CC BY
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PHILOLOGY / <<€®yL®qUQUM~J®U©MaL>>#5I29)),20]9
Ryndina Yulia Valerievna
Ph. D. (Pedagogics)
Associate Professor of the Department of Russian and foreign Philology, cultural studies and methods of teaching,P.P. Ershov Ishim Pedagogical Institute, branch of Tyumen State University DOI: 10.24411/2520-6990-2019-10085 THE PROBLEM OF EQUIVALENCE OF TRANSLATION OF POEMS FROM ENGLISH INTO RUSSIAN (ON THE EXAMPLE OF «NURSERY RHYMES »)
Abstract:
In this article, we have considered variants of poetic translation of «Nursery Rhymes» that were made by Russian poets - S. Marshak and K. Chukovsky. Thanks to the method of contextual analysis, we conducted a comparative analysis and determined the degree of equivalence of their translations. We came to the conclusion thatMarshak's translations have a higher degree of equivalence, preserve the basic idea, the rhyme and the rhythm of the work.
Key words: equivalence, poem, translation, Russian variants, comparative analysis
K. I. Chukovsky in his book «The high art» wrote: «Never before in our country, the art of literary translation has not reached such a flowering as it is experiencing now. There was no other period in the entire history of Russian literature when there would be such a large galaxy of gifted writers who give their talent to translations» [4]. And it's true, since the time of such wonderful poets and translators as K. Chukovsky, S. Marshak, A. Akhmatova, M. Tsvetaeva more and more people of all ages and professions have tried themselves in the field of translation, from simple phrases and expressions to poems and entire books. Why is this happening? Perhaps someone wants to impress his friends and acquaintances with his skill, someone wants to try himself as a poet, others want to improve their foreign language competence. Do translators think about what lies behind the seemingly simple words and idioms? How can we translate them to explain the Russian readers (they often don't know the realities of English and American everyday life), and not lose the meaning of the poem? This article is devoted to the degree detection of the equivalence of the poetic translations (on the basis of «Nursery Rhymes») into Russian.
The main content of the article. The nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in the UK and many other countries, but the term «nursery rhyme» had appeared in the late 18th - early 19th century. In North America, the most common is used the term is «Mother Goose Rhymes», which was introduced in the 18th century [12].
The world of English poetry for children is amazing, and children's poems «Nursery Rhymes», even if they tell the terrible stories of the past, have a proper educational effect on children, help to form their personalities and characters, acquaint them with the history in a playful way.
They have attracted the attention of outstanding Russian poets and translators S. Marshak and K. Chu-kovsky. Russian children were first introduced with the beautiful English folklore by S. Marshak. While he was studying in England, he began working on translations of English folk ballads and songs. Marshak has always
selected the poems for translation scrupulously: he always tried to choose the most significant poems in artistic terms. To create a literary translation, the poet tried to transmit the whole richness of the Russian language and to maintain all the flavor of the original. In the translations of Marshak, there was always clearly distinguishable the nationality, the character, the temperament of the authors the poems he translated.
K. Chukovsky was one of the first who paid attention to the main trouble of the translators: editors of magazines often made their corrections in translations or shortened them.
It is well known that the British people from time immemorial are famous for their peculiar and not for all people clear sense of humor, love funny stories, puns, all sorts of tall tales and nonsense. Small forms of English folklore are characterized by an eccentric vision of the world, a comic violation of everyday logic, the perception of the environment «topsy-turvy».
In Chukovsky's translation the ridiculous plot of the original poem, nonsense «is curtailed» and comprehended, turned from absurdity into exaggeration. Chukovsky always tries to explain to us why something was confusing.
In Chukovsky's song, the absurdity of the plot disappears, since the poem is read as a tease, built on irony and hyperbole, according to the scheme: the tailors are so brave (it means they are so cowardly) that they are afraid of even snails. Almost the same thing happens with the song about Robin-Bobbin. In the English version absurd-mythical «Robin the Bobbin, the big-bellied Ben», eats people, animals and buildings, and also the elves, and finally complains that his stomach is not been full yet. For the English-speaking visitors, this hero is called the cannibal-glutton with a big belly. Chukovsky had called this poem witch the aesthetically-frivolous word «Barabek», had given the subtitle «how to tease the glutton» and had ended with the lines: «and then he says: «My stomach is hurting». And «the cannibal-glutton with a big belly» is turned into a «frivolous» hyperbole [2]. Let's compare the two translations:
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Оригинал стихотворения
Robin the Bobbin,
the big bellied Ben,
He ate more meat than fourscore men;
He ate a cow, he ate a calf,
He ate a butcher and a half,
He ate a church, he ate a steeple,
He ate the priest and all the people!
A cow and a calf, An ox and a half,
A church and a steeple, And all good people.
And yet he complained That his stomach wasn't full!
Перевод Чуковского
Робин Бобин Барабек
Скушал сорок человек,
И корову, и быка,
И кривого мясника,
И телегу, и дугу,
И метлу, и кочергу,
Скушал церковь,
Скушал дом,
И кузницу с кузнецом,
А потом и говорит: «У меня живот болит!»
Chukovsky was very fascinated by the poetry of nonsense, at the same time he understood it very specifically, in fact, he deprived nonsense of the core - the charm of senselessness. Naturally, in this case, it is difficult to talk about adequate perception and adequate translations of English «meaningless» poems.
Research result. After analyzing the theoretical material on the problem of our research, we have found that the translation of poems «Nursery Rhymes» requires a careful study of the material, because a lot of «Four and twenty tailors» Chukovsky's tr
old poems hide historical events, personalities or customs, and this plays an important role for translation.
Analyzing the translations of children's poems, we can note that S. Marshak and K. Chukovsky tried to make them in their translations clear and close to the Russian realities.
Let's consider the translations of several poems they were made by these authors.
Marshak's translation
Four and twenty tailors Went to kill a snail, The best man among them Durst not touch her tail; She put out her horns Like a little Kyloe cow, Run, tailors, run, Or she'll kill you all e'en now.
«Храбрецы» Наши-то портные Храбрые какие: Не боимся мы зверей, Ни волков, ни медведей!" А как вышли за калитку Да увидели улитку -Испугалися, Разбежалися! Вот они какие, Храбрые портные!
Однажды двадцать пять портных
Вступили в бой с улиткой. В руках у каждого из них Была иголка с ниткой! Но еле ноги унесли, Спасаясь от врага, Едва завиде вдали Улиткины рога.
It seems to us that Marshak's translation is closer to the original and he managed to translate the poetry from the language of one people to the language of other people without «spilling» it. In his version are Robin the Bobbin, Marshak's
found the accuracy of intonations, rhythmic correspondence to the verse of the original «Robin the Bobbin».
anslation Chukovsky's translation
the big-bellied Ben,
He ate more meat than fourscore m
He ate a cow, He ate a calf,
He ate a butcher and a half,
He ate a church, he ate a steeple,
He ate the priest and all the people!
A cow and a calf,
An ox and a half,
A church and a steeple,
And all good people,
And yet he complained that
his stomach wasn't full.
«Робин-Боббин» Робин-Боббин Кое-как Подкрепился Натощак:
Съел теленка утром рано, Двух овечек и барана, Съел корову целиком И прилавок с мясником, Сотню жаворонков в тесте И коня с телегой вместе, Пять церквей и колоколен Да еще и недоволен!
«Робин-Бобин Барабек» Робин-Бобин Барабек Скушал сорок человек, И корову, и быка, И кривого мясника, И телегу, и дугу, И метлу, и кочергу, Скушал церковь, скушал дом И кузницу с кузнецом, А потом и говорит: У меня живот болит!
In Marshak's translation, the rhythm is given by only through a comical rhyme, «a calf» - «a half», S. the choreic name «Robin-Bobbin». Donating with a Marshak without hesitation composed to the butcher a funny game «a butcher and a half», which makes sense stall and «hundreds of larks in the dough», as well as
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horse and cart, increased the number of churches and bell-towers up to five, and most importantly, came up with the last line - and even unhappy, that there is not in the original text. There are fun rhymes and a funny repetition in the English poem, and thank of the last line they are reimbursed in translation.
Chukovsky's name «Bareback» was added not by chance, and not just to rhyme. It reminds the readers about the terrible cannibal Barmaley. Marshak, reproducing the ironic intonation of the original, transformed the hero of the poem, who has become a giant - glutton. His version of the translation is good - Robin-Bobbin had swallowed a lot of all living creatures and five churches with their bell towers, but he is not a cannibal.
Marshak's translation takes the form of nursery rhymes-poems, and Chukovsky's translation - teasers. Marshak in his characteristic manner softens, smoothes the sharpness of the original, the replacement of realities multiply the elements of the comic, that brings the reader closer to the epigram, bring folklore and literature. Chukovsky, on the contrary, the transfers «down» to street teasers; in various ways, emphasizes the «chorus» of the text: the inner rhyme, the sound repetition, the remarkable knocking rhythm, and finally finds a closer to the original ending: «And yet he complained that his stomach wasn't full» - «I have a stomach ache!» [5].
The Crooked Man
Chukovsky's translation
Marshak's translation
There was a crooked man, And he walked a crooked mile, He found a crooked sixpence Against a crooked stile; He bought a crooked cat, Which caught a crooked mouse, And they all lived together In a little crooked house.
«Жил на свете человек...» Жил на свете человек, Скрюченные ножки, И гулял он целый век По скрюченной дорожке. А за скрюченной рекой В скрюченном домишке Жили летом и зимой Скрюченные мышки. И стояли у ворот Скрюченные елки, Там гуляли без забот Скрюченные волки. И была у них одна Скрюченная кошка, И мяукала она, Сидя у окошка.
«Жил-был человечек кривой на мосту»
Жил-был человечек кривой на мосту.
Прошел он однажды кривую версту.
И вдруг на пути меж камней мостовой
Нашел потускневший полтинник кривой.
Купил на полтинник кривую он кошку.
А кошка кривую нашла ему мышку.
И так они жили втроем понемножку,
Покуда не рухнул кривой их домишко.
Conducting a comparative analysis of the translations of Marshak and Chukovsky, we concluded that the rhyming, the poetic size and the character of the English songs for children are preserved in Marshak's translations, this makes us possible to feel the lightness and humorous mood of the poems. Marshak brings his translation closer to the original, although there is the intonation, the manner of writing that inherently only to him. Chukovsky departs from the content of the English original and puts his own vision of the topic into the translation. In his translation, there are «the crooked gnarled, crooked trees, crooked river». His translation is much longer than the original. Translations of K. Chukovsky are similar to his own works, written based on English folklore. From our point of view, S. Mar-shak's translations are the most successful and close to the original meaning.
Summary. In framework of this article we have tried to identify the degree of equivalence of poetic translations of poems «Nursery Rhymes», made by Chukovsky and Marshak and came to the conclusion
that Marshak's translations have a greater degree of equivalence, because the author mostly retains the rhyme and the character of English poems, his translating is closer to the original text. Chukovsky translated English poems in his own way, adding new lines, which were not in the original texts. It is also worth noting that both versions of translations deserve our attention because each of them is unique in its own way.
Bibliography:
1. Carpenter H., Prichard M., The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature. Oxford University Press, 1984. 688 p.
2. Chukovsky K., Collected works. - High art, M., Terra-Book club, 2001. 608 p.
3. Marshak S. Ya., Favorite poems. - M.: ASTPRESS, 1997. 400 p.
4. Wood J.,The Dark Origins of 11 Classic Nursery Rhymes // Mental Floss. №28. 2015. - URL: http://mentalfloss.com/article/55035/dark-origins-11-classic-nursery-rhymes.
