FROM THE HISTORY OF RUSSIAN-ENGLISH LITERAL TRANSLATION (PECULIARITIES OF INTERPRETATION OF I. A. KRYLOV’S FABLES BY W. R. S. RALSTON)
DOI: 10.23951/1609-624X-2017-6-112-116
Key peculiarities of literal prose translations of I. A. Krylov’s fables by well-known English slavist and interpreter W. R. S. Ralston are discussed in the article. The book Krilof and his Fables, first issued in 1869, enjoyed a great success and added a considerable contribution to propaganda of Russian culture in England. Lexical, syntactical, and stylistic features of the English texts, as well as difficult for translation cases of rendering of realities and proper names are studied. An attempt to explain the author’s choice of literal (exact) translation against the background of free Russian-English interpretations of the time is provided from the historical point of view. The article shows, that literal prose translation of Russian verse, however condemned as imperfect by modern translatology, was a successful and necessary step in its time, aimed at introducing a famous Russian writer to English readers. Ralston’s attempt was even more significant considering the traditional attitude of British authors to regard the fable as literary genre not just prone to, but also welcoming free interpretational transformations. Objectively lacking idiom, imagery and humour of the original, prose versions of Ralston, nevertheless, retrieved at least the true idea of the original fables contents and provided the readers with reliable image of Russian life and folklore.
Keywords: literal prose translation, W. R. S. Ralston, stylistics o the text, fables, I. A. Krylov
References:
1. Nelubin N. N. Tolkoviy perevodovedcheskiy slovar’ [Explanatory dictionary of translatology]. Moscow, Nauka Publ., 2009. 318 p. (in Russian).
2. May R. The Translator in the Text: on Reading Russian Literature in English. Evanston, 1994. XII + 209 p.
3. Muchnic H. Russian Poetry and Methods of Translation. Russian Review, 1970, vol. 29, no. 4, pp. 403–410.
4. Cross A. G. The English and Krylov. Oxford Slavonic Papers. New Series, 1983, vol. 16, pp. 91–140.
5. Alekseev M. P. William Ralston – propagandist russkoy literatury i fol’klora [W.R.S. Ralston as a propagandist of Russian literature and folklore]. St. Petersburg, Nauka Publ., 1994. 328 p. (in Russian).
6. Krilof and his Fables. By W. R. S. Ralston, M. A. of the British Museum. London, 1869. IX + 180 p.
7. Krylov I. A. Sochineniya v dvukh tomakh [Literary works in two volumes]. Vol. 1. Moscow, Biblioteka “Ogonyok” Publ., 1969. 245 p. (in Russian).
8. Venuti L. Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation. New York, 1995. 353 p.
9. Nesterenko O. V. Fenomen “nasil’stvennogo perevoda” (na materiale angloyazychnykh perevodov poemy N. V. Gogolya “Mertvye dushi”) [Abusive translation in English-language versions of N. Gogol’s Dead Souls]. Tekst. Kniga. Knigoizdaniye – Text. Book. Book Publishing, 2012, vol. 2, pp. 5–11 (in Russian).
10. Kritskaya N. V. Fenomen angliyskoy basni v zhanrovom i funktsional’nom aspektakh [The phenomenon of English fable in genre and functional aspects]. Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo universiteta – TSPU Bulletin, 2010, no. 8 (98), pp. 70–72 (in Russian).
( 422.12 kB ) 
( 416.2 kB )
Issue: 6, 2017
Series of issue: Issue 6
Rubric: COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Pages: 112 — 116
Downloads: 919