Translatioin of Political Literature

coincide (except term-words). Though it is well-known that they comprise

the false-friends of translators and the mistakes in their translation are

frequent. These mistakes are caused not only by difference in their

semantic structure but by the difference of their usage as well which

demand lexical changes:

We are told that television this autumn will give a massive coverage to

the General Election.

Сообщают, что нынешней осенью передачи по телевидению будут широко

освещать парламентские выборы.

The word massive along with the meaning массивный, has other meanings

like массовый, грандиозный, огромный, широкий and so on. For example:

massive success – огромный успех, massive problems – важные проблемы.

Since international words possess wider meaning volume they are more

used in English if comparing to Russian:

Never before in the history of the world have there been so many

persons engaged in the translation of both secular and religious materials.

Ещё никогда в истории человечества столько людей не занимались

переводом как светской, так и духовной литературы.

Russian words религиозные материалы are absolutely unacceptable in this

case because of their different usage. In this instance the usage plays the

main role though their meaning is identical in both languages.

Lexical transformations are also caused by necessity to concretize a

word while translating. It is characteristic to English language the

availability of words with wide spread meaning. They can be nouns,

adjectives and verbs, for example: thing, point, stiff; nice, fine, bad; to

say, to go, to come, to get.

Translation of these words depends on the context, which helps to

identify their concrete meaning. Usually they are translated by various

Russian words that have concrete meaning (importance). Practically it

refers to verbs — to verbs of speech and verbs of movement. Concrete

lexical meaning(importance), this or that the lexical-semantic variant of a

verb depends on structure and lexical meaning of words that distribute

them.

At the by-election victory went to the Labor candidate.

На дополнительных выборах победа досталась лейбористам (победу одержал

кандидат от лейбористской партии).

Among nouns of wide meaning a special group comprises abstract

nouns, that frequently demand concrete definitions in translation. So, for

example, despite the presence of a word президентство in Russian - English

word presidency usually refers to the words a пост президента or

президентская всласть.

An ageing Speaker cannot take on the burdens of the presidency.

Престарелый спикер не может взять на себя бремя президентской власти

(в случае смерти президента).

The use of words of abstract meaning strongly differs in various

languages. Therefore follows the necessity of concrete definition in

translating.

The Saigon regime used every form of pressure and violence to compel a

reluctant electorate to go to the polls.

Сайгонский режим прибегал ко всем видам давления и насилия, чтобы

заставить упрямых избирателей принять участие в выборах.

Sometimes it is necessary to concretize some word due to different

qualitative distinction (valeur) the generalizing words have in languages.

The following words belong to them: meal and трапеза that usually

illustrate the this phenomenon and the words limbs and члены, from which

limbs is widely common, and Russian word the члены has much narrower usage.

In the given translation, besides concrete definition of руки and ноги,

we also had to use fixed word phrase.

The following problem which demands careful consideration in lexical

transformations of translation is problem of word combinability. In all

languages there are typical norms of word combinability. The concept of

norm is relative, on the one hand, with system of language, and on the

other hand, it is closely connected with speech, in which the originality

of speech formation is displayed. Each language can form uncountable

number new word combinations that will be understood by its bearers. In any

language there exists generally accepted tradition of word combinations,

which do not coincide with the corresponding tradition of word combinations

in the other languages.

And it makes look for similarly accepted word combinations in the

target language. The main part combined words usually coincides in

translation, but the second one is frequently translated by a word

possessing other logical meaning, but performing the same function, as for

example, trains run — поезда ходят, rich feeding — обильная пища.

Labor Party protests followed sharply on the Tory deal with Spain.

За сообщением о сделке консервативного правительства с Испанией

немедленно последовал протест лейбористской партии.

The wider is the semantic volume of a word, the wider is its

combinability, thus due to this feature it can interact with various word

forms and word combinations. And this features enables the translator to

use his creativity in translation.

Along with traditional combinations in languages unexpected

combinations are also possible, but they are quite clear, for they follow

generally accepted semantic models of word combinability. This phenomenon —

the connection of words with completely various semantic features - is

peculiar to all languages, but in each language it has various rules and

traditions. In English language such unexpected word combinations are

formed very easily. It is probably caused by conversion and easiness in

formation of new words in various ways, heterogeneity of languages

vocabulary and some other reasons. Not only poets and writers, but also

journalists frequently create unexpected word combination that makes their

statements significantly vivid and original. The unexpectedness of word

usage is closely connected with expressiveness of the statement.

Unexpected usage of word combinations hardens the task of translators,

for words interrelate in combinations not only with one word, but also with

a large number of other words of the sentence, for example:

The use of an adjective sharp in this context is unexpected: none of

its meanings given in dictionaries gives the description of a hand. The

difficulty of its translation is aggravated by presence of the second

definition white, which excludes translation by words костлявый and сухой.

Белая, сухощавая рука мадам лежала на широком колене Адама.

In the given translation the sense of the sentence has been rendered

but the unexpectedness of the used word was lost.

The last feature of lexical transformation to be discussed in this

Paper is traditional word usage for every language and which causes

frequent lexical transformations. This traditional usage is to some extent

related to another approach to the phenomena of reality. For example:

The military base is built on terraces rising from the lake.

For Russian the traditional use will be:

Военная база построена на террасах, спускающихся к озеру.

In this case preposition is omitted in translation because as the

originality of the English word usage required complete transformation.

To the traditional word usage can also be referred the so-called

clichйs — order, and the clichйs in wider sense.

Hands up!

Руки вверх!

Long live America!

Да здравствует Америка!

The assault of the castle was followed by continuous bombing. Loss of

life was uncountable.

За штурмом крепости последовала длительная бомбардировка. Жертвы были

бесчисленны.

The Commonwealth countries handle a quarter of the world's trade.

На страны Британского содружества приходится четверть всей мировой

торговли

As you can see from the examples given above – in translations

corresponding Russian clichйs are also used.

§ III. Stylistic difficulties of translation

In the previous chapters we carefully considered the grammatical and

lexical transformations that occur while translating political literature

from English into Russian. And we have figured out that most of these

reasons are rooted in national and cultural settings of both languages.

Practically, stylistic devices in almost all languages are similar

still though their functions in speech vary. Identical stylistic devices

are used differently in languages; they perform different functions and

have different value in stylistic system of their language what actually

explains their necessity when transformations in translation occur. The

stylistic changes are as necessary as grammatical or lexical ones. While

applying some grammatical or lexical transformation in translation the

translator is guided by principle of rendering grammatical of lexical

meaning. When rendering stylistic meaning of the source text a translator

should be guided by the same principle – to recreate in translation the

same impression that might be left by the original text.

A translator should not try to preserve the stylistic device given in

the sentence, but reproduce its function in the target language.

We should not forget that almost all stylistic devices are multi

functional. It is like when polysemantic words in English and Russian

languages do not coincide in their lexical-semantic variants and the same

is when differ the function of identical stylistic device. Thus when

comparing stylistic devices we can easily identify complete correspondence,

partial correspondence and even sometimes absence of correspondence and

their functions.

To illustration it we can compare alliteration in the English and

Russian languages. The function of alliteration coincides in both languages

— in this function alliteration is one of the basic devices of poetic

speech. However the usage of alliteration for pleasant sounding in prose is

more characteristic for the English language, than for Russian. The second

function of alliteration is logical. Alliteration emphasizes close

relationship between components of the statement. Especially brightly

alliteration shows the unity of an epithet with an attributed word.

The third function of alliteration in English language – to attract

attention of the reader — is widely used in the names of literary works,

newspaper headings and often in articles.

The use of alliteration is a convincing acknowledgement that various

functions of stylistic devices in different languages do not always

coincide in usage.

We have already discussed functional translation of stylistic devices.

But it is extremely important to distinguish in the translated text

original and imagined alliterations so that to avoid unnecessary

emphasizing and to keep stylistic equivalence which presents necessary

component of adequate translation. there is a constant danger to smooth and

de-color the original text or, on the contrary, to make translation

brighter and stylistically colored. But sometimes a translator consciously

applies some "«smoothing" or neutralization in other words.

Repetition as you know is a more widespread stylistic device in the

English language, than in Russian.

In some cases repetition as the stylistic device should be necessarily

kept in translation, but for the difference in combinability and various

semantic structures of polysemantic words or words of wide meaning in

English and Russian languages the translator has to change and replace some

of elements.

The repetition is widely used with stylistic purposes in newspaper

publicity. In these cases the translator is compelled to apply stylistic

changes, make substitution or omission.

A policy of see no stagnation, hear no stagnation, speak no

stagnation has had too long a run for our money.

Слишком долго мы расплачиваемся за политику полного игнорирования и

замалчивания застоя в нашей экономике.

The triple repetition of no stagnation has been omitted in

translation, though is partially compensated by the use of synonymic pair

at a word (stagnation), but neutralization is evident in translation. The

neutralization happened when translating the phraseological unit to have

(too long) a run for our money.

Among stylistic devices used in political literature rather frequent

there are synonymic and alliterated pairs. The use of such pairs is

traditional for all styles of the English language including business style

as well. When translating official documents such pairs are frequently by

one word. For example, the just and equitable treatment of all nations from

UN Charter is given in Russian as справедливое отношение ко всем нациям,

for in Russian there is no absolute synonym for the word just.

Metaphor is used in all emotionally – colored styles of speech.

However in style of fiction the metaphor always carries original character,

whereas in political literature the original metaphor is used rather seldom

and basically — copied metaphors. Nevertheless in advanced clauses of the

English and American political literature, the purpose of which is to

assure, to make people believe and to impress the reader, that is to force

him to agree with the point of view given in the article, one can often see

rather bright and colorful metaphors.

Sometimes the difficulty of translation of metaphor consists in

translating some word combination or a phraseological unit, which does not

have figurative equivalent in Russian.

We have already discussed the necessity of neutralization of means of

expressiveness when translating English or American politics. Let us

consider the problem of extended metaphor. The extended metaphor represents

a chain of the logically connected figurative components. Sometimes such

components of the extended metaphors pass through the whole clause. The

below-mentioned example is taken from clause of the American observer James

Reston.

The latest official explanation of the President's Indochina policy is

that " he is backing out of the saloon with both guns firing ", but there

is a catch to this.

He insists that the guys in the white hats keep control of the saloon

before he leaves town. He wants a non-communist bartender, and a non-

communist sheriff, and a secure non-communist town before he rides away

into the sunset of November, 1972.

In the final paragraph of the article the elements of one metaphor are

partially repeated: but all this is a little more complicated than "

backing out of the saloon ".

The images of this extended metaphor are taken from so-called "western"

— of film about cowboys in "wild" West. In this case all elements of the

developed(unwrapped) metaphor, perhaps, can be kept in translation.

Согласно последнему официальному объяснению политики президента в

отношении Индокитая, «он хочет выбраться из бара, пятясь к двери и

отстреливаясь из двух пистолетов». Но за этим кроется что-то еще.

Он хочет, чтобы парни в белых шапках следили за порядком в баре до тех

пор, пока он не уедет из города. Он хочет, чтобы бармен не был коммунистом

и чтобы шериф не был коммунистом и чтобы город заведомо не был в руках

коммунистов. И только тогда он поскачет навстречу ноябрьским сумеркам 1972

года.

And at the end of clause — «но все это несколько сложнее, чем пятясь

к двери, выбраться из бара».

However there are cases, when the preservation of all figurative

components of the developed(unwrapped) metaphor is impossible, as well as

preservation of both components of synonymic pair, for it would break the

stylistic norms of Russian.

Being purely linguistic and stylistic device – metonymy is used more

and more in political literature, perhaps, even more than metaphor.

Metonymy translation presents one of numerous problems for the use of

metonymy significantly differs in English and Russian languages. Due to

this fact the translator is often forced to go back to the primary meaning

of a word, that is to the meaning that was firstly created by metonymy.

It is a widespread case of metonymy usage – substitution of concrete

notion by an abstract one, which can not always be preserved.

"It (the flood) has hurl us a great deal, " the Pakistan Prime Minister

told correspondents last week as he toured the destruction in the flooded

provinces. ("Newsweek")

«Наводнение нанесло нам огромный ущерб»,—сказал корреспондентам премьер-

министр Пакистана, на прошлой неделе во время поездки по пострадавшим от

наводнения районам.

Concerning the translation of comparison as a stylistic device, the

difficulties arise only if the words of English and Russian languages are

various in the semantic structure. We have already considered in the

chapter of lexical transformations the question of translation of such

terms and now we would like to give the example of stylistic comparison.

Instant history, like instant coffee, can sometimes be remarkably

palatable. At least it is in this memoir by a former White House aide who

sees L.B.J. as " an extraordinarily gifted President who was the wrong man

from the wrong place at the wrong time under the wrong circumstances ".

Современная история, как и такой современный продукт, как растворимый

кофе, иногда может быть необыкновенно приятна. По крайней мере, такой ее

преподносит в своих мемуарах бывший помощник президента Джонсона, считающий

его «исключительно одаренным президентом, который был неподходящим

человеком, из неподходящего места (штат Техас), в неподходящее время, при

неподходящих обстоятельствах».

In order to preserve this playing comparison, the interpreters were

forced to apply additional words.

We discussed above the importance of articles in translation and now

we should mention once again that they can serve in stylistic purposes.

An expressiveness gets the definite article, before a indefinite

pronoun one.

... this is the one way we can achieve success in elections.

...это единственный способ достигнуть победы на выборах.

The given synonyms compensate render the stress contained the original

text.

There is another kind of stylistic transformation – actualization –

which involves transition of something simple into something unusual,

strange. It reveals potential expressiveness put in the lexical morphologic

and syntactic means of a language.

Actualization of the passive form often occurs while translating

political literature but it is not as colored as in the translations of

fiction.

The General Assembly was gaveled to order by its outgoing President.

Уходящий со своего поста председатель Генеральной Ассамблее навел

порядок в зале, энергично стуча молотком.

The expressiveness and emphasis created by the passive form of the verb

that had been formed as a result of conversion are compensated by lexical

means. The compressed nature of sentence was lost for the verb to gavel has

two semantic components one of action and an instrument that were to be

rendered in translation.

Now from everything that has been discussed above we can infer that

the usage of some of stylistic devices in English is peculiar – and bears

specific national character, therefore their direct translation in many

instances is impossible. Moreover, the impression left by some of stylistic

device maybe different in both languages, compare soft panic and тихая

паника. It can be explained not only by national features of stylistic

means and devices of some of the language but by the their multi

functioning character also – that do not always coincide – as it was shown

on the matter of alliteration. This is the main criteria causing the

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