Imagery in Translation

bear. High on the mountains, on the rocks and snow fields, heplaced Koil, the mountain sheep. On Mount Shasta he placed Grey Wolf.

The world was all new except the crescent-shaped rock on lower Klamath Lake. On it was the lodge of Sun and Moon. When Kemush had finished his work, he slept in the lodge of the North Wind, on the high mountain east of Klamath Marsh.

While Kemush was sleeping, the Sun Halo called to him and wakened him. "Let us follow the trail of Shel, the sun," said the Sun Halo.

They followed the sun until they reached the edge of the dark. Then Kemush and his daughter, Evening Sky, went to the Place of the Dark, to the lodges of the spirits. The spirits were as numerous as the leaves on the trees and the stars in the Milky Way. Kemush and Evening Sky danced with the spirits of the dark, in a circle round a fire in a great pit. But when Shel called to the world and morning came, the spirits became dry bones. Ke­mush gathered the dry bones and put them in a sack. Then, as he followed the trail of the sun to the edge of the world, he threw away the dry bones. He threw them on the mountains, in the val­leys, on the seashore.

Some of the dry bones became the people of the Chipmunks. Some became Maisu, the Indians. Some became Maklak, the Kla­math Indians. Thus were people created.

Then Klamath followed the trail of Shel, the sun. At the top of the trail he built his lodge. He still lives in this lodge, with his daughter, Evening Sky. The Klamath call him Old Man of the Ancients.

EXERCISES FOR TRANSLATION-2

• Study the framing formulas of the text and choose Russian substitutes for them. Consider the combination of tenses in the source text from the point of view of its temporal arrangement.

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Практикум по художественному переводу

• Study the system of names in the text and choose appro­priate techniques to translate them into Russian.

• Consider the role of double naming the heroes, when orig­ inal Indian names are included in the source text, and how to reconstruct this narrative device in Russian.

• Study the formulas of the sacred and translate them as a system into Russian.

• Detect what may seem illogical in the text to identify its linguistic medium and reconstruct it in Russian.

• Note the colloquial stylistic manner of the narrative in order to create its Russian substitute.

• Translate the text and discuss the result.

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Imagery in Translation

FOLKLORE UNIT3:

TRANSLA TING R USSIAN FOLK

TALES INTO ENGLISH

Introductory Notes

Russian folk tales. There are many similarities between the English and Russian folk tale. These indudethe magic func­tions of the dark forest and of the remote and distant land. In both traditions one can come across brave princes and beautiful but enchanted maidens, evil creatures and ugly spirits, shape-shifters and helpers of different kinds, etc. But there is also difference. Whereas in the Russian fairy-tale landscape the river and field dominate alongside the forest, the English folk tale will often mention some beautiful lake or a magic knoll that may appear and disappear by turns. The magic creatures themselve are differ­ent. If the Russian Змей Горыныч is more or less like an English dragon, then such images as Баба Яга, Морозко or Жар-птица are specific for the Russian tradition, while elves, giants and gob­lins are typically English.

The different features go deeper than the appearance. Baba Yaga looks more or less national, though some of her features are pan-European, like the hooked nose, shaggy hair, relationship with the dark forest creatures and so on, and do not contradict the im­age of an evil hag from an English or Celtic folk tale. Yet a Rus­sian Yaga is much more powerful than an English witch, much more dangerous and is able to cover huge distance very swiftly. She is obviously the chief of the magic World and a relative of the most terrible creatures in it. The origins of the Russian Yaga are rooted in the nation's far-off heathen past when she was one of the most important deities, the mistress of life and death, the owner and protector of fire, the lady of the Dark. Most fairy tales with

her as a personage date from the very early times.

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Практикум по художественному переводу

Taking into account the age of Baba Yaga, it is not correctever to refer to her as a witch in translation, for the expression "a witch" in the English tradition refers to a kind of heathen priest­ess, a woman of spells and magic rather than to a supernatural, or sacred being. Transliteration is thus more appropriate in this case, for it reconstructs an image as exotic and unusual as it might be. When she is referred to as «ведьма» in Russian, it should be trans­lated as a spirit,.a bogy, if it is a description, while the substitute of "witch" or "hag" should be only used when she is being ad­dressed. For example, the Russian phrase «Баба Яга была страшная лесная ведьма» should be translated as «Baba Yaga was a frightful spirit of the forest." But when Ivan Tsarevich ad­dresses her «Ax ты, старая ведьма, ты бы вперед напоила, накормила, баньку истопила да спать уложила!» it is better to use "witch" or "hag" in translation: "Hey, you, old hag, you'd better welcome me to eat at pleasure and to sleep at leisure!"

Another translation problem is connected with the rhymed mnemonic formulas of time and space, or symbols of the sacred. When in Russian such archaic phrases are used as «близко ли, далеко ли — долго ли, коротко ли,» or «девушка скотину поила, дрова-воду носила, тесто творила, всех кормила,» it is rather difficult to find a proper functional substitute for them. If we use a simple semantic technique, the result sounds less ex­pressive, and the target text lacks the emotive "fairy-tale" back­ground: "Be it close or far away, sooner or later" sounds much more logical and thus less magic. Any attempt to find a function­al equivalent to the source formula faces the challenge of rhyme; and we may try using some parallel constructions to reconstruct the source rhythm in English: . "Their way was neither long nor short, their pace was neither fast nor slow."

There is also a general linguistic problem that a acquires a particular twist when translating folk tales: the question of affec­tionate suffixes and forms of address. When a Russian fairy-tale personage addresses a man, use may be made of such forms as «добрый молодец», «стрелец-удалец», or «батюшка, царь-

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