12. History of translation. Ukrainian traditions in translation

The Ukrainian translation tradition has existed since the ancient times. Monks of Kievan Rus monasteries, who copied Old Slavic translations of the Bible, introduced some phonetic and morphologic features of the Ukrainian language in their copies. Also, Ukrainian elements penetrated in Old Slavic translations of secular literature: historical chronicles, geographical descriptions, and fiction. "The Bee", a collection of aphorisms and parables compiled in Byzantium and translated into Old Slavic in the 12th century, was copied in Ukraine many times during several centuries and gradually absorbed the Ukrainian vernacular vocabulary and phraseology. 

In the 17th-18th centuries, tales of chivalry ("Bova the King's Son"), literary works about moral values ("The Story about the Seven Sages"), and novellas from Boccaccio's "The Decameron" proliferated in Ukraine in translations from Latin, Italian and Polish. They underwent essential remakes in the Ukrainian cultural environment. 

Many translations into Ukrainian made in the first decades of the 19th century were characterized by the influence of I. Kotliarevsky's "Eneida". They included loose poetic translations of Horace's odes ("Harasko songs", "Гараськові пісні") by P. Hulak-Artemovsky, translation of Pushkin's "Poltava" by Ye. Hrebinka, and other translations that brimmed over with the vernacular language and vulgarisms.With his "David psalms", T. Shevchenko gave examples of high-standard translation of solemn and passionate biblical texts. At that time, "The Tale of Igor's Campaign" was translated from Old Slavic into Ukrainian. I. Franko (1856-1916) was the first in the Ukrainian literature to demonstrate the unparalleled translation professionalism. He was a master of all stylistic registers of the Ukrainian language and approached translations using the scientific analysis and artistic flair. Franko was the first to translate Eastern authors One should mention the following prominent masters of literary translation, who worked at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century: Lesia Ukrainka (translated Heine's lyrics, extracts from Homer and Dante, and Hauptmann's "The Weavers"), A. Krymsky (translated works of Hafez, Saadi and other Eastern poets). In the Soviet period, the art of Ukrainian literary translation reached its fullest flower under the hands of M. Rylsky, whose translations conveyed subtle shades of meaning of the original in combination with the distinguishing features of its art form. M. Rylsky translated Mickiewicz's "Mister Thaddeus", Voltaire's "The Maiden of Orleans", Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin", and many lyric works of European poets.

Today, the renowned tradition of Ukrainian translation has not restored yet, and there is a lack of experienced literary translators in Ukraine. The situation with technical translators into/from Ukrainian is better.

13. Scientific and technical texts

The main feature of scientific and technical texts is that they are intended for a close circle of people specifying in this or that science. So the most important feature of such a material is the use of terms, specific for each given branch of science.

Today there is an urgent need to compress the received information, which can be achieved with the help of different linguistic methods among which asyndetic noun clusters which are of great use in this style.

The general vocabulary, used in scientific prose bears its direct primary meaning, ihere are polysemantic words too.

The impersonality of scientific writings can also be considered the typical features of this style. Impersonal passive constructions are used with the verbs: to find, to suggest, to conclude, to see, to point out, to presume.

Exp.

1.It was found that ...-Як виявилося...

2.It should be expected, because...- Цього слід очікувати...

3.It is suggested that...- Можна припустити, що...

4.It is seen that...- Можна побачити, що...

The English language of science makes use of gerund, infinitive constructions. Punctuations mark should also be paid attention to when translating scientific texts. A comma is very often used with detached members of the sentence. It serves to separate or connect the members of various syntactic constructions.

e.g. Liquids were placed in a sell at and in some cases near the focal point of a lens. - Рідину розміщували у камері, у фокусі лінзи, а в деяких випадках біля нього.