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
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Issue: 6, 2017
Series of issue: Issue 6
Rubric: COMPARATIVE STUDIES
Pages: 112 — 116
Downloads: 1740