When forty winters shall besiege thy brow

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 549.

And dig deep trenches in thy beaty's field,

Thy youth's proud livery, so gazed on now,

Will be a tattered weed of small worth held.

Here we observe the antithesis: proud livery (youth) – tattered weed (old age).

Д.Паламарчук: А врода юності більш не цвістиме/ І вже зів'ялим листом опаде.

Д.Павличко: І молодість, що сяяла й цвіла,/ Немов ліврея пишна, зблекне й згасне.

П.Панч “На калиновім мості” – “On the bridge”

Some verbal images have become idiomatic. The difference between idiomatic and non-idiomatic verbal images has been established by Ch.Ballie, who classified them from the point of view of their expressive colouring at a certain stage of the language development. He singled out 3 groups:

1. perceptible, concrete images arousing imagination and drawing pictures. These are original creations of the authors or occasional transformations of the set expressions in order to more clearly render the idea: Your locks are like snow (R.Burns) – Чуб іній притрусив (пер. М.Лукаша); Her cheeks like lilies dipt in wine (R.Burns) – В неї личко із лілей і лала (пер. М.Лукаша);

2. weakened or emotional images in which emotions prevail the concrete content. Idiomatic expressions most of which are based on still perceptible image, however, they have been used so often that they lose their expressiveness: очі, як зорі; струнка, як тополя;

3. dead images, in which imagery and perception have become obliterated. The expressions in which the image is no longer perceived: лампочка горить, дощ іде, час біжить, рушниця стріляє.

There exist 5 main methods of rendering the semantico-stylistic functions of a verbal image in artistic translation.

1. Ukrainian and English contain images which coincide not only in general meaning but also in the meaning of their components, stylistic and expressive shades. These are full image equivalents. The reason for this is that in the communication process people exchange information about certain material and non-material objects of the reality, which are the same for all humans or at least to a broad area. Besides, both languages contain international expressions rooted in the Bible and ancient culture.

Розпадеться луда/ На очах ваших неситих (Т.Шевченко) – From your greedy eyes/ The scales shall fall away. (tr. by M.Skrypnyk)

Кров виссали (М.Коцюбинський) – sucking out all my blood (tr. by A.Berngard)

2. Sometimes images differing in their composition have the same meaning, produce the same effect. Such expressions in contrasted languages are called partial image equivalents, because the component composition of the image in a certain way influences its general meaning.

На світ займалось (Т.Шевченко) – Dawn was breaking (tr. by I.Zheleznova)

Вставать з домовини (Т.Шевченко) – to rise up from a grave (tr. by J.Weir)

І усом не моргне (Т.Шевченко) – would not twitch a hair (tr. by J.Weir)

3. However, one cannot always find expressions equivalent to the source image. Then you have either to make a loan translation or to render its meaning by a common word combination deprived of imagery. Loan translation (calque) is a word-for-word translation of a word or a figure of speech. It can be quite a successful means of rendering the imagery of the original in order to preserve the national colouring. At using this method in translating idioms, it should be taken into consideration that when an image is often used in the original it becomes blurred, whereas a loaned image in the translation produces a more vivid effect. In the process of translating, the translator comprehends the image of the original in all its connections and contexts and, being guided by the poetical sense, transfers it to the TL. Sometimes he succeeds in rendering the literal meaning of the original image, i.e. he models the translation after the source pattern. Such expressions can be called component-for-component figurative loan translations. Let's consider the Ukrainian idiomatic expression хліб і сіль, which means minimum means of surviving: До нас в науку! Ми навчим,/ по чому хліб і сіль по чім! (Т.Шевченко) – You'll be taught/ The price of bread and price of salt (tr. by M.Skrypnyk)

English does not have full figurative equivalent for this Ukrainian expression. None of the available English dictionaries gives this expression as a set one. It is registered in the English-Russian idiomatic dictionary by A.Kunin: to eat somebody's bread and salt – быть чьм-то гостем; and in Comprehensive English-Russian dictionary: bread and salt – хлеб и соль.

4. It is very often the case that on comprehending the source image, the translator senses the impossibility of its component wise rendering. Then using motivation, idea, the translator models the figurative expression of the TL basing on the semantic meaning of the image and possibilities of the TL. The created images are called semantic-figurative calques: Блукав по світу я чимало,/ Носив і свиту і жупан (Т.Шевченко) – Much have I wandered in the world,/ In peasant's coat and garb of lord. (tr. by A.-J. Hunter)

5. The least productive means of conveying the verbal image in the translation is non-figurative occasional word combination. Сей бориславець пішов з торбами ходити (І.Франко) – This inhabitant of Borislav became a beggar (tr. by C.Dulway)

This equivalent is faithful from the semantic point of view though it is stylistically neutral.