approach, proper names translation, domestication, foreignization.
ПЕРЕВОДЧЕСКАЯ РЕЦЕПЦИЯ АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЭПОСА: ФАКТОРЫ, СТРАТЕГИИ, КОМПЕТЕНЦИИ (НА МАТЕРИАЛЕ ПЕРВЫХ РУССКИХ ПЕРЕВОДОВ РОМАНА ДЖ. Р. Р. ТОЛКИНА «ВЛАСТЕЛИН КОЛЕЦ»)
Е. С. Шерстнева
Северо-Восточный государственный университет Россия, 685000, г. Магадан, ул. Портовая 13
Е1 Екатерина Сергеевна Шерстнева - [email protected]
Сравнительно-сопоставительный анализ оригинала и его множественных переводов, включая языковые параметры и внеязыковые факторы их появления, проводимый в диахроническом разрезе, позволяет проследить развитие национального языка, эволюцию переводческих стратегий, степень олитературивания, русификации и форейнизации переводов, уровень личностной и профессиональной компетенции переводчика. Анализ первых переводов романа Дж. Р. Р. Толкина «Властелин колец» показал сосуществование двух типов переводов - ознакомительных, не имеющих целью полноценного воссоздания смысло-стилистической глубины оригинала, и переводов, направленных на воссоздание художественных черт оригинала на родном языке, созвучных и родных для принимающей языковой среды. По количеству изданий второй тип переводов, адаптированный под носителя русского языка и культуры, является преобладающим на российском книжном рынке.
Ключевые слова: переводная множественность, ознакомительный перевод, синхронический, диахронический, архаизация, переводческий подход, перевод имен собственных, доместикация, форенизация.
Trends and tendencies actual for their time and observed in the language within this or that period of its development find their way through literary works created during some definite period of national language development. Those characteristics of the language of literary works can be even seen within timeframe equivalent to one hundred or even fifty years. Translated literature reflects linguistic changes proceeding in the language. Comparative-contrastive analysis of translations' made at various historical periods of time as well as analysis of the original of similar nature can be a valuable means for the disclosure of linguistic reforms occurred in the language of translation. Thus, translations serve as some kind of indicators for current trends in the language. At the same time complex reconstruction of all corresponding parameters of the language of appointed period depends also on the translator and his selected strategy, not to mention that translator's strategy is modified by numerous factors of linguistic, cultural, social and even political character.
In that regard it would be relevant to mention such notion as synchronic and diachronic translations. Translation
synchronized with the original is created in the same historical epoch as the original. In this case the author and the translator are contemporaries, the medium is historically consistent for them, consolidated by the same cultural, scientific-technical, social and moral commonalities. In this situation occurrence of any contradictions between temporal parameters of the original and translation on lexical and grammatical levels is impossible.
Translation diachronized with the original implies past-time works' translations. Temporal distance between the original and translation is significant, interlinguistic characteristics and extralinguistic criteria of the two asynchronical epochs are different what in its turn leads to incoherence and diversity in the standards of writing.
The process of natural archaization of lexical, semantic, syntactic and other levels of a literary work is inevitable. This process unalterably leads to various language difficulties influencing perception of the work. As one of translator's main tasks is to reconstruct communicative-pragmatic orientation of the original with as few violations as possible, keeping semantic
structure and architecture of the text, he has to answer several questions: whether to translate using the language of the epoch of the original? Whether to observe historical distance staying away from usage of modernized lexical units, equivalents for the archaic lexis of translation language, avoiding unnecessary upgrading? Whether to keep the coloring of the time epoch of the original, creating at the same time actual translation version aimed at the contemporary reader? [8, p. 119].
In XX-XXI centuries in the process of globalization of culture and communication epochal works of literature are getting more and more translations into various languages. As a result, target culture, which is represented by one or other national language, gets at its disposal multiple versions of the original. This co-existence of various translations of one and the same original may have dissimilar character. Some translations can compete and be constantly and actively re-edited, modified and reprinted, in other cases foreign language versions of the original can passively co-exist keeping their niche due to readers' preferences. There may be periods of intensification for publishing of new and reprinting of previous translations and periods of stagnation in the market of translated literature. There may already exist some iconic or canonic translation as a result of what any new translation whichever quality, virtues and fidelity to the original it has will always be compared to the canonic one and in most cases in favor of the latter.
Keeping in mind that two major factors that influence origin and maintenance of the multiple translation phenomenon are: 1) translator's wish to make a translation better than the existing one, where he can offer his understanding of the original [11, p. 30; Pym, 7, p. 82], 2) constant changes of social context as well as evolution of translation standards and models postulating origin of new translations [1, p. 150] we would like to exemplify the described above phenomenon by delving into the continuum of Russian translations of one of Tolkien's most worldly famous works "The Lord of the Rings".
J. R. R. Tolkien's fantasy was published in 1954 by Allen and Unwin publishing company. For publication, the book was divided into three volumes to reduce any potential financial loss due to the high cost of type-setting and not very high anticipated sales: The Fellowship of the Ring (Books I and II), The Two Towers (Books III and IV), and The Return of the King. The novel has been translated, with various degrees of success, into at least 56 languages [9]. J. R. R. Tolkien, Professor of Anglo-Saxon, translator of Beowulf, examined many of these translations and made comments that reflect both the translation process and his work. Being unsatisfied with some of the translations the English philologist wrote a "Guide to the Names in The Lord of the Rings" in 1967 to assist translators of the book into other languages. In the Guide Tolkien explained the importance of the Englishness preservation and inadmissibility of personal and geographic names contortion. According to Tolkien, languages of Middle Earth should be separated from the Common Speech of the supposed period, the general rule is: "...language of translation now replaces English as the equivalent of the Common Speech; the names in English form should therefore be translated into the other language according to their meaning (as closely as possible)", "elements in the modern English language that it is desirable to match by equivalents in the language of translation, with regard to their original meaning, and also where feasible with regard to their archaic or altered form. I have sometimes referred to old, obsolescent, or dialectal words in the Scandinavian and German languages which
might possibly be used as the equivalents of similar elements in the English names found in the text" [10, p. 1-2]. So, the author himself directs translators to observe archaic nature of the proper names, keeping their obsoleteness or worn-down character in translations. Thus, there arises the following dilemma: one the one hand diachronic translation with its adherent linguistic advance is the thing the author requires, on the other, parallel proper names archaization as specified by the author of the original. For sure, it would require skillful translation to get this far.
Nowadays in the Russian books market one can easily find at least eight or nine Russian versions of "The Lord of the Rings", made by well-known translators, not to mention a number of anonymous and fragmentary translations of this epic high fantasy. No doubt that each translation has its individuality depending on such factors as historical and social peculiarities, strategies of domestication or foreignization practiced by translators, strategies of temporal and dialectal adaptation of the translation to the language of the original, translators' personal reception of Tolkien's work, and even requirements of the publishing house. If we take into consideration the fact that in "The Lord of the Rings" the author widely used names and geographic terms, which have Old English, Welsh and Scandinavian origin and, therefore, are mostly comprehensible for native English speakers and at the same time may lack some importance for Russian readers, we may also speak about various translators' approaches to proper names translation. It should also be added that Tolkien's hobby, glossopoeia, which comprises invention of artistic languages, was undoubtedly realized in "The Lord of the Rings", that lead to additional complications in its rendering from the language of Germanic origin into the language of Slavic origin.
In the table provided below information about Russian translations of the original and their specifics is given:
Year of
Translator Title Details
publication
Z. A. Bobyr Повесть о 1966 (samizdat), Short retelling
кольце 1990 Interprint, Poems'
Moscow translation
Властители 1991 Molodaya made by S. Y.
Колец Gvardiya, Umansky
Moscow
A. A. Gruzberg Властелин 1976 (samizdat) Poems'
Колец translation
2000 IDDK, made by Y.
Moscow Batalina
Edited by E.
2002, 2003 Aleksandrova
U-Faktoria,
Yekaterinburg Edited by A.
Zastirets
V. S. Muraviev, Властелин 1982 Detskaya Abridged and
A. A. Колец Literatura, censored
Kistiakovsky Moscow version
1989-1992 Updated
Raduga, edition
Moscow
1999, 2002, With translation
2003 Eksmo, of appendices
Moscow by V. S.
Muraviev
2002 Rosmen
Izdat, Moscow
2013 AST
Publishers,
Moscow
N. Grigorieva, Властелин 1984 (samizdat) Was made after
V. Grushyetsky Колец 1991, 1992 reading V. S.
Severo-Zapad, Muraviev,
SPb. A. A.
Kistiakovsky's
2000 Azbuka- translation
klassika, SPb Poems'
translation
made by I.
Grinshpun
V. A. Motorina Властелин 1991 Amur, Was made after
В.А.М. Колец Khabarovsk reading V. S.
Muraviev,
A. A.
Kistiakovsky's
2002 Eksmo, translation
Moscow Mistakes are
2017 Ast, corrected,
Moscow translated
according
to the latest
revised edition
of the original
A. V. Nemirova Властелин 2002, 2004, Poems'
Колец 2006 Izd-vo AST, translation
Moscow; Folio, made by O.
Kharkov Mylnikova (1-st
part)
2003 Izd-vo With
AST, Folio, SF introduction
"Pushkinskaya and comments
Bibilioteka", of the
Moscow philologist M.
Shteinman
2004 Oniks, In 1991
Moscow translation
was ready for
publication
M. Властелин 1995, 1999 Based on B. A.
Kamenkovich, V. Колец Terra-Azbuka, M.'s translation,
Karrik SPb. supplied with
2002 Amfora, commentary,
SPb poems'
2016 Ast, translation
Moscow made by S.
Stepanov
L. L. Yakhnin Властелин 1999, 2002 Retelling for
Колец Armada, Alpha children
kniga, Moscow
2004 Eksmo,
Moscow
V. Volkovsky, D. Властелин 2000, 2002 Reminds V. S.
Afinogenov, V. Колец Izd-vo AST, Muraviev and
Vosedoy Moscow; Terra A. A.
Fantastika, SPb. Kistiakovsky's
style
M. Belous Властелин 2002 Strekoza- Retelling, part 1
Колец Press, Moscow Practically
retelling of V. S.
Muraviev, A. A.
Kistiakovsky's
translation
As we can see from the table the process of Russian translations is interminable and for two decades, since the first translation of the book under discussion was made, other translators have kept on making their own versions of the flagship book, what is more, "The Lord of the Rings" Russian translations are constantly reissued by various publishing houses so it is rather problematic to monitor all the editions of it. Let's take, for example, V. S. Muraviev and A. A. Kistiakovsky's
translation, which was first published in abridged in 1982 and since then has been republished forty times [5]. Note should be taken that later it was re-edited by the translators and supplied with original appendices.
M. T. Hooker notes the uncommonness of the situation with more than one actively republished Russian translation. The researcher associates this with the fact that circulating of the illicit underground Russian press known as samizdat and consequently "years of Tolkien's exile in samizdat, and the collapse of the state-controlled publishing industry when the Soviet Union disintegrated" have led to such phenomenon with "translations competing with each other for the reader's attention" [4].
There is still no solid opinion as to which translation give priority to as the canonized one. The very first translation, to be exact, the retelling of the original, was intended as a science fiction due to inclusion of interludes composed by Z. Bobyr herself, which were aimed at elimination of possible allegoric character of the book that might lead to turning down the publication of translation by censorship. Due to some circumstances this version was never published. Though the published one still had some translator's additions, some chapters were interchanged, it was three times shorter than the original and completely irreligious. Never the less this samizdat served the noble goal of J. R. R. Tolkien books' distribution in Russia.
A. A. Gruzberg's work is the first full translation of "The Lord of the Rings" intended as an amateur translation by its creator. This translation is characterized by textual instability as there are several e-variants of it and each differs by the translator's approach to mythopoetic names translation: in some versions the most of names are transliterated, in some they are as in V. S. Muraviev and A. A. Kistiakovsky's translation, some editions are so moderated that have almost nothing to do with A. Gruzberg's original translation (the one edited by E. Aleksandrova). Such translation's fluctuation is explained in A. Hananashvily's article "How it all began: Tolkien in Gruzberg's translations" by the fact that the spelling of the names was changed in the process of reprints, not to speak about occasionally occurring mistakes [2].
In Mark T. Hooker's opinion, Gruzberg's approach differed from the one in posterior translations as he deliberately followed Tolkien's wish and left "The Lord of the Rings" as an English novel, without providing a Russian-like translation. Hooker characterizes Gruzberg's approach as "First, do no harm" - that is, he didn't deliberately contort the meaning of Tolkien's text [3]. Thus, we can say though first translators usually tend to domesticate the original, make it familiar to the receiving culture, Gruzberg is characterized by the employing the strategy of foreignization, peculiar for the situation of active translation plurality, which was far beyond the horizon in that time.
V. S. Muraviev and A. A. Kistiakovsky's translation is the most well-known in Russia. It is artistic translation characterized by vigorous style and keen expression. Majority of Russian readership declare this translation to be the most literary and easy-to-read one. V. S. Muraviev and A. A. Kistiakovsky's approach to proper names translation, which was to substitute Germanic tradition by Slavic one, immensely influenced further translations. Each of translators had his own concept of translation: for Muraviev it was an epic with deep-toned rhymed language, whereas for Kistiakovsky it was a translation of a good book where the author writes about hobbits,
elves, wizards and highlands [6]. Initially this translation was conceived as a fantastic novel for teenagers. The publishing house was abridging it, adopting for children [12]. The most active republishing of this translation was in 2008 (3 editions) and in 2009 (7 editions). Due to total Russianization of the original this translation involved the mainstream of Russian readers in the world of Middle Earth [13].
Drawing the conclusion, we would like to underline that, unfortunately, pioneer-translators didn't have all the corpus of Professor Tolkien's works, his Guide to the names in "The Lord of the Rings" and they had to grope their way by intuition. Such issues as low-quality reprints made in the period of lack of state-control over the publishing industry, fear not to meet the requirements of the publishing house, initial translator's approach to the potential readership strongly influenced the form and meaning of translated versions. Strategies of domestication and foreignization and sometimes a mixture
REFERENCES
of them within the framework of one book, employed by translators, expanded the mission field. J. R. R. Tolkien's scientific approach to languages, his interest to the language history, experience as a translator are among others key factors that necessitate meticulous work in reconstruction of all the concepts of the original, including its stylistic register and idiosyncrasies of characters' speech.
Though the first translations of "The Lord of the Rings" cannot be called perfect and absolutely adequate, they have the honorable role of conductors and distributors of J. R. R. Tolkien's books in the Russian cultural and literary tradition. Further evolution of translation standards and accumulation of traditions in cultural and literature spheres can be traced in the process of comparative analyses of the later translations of "The Lord of the Rings", which will allow to make a conclusion about the development of translators' mastership parallel with the language of translation development
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Reserved 13.05.2018
