© VEDA, Publishing House of the Slovak Academy of Sciences 2023
© Editors and authors 2023
© Cover design: Eva Máthé 2023
The publication was produced within the project VEGA 2/0166/19 Preklad ako súčasť dejín
kultúrneho procesu III. Preklad a prekladanie – texty, osobnosti, inštitúcie v interdisciplinárnych a transdisciplinárnych vzťahoch/Translation as part of the cultural process history III.
Translation and translating – texts, personalities, institutions in inter- and transdisciplinary
relations at the Institute of World Literature SAS in cooperation with Matej Bel University in
Banská Bystrica, Institute of Slovak Literature SAS and Constantine the Philosopher University
in Nitra.
ISBN 978-80-224-2015-0
DOI 10.31577/2023.9788022420150
VE DA , P u b li shi n g Ho us e
o f t he Sl ova k Acad emy of Sci en ces
Translation S tudies in Ukraine
as an Integral Par t
of the European Context
M a r ti n D JOV ČO Š (Matej Bel Universit y in Banská Bystrica)
I va na H O STOVÁ (In s ti t ute o f Sl ovak L iteratu re SA S)
M á r ia KU S Á (In s ti t ute o f Wo r ld L itera tu re SA S)
E m ília P E REZ (Constantine the Philosopher Universit y in Nitra)
( e ds .)
B rat i sl a va 2023
We wo u ld s ince rel y li ke to expres s o ur e ndl es s grat itu de
to o ur pee r revi ewe r s who m a de th is b oo k wha t it is.
N a m el y C hri s to pher RU N D LE, D a nie le MO NT I CEL L I, Phi lipp HO FEN ED ER,
Andrej ZAHO R ÁK, El e na CI PRI A NOVÁ , C inz ia G ia c inta SPIN ZI,
S oňa HO D ÁKOVÁ, I r yna O D REK HI VSK A, Ľ ubi ca PL IEŠ OVSK Á ,
Ma r ia nna BAC HL ED OVÁ , Ma tej L A Š a nd Já n ŽIV Č Á K.
We wo ul d be lo s t w itho u t yo ur prec i ou s ad vic e a nd c o mm ent s .
TA BL E O F CON TE NT S
Introduction
7
Acknowledgements
9
I. TH OUG HT S A N D RE F LE CT IO N S
oughts on truth and translation 12
Andrew C he s ter m a n
18
Empirical translation history: tripping over Ukraine’s Executed Renaissance
Antho ny Py m
Translation – historicity – interpretative parallels
Ka ta rí na Be dná rová
24
II . ON HIS TOR ICA L JU S TI CE IN TR AN S LAT IO N S T UDI E S
Discovering erased discussion on translation method in Ukraine
in 1927–1931 36
O le ks a ndr Kal nyc h enko
Between censorship and nation building: the first Ukrainian lecture courses
on translation studies from a historical perspective 63
L a da Kol om iyets
Attachés of Ukrainian сulture in Estonia
An ne La ng e
90
II I. O N ME THO DO LO GI CA L A S PE CT S OF T RA N S LATIO N
Methodology of specialised translator and interpreter training in Ukraine
Le o nid C her nova t y
102
Translation studies-specific methodological principles – an (un)intentionally
neglected aspect of translation research? 113
V ia che s la v Ka raba n – A nna Ka ra ban
Comparative studies of history, religion and translation: three disciplines at one
liturgical crossroads 123
Tara s S hm ihe r
I V. O N L IN G UI S T IC A S PE CT S OF TR AN S LATI ON
Intersemiotics of translation 132
V ita l iy R ad c huk
A stylistic dimension of literary translation
Ol ena Du be nko
136
Omission and addition of fiction similes: cognitive translation analysis
Al la M ar t yny uk – Elvi ra A k h me dova
V. O N TR AUMA A N D MAN I PU LATI ON
Übersetzung und Manipulation: Ukrainische Literatur in der DDR
Ma ri a I va ny tska
On the perspectives of translating the war literature of trauma
N a ta lia Ka movnikova
144
160
173
Power in translation: a formative factor of reception and distribution and
a deformative factor in conceptualisation of literature in Slovak translation,
1945–1970 181
Má ri a Kus á
6
INT RO DU CTIO N
At dawn on 24 February 2022, the world awoke to the horror of the Russian aggression
in Ukraine. The outbreak of war shocked people all over the world with its
senselessness and cruelty. A war of such scale, taking place in the twenty-first century
and on the European continent, cannot be perceived as anything other than a direct
assault on core values of democracy, freedom, and human rights. In the light of the
current situation, we decided to organise an event to support our friends and
colleagues in Ukraine. The best weapon of academics is their voice, and we decided
to use it. We found it our duty to help disseminate the knowledge about translation
research in Ukraine and, by doing so, reinforce our deepest conviction that Ukraine
shares European values and is – and has always been – an integral part of Europe.
People have long been discussing the radical consequences of the Anthropocene,
such as rapid climate change, intense technologization of human life, and constant
warfare. Yet the vast majority of relatively well-off Europeans were spared the
immediate effect of human wrongdoing until recently. There was a lack of awareness
of large-scale world tragedies despite the fact that Europeans engaged in long
devastating conflicts, such as those in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The Syrian war, the ensuing refugee crisis, and the COVID-19 pandemic have
changed the situation to a certain degree. The violence and inhumanity of Russia’s war
in Ukraine, with hospitals under fire, innocent civilians mercilessly killed, and
a possible threat of nuclear war, put a definitive end to the false feeling of security
enjoyed by Europe since the Yugoslav wars. Thus, maintaining a friendly dialog with
people around the world is now more important than ever to prevent further tragedies.
Translation in all its forms is the key practice that can facilitate mutual understanding,
which is vital if we are to hand down the planet to further generations in a habitable
state. Among other disciplines, translation studies has been increasingly active in
addressing the most complex problems of our planet. Since information flows are
directly dependent on one’s location on the geopolitical map and are subject to market
rules, many important studies conducted outside the main capital centres remain
unknown in the international academic sphere despite the significant results and
motivation of researchers. Nonetheless, thanks to scholars such as those who spoke at
our conference and contributed to this volume, translation studies in Ukraine and the
excellent research done at its universities both now and in the past have become more
visible in recent decades. This volume is a collection of papers from the conference
Translation Studies in Ukraine as an Integral Part of the European Context held in
Bratislava on May 12–13, 2022. Our initial idea was to organise a one-day small
seminar to talk about translation studies in Ukraine. However, as we distributed the
information, we were overwhelmed by the positive response of international
7
INTRODUCTION
academia. Our efforts were welcomed by both, scholars with immediate ties with
Ukraine such as Oleksandr Kalnychenko, Lada Kolomiyets, Leonid Chernovaty,
Viacheslav Karaban, Maksim Strikha, and numerous representatives from all major
translation schools in Ukraine and also translation studies experts from all around the
world: Anthony Pym, Andrew Chesterman, Brian James Baer, Susan Bassnett, Luc
van Doorslaer, Daniele Monticelli, Christopher Rundle, Anne Lange, and Natalia
Kamovnikova. Thirty-four people presented their papers and chaired sessions at the
conference, and approximately one hundred participants attended the conference in
hybrid format.
The four thematic blocks included Translation and Power 1, Translation and
Power 2, War and Conflict, and Critical Thinking and Activism in Translation Studies.
We believe that the conference, as well as this volume, clearly demonstrate our shared
attitude toward the events that are, unfortunately, still taking place right at EU borders.
They also firmly assert that in difficult times translation scholars are able to unite and
support a cause in which they believe. Our understanding of what translation entails
makes us sensitive to core human values, which we stand to protect.
This volume is divided into five thematic parts: Thoughts and Reflections; On
Historical Justice in Translation Studies; On Methodological Aspects of Translation; On
Linguistic Aspects of Translation; On Trauma and Manipulation. The sections open
with papers by leading academics in the field of translation studies. It needs to be
noted that some papers and essays are published in a form they were presented. For
obvious reasons, our volume is ideologically motivated, but, regardless, we strive for
objectivity. In times like these, it is difficult, if not impossible, to remain impartial.
Therefore, all papers here must be interpreted in the historical context in which they
were created.
Martin Djovčoš (Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia)
Ivana Hostová (Institute of Slovak Literature SAS, Slovakia)
Mária Kusá (Institute of World Literature SAS, Slovakia)
Emília Perez (Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra, Slovakia)
8
AC K NOW LE DGE ME NT S
This book was not easy to prepare because many of our contributors still live in
Ukraine or had to seek refuge in other countries. While we were working on this
volume, Russia launched missile strikes against civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, with
the goal of making the lives of common people unbearable. This book was made both
because of the war and in spite of it. Though many scholars were under constant
pressure, electricity and internet blackouts taking place regularly, they worked hard
to make all changes suggested by our reviewers and editors. Our main gratitude goes
to the contributors; we appreciate their work a lot.
We would also like to thank all scholars who attended the Bratislava conference
and took part in subsequent discussions. Our thanks also go to Pavol Šveda for his
organisational and moral support.
This book would never be possible without our peer reviewers from all around
the world, who made this book what it is. Natalia Kamovnikova and Michael Dove
have done a great job with language editing. They also provided us with many precious
comments in the process of preparation; our thanks to them cannot be measured by
words. We would also like to express our gratitude to Lukáš Bendík, who worked hard
on the technical editing of the book.
Yet our main thanks go to the brave people of Ukraine, who did not succumb to
Russian aggression and have inspired the world with their courage.
This book also owes its gratitude to the project VEGA 2/0166/19 Preklad ako
súčasť dejín kultúrneho procesu III. Preklad a prekladanie – texty, osobnosti, inštitúcie
v interdisciplinárnych a transdisciplinárnych vzťahoch/Translation as part of the cultural
process history III. Translation and translating – texts, personalities, institutions in interand transdisciplinary relations, which helped us finance the publication of this book.
9
I. T H OU GH T S AND R EF LE CTI O NS
TH OU GH T S O N T RU TH AN D T RA NS L AT IO N
A n drew Ch es te r m a n
When I was young, my parents would sometimes invite adult friends to eat with us.
The first time anyone was invited, a certain ritual was often played out. My mother
loved witty conversation and good discussions. When we got to coffee, there would
be a pause. My mother would look the unsuspecting guest in the eye, and ask: “What
is truth, do you think?” Some visitors were taken aback and did not quite know how
to respond, but most of them were delighted to enter into debate, after their first
surprise. I don’t remember their answers now, but I do recall that my mother would,
at some point, confront them with the famous last lines of Keats’ “Ode on a Grecian
Urn”:
Beauty is truth, truth beauty – that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
Do you agree, she wanted to know. I actually did not, and still do not, but then
I probably didn’t know, and still don’t know, quite what Keats meant. The guests’
opinions were of course varied, and the conversation bubbled along with a mixture of
wit and philosophical seriousness, branching off in different directions. “What is
truth?” is certainly a fundamental question.
It is even occasionally raised, or at least implied, in translation studies (TS). The
British translation scholar Peter Newmark once wrote something that has stayed in
my mind ever since I first read it, perhaps because of those childhood conversations
round the dinner table. Newmark starts his book About translation (1991) with this
sentence: “Translation is concerned with moral and with factual truth.” This is a huge
claim, and opens many avenues to debate. For a start, of course, what do you mean by
truth? In this context at least, Newmark does not say.
The second sentence of the book is: “This truth can be effectively rendered only
if it is grasped by the reader [i.e. the translator], and that is the purpose and the end
of translation.”
More questions arise: this truth? What is “the truth” of a text? Does a text (of
whatever kind, in whatever medium) contain only a single truth? No, says Newmark
elsewhere: in a later paper, on literary vs non-literary translation (2004), he suggests
that there are several – in fact five – kinds of truth that are relevant to translation. He
lists these: factual, aesthetic, allegorical, logical and linguistic truth. Some, he says,
apply mainly to non-literary translation (factual truth) and some are more relevant to
literary translation (aesthetic; allegorical, i.e. moral). However, it seems to me that he
is using the word “truth” in several different ways here. Factual truth, for instance,
seems to be what philosophers have defined in what is known as the correspondence
12
Thoughts on truth and translation
theory of truth. Here, truth is understood as a relation – a correspondence – between
a statement and the facts of reality. The statement “It is raining” is true if and only if
it is indeed raining. This is the sense I will mostly be concerned with here. Moral truth,
on the other hand, seems more like a metaphysical ideal.
In the later paper I mentioned, Newmark (2004, 8) writes this: “translation,
striving as it does to reveal the truth, to be in the first place accurate, can only be
approximate at best, if it is seeking to reproduce the full meaning of the original.”
This claim brings us to two of the endless debates in TS. 1) How best to define
the translator’s fidelity (being true to what? or to whom? Both to something and
to someone? With what priorities? What happens if there are clashing fidelities?).
And 2) how to define the relation between source and target texts, a relation that
we often call ‘equivalence’ (or at least what we used to call equivalence: for some
scholars, the term seems to have lost some of its centrality these days).
Equivalence can only rarely be said to mean identity, or total sameness; perhaps
only in very short texts, or short items within a text. English three is exactly
German drei, yes. But the longer the textual units that are being compared, and
the more complex they are, the more approximate the relation becomes. I have
previously argued (1996) that a better general term than sameness or identity
would be similarity, precisely because this assumes approximation (note Newmark’s
“approximate at best,“ above) and hence some difference. It allows for variation,
for example between different translations of the same text – different acceptable
translations, I mean. In this sense, it is a realistic conceptualization.
But between any two things – even, say, translations and bananas – there can be
an endless number of possible similarities, some close and some less close. I may see
some, and you may see others, and I may not see yours, and you may not see mine...
After all, similarity is a relation that is perceived, and different people can perceive
phenomena differently. But if a translation is to be considered acceptable, there must
be conditions on this similarity. Generally speaking, the nature and degree of
similarity between source and target must be relevant to the context and the function
of the text concerned.
Getting back to truth, I think a special case of this relevance condition is that it
rules out translations that lie about the source text. This requirement is presumably
part of what Newmark meant by factual truth. For a translation to be acceptable, there
normally must at least be a reasonable correspondence – say, a relevant semantic
similarity – between the content of the original and that of the translation. This is
surely obvious, at least most of the time (there are of course exceptional cases).
But how can a translation lie? Let us first say that a lie, as opposed to a slip,
involves an intention to deceive. If English three is translated as German sieben, this
is probably not a true translation, but either a lie or a slip. A decent translator will
correct a slip, if possible.
In Harry Zohn’s classic English translation (1968) of Walter Benjamin’s essay Die
Aufgabe des Übersetzers (“The Task of the Translator”) it has been noticed that at one
point the translator has omitted to translate the negative word “nicht,” so that there is
a sentence meaning exactly the opposite of the meaning of the original. But this is,
I assume, not a lie, but a slip, actually quite a serious one, in the context, as it totally
changes the semantics of the sentence. (There are also some other slips, noted, as this
13
I. THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS
one is, by Steven Rendall in his comments at the end of the Zohn translation that has
been republished in Venuti’s collection of readings (2004).)
Lies, then, are deliberate. We can also compare lies to bullshit. The moral
philosopher Harry Frankfurt (2005) distinguishes bullshit from lying as follows.
Bullshit shows that the speaker simply does not care about truth. The liar, on the other
hand, is concerned with truth but wants to lead hearers away from it. If you are living
in Germany in the 1930s, and hiding Jews in your attic, and the Nazi police ask you if
you have seen any Jews around recently, I hope you would lie, and say “Nein.” This is
not bullshit. The bullshitter is faking things. He simply does not care if what he says
does not correspond to the way things really are. Think of Trump, claiming that he
had won the 2020 election. So a lie is not a slip, and it is not the same as bullshit. (For
a discussion of the broad sociocultural background of the “post-truth” trend, with its
alternative facts, fake news, science denial and the “anything goes” attitude of some
postmodernists, see McIntyre 2018.)
Let’s come back to the correspondence theory of truth. In some kinds of
translation – let us take non-literary translation – the factual truth relation is
complicated by the fact that there are two correspondences at stake: that between
target and source text, and that between the original text/utterance and what it refers
to, what it describes. This means that translations can also contain lies that faithfully
reproduce lies that are present in the original. In these cases, we might conclude that
the translator is either faithful, telling the truth about what the source text said, or else
uncritical, or maybe even unethical, in that (s)he is spreading a lie that was there in
the original. In my proposed Hieronymic Oath concerning translator ethics (2001),
I suggested, among other things, that translators could swear that their translations
would not represent their source texts in “unfair ways”; this clause in the oath was
intended to highlight the value of truth in translation. What might that mean in
practice? What can translators do when faced with lies in the source text? Lies that
show a clear lack of correspondence between the text and the reality it describes? Well,
they can refuse to translate such a text, of course, but the price of this might be very
high (loss of job, etc.). Are there other options? Perhaps a few.
Consider a text, spoken or written, where a Russian speaker refers to the current
war in Ukraine, in Russian, as a “special military operation.” I.e.: he says, or writes:
spetsial’naya voennaya operatsiya. (I use Latin script, as I do not speak Russian). This
is a lie, in that it is a deliberate distortion of the truth, like Lavrov’s assertion that
“Russia has not attacked Ukraine.” What can a translator do? Here are some
possibilities.
1) Translate literally, i.e. in English: special military operation. This allows readers
to make up their own minds whether the description is appropriate or not – if
they even think about it.
2) Translate the phrase literally, but add quotation marks: “special military
operation.” This creates a slight distance between the translator and the source
text. It puts the responsibility for the description more firmly on the shoulders of
the source author. The quotation marks can indicate that this is indeed literally
the phrase the speaker used in Russian, and the added punctuation may thus
make the lie more easily recognised as a lie. This distancing option would
hopefully alert readers to question the speaker’s description of the situation.
14
Thoughts on truth and translation
3)
One might also add the original Russian within quotes, and then add a literal
translation: e.g.: “a ‘spetsial’naya voennaya operatsiya,’ that is, special military
operation.” This is what Pym (1992, 71, 76–82) has called double representation,
with both source language and target language visible. This solution gives special
prominence to the source-language item.
4) A fourth option could be called overt attribution, which also has a distancing
effect. In translating a text concerning Lavrov’s recent statement that the situation
is an inter-Ukrainian conflict, the translator might write: “what Lavrov described
as the intra-Ukraine conflict.” Here is another example. A report on the Al Jazeera
website reads: “In a sermon, Patriarch Kirill appeared to endorse Moscow’s
so-called ‘special peacekeeping [sic!] operation’, as the war on Ukraine is officially
called in Russia.” (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/28/patriarch-kirillputin-ally-faces-backlash) This is perhaps not a direct translation, but the overt
attribution (“as the war on Ukraine is officially called in Russia”) suggests that
the broadcasting station wants to distance itself from the term used within
quotation marks, ”special peacekeeping operation.” (The “sic” in square brackets
is my addition. Could a translator add a “sic”? Too risky?)
5) A fifth option is to translate the special operation phrase by using the word war,
which would be an accurate, true description of the situation referred to. (This
word is also used in the Al Jazeera sentence, notice. Curiously, the report also
writes that Kirill only “appeared to endorse... Looks like they are trying to sit on
the fence?) But the choice of the noun war would misrepresent the term used in
the original text. And, more importantly, it would hide the fact that the original
writer or speaker was lying about the true nature of the conflict, as he deliberately
obscured the truth. This is a war.
It is easy to observe that all these choices are in regular use. (Are they all “fair”
representations?) Each option carries a risk. The literal choice risks going against an
ethical translator’s own sense of justice, potentially causing the subjective stress of
a bad conscience. The quotation choice risks censure and its consequences, such as,
at least, loss of trust in the translator and/or loss of one’s job, if an authority notices
and disapproves of the potential distancing effect of the added quotation marks. The
double representation and attribution solutions carry a similar risk. The last choice,
telling the truth, currently (May 2022) carries the risk of fifteen years in prison, for
a translator in Russia at least.
Within the possibilities of a translator’s circumstances, what determines the
choice of translation solution in such cases is not only the skopos of the text plus the
original writer’s and/or client’s intention, but also the telos of the translator (see
Chesterman and Baker 2008). “Telos” is Aristotle’s word for something like a person’s
ultimate goal or objective in life, and hence fundamental motivation for action. What
are your highest values, your ideals? Action in accordance with these is action that
matches your telos. Translators who support Putin and wish to spread his view of what
is happening will presumably stick to his terminology and use “special military
operation” with no quotes. But I think those whose telos is different would more likely
choose a different solution, if they can.
A lie, then, is a deliberate attempt to mislead people by presenting a non-truth
(i.e. something that does not match up with reality, with “what is”) as if it were a truth.
15
I. THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS
We are back to our correspondence theory. But there is of course a problem here: some
have argued that we cannot really perceive “what is,” things “as they are,” and so we
can only rely on our perceptions of what seems to be reality. In response to this view,
we can take a step back and speak not of the absolute “truth” of statements about how
things are, but perhaps of their generally agreed and probable truthlikeness, or
approximation to truth, based on the evidence available: a good working hypothesis
of how some chunk of reality really is. And one can focus on the justifications of
a given perception, and in particular the justification of the ways one tries to persuade
others to agree, so that a consensus can arise. It is now, for instance, pretty much
universally agreed, in the light of overwhelming empirical evidence, that the Earth is
round, not flat, as was once believed.
Focusing on justification recalls Plato’s famous definition of knowledge: justified
true belief. Hugely debated of course, and much criticized. But I think the role of
justification is central, in any claim to “know,” or indeed in saying that something is
(factually) true.
When I started studying at university, we had to read our weekly or fortnightly
essays aloud to our tutor, in front of the other students in our group. This was always
something of an ordeal. I remember one tutor who would interrupt an essay reading
at once if there seemed to be no evidence for a claim made by the wretched student.
“Substantiate or withdraw,” he would say, sternly, but often with a slight smile. That
is, justify your claim, bring up the evidence or the logic on which it is based, or else
back down, erase it. For instance, a statement is not necessarily true just because some
scholar has made it. I have often urged my own students to beware of the expression
“As X says.” It is a risky one: it normally implies that the speaker or writer agrees with
X’s view, but it is no guarantee that what X said is true. What would you think of me
if I said: “As Lavrov says, Russia has not attacked Ukraine”?
Look for counter-evidence, I used to tell my students. And look in the research
literature rather for claims that you disagree with, or that you at least doubt. As
a seminar exercise, I would sometimes ask students to find some statement or opinion
in the literature that they did not agree with, and write a paragraph explaining why
they disagreed. After all, this is critical thinking. It begins with doubt – justified doubt.
Without it, we may just believe everything we are told, lies or not. Which is what the
brainwashers and fake-news peddlers want, of course.
So for an ethical translator who wants to stay alive and out of prison, perhaps the
challenge is to see whether some seeds of doubt can be sown in the translation of
a text that clearly lies, so that readers are nudged to question what the translation tells
them.
To end on an encouraging note: I am pleased to inform you that at least for a few
days earlier this year, the Helsinki city transport online route map showed a new name
for the Russian embassy, standing in its spacious garden: Volodymyr Zelenskyy Park.
And similarly, the street on which the embassy is located was temporarily given new
street signs in both Finnish and Swedish (as is normal in bilingual Helsinki) and
renamed Zelenskyinkatu/Zelenskyjsgatan. These are “lies” told for fun, for obvious
ideological reasons, and are immediately recognised as such. No-one is led astray.
When I was last there, many trees, street lights and shop windows near the Russian
embassy displayed blue and yellow ribbons and flags. A few centimetres outside the
16
Thoughts on truth and translation
embassy railings there was a large display of candles, flowers, statistics of victims on
both sides, and texts against the war. A collection of multimedia messages, together
expressing a moral truth.
REF E RE NCE S
Chesterman, Andrew. 1996. “On similarity.” Target 8, 1: 156–164.
Chesterman, Andrew. 2001. “Proposal for a Hieronymic Oath.” The Translator 7, 2: 139–154.
Chesterman, Andrew and Mona Baker. 2008. “Ethics of renarration. An interview with Mona
Baker.” Cultus 1, 1: 10–33.
Frankfurt, Harry. 2005. On bullshit. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
McIntyre, Lee. 2018. Post-Truth. Cambridge, Ma.: MIT Press.
Newmark, Peter. 1991. About translation. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.
Newmark, Peter. 2004. “Non-literary in the light of literary translation.” JoSTrans 1: 8–13.
Pym, Anthony. 1992. Translation and Text Transfer. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang. Available
online, with slightly different pagination, at:
https://usuaris.tinet.cat/apym/publications/TTT_2010.pdf. Last accessed 6.6.2022.
Zohn, Harry. [1968] 2004. “The Task of the Translator” (Translation of Walter Benjamin’s “Die
Aufgabe des Übersetzers”). In The Translation Studies Reader,ed. by Lawrence Venuti,
75–85. New York: Routledge. Available online at:
https://complit.utoronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/COL1000–Walter_Benjamin.pdf. Last
accessed 6.6.2022.
AB S TR AC T
According to the correspondence theory of truth, a true statement is one that corresponds to
the state of affairs it describes. A translation is usually assumed to be a true account of its source.
But in non-fiction translation, two such relations are at stake: between the source text and the
reality it describes, and between the source text and the target text. If a source text contains
clear lies, a translator does have a few choices: five possible solution types are suggested, all of
which carry risks. Some involve a distancing strategy: using quotation marks, double
representation, and overt attribution.
Keyword s: Truth. Translation. Lies. Ethics. Distancing.
CO NTAC T D ETA IL S:
Andrew Chesterman, Professor Emeritus
University of Helsinki
Department of Modern Languages
PL.24 (Unioninkatu 24)
00014 Helsinki
Finland
amchesterman2@gmail.com
17
E MPIR ICAL TR A NS L AT IO N H IS TORY:
TR IPPIN G OV E R U K R AIN E’ S EX EC U TE D
RE N A IS SA NCE
A n th ony P ym
I occasionally write historiography as if it were a crime investigation: something is
wrong; we seek clues and try to fit them together. Such is an incremental approach to
the rhizomatic, as opposed to facile assumptions of systems, complexity, hegemony,
languages, or nations, all of which certainly exist but are, I propose, to be encountered
only when they affect the historiographical detective work.
T he ca se o f t h e s to l e n t ra n sl at i o n so l u ti o n t y p e s
My initial mission was to discover how similar typologies of translation solutions were
produced in Montréal and Beijing at the same time and were published in the same
year, in 1958. How could Loh Dianyang in China be doing more or less the same thing
as Jean-Paul Vinay and Jean Darbelnet in Canada? The question arose when I was
tracing the history of limited-term typologies, a particular idea for an histoire des idées
or concept for Begriffsgeschichte. All of this is in Pym (2016), but here I just want to
focus on the mysterious synchronicity. What could the connection have been?
Loh Dianyang tellingly cited some Russian scholarship, specifically the Saint
Petersburg Germanist Andrei Fedorov, who had been partly translated into Chinese
just prior to 1958. Then I went back to Fedorov’s earlier works, in search of links.
When I got to those earlier works, something seemed wrong. A 1927 paper by
Fedorov stood out like a sore thumb in its analysis of how verse forms can be translated:
Translation is not the reproduction of a work but the creation of something new –
according to a model which gives rise to varying interpretation, a model which
is not uniform but multifaceted. It is impossible to equate the two systems –
translation and original – and not only because they are essentially unequal but
also because we do not know the most equatable quantities. (Fedorov 1927/1974)
Where could that have come from? The grand general claims are like fellow
Formalists but some of it also sounds like Walter Benjamin (1923), although that
possible history remains nebulous. And then, where did it lead after publication of the
article in 1927?
W here to l o o k?
The latter question is the more interesting, since this same Fedorov was (and still is)
regularly denounced by Russian translation scholars as proffering a restrictive formalist18
Empirical translation histor y: tripping over Ukraine’s Executed Renaissance
linguistic approach to translation, to be opposed to the literary approach of Ivan
Kashkin, an opposition that might be dated from the 1954 Congress of the Union of
Soviet Writers.
Thanks to that enormous bifurcation, tracing the ripples of that 1927 paper is not
easy in Russian. For some time, it remained a minor dead-end in my to-do list.
Then I came across Oleksandr Kal’nychenko’s 2011 article on “The Ukrainian
History of Translation in the 1920s.” There I found mention of a 1927 paper by
Volodymyr Derzhavyn, who was in part responding to Fedorov’s paper published in
the same year, 1927. And some of that discussion concerned the way that translation
solution types can be categorized, which was actually the problem that most excited
me at the time (not that it provides much excitement to anyone else these days):
A human language performs simultaneously (but in every particular case to
various extents) three functions: communicative, cognitive and artistic, which
are not predisposed to translation in the same degree. (Derzhavyn 1927, 44)
Then around Derzhavyn, a short list of other names were involved in the same
general discussion. But those names, I discovered, were writing about translation into
Ukrainian, and were (sometimes?) writing in Ukrainian. “Nune,” I cried to my
immediate guide to things eastern, “please help me with this.” “I can’t,” she replied.
“It’s not Russian.” When you trip over an unexpected obstacle, you can only apologize
for having looked the wrong way.
So I wrote to Oleksandr Kal’nychenko. He very generously sent me a multi-page
letter full of details and references, leading me in particular to the work of Oleksandr
Finkel’, who worked very directly on the problem of solution types. This was getting
somewhere!
Soon I had a small, specific field of exchange and debate from 1927 to 1929, where
Yuri Tynianov, Fedorov, Derzhavyn and Finkel’ were all publishing on translation, to
some extent bouncing not just off each other but also across two languages: Russian
and Ukrainian.
Given my ignorance of the languages, much of that moment still remains obscure
to me. That is why I am extremely grateful that Oleksandr Kal’nychenko is with us
here today, that he and other experts have been able to present further details of that
history, and that Brian Baer has talked about the work of Oleksandr Finkel’. A hidden
history is being made better known.
Tri p p i n g ove r wh a t l o o ke d l i ke a bl a n k sp a ce
I gradually discovered what is now more widely known. Work on translation into
Ukrainian was part and parcel of that language asserting national status – the Academy
of Sciences of Ukraine was founded in 1918; Ukrainian was taught in schools; it was
the language of operas performed in Kiev from 1926. Literary translation into that
language assumed a social mission, building up a national literature. A national
movement can stimulate work on translation.
I also discovered that the space of Ukrainian translation studies disappeared
abruptly in 1932–1933, when Stalinist ideology imposed Russian and the proponents of
19
I. THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS
Ukrainian cultural independence were sent to gulags or were otherwise silenced:
Ukrainians call this the period of their “Executed Renaissance,” rozstriliane vidrodzhennia.
eir place in the development of translation studies more or less disappeared from the
official accounts written in Russian.
S o mu s t we b e o n o n e si de o n ly ?
To revisit that history is not to denigrate Russian scholars at all. Just this January I was
working with the Russian Association of Translation Teachers, and I am always happy
to discuss translation with anyone who shares that scholarly interest.
And to revisit that history does not, for me, involve axiomatic praise for any
particular national independence. What I want to retain is the international
dimension of that discussion from 1927, not only between Russian and Ukrainian but
also with the sources that the scholars were drawing on from other European
languages, particularly French and German. The Ukrainian moment was indeed part
of a transnational dialogue.
B et t i n g o n hi dd e n l i n ks
What most intrigues me, though, is a possibly secret history that I cannot prove – like
the lines between photographs of “known associates” that clever detectives put up on
a big board. In some of their work, Derzhavyn and Finkel’ cite the Swiss linguist
Charles Bally, who did much to advance the cause of European stylistics. Bally
connects not only with them but also with the Russian Viktor Vinogradov, with whom
Fedorov had worked (he is named as one of Fedorov’s professors) and who was sent
into internal exile in 1934 then returned to academic (and political) life after Stalin’s
paper on linguistics in 1950. A certain line can thus be drawn from Bally to people
around Fedorov, and then, through translation of Fedorov, to Beijing in 1958. And
Bally, of course, was also the direct inspiration behind Vinay and Darbelnet, who
wrote in Canada in 1958. QED.
Why should anyone care about that? Stylistics does lend itself to exclusivity, to
the illusion of a national identity expressed in language: Bally and his followers did
buy into ideologies of a génie de la langue, which is part of exclusive nationalisms. That
20
Empirical translation histor y: tripping over Ukraine’s Executed Renaissance
is its great risk. At the same time, though, stylistics is attached to the vitality of
discourse, to involvement in dialogue, to motivation and to behaviour change – which
is why Stalin, in 1913, had argued for the development of national cultures, including
Ukrainian. A deep involvement in language can indeed help keep the earth beneath
your feet, as Susan Bassnett has reminded us.
Stylistics is correspondingly of an age where translation scholars, like those in
Ukraine today, still liked languages, indeed revelled in them, piling up example after
example, pointing translators to the adventures of a creative and engaged task.
Messages can pass from translator to translator, with cultures standing between
them, such that cultures transform messages – why see translators as the only
transformers? Resistance is one way in which cultures do this, manifesting presence,
not allowing simple passage across their territory.
Po s t scri pt : On t r u th i n e ss i n n am e s
The above lines were presented at the conference on “Translation Studies in Ukraine”
held in Bratislava in May 2022. Following my presentation, Andrew Chesterman asked
about truth, about the “truthiness” of historical facts, looking for an argument. As
might befit a Monty Python sketch, I was not quite up for that argument – we were
there for Ukrainians, after all, not for philosophical jousting. But Andrew insisted, so
I think I replied: mine is a world of forces, claims, and resistance to forces, a world
where truth will not win the day simply because it is true. I later mentioned that I see
the aim of exchanges as being cooperation, not the objectivation of truth. And so
Andrew and I passed calmly, likes ships in the night, until Oleksandr Kal’nychenko
picked up a point of apparent truth and falsehood: in my visual presentation, the map
you have just seen, I made a mistake in the spelling of “Derzhavyn,” which I had
written as “Derzhavin.” If this was a mistake, then surely there must be something like
truth and falsehood involved?
The question is not quite as banal as my reply was in the moment: I am more than
happy to correct the name, as a sign of respect for people, the language and the culture
in which that “y” is correct. Indeed, one reason for my very presence in the conference
was to express gratitude to Oleksandr Kal’nychenko, who had helped me considerably
in my research on old networks and so deserved all due recognition now. But that was
respect, homage, gratitude – traces of force and counterforce of one kind or another,
not of truth. Out of personal gratitude, I am happy to use the name that best suits;
I simply trust the informant and privilege cooperation.
True story, not unrelated: My wife was stopped for an hour or so at passport
control in Dubai while they investigated why, in their records, she was “Dolores” but
in her current passport she is “Dolors.” What had happened to the missing “e”? Which
of the names was true?
In this case, I at least know what happened, although I don’t know the truth of
any name. My wife’s passport used to say “Dolores” because that is a Spanish name,
recorded in Spanish in her birth registry, at a time when Spain only had one official
language – both in the fascist State and the Catholic religion of the day. “Dolors” is her
name in Catalan, a language that became fully co-official in Catalonia in 1979. To use
that name on her identity documents, she had to have an addendum made to the
21
I. THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS
original registry, then get a new birth certificate, then get a new passport and identity
card. One could argue, of course, that in a Catalan-speaking family, “Dolors” was
always her true name (actually “Maria Dolors,” since Hispanics never pass a chance
to expand) such that “Dolores” simply marks the transitory imposition of an
occupying foreign power. One could also argue, however, that the identity documents
are part of speech acts produced and controlled by the state, performing an
authorization that is quite independent of the individual’s linguistic preferences. There
is more than one kind of truth at work – forces work in multiple directions.
When I teach the sociolinguistics of variation, I start by getting students to write
out all the names by which they are known, then the domains in which those names
are used, and finally the values and power relations involved in each. That exercise is
used precisely in order to get away from the notion that there is just one true referent
for each name, and thus one true word for each thing, as if we had not advanced since
Cratylus. Words create values when used in speech acts, and names are to be
understood in terms of the acts in which they are used.1
I do not know if my wife’s missing “e” might have something to do with Volodymyr
Derzhavyn’s birth in Saint Petersburg in 1899 and whatever power might have
transcribed or authorized a name at that time. I do not know whether some variation
crept in through a copyeditor’s attempt to homogenize the transcription of Cyrillic
script in my book. I do not know if the Ukrainian struggle for independence had any
resemblance with the situation of Catalonia, with respect to names or anything else.
But the insistence on one form or another has value in itself, as an act of resistance,
a reminder of difference, a claim to identity. And no further truth is required.
RE F ERE NCE S
Benjamin, Walter. 1923/2004. “The Task of the Translator.” In The Translation Studies Reader,
2nd edition, ed. by Lawrence Venuti, trans. by Harry Zohn, 75–85. London: Routledge.
Derzhavyn, Volodymyr. 1927. “Проблема віршованого перекладу” [The problem of poetic
translation]. Pluzhanyn 9, 10: 44–51.
Fedorov, Andrei Venediktovich. 1927/1974. “Проблема стихотворного перевода” [Problems
in the translation of poetry]. Poetika 2: 104–118. Trans. anonymously as “The problem of
verse translation.” Linguistics 12, 137: 13–30.
Kal’nychenko, Oleksandr. 2011. “A sketch of the Ukrainian history of translation of the 1920s.”
In Between Cultures and Texts: Itineraries in Translation History, ed. by Theo Hermans,
Antoine Chalvin, Anne Lange, and Daniele Monticelli, 255–267. Frankfurt am Main,
Berlin: Peter Lang.
Loh Dianyang. (陆 殿 扬 ). 1958. 英 汉 翻 译 的 理 论 与 技 巧 /Translation: Its Principles and
Techniques. Beijing: Times Publishing.
Pym, Anthony. 1998. Method in translation history. Manchester: St Jerome.
Pym, Anthony. 2016. Translation solutions for many languages – histories of a flawed dream.
London: Bloomsbury.
1
This is no minor issue when doing translator history, especially in the medieval field. When confronting
the many possible ways in which translators can be named and identified, by methodological recommendation is to reproduce the name that is put on the translation, in exactly that form and language (Pym
1998, 174–175).
22
Empirical translation histor y: tripping over Ukraine’s Executed Renaissance
Stalin, Josef. 1913/1954. Marxism and the national question. Moscow: Foreign Languages
Publishing House.
Vinay, Jean-Paul, and Jean Darbelnet. 1958/1995. Comparative stylistics of French and English:
A methodology for translation. Trans. by Juan C. Sager and Marie-Josée Hamel. Amsterdam:
John Benjamins.
AB S TR AC T
A strange synchronicity appears in typologies of translation solutions that were produced in
Montréal and Beijing in the same year, 1958. The genealogies behind the solutions can be traced
by to the Swiss linguist Charles Bally, whose influence spread not only to Vinay and Darbelnet
in Canada but also to a group of Ukrainian and Russian scholars working in the 1920s. Piecing
together those connections from afar, one finds that work on translation into Ukrainian was
part of the language asserting national status and building a national literature, and that the
productive space of Ukrainian translation studies more or less went underground in 1932–1933.
The historiographical difficulty of narrating that history is exemplified in the different ways
a name can be written.
Keywords: Translation history. Translation solution types. Volodymyr Derzhavyn. Names.
Truth.
CON TACT D ETAI L S:
Anthony Pym, Professor of Translation Studies
School of Languages and Linguistics
Faculty of Arts
The University of Melbourne
Victoria 3010
Australia
anthony.pym@unimelb.edu.au
ORCID: 0000-0002-9440-0886
23
TR AN S LAT ION – H IS TO RIC I T Y –
IN TE RPR E TAT IVE PAR AL LE LS *
Ka ta r ín a Be dn á rová
At the very beginning of the article, please allow me to greet all the Ukrainian colleagues
– translation studies scholars, literary scholars, translators – and all the people in
Ukraine who are exposed to the absurd, incomprehensible, but unfortunately very real
violence and evil, and I would like to express our support for them.
My contribution is a reflection on the literary text and translation, a reminder of
familiar and obvious things that we may no longer perceive so sharply because they
are covered up by many words, sometimes obscuring the true essence of the matter.
The meaning of the sentence “In the beginning was the Word” – logos – is well
known. Even if we omit the religious interpretation of “logos,” this word carries so
many contents and meanings that it cannot be clearly translated into any language.
A full equivalent is missing – logos means a word, a speech, a statement, a sense,
a reason, a truth, an argument, etc. all of them at the same time. We have only an
equivalent fragment with incompleteness and incompetence resulting from the co-text
and context. From the word logos come suffixes -logie, -logy in different languages,
and there are many derivatives. For several millennia, people have been shaped up by
changing civilisations within the logosphere, the environment of an intentionally
spoken and written word.1 The logosphere shapes man and man shapes the
logosphere. The word creates speech, given to man at birth, and thanks to it he/she
forms the specific image of the world. The word is translated and the images of the
world meet, intertwine, and influence each other in a good way, but they also have
a contrasting effect and contradict mutually.
We are all very aware of the importance of translation. There is no need to argue
about it. In many languages and cultures, translation was at the origin of literature:
this was translation of sacred texts but also of other texts. In this context, the words of
the French translatologist Henri Meschonnic may again be quoted because he
developed this idea even more thoroughly: “Europe was born out of and in translation,
Europe constituted itself only and solely in and through the translation,” adding in the
same breath that it also constituted itself through obscuring, hiding, denying, or
forgetting its “translational” origins (1999, 32–33). Europe was born out of translations
*
1
This article was written in the framework of the project VEGA “Translation as part of the cultural process
history III. Translation and translating – texts, personalities, institutions in inter- and transdisciplinary
relations”.
Olga Tokarczuk elaborated the oldest literary monument – the Sumerian myth of Inanna, known from
several fragments. e authorship is attributed to the priestess of the god Nanmu Ennuduanna. Tokarczuk’s
text was published under the title Anna v hrobkách sveta (Anna in the tombs of the world, Slovart 2008,
trans. by Karol Chmel).
24
Tr a n s l a t i o n – h i s t o r i c i t y – i n t e r p r e t a t i v e p a r a l l e l s
from Greek, as far as science and philosophy are concerned, and out of translations
primarily from Hebrew and Aramaic, when it comes to the Bible.
While we all understand the importance of the word, and therefore of translation
and its functions, we do not always encounter such understandings in the broader
cultural context. However, we can put it another way: the word, literature, and
translation are phenomena that are too complex to achieve a consensus. Moreover,
logos, literature, and translated literature are phenomena that every power is scared
of. Every political power, every authoritarian society. Their possible subversive nature
puts an army of censors on the alert. In the nineteenth century in Central Europe,
double censorship was imposed by the state and the church. In Slovakia, we have
experienced this several times in the twentieth century: in the period of the Slovak
wartime state, during the period of Czechoslovak totalitarianism, especially in the
1950s, and during the period of normalisation in the 1970s. From a global perspective,
according to most recent statistics compiled by human rights and freedom
groups, 54% of the world’s population lives in countries with authoritarian regimes
that restrict freedom of expression. ese people, intoxicated by propaganda and
held hostage by rulers who resist democratic transparency, are deprived of civil
liberties or have extremely limited access to them. On our planet, every second
inhabitant has no right to speak.2 (Delisle 2012, 293)
However, the word, literature, and translation literature have a self-preserving
power as well, for the word cannot be easily destroyed and silenced, the word helps its
bearer, the user, to survive. While the word, on the one hand, is capable of generating
power, on the other hand, it is doomed to confront power, and there has probably
never been a period in the modern history of humankind that has not called for the
mobilization of this precious self-preserving quality of the word. The word dwells in
the human mind; working with the word in the process of translation and beyond it
helps us to focus and to keep the mind sane and alive in times of crisis. The word is
a rescue, a refuge, but it is also an exclamation mark; and it can also be a wound.
Let me remind you of a few names in memory of all those people who survived
with the help of the literature, with the help of a word in the soul and in the mind, of
their literary creations. It is in memory of all those people who survived difficult
moments thanks to translation; in memory of all those, for whom translation was also
forbidden and to whom friends and brave people lent their names, as we have seen
both in the Slovak and Czech cultures of the common state of Czechoslovakia and in
other cultures of the former “Soviet bloc.”
The self-preserving power of the word in conditions of unfreedom and physical
confinement can be illustrated by many examples. I would like to mention the
probably less well-known Romanian essayist, literary critic, novelist, and translator
2
Selon les plus récentes statistiques compilées par des groupes de défense des droits et libertés, 54 % des
citoyens dans le monde vivent dans des pays dont les régimes autoritaires briment la liberté d’expression.
Leurs populations, anesthésiées par la propagande et prises en otage par des dirigeants réfractaires à la
transparence démocratique, sont privées de leurs libertés civiles ou n’y ont accès que très partiellement.
Sur la planète, un habitant sur deux n’a pas le droit de parole.
25
I. THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS
Nicolae Steinhardt (1912–1989), who was imprisoned for thirteen years for refusing
to cooperate with the Ceaușescu regime. I would like to mention this case, although
it is not directly related to translation. Steinhardt’s prison life was very turbulent: he
secretly converted from Judaism to Orthodox Christianity, and after his release in
1964, he became a monk, joining the Rohia monastery in Marmaros. In the 1970s, he
wrote his diary in several versions because part of it had been confiscated by the
Securitates, the secret police, and he was afraid to lose more parts of the text.
Eventually, the diary was exported to Paris, where it was published in French in 1991
under the title Le journal de la félicité (Diary of a happy destiny), a contemporary
testimony and a political testament. Therein, Steinhardt writes about his prison life,
how he underwent a spiritual rebirth and embraced suffering as a form of purification
in the Christian understanding (for more details, see Vajdová and Páleníková and
Kenderessy 2017, 398–399). In this regard, I must point out that during his years in
prison Steinhardt recited literary texts from memory to empower both himself and
his fellow prisoners.
The Slovak literary critic, poet, and editor Móric Mittelmann-Dedinský
(1914–1989), who was politically persecuted in 1949–1953, also worked on his
translations in prison: he translated Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust, the works
of Thomas Mann, Aleksandr Pushkin, and Doris Lessing. His translations of the two
latter authors have not been published to this day; they are stored in the Literary
Archive of the Slovak National Library (Bžoch 2015, 175–176).
The “Song of Songs” was also translated in prison – by Ján Augustín Beňo3,
a Slovak Salesian priest, imprisoned for several years after the liquidation of the
Salesian order in 1950. Beňo’s translation was created in the jail in Valdice, where the
translator allegedly came into possession of the literary magazine Slovenské pohľady,
which contained a translation of the “Song of Songs” by the poet Ivan Kupec. Kupec
presented the translation as an example of Palestinian love poetry.4 In protest against
this presentation of the “Song of Songs,” Beňo spent two years translating it in prison
and then another twenty years after his release. Beňo’s translation can be understood
as an expression of defiance against political power, but it was also created as
a polemical translation with a secular interpretation of the original text. Beňo
emphasised the sacral nature of the text and interpreted it in this sense.
The life we live shows us that a life spent translating is not only a working process,
which includes playing with the text, its refinement, the joy of reading and interpreting,
and the joy of creativity, it is not only the repayment of cultural debts, not even the
manifestation of a literary event or an extraordinary cultural act. Under certain
historical circumstances, a life of translation can take place in absurd settings. In 2015,
the Slovak Ministry of Culture awarded the Pavol Országh Hviezdoslav Prize for the
translation of Slovak literature into foreign languages to a Syrian translator, a doctor
by profession, who had been working in the Syrian city of Homs since 1990. Ghias
Mousli came to Slovakia from the war-torn Syria by a rather complicated route to
3
4
J.A. Beňo (1921–2006) published religious and philosophical texts and translations under various pseudonyms in samizdat editions and in the publishing house of the Slovak Institute of St. Cyril and Methodius
in Rome.
This translation has not been identified.
26
Tr a n s l a t i o n – h i s t o r i c i t y – i n t e r p r e t a t i v e p a r a l l e l s
receive the prize only a year later, when the circumstances allowed him to do so. All
of this happened at the time of the endless war in Syria. “Probably, I wouldn’t have
come under different circumstances. But for being awarded the prize here in Slovakia,
I felt obligated to come,” he said in an interview for the daily Sme (Ballová and Mousli
2016). He repeated these words in the historical hall of the Faculty of Arts of Comenius
University. He told the assembly of gathering all copies of his Arabic translation of the
Slovak novel The Millennial Bee by Peter Jaroš and taking them to the hospital for his
wounded and sick patients to read in order to help them forget the horrors of war, at
least for a while.
I give them my translations, children are given especially fairy tales, such as “The
Three Little Goats,” which was published two months ago in Egypt, or “Maxik”
or “The Sparrow King.” ... They are excited about them. Basically, anything makes
them happy. And I also give books to older children, to my friends and to my
colleagues at work. Why would I keep books at home? (Ballová and Mousli 2016)
He also talked about his work in the hospital and explained how he sat in his
room at home and translated and how he almost lost his house during the bombing.5
I suppose there is no need for further comment.
From the history of translation, we also know that war has swallowed up and
ruined many unpublished manuscripts of translations, destroying many years of
efforts of writers and translators. This happened during the First and the Second
World War as well. For example, one of the lost manuscripts during the Second World
War was the translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy by Karol Strmeň, an outstanding
Slovak poet and translator who became a professor of Romance Studies at Cleveland
State University after his emigration to the USA. The state of war both mobilizes and
destroys the spirit, and culture fades.
The events of the second decade of the twenty-first century have deeply affected
all of us. Two events had a direct impact on us: the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.
The war in Syria and other long-standing permanent world conflicts must still be
remembered, however: even though they are geographically further away from us,
they still concern us to a great degree. Thinking people demand an explanation of the
pandemic and the war in Ukraine. There is no doubt that we are standing on the
threshold of a historical turning point that we cannot yet assess objectively and predict
its consequences. Intuitively, but also consciously, we turn to the past, looking for
connections and explanations.
In the first case, the question of plague epidemics in history immediately began
to arise. We began to ask how humankind coped with them; we wondered how it
coped with the Spanish flu. The cultural environment, in which there were earlier,
perhaps already forgotten translations available, reflected again on this event through
them. We may mention the publication of the Czech translation of Daniel Defoe’s
A Journal of the Plague Year (1772). This work is listed in book catalogues as a classic
5
Translations of Gh. Mousli into Arabic: P. Vilikovský Fleeting Snow, The Cruel Train Driver, The Story of
a Real Man, texts by P. Rankov, V. Klimáček, L. Mňačko, J. Banáš, etc., from the latest translations the
novella Scenario by E. Farkašová (2020).
27
I. THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS
of epidemic literature. The book tells the story of the Great Plague of London in
1665–66, from which one can draw remarkable parallels to the situation and the ways
in which countries were coping with the pandemic in the present day. The Slovak
translation of Jack London’s dystopian work The Scarlet Plague (in 2020 by Igor
Otčenáš) was published very quickly.
Political events affecting the lives of millions of people also bring to the surface
and out of oblivion literatures associated with the affected region. If translations do
not exist, feverish work on them begins. If there are older translations, they are
republished. In this regard, I can mention the wave of interest in Czech and Slovak
literature sparked by the Russian invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. At that time, an
unprecedented wave of interest arose in Western Europe, spurred on by political
attitudes. Today, we are increasingly interested in Ukrainian culture and literature,
unfortunately for similar but much worse reasons. We are trying to make up for what
we have missed, to reduce translation deficits, and to explain a culture, a country, and
a people through literary texts and art. I would like to note how interesting it is to see
the difference between the way that Ukrainian culture and literature are reflected in
Slovakia and other countries, such as France. I am discovering new names, and I often
ask myself critically why I did not know about many authors until now and when real
contact with them will be possible. This concerns, for example, Andriy Zholdak, who
was the artistic director of the Taras Shevchenko Theatre in Kharkiv in 2002–2005
and who stages theatre classics in an unusually new way, for example, in Romania.
I am reading about the best hundred Ukrainian novels on French literary websites.
Until now, I had no idea how many contemporary Ukrainian writers were being
translated in France, and to what extent the French translation area is capable to
respond with concrete translations. I am listening to the documentary series
“Ukrajinská čítanka” (Ukrainian reader) on the Czech TV and cultural radio station
Vltava. There are many other examples.
However, historical events similar to current ones and their depiction in literature
and translation, their reflection, can take us much further back in human history: for
example, to the Greek philosopher Apollonius of Tyana (1st century AD) and to the
plague epidemic in ancient Ephesus. In his biography of Apollonius, Flavius Philostratus
mentions the case of the stoning of an old man in Ephesus. Apollonius convinced the
Ephesians that the old man was the demon that caused the plague, thus turning him
into a scapegoat. Upon stoning the old man, the plague disappeared, and the Ephesians
returned to their duties. We can refer to the anthropological, sociological, and
philosophical articles of the French anthropologist and philosopher René Girard
(1923–2015) on the concept of the scapegoat and collective violence equating to
collective innocence. I think this story needs no further explanation either. The
analogy brings together two important historical events of modern world history.
Literary texts convey both intentional and unintentional messages. Unintentional
messages are those that we perceive as either literary parallels or parallels of the
milestones in lives of societies and individuals. Through these parallels, we read and
interpret literary texts. Various theories of translation define this property as the
literary artefact potentiality, the open-endedness of literature, the incompleteness of
the text, and so on. Many other concepts could describe this unmistakable feature of
literature and its importance for translation.
28
Tr a n s l a t i o n – h i s t o r i c i t y – i n t e r p r e t a t i v e p a r a l l e l s
When Ján Koška (1936–2006), a Slovak poet, translator, and literary comparatist,
reflected on theoretical and conceptual issues of translation, he concluded that
translation was an independent literary genre. His opinion was similar opinion to that
of José Ortega y Gasset that the original was not the source in itself, but rather, the
translator’s interpretation of the source work, referred to as the primary interpretation.
(Ortega y Gasset 2013) The translation derives itself from this interpretation, which
is the secondary interpretation consisting in the textual realisation. According to
Koška, one of the key steps of interpretation is to understand the translated work
through an interpretive parallel. This implies understanding through various life and
cultural parallels as well as through familiar parallel worlds including the parallel
worlds of the interpreter, his/her country, language, and culture that relate to the
source work. The presence and urgency of an interpretive parallel is a condition of
translation. Theories usually speak of the “uncovering-extracting-revealing” of
meanings and contents already contained in the work, which are re-articulated in
translation. However, Koška thinks about the “inserting-substituting-exchanging” of
contents, senses, and meanings, and about the translator’s work within the new
historical circumstances, conditions of life, and its perspectives that manifest
themselves through the translator. According to Koška, translation “is not, apparently,
the consistent unveiling of the essence of the original, but of a new horizon, which was
in no way the initial horizon of the original, because it was not there at all” (1995,
16–17). Every literary work contains unpredictable potential meanings to be revealed
in future. They cannot be foreseen by the author and are not encoded in the original
work. Thus, primary interpretation opens up the translated works to new experiences
unforeseen by the author.
In this way, the translated text becomes an “analogy” or a “metaphor” of the
source text (2001, 129). In fact, the translation always distances itself from the original
rather than gets closer to it (1995, 17), because, according to Koška, to a certain extent
translation is the process of exchange and insertion of new contents. This is possible
due to the multiple meanings of the literary image. Koška concludes that interpretive
parallels are generated by a “general interpretans” that inspires and directs the
interpretation (1995, 17). Every era has its own, unmistakable general interpretans.
I would like to mention here the poem “The Wind” (1924) by the Bulgarian poet
Atanas Dalchev (1904–1978), on which Koška relied when formulating the concept
of translation.6 The poem reads roughly as follows:
Wildly darting in the dusk, He whirled through far and wide. He rocked my home
like a mere boat and broke open all its doors. He punched down the old fence and
hit my window even harder until the glass blew up into shards – and thus, he burst
6
Atanas Dalčev: Vietor – Strmhlavo rozbehnutý v šere / Rozsekol ostrým hvizdom diaľku, / Rozkýval môj
dom ako bárku / A zvonka poroztváral dvere. // Starý plot päsťou tvrdou zmietol / Do okna búšil s novou
silou / A sklo sa s treskotom roztrieštilo – / Dnu prevalil sa dravý vietor. // Ako smiech pomätenca bôľny
/ Tabule rinčia v jeho stopách / A ľady mračných horských opách / Do tváre priamo vdýchol mi. //
A ďalej hádže, tlčie, láme, / Záclona – trofej veje v prázdne / A zo sviečky mi, ako blaznel, / Odniesol jak
list žltý plameň. // Zatínam päste nemohúce, / Čakám ťa s kliatbou nenávisti, / Ničivý vietor, silný, istý, /
Čo si mi na ľad zmenil srdce!
29
I. THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS
inside like a tide. Like a madman’s mournful laugh the panes clattered in his steps.
And all the monstrous hillside clouds he then threw right into my face. On and
on he tore and plundered ‘till only a curtain left – a lonely flag. As he wreaked
havoc all night long, he even blew away my autumn candlelight. I clench my fists
helplessly, always expecting you – with a curse. Oh, mighty, savage wind who
turned my heart into ice!7
The poem was published in Slovak by Koška in 1970 and he commented on it as
follows:
I analysed my interpretation of the poem “The Wind” written by the Bulgarian
author Atanas Dalchev in 1924. The translation was created between 1968
and1969. Although it was an almost literal translation, in the images of the
uninvited destructive wind in my translation I recognized the common
experience of the citizens of Czechoslovakia during and after August 1968 widely
publicized by the media. In no other country or at no other time could this poem
have been a picture of what it turned out to be.... The shocking experience of the
so-called Prague Spring and its end is probably the general interpretans for all
interpretations of foreign literatures after August 1968. (1997, 24)
This experience and its consequences were so intense that they had an even
greater impact on the reading and interpretation of the texts “between the lines.”
Translation from foreign literatures often had the function of allegorical expression.
Koška was a translator from Bulgarian literature and an expert in this field. He often
wrote about translations from Bulgarian literature that dwelt upon the historical
instances of the atrocities during the Ottoman rule and World War II, through which
he could critically comment on the period of normalization in Czechoslovakia.
A properly chosen interpretansprovided an opportunity to express the forbidden
opinions through translation and to accentuate what resonated in the given reception
situation.
Koška sees literary translation as a holistic artistic process rather than a segmented
semantic, linguistic, and stylistic operation. For him, the translation is a special kind
of literary creation; it is “a play on the medium that seemingly speaks in the voices of
the non-living and distant people in various indirect ways about our current times. It
is an interpretation of voices addressed to a public circle of interested people” (1995,
15). The medium – the interpreter – re-creates the work and articulates its new
meaning.
Unfortunately, the poem “The Wind” acquires a new meaning now after almost
a hundred years since Dalchev wrote it. In this sense, there is no doubt that the general
interpretansof the first quarter of the twenty-first century are the two key events
mentioned in the introduction: the pandemic and the epidemic of authoritarian
madness, both of which were accounted for in many literary texts of the twentieth
century.
7
English translation from Slovak language by Igor Tyšš.
30
Tr a n s l a t i o n – h i s t o r i c i t y – i n t e r p r e t a t i v e p a r a l l e l s
In the reception situation of the twenty-first century, we are discovering that “an
adequate representation of the current situation can be found in the more distant and
even very distant past,” as Koška argues (1997, 22).
“The original text [offers] a historicity that this source text had not foreseen
a priori. To translate is to introduce a text into a temporal dimension different from
that which was originally its own” (Le Blanc 2019, 83, qtd. in in Delisle 2022, 161).8 In
the current reception situation, the importance and irreplaceability of translation is
once again evident. It is a recurring situation, for in the modern world, there are
ongoing conflicts that geographically look very distant, but are, in fact, very close.
In this threatening situation, we are also aware of translation in the wider cultural
space. We are getting new evidence that “new events change the content of literary
works... Literature is like a prophecy about history and people, as it finds ‘its’ images
in every period of time” (Koška 2002, 110). Translation is also
a test of society’s tolerance for diversity of opinion and cultural pluralism. It is
a certain way for an individual or a society to broaden its perspectives but under
the condition that it is not afraid of otherness and difference, that it does not
perceive it as a threat, but as a living source of mutual enrichment. A vision of the
world that is not pluralistic, that is not open and welcoming, is an oppressive one
and restricts the freedom of the individual. Translation proves that human beings,
as much as societies, need others to define themselves, to move forward and
sometimes even to be reborn. (Delisle 2012, 306)9
Translation can satisfy the need for knowing. In professional literary circles, new
forms of literary engagement are now being discussed. These discussions are less about
political engagement, but more of the responsibility of literature that should consciously
serve as ethical reflection of the society and its history. In this way historicity would
be embedded in literature and new ideas will be put into circulation, thus changing
the world with the power of words. All of this is also necessary to produce relevant
translations. Every culture should take such responsibility, balancing the asymmetry
of cultures through translation, so that literature in the multicultural Europe does not
have to come to the forefront only in times of political and human crisis.
Translated by Zuzana Močková Lorková
8
9
Le texte originaire [offre] une historicité que le texte originel n’avait pas prévue a priori. Traduire, c’est
introduire un texte dans une dimension temporelle différente de celle qui était d’abord la sienne.
La traduction teste la tolérance des sociétés à la diversité d’opinions et au pluralisme culturel. Pour un individu ou une société, elle représente un moyen sûr d’élargir ses horizons, mais à la condition de ne pas
avoir peur de l’Autre et de ses différences, de ne pas voir dans l’étranger une menace, mais une source
vive d’enrichissement mutuel. Une vision du monde qui n’est pas pluraliste, c’est-à-dire ouverte et accueillante, est une vision oppressante qui brime les libertés individuelles. La traduction apporte la preuve que
les êtres humains, tout comme les sociétés, ont besoin des autres pour se définir, progresser et parfois renaître.
31
I. THOUGHTS AND REFLECTIONS
RE F ERE NCE S
Ballová, Denisa, and Ghias Mousli. 2016. “Ghias Mousli: Svojim pacientom v Homse čítam
básne od Milana Rúfusa” [Ghias Mousli: I read poems by Milan Rúfus to my patients in
Homs]. Denník N. Accessed on June 18, 2022. https://dennikn.sk/332810/ghias-mouslisvojim-pacientom-homse-citam-basne-milana-rufusa/.
Bžoch, Adam. 2015. “Dedinský-Mittelmann Móric.” In Slovník slovenských prekladateľov
umeleckej literatúry. 20. storočie. I. [The dictionary of Slovak literary translators of the 20th
century. I.], ed. by Oľga Kovačičová and Mária Kusá. Bratislava: Veda, vydavateľstvo SAV,
ÚSvL SAV, 175–177.
Dalčev, Atanas. 1970. Protivný vietor [The wind]. Trans. by Ján Koška. Bratislava: Slovenský
spisovateľ.
Delisle, Jean. 2012. “Traduire en prison, un passe-temps carcéral, un remède contre
l’intolérance” [Translating in prison, a prison pastime, a remedy for intolerance].
Quaderns. Revista de Traducció 19: 291–306.
Delisle, Jean. 2022. Notions d’histoire de la traduction [The concepts of the history of
translation]. Québec: Presse de l’Université Laval.
Koška, Ján. 1995. „Okolnosti výrazu a preklad” [The circumstances of expression and
translation]. Slovak Review 4, 1: 11–19.
Koška, Ján. 1997. “Ako nepochopiť básnika (Autorský komunikát a text)” [On how not to
understand a poet (Author’s communication and text)]. Slovak Review 6, 1: 19–26.
Koška, Ján. 2001. “Originalita prekladu (Preklad ako literárny žáner)” [The originality of
translation (Translation as a literary genre)]. Slovak Review 10, 2: 124–139.
Koška, Ján. 2002. “Ktorý preklad je najlepší” [Which translation is the best].Slovak Review 11,
2: 105–116.
Meschonnic, Henri. 1999. Poétique du traduire [The poetics of translation]. Lagrasse: Éditions
Verdier.
Ortega y Gasset, José. 2013. Misère et splendeur de la traduction [The misery and splendour of
translation]. Paris: Les Belles Lettres.
Vajdová, Libuša, Jana Páleníková, and Eva Kenderessy. 2017. Dejiny rumunskej literatúry [The
history of Romanian literature]. Bratislava: AnaPress.
AB S TR ACT
The article deals with the relationship between historical events and their expression in the
original and translation literature. It touches upon the cultural and social functions of
translation in different periods during wars and totalitarian regimes. It gives examples of
silenced writers and translators, in whose lives the word and translation had a self-preserving
power. This article explains historicity and its expression in interpretive parallels through the
theoretical concept of translation defined by J. Koška. According to him, translation in its
process is a wholesome creative operation rather than series of segmented semantic, linguistic,
and stylistic operations. Every literary work contains encoded future meanings that cannot be
predicted. Through primary interpretation and general interpretans of time, new unpredictable
experiences enter the translated works.
Keywords: Translation. Historicity. Interpretive parallels. General interpretans. Censorship.
Authoritarianism.
32
Tr a n s l a t i o n – h i s t o r i c i t y – i n t e r p r e t a t i v e p a r a l l e l s
CO NTAC T D ETAI L S:
Prof. PhDr. Katarína Bednárová, PhD.
Faculty of Arts
Department of Romance Studies
Comenius University in Bratislava
Gondova 2
811 02 Bratislava 1
Slovak Republic
katarina.bednarova@uniba.sk
&
Institute of World Literature SAS
Dúbravská cesta 9
841 04 Bratislava
Slovak Republic
katarina.bednarova@savba.sk
ORCID: 0000-0001-9245-8841
33
II . O N H I S TOR I CA L JU S T I CE
I N TR AN SL ATI ON S TU D I ES
DIS COV E RI NG ER AS E D DIS C U S S IO N
O N TR AN S LAT ION M ET HO D IN U K R AIN E
I N 1927–1931
O lek s a n dr Ka lnyc h e nko
In t ro du ct i o n
The period of the late 1920s – early 1930s in Ukraine was characterized by rapid
development in the field of translation. It was the time when hundreds of translations
were made from dozens of languages, both living and dead. Many talented Ukrainian
writers engaged in translation, and multi-volume editions of translated works began
to appear (Heinrich Heine, Jack London, Guy de Maupassant, Anatole France, Nikolai
Gogol1, Anton Chekhov, etc.) (e.g., Kalnychenko and Kolomiyets 2022).
These years also saw the rise of Ukrainian translation thought as a scholarly and
academic discipline, which covered translation history, translation theory, criticism,
and didactics (Shmiher 2009). This is evidenced by
1)
2)
3)
4)
1
numerous theoretical essays on translation (see, for example, Kalnychenko and
Poliakova 2011) and numerous reviews of translated books, which appeared
monthly in Zhyttia i Revoliutsiia, Chervonyi Shliakh, Krytyka, and other journals
(for instance, Volodymyr Derzhavyn alone published about forty reviews of
translated literature in 1927–1931 (Kalnychenko and Poliakova 2015);
the foundation of the Ukrainian Institute of Linguistic Education in Kyiv with
a branch in Kharkiv on 31 May, 1930, for training highly qualified translators of
scientific, technical and fiction literature at the university level (Protokoly 1930;
Kolomiyets 2021; Kalnychenko and Kamovnikova 2020) and by the theoretical
courses on general methodology of translation and on special methodology of
translation delivered there in 1930–1933 by Mykhailo Kalynovych (1932) and
Mykola Zerov (1932) (Dzhuhastrianska and Strikha 2015; Kolomiyets 2021);
the publication of the first monograph on translation in Eastern Europe. It was
entitled “Theory and Practice of Translation” and published in Ukrainian by
Oleksander Finkel in Kharkiv in 1929. The monograph moved translation theory
beyond the realm of literature;
coining of the term perekladoznavstvo (lit.: “translation studies”) by Kalynovych
and Zerov in their syllabi and their classification of translation studies as well as
the recognition of “the history of translation studies” as a separate discipline
(Kolomiyets 2020; Kolomiyets 2021; Shmiher 2021, 11). Furthermore, Serhiy
Dlozhevsky (Dlozhevsky 1929, 31) articulated the object of translation studies
stating that it “embodies the essence of deviations in a translation from the
Ukrainian Mykola Hohol’.
36
D i s c o v e r i n g e r a s e d d i s c u s s i o n o n t r a n s l a t i o n m e t h o d i n U k r a i n e i n 19 2 7 – 19 31
original that are motivated by differences in the language, culture, or the
translator’s subjective perception” (Shmiher 2021, 10).
The appearance of Ukraine’s first purely theoretical works about translation was
noticed by Hryhoriy Maifet at the beginning of 1928:
The first step in this direction has already been made: I mean the article by
V. Derzhavyn (#9–10 Pluzhanyn, 1927) entitled “e problem of verse translation”
and his report (24 November 1927) at the plenary meeting of the Kharkiv
literature department. The erudition and experience in scholarly work of the
above-mentioned researcher allows us to hope for valuable effects; the published
writings prove this best. The strictness of V. Derzhavyn’s requirements to
a translator is very symptomatic of the upsurge of a great deal of interest in
Ukrainian translation as well as in the quality of the translation itself. (85)2
The publication of the first works on translation theory in Ukraine was also
acknowledged by Zerov in his essay “U spravi virshovanoho perekladu. Notatky” [On
the case of verse translation. Notes]:
A good sign for the future is that alongside practical work in the field of translated
poetry we also have a theoretical interest in its problems. There are three articles
relevant to this: “The problem of verse translation” by V.M. Derzhavyn, “An
initiative” by Iuriy Savchenko (Pluzhanyn monthly, 1927, # 9–10, P. 44–50, 63–71)
and “From Notes on the Theory of Translation” by Hr. Maifet (Krytyka monthly,
1928, vol. 3, P. 84–93). Some of the reviews, which in one way or another have
touched on some theoretical issues (by V.M. Derzhavyn on Knyhospilka Publishers’
Pushkin, by О. Burghardt and by P.I. Tykhovskyi on Ulesko’s translation of Faust,
and some others), should also be included here. (1928, 133)
Among the distinctive features of the first fieen years of the Ukrainian translation
tradition development after 1917, Hryhoriy Kochur points out that “along with the
practice, the theory of translation was also developing – in quite a few essays and
reviews, first of all by M. Zerov, but also by S. Rodzevych, P. Fylypovych, who raised
many problems of translation” (1968, 94)3. In his review of the publication of
Oleksander Finkel’s works on translation, the patriarch of modern translation studies
in Ukraine Ilko Korunets states:
From today’s point of view, one can hold that I. Kulyk, M. Zerov with his realistic
views and demands with regard to poetic translation, and H. Maifet first stood at
the origins of Ukrainian translation studies, as well as, undoubtedly, V. Derzhavyn,
the most proficient and prolific reviewer of prosaic and poetic translations of the
time. (2008, 189)
2
3
Unless otherwise noted all translations from the Ukrainian or Russian languages are by the present author. He
deliberately quotes scholars from the 1920s extensively, retaining their terminology and style in his translation.
Note that most of the pioneers’ names could not be mentioned in the 1960s.
37
I I . O N H I S TO R I C A L J U S T I C E I N T R A N S L AT I O N S T U D I E S
Describing the Ukrainian translation thinking of the time as “quite variegated” in
his preface to the selected collection of Finkel’s works on translation, Vitalii Radchuk
concludes that “theoretical foundations of translation methodology and criticism were
the topic of the day,” because one had to have a “practical theory” (2007, 30).
Seventeen years ago, Taras Shmiher (2005) in his paper on Derzhavyn pointed
the underappreciation of the theoretical legacy of Derzhavyn, Zerov, Maifet and Finkel
and their attempts to develop an integral and systematic approach to translation on
the basis of critical reviews of the time. Since then, the situation has changed to
a certain degree. Today, Ukrainian scholars are familiar with these works thanks to
the recent reprints. Thus, it can be stated that a significant part of the theoretical
heritage of Ukrainian translation scholars of the 1920s – early 1930s has been collected
and returned to the domestic scholarship, although the task of its presentation to the
international audience still remains.
Vo l o dy my r De r zh a vy n on h o mo l o go u s (o r s t y l i zi ng )
an d a n a l og o us t ra n sl at i o n
e discussion concerning the method in literary translation and –, in particular, in
translation of verse, – began with the article “Problema virshovanoho perekladu” [e
problem of verse translation] by Derzhavyn (1899–1964) published in Ukrainian in the
Kharkiv monthly Pluzhanyn (1927).4 is was, as a matter of fact, the first purely
theoretical Ukrainian article on translation. e article caused a heated debate, which to
a considerable degree shaped the Ukrainian theory of translation. e participants of
the discussion also included Maifet from Poltava, Zerov from Kyiv, Finkel from Kharkiv,
and, to a lesser extent, Andrei Fedorov from Leningrad, Dmitrii Usov from Moscow,
Yurii Savchenko from Kharkiv, and Dmytro Rudyk from Kyiv. As Anthony Pym noted
(2016, 40), this article by Derzhavyn was a response to the Russian article “Problema
stihotvornogo perevoda” by the young Fedorov (translated into English as “e Problem
of Verse Translation,” published a little earlier in the same year ([1927], 74). Pym also
remarked that Derzhavyn’s “text generally argues for a more foreignizing approach than
one might gather from Fedorov” (2016, 40). In his article, Derzhavyn not only advocated
stylizing translation or stylization-translation (pereklad-stylizatsiya), but also associated
the functions of language with the types and purposes of translation.
The idea that translation methods (technique, strategies) depend on the text-type
and the purpose of translation were already contained in the embryonic form in
Fedorov’s article, although it traces its origins back to Friedrich Schleiermacher
([1813] 2002). The idea that the method of translating is a correlate of the text-type is
regularly attributed to the German translation scholar Katharina Reiss (Reiss ([1971]
2000, 24–47; Reiss and Vermeer 2014, 155–190).5 However, this idea was obviously
4
5
In 1927, Derzhavyn became a member of the Research Department of Literary Studies chaired by
Oleksander Biletskyi at the Kharkiv Institute of Public Education (the name of Kharkiv University in
1921–1930) after writing a work The Problems of Literary Translation. No traces of this manuscript have
been found so far, but the article “The Problem of Verse Translation” in the monthly Pluzhanyn probably
contained its main points.
Reiss based this idea on the findings of the German psychologist Karl Bühler (1934, English 1990). His
reputed Organon model of the communicative act defined three language functions (the representation
38
D i s c o v e r i n g e r a s e d d i s c u s s i o n o n t r a n s l a t i o n m e t h o d i n U k r a i n e i n 19 2 7 – 19 31
expressed much earlier by Derzhavyn, who highlighted the phenomenon of artistic
(literary) translation:
A natural language simultaneously performs – in every case to a variable extent,
though – three functions: communicative, cognitive, and artistic, which lend
themselves to translation to a varying degree... This means that there are three
types of translation: account6-translation (pereklad-vyklad), transcriptiontranslation (pereklad-transkriptsiya) (not used separately), and stylizationtranslation (pereklad-stylizatsiya),7 with only the latter being artistic to one degree
or another, although it almost never exists in a pure form... (Derzhavyn 1927,
44–45; Kalnychenko and Poliakova 2015, 50)
Reflecting upon the artistic function of a word, Derzhavyn maintains that it
should only be sought in its external and internal form, as did Oleksander Potebnia,8
and that
the artistic function of language is manifested only in its sound structure,
morphology, syntax, and lexis (to be understood historically, in relation to its
etymology); and literary translation is an artistic translation in as much as it
recreates these particular aspects of the work. The only question lies in the ways
by which the conveyance of the external and internal forms of language is at all
achievable. (Qtd. in Kalnychenko and Poliakova 2015, 52)
Derzhavyn immediately exacerbates the problem of the “artistry” of translation
to the extreme, as he poses the questions on the most difficult aspect – the translation
of poetry. He speaks about the transfer of metre, syntax (rhythmic and syntactic
figures), poetic vocabulary, and the sonority of the original (rhymes and verbal
instrumentation) and links them to the question of “artistic” translation in general:
there is no principal difference whatsoever between the problem of poetic
translation and that of artistic translation. The fact of a poetic metre as such does
not create a specific language; it only compels the translator to perceive more
vividly all features of poetic idiom possible in literary prose as well... so, basically,
everything written below about poetic translation will deal with literary translation
as a whole (with the exception of purely metrical issues). (Kalnychenko and
Poliakova 2015, 49)
6
7
8
function – Darstellungsfunktion, the expressive function – Ausdrucksfunktion, and the conative function –
Appellfunktion, i.e., appealing function). Hence it distinguished between three basic text-types: a) informative
(content-focused type); b) expressive (form-focused type); and c) operative (appeal-focused type), representing the persuasive function of language and assuming an extralinguistic outcome.
Content rendering
In his later works of the period, Derzhavyn called “foreignness”-oriented translations as “homologous” or
“stylizing translations” and “nativeness”-oriented translations as “analogous” (Derzhavyn 1930c).
The external form is the sound form of a sign. The internal form is a fragment of meaning immediately
represented in the external form (Potebnia 1895/1993).
39
I I . O N H I S TO R I C A L J U S T I C E I N T R A N S L AT I O N S T U D I E S
Derzhavyn sees artistic translation as the kind of translation “that seeks to convey
the artistic value of the original (rather than its ideological or psychological message),
as well as the contemporary literary era permeating the original” and defines it as
a “stylization-translation” (“pereklad-stylizatsiya”) (Kalnychenko and Poliakova 2015,
58). Having addressed the individual features of the poetic text (phonetics, grammar,
and vocabulary) and the ways in which they can be reproduced within another
language, Derzhavyn, argues that
it is necessary, first of all, to admit that literary translation (stylization- translation)
should be, if possible, a literal one – not in the sense that every word of the source
text should be translated separately, but in the sense that the artistic value of every
sentence, word, grammatical or phonetic structure of the source, should, if possible,
be embodied in the style of translation. Such a translation would be viewed by many
as an extremely “exotic” one if not on the edge of a parody; even so, it always
depends upon the translator’s stylistic tactfulness whether to retain the distinction
between a parody and stylization or not; in any case, even a parody renders the
artistic originality of the source better than flat literary clichés. As for the “exotic,”
as a matter of course, an adequate translation of an exotic text (and we call “exotic”
anything that in general terms is foreign to our own cultural consciousness) cannot
escape stylistic exoticism. (Kalnychenko and Poliakova 2015, 57)
In the same work, Derzhavyn also lists the functions of literary translation:
Translations of works of art are generally made with an aim to: 1) acquaint the
readers with the content of foreign literature, which includes countless
translations of bélles-léttres thrown into the book market every year without any
claims to artistic value whatsoever; 2) develop and enrich one’s native literary
language, in which case the content of the translated work becomes an object of
literary imitation and, so to say, a pretext for the realization of the artistic
potential of one’s mother tongue; this is a very important and culturally valuable
kind of literary and language work, which, in fact, is not a translation per se, since
it implies that the artistic aspect of the original is not recreated, but, on the
contrary, is consistently replaced by another one – totally different!; 3) provide
artistic translation in a narrow sense of the word, stylization-translation, which
occurs comparatively rarely and requires a high level of literary and language
competence from both the translator and the reader...Verse translation, which by
definition is focused on the artistic aspect of the work, cannot be anything else
but stylization: otherwise, it is no longer a translation, and can only be regarded
as an independent poetic work. (Derzhavyn 1927, 47; Kalnychenko and Poliakova
2015, 57–58)
As we can see, Derzhavyn does not consider the second group of texts, i.e.,
imitation, as translations at all.
In another work, Derzhavyn explains that stylization-translation (or homologous
translation) applies only to classical works:
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D i s c o v e r i n g e r a s e d d i s c u s s i o n o n t r a n s l a t i o n m e t h o d i n U k r a i n e i n 19 2 7 – 19 31
adequate reproduction... of the representative and historical specific weight of
a classical work, which alone serves as an objective criterion of belonging of
a certain literary work to the “classics of world literature,” requires, understandably,
a genuine artistic translation, not an ‘informational and thematic one’; this latter
is tolerable (not to say, desirable) in terms of their topical theme for our time, but
devoid of a great artistic and social and historical representative weight (such as
Remarque’s Im Westen nichts Neues [All quiet on the western front] and other
examples of German pacifist “war novel” trendy nowadays). (1930a, 161)
In this essay, Derzhavyn emphasizes the particular importance of reproducing
the artistic style in translations from the “classics of world literature,” which are mostly
devoid of actual purely ideological significance for the broad circles of modern
readers. He argues that an accurate and adequate reproduction of the stylistic aspect
of the original is a mandatory prerequisite for an appropriate translation of any
classical piece of foreign literature, while works of secondary artistic value, but “more
modern,” may acquire a certain relevance for the mass reader by their purely
ideological features beyond their artistic traits, and in this case, they need less stylistic
adequacy of translation (161).
Derzhavyn championed homologous translation in several other essays on
translation theory and practice, as well as in numerous reviews. Thus, in his review of
the Ukrainian translation of Volume 1 of Gogol’s Works (Volume 1. Vechory na khutori
pid Dykankoyu [Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka])9 Derzhavyn emphasized that
a truly artistic translation can only be a stylizing one, that is, a translation that
seeks to convey not only the content of the work – even if in all the finest subtlety –
but also the stylistic aspect, e.g., the artistic peculiarities of the language. For this
purpose, the translator has a right to depart from the “correct” literary language –
the generally accepted norm – and, whenever he can, use less standard stylistic
variants, including archaic ones. (Derzhavyn 1929b, 218–219; Kalnychenko and
Poliakova 2011, 205)
When Derzhavyn speaks of stylization-translation, he makes an emphasis on the
orientation towards “foreignness” and strongly relates this orientation to the aesthetic
value of translation. In his review of Iskusstvo perevoda [The art of translation] by
Chukovskii and Fedorov, Zerov noted that Derzhavyn spoke about stylizationtranslation to emphasize the orientation towards “foreignness,” linking this orientation
to the artistic value of the translation:
A translation work can take one form or another depending on the translator’s
stylistic orientation: for instance, the translator can modernize the original or
archaize it; in search of more natural equivalents in his mother tongue, he can
depart from the original so far as to give it an absolutely different national
colouring; or, on the contrary, by sticking to specific features of the foreign
9
Under the general editorship of Ivan Lakyza and Pavlo Fylypovych and under the stylistic editorship of
Andriy Nikovskyi.
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I I . O N H I S TO R I C A L J U S T I C E I N T R A N S L AT I O N S T U D I E S
language the translator can “barbarize” the translation – both in terms of
vocabulary and syntax. Talking about “foreignness”-oriented translations
and “nativeness”-oriented translations, Andrei Fedorov makes a reference to
V. Derzhavyn’s article in Pluzhanyn (1927, issue 9) as well as to his classification
of translations (analogous and homologous). ([1930] 2002, 766)
In his turn, Andrei Fedorov states: “In his Ukrainian article ‘The Problem of Verse
Translation’, V.N. Derzhavyn... establishes only two methods of translation, which he
calls the analogous type (focus on the native language) and the (h)omologous type
(focus on foreignness)” (Chukovskii and Fedorov 1930, 232). However, according to
Finkel’s remark, Fedorov was inaccurate in indicating the source of the terms:
There has been a slight misunderstanding: these terms do not appear in the
mentioned article by Derzhavyn; as far as we know, they were used in an
unpublished article, with which Fedorov had an opportunity to familiarize
himself in manuscript, like us. But since these terms have been made public by
A.V. Fedorov with the indication of their author, we consider it possible to use
them in the future. (Finkel [1939] 2007c, 244)
While generally praising Fedorov’s first works, Derzhavyn criticised him for
advocating analogous translation in poetry:
“Sound in Poetry Translation (Questions of Methodology and Phonetics)” by
Andrei Fedorov (45–69) develops the principles expressed by the author in his
previous essay “The Problem of Verse Translation” (Poetika II., 1927). Denying
the possibility of adequate reproduction of both the metre and the euphony of
the poem, the author suggests the functionally adequate (“analogous” in our
terminology) reproduction of the sound form, and, as an exception, the exact
reproduction of it, but in another semantic function (what we call “homologous”
translation, or stylization, cf. “The Problem of Verse Translation” (Pluzhanyn,
1927, no. 9–10). The author’s train of thought is immaculate, and the cases of
complete euphonic reproduction of the original in translation, which he has
collected and cited in his classification, are in many ways exemplary. However,
we cannot agree with his relatively high artistic appraisal of functionally adequate
translation (in our opinion, it blurs the fundamental distinction between artistic
translation and literary imitation) and with the fact that the author deals with the
reproduction of euphony in separate verses, whereas it is not separate verses that
should be reproduced, but the entire style. (Derzhavyn 1928b, 98)
In his review of Fedorov’s chapter “Techniques and objectives of literary
translation” in the book The Art of Translation co-authored by Chukovskii and
Fedorov, Derzhavyn appreciates it as “a quite competent attempt at a systematic
in-depth analysis of the main issues of the theory and technique of artistic translation,”
which has analogues “neither in Russian, nor in Ukrainian scientific literature” and
which “due to the theoretical consistency, erudition, and technical competence of the
author deserves close attention on the part of every Soviet translator and critic.” The
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D i s c o v e r i n g e r a s e d d i s c u s s i o n o n t r a n s l a t i o n m e t h o d i n U k r a i n e i n 19 2 7 – 19 31
Ukrainian scholar notes that Fedorov “distinguishes between three main types, or
tendencies, of artistic translation: the ‘focus on the mother tongue,’ the ‘focus on the
foreign language,’ and the ‘focus on the alignment’ ‘smoothing out’ specific
national-linguistic features” (Derzhavyn 1930b; qtd. in Kalnychenko and Poliakova
2015, 191). Further Derzhavyn expresses his disagreement:
As the author himself [Fedorov] rightly states, the first of these three types of
artistic translation corresponds to what we [Derzhavyn] call “analogous”
translation, and the second one that we call “homologous” translation or
“stylization” ... There is some doubt regarding the third type of artistic translation:
it definitely exists as a type, but is it really a type of artistic translation rather than
a non-literary translation? In our view, the “smoothing out” of the specific features
of the original, without analogous and homologous reproduction, contradicts the
notion of literary translation in general. (192)
By the way, this opposition of the native language-centered strategy to the foreign
language-centered approach correlates to a certain extent with domesticating vs.
foreignizing strategies in Lawrence Venuti (1995).
According to Derzhavyn, there were translations, in which the principle of
stylization or homologous translation in Ukrainian was implemented systematically
and with significant artistic success. These were the first two volumes of Mykola
Hohol`s Works, published in 1929 and 1930 by Knyhospilka Co-operative Publishers10
(Derzhavyn, 1931).Other exemplary stylization-translations, in his opinion, were
Salammbô by Gustave Flaubert in Rylsky’s translation (Knyhospilka, 1930), Madame
Bovary by Flaubert in Oksana Bublyk-Hordon’s translation (Knyhospilka, 1930),
Carmen by Prosper Mérimée in Borys Tkachenko’s translation (GDU, 1930), and the
first volume by Anton Chekhov under the stylistic editorship of Rylsky (see reviews
in Kalnychenko and Poliakova 2015).
Hr y ho r ii Ma i fet
Derzhavyn’s report and his essay in Pluzhanyn were immediately responded to by
Maifet (1903–1974) (1928), whose writings (reprinted in 2015) “give the first key to
a full understanding of the discussion on stylization-translation and analogy-translation”
(Shmiher 2017, 7). In a detailed review of the work of the American researcher Karl
Scholz e Art of Translation (1918), Maifet compares the principles of translation
declared by Scholz, whom he links to the numerous proponents of analogous
translation, with Derzhavyn’s classification and principles. Maifet as a representative
of the formal method in Ukraine supports Derzhavyn. He writes:
V.M. Derzhavyn provides the following classification of translations: accounttranslation, transcription-translation (not used separately), and stylization10
The first volume was translated by A. Kharchenko, D. Revutsky, Maksym Rylsky, A. Nikovsky, M. Zerov,
S. Tytarenko (Derzhavyn 1929b); the second volume was translated by S. Vilkhovy, A. Marchenko,
M. Rylsky, A. Nikovsky (Derzhavyn 1931).
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I I . O N H I S TO R I C A L J U S T I C E I N T R A N S L AT I O N S T U D I E S
translation. This first type is also called analogous translation, and its principle
was expressed by Zhukovskii: “The translator must himself stand in the place of
the poet he translates, so that his translation has the same impression on
foreigners as the original produces on his countrymen.”11 Derzhavyn very aptly
questions if it really could be that Zhukovskii thought that his hexameter makes
the same impression on the Russian reader as Homer’s hexameter on the
Hellenes. (1928; quoted after Maifet 2017, 48)
In his review of Oleksander Finkel’s book, Maifet points out the significance of
Derzhavyn’s theory for Ukrainian translation and his increased requirements to the
quality of translations:
This theory is rooted in the author’s profound awareness of theoretical stylistics
issues: apart from the practical side of the issue, he formulated the concept
antithetical to the principles of translation-analogy... it is worth emphasizing the
weight that Derzhavyn’s theory has in the history of Ukrainian post-revolutionary
translation work: it is the weight of the extremely strict requirements to translation
(M. Zerov comes to the same conclusion...), which cannot in any way be
considered inappropriate: V. Derzhavyn appeared for the first time as a theorist
not with separate remarks concerning translation-specific errors (as we meet
them in the corresponding reviews) and not with the descriptions of different
aspects of translation theory (as we have in Oleksander Finkel’s article “On
translation” with its interesting clarification of the architectonics principle in
respect of the original and translation), but with an entire concept, which could
not but have theoretical weight. (1929, 65–66)
My ko l a Z erov
Zerov agrees with many of the points of both Derzhavyn’s article and Maifet’s article
in his essay “On the Case of Verse Translation. Notes” (1928), which echoes Derzhavyn’s
article in Pluzhanyn. Pointing out that these articles emerged rather under the
influence of Russian theoretical literature than in connection with Ukrainian literary
practice, Zerov emphasizes that both authors nonetheless borrow illustrations for their
ideas from contemporary Ukrainian translated poetry, “getting involved in the
discussion of its means, shortcomings and achievements” (134).
Despite the fact that Zerov thinks some of the illustrations insufficient: for
instance, he disagrees with Derzhavyn’s very high opinion of Faust in Mykola Ulezko’s
translation. However, he thinks Derzhavyn’s contribution “into our current work”
worthy of praise, stating that “the demanding severity of the requirements imposed
on our translators should not scare us: it also testifies to our maturity” (135). Zerov
agrees with the demand for a thorough understanding of the original, adding that “it
11
In Maifet’s article, the quote is given without citing the source, which we have not been able to find out.
Cf. a similar passage from Zhukovskii: “But the main duty of the translator, to which all others are subject,
is that they should try to produce the effect which the original produces everywhere in their translation”
(Zhukovskii 2012, 314).
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D i s c o v e r i n g e r a s e d d i s c u s s i o n o n t r a n s l a t i o n m e t h o d i n U k r a i n e i n 19 2 7 – 19 31
is not enough to understand the words themselves; one must feel the author’s
viewpoint through them, understand his stylistic orientation, know of the circumstances
in which this text was written and its place in the life and development of the author”
(136).
Zerov notes that the accuracy of translation “loses even the slightest clarity when
it comes to the translation of verse. Our literary critics are aware of this” (137). As an
example, he cites a quote from Savchenko’s article from the same monthly issue as
Derzhavyn’s article about translations from Pavlo Tychyna into Russian:
It would seem quite simple to formulate a definition of the principles of cultural
[artistic?] translation by saying: it is accuracy, equivalence (!) with the original,
but the very transfer by sounds and words of another language already suggests
that such accuracy cannot be perfect, and therefore we must talk only about
approximate accuracy in reproducing the various components of the artistic
construction, both substantive and formal. (137)
Anyone who has ever translated in verse, Zerov goes on to say, knows that
sameness (totozhnist’) is impossible even in translations from closely related
languages. Therefore, one usually speaks of the adequacy of translation when
meaning the maximum correspondence to the content and stylistic features of the
original. Derzhavyn is much more cautious when he writes that “[l]literary
translation is normally required to be “adequate” to the original, that is, to
correspond to its prominent stylistic features and reflect them in one way or
another” (138). Yet every translator of poetry faces two dangers, Zerov continues:
if one gives priority to content, one will not be able to convey the form in its entirety;
and a focus on rhythmic or euphonic features means writing a new piece of poetry.
There is only one solution: “do not talk about equivalence or even about the
complete accuracy of the verse translation, lest the translator is left to rendering
meticulously every detail of the original” (138). Based on this, Zerov states that he
would be afraid to take the position of Derzhavyn, who in his article “The Problem
of Verse Translation” writes that it is impossible to replicate the structure of a foreign
language, but quite possible to produce something similar by successfully combining
sound and grammatical material available in the native language. Therefore, Zerov
adds:
I believe that with such an attitude to the matter, the secondary tasks would
overshadow the main transfer of what is the core, the basis of the work. In my
opinion, it is around this core that the translator’s main efforts should be
concentrated. Secondary details can remain in the shadows, even remain
unreproduced. (138–139)
Zerov then proves with examples the need for greater flexibility in transferring
the “core” of the original work related to either its form or content:
When translating Hugo, one cannot get past his spectacular syntax, his brilliant
oratory; there cannot be an elementarily decent translation of Verlaine without
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maximum attention to his phonetic devices, and the translator of Verhaeren
would sign his own death warrant if he lost himself in the rich metaphoricity of
the poet’s French text. (141)
He suggests that we take a closer look at the desiderata expressed by literary
scholars in the works cited and suggests that “everyone concerned about the
development of our literary language should fully or partially accede to them” (141).
First of all, he recommends that translators “navigate our lexical reserves to the best
of their ability, distinguishing – to put it in an old-fashioned way – between the words
of “high and low styles” and avoiding their disorderly, anti-artistic mishmash” (141).
The second desire is “the translator’s fullest attention to the so-called tropes and
figures of the original (metaphor, metonymy, paraphrases, and antonomasia)” (143).
Yet, speaking of Derzhavyn’s requirement to preservation of all tropes and semantic
figures, no matter how strange they might appear to contemporary readers, Zerov
suspected the theorist would reconsider “if he were a practical translator, interested
in his work being understood and well received by the reader” (143).
The third desire concerns the transfer of the original’s metrical features: “the
choice of verse metre should not be arbitrary and accidental, it should take into
account our rhythmic flair, always seeking, however, to extend its limits” (145). The
fourth is that the translator should not neglect the euphony of the original work and
that this applies both to the so-called sound patterns (alliteration, assonance) and to
rhyming, which in this case plays the most important role (145). Here he fully agrees
with Derzhavyn’s article. In the fifth recommendation, Zerov diverges from
Derzhavyn, believing that “the beauty (and hence the naturalness and fluency) of the
native language cannot be inferior to anything” (146).
It is noteworthy that in the syllabus for his 1932/33 lecture course “Special
Methodology of Translation” prepared for the Ukrainian Institute of Linguistic
Education,12 Zerov recommended the term svoiemovnist (lit.: own-language-oriented)
(1932). He introduced this term to denote the translator’s orientation towards the
target language. His syllabus also speaks of chuzhomovnist (lit.: foreign-languageoriented) used “to denote the translator’s focus on the features of the original work,
that is, it introduces organically national terminology instead of ‘analogous’ and
‘homologous’ translation” (Kolomiyets 2020, 143).
Although Zerov’s other articles on the method of translation are outside the
timeframe of the discussion and became known later, they clearly testify to his
position. For example, in his 1934 article “Bryusov as a translator of Latin poets”
published by Kochur in 1968 in Masterstvo perevoda, 1966 (1968), Zerov speaks
approvingly of Valery Bryusov’s unfinished translation of Virgil’s Aeneid13 and his
theoretical principles in general. Zerov mentions their “sharp protest against
12
13
The typewritten text of the syllabus remained unknown until Lada Kolomiyets found and identified it in
the Archives of the Literary Museum of Hryhoriy Kochur in the city of Irpin (Kyiv Oblast) and made it
public in 2021 (Kolomiyets 2021).
“Bryusov’s own achievements in his rendering of the Aeneid are indisputable and great, even if judged by
the rigour of his own requirements,” “with great success he has satisfied the often-incompatible demands
of ‘accurate’ rendering of ‘content’ and sound ‘form’” (quoted as in Zerov 2002, 1031).
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D i s c o v e r i n g e r a s e d d i s c u s s i o n o n t r a n s l a t i o n m e t h o d i n U k r a i n e i n 19 2 7 – 19 31
mitigating the features of the original that look strange in the translation language
environment” which indicated “a shift in his theoretical views of translation”
(1030–1031).
Thus, Zerov’s realism lies in the fact that translation cannot be exclusively
foreign-language-focused. Translation cannot be purely homologous; analogous and
homologous translations are only theoretical constructs for marking the extremes.
Ivan Ku l y k
Kulуk held the exact opposite view to Derzhavyn. He declared his ideas in his foreword
to “The Anthology of American Poetry. 1855–1925” published in 1928, the same year
when Maifet and Zerov published their articles (Kulyk 1928; qtd. in Kalnychenko and
Poliakova 2011, 483–486). The anthology itself received mostly favourable reviews
(by Oswald Burghardt, Derzhavyn, Oleksander Biletskyi). “I want to make a special
mention of ‘The Anthology of Modern American Poetry’ compiled and translated by
I. Kulyk, a book that will be of a special interest to the Russian reader who does not
have a similar publication in Russian,” wrote Biletskyi in his survey of Ukrainian
translated literature for the Russian readership (Beletskii, 1929, 91).
As a responsible Bolshevik party official (at that time, he was Deputy Commissioner
of the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the USSR to the government
of Ukraine), Kulyk did not engage in any heated discussions of the method of
translation, and the preface, apparently, did not imply any discussion. Finkel compares
Kulyk’s views to the Romanticist approach and describes them as a new “principled
interpretation of the tasks and duties of a modern translator” ([1929a] 2007a, 65). He
also quotes Kulyk’s statements on the method of translation in his “Theory and
Practice of Translation”:
we could not, even willingly, remain mechanically impartial when translating. By
accepting the originals in a certain way, in accordance with our world view, in the
process of translation we involuntarily emphasise certain ideological points in
them, not deliberately and thoughtfully, but rather the way we feel them. For
a translator who belongs to a different class category would probably emphasize
other aspects and properties of the original than we do. Besides, we have
sometimes made deliberate attempts to adapt translations to the understanding
and perception of them by the audience for which the book is intended. We had
in mind that we were translating for a Ukrainian reader, a modern Soviet one at
that [Soviet one is emphasised only by Finkel]. This forced us to make some
deliberate changes in our translations compared to the originals. One cannot
write in absolutely the same way for the American and Ukrainian readers,
because these readers have different psychology and different interests in the
perception of works of art, caused by the prevalence of different economic
systems and the influence of different, opposite political factors and social
systems. (Kulyk 1928, 36–37; Finkel [1929a] 2007a, 65–66)
Kulyk refers to the dialogue Paradoxe sur le comédien by Denis Diderot, who said
that “qui sait rendre parfaitement une scène de Shakespeare ne connaît pas le premier
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accent de la déclamation d’une scène de Racine”14 (Diderot 1773, 4) and that “qu’en
tout ouvrage... il y a deux sens distingués, tous les deux renfermés sous les mêmes
signes, l’un à Londres, l’autre à Paris”15 (Diderot 1773, 4–5). He concludes by drawing
an analogy:
Similarly, poems by American poets, accurately translated, would have one
meaning in New York and another in Kharkiv... e same work cannot be
translated in exactly the same way in different eras. For the change of the historical
epoch has brought about many changes to the character of language and individual
expressions, as well as to the disposition to perceive and feel works of art. is is
why, bearing in mind not the ethnographic but the social and artistic (and partly
political) significance of the translation, we sometimes indulge in changing the
metre of the original, its rhythm (for example, introducing elements of free verse
into metre, etc.), and sometimes even replacing the images of the original with
similar ones, yet with others, more understandable to our contemporary reader.
(Kulyk 1928, 36–37; Kalnychenko and Poliakova 2011, 486)
As for the changes in metre and rhythm, Kulyk was opposed by Derzhavyn in his
review of the anthology: “No one will deny the fact that in a translation intended for
a wide readership it is often necessary to modify the images of the original; but what
serious considerations (except the impermissible facilitation of the translator’s labour)
can demand changing metre and rhythm – in particular ‘to introduce elements of free
verse to meter’ – this we are unable to decipher” (1928a; qtd. in Kalnychenko and
Poliakova 2015, 88).
Derzhavyn disagreed with the widespread belief that a literary translation should
be such that the reader would perceive it as an original work. He explained his
disagreement with Kulyk by the fact that “more or less consistent implementation of
this principle will often lead to the loss of specific features of the original and excessive
‘hyper-Ukrainianization’ of the whole style despite the foreign social and culturalhistorical themes of the work” (Derzhavyn 1931, 220; qtd. in Kalnychenko and
Poliakova 2015, 261). Derzhavyn makes his position clear in his review of Kulyk’s
translation of P.G. Wodehouse’s Psmith, Journalist16 (1929a).
Obviously, the stylistic aspect of such a work cannot be adequately reproduced
in translation; the translator is left with one of two options – either to omit the
linguistic exoticism, or to reproduce it conditionally. I.Yu. Kulyk decided to take
the second path in this case; he consistently transfers all vulgarisms and idioms
of the American colloquial language with corresponding (in terms of meaning)
14
15
16
An actor who knows how to render a Shakespearean scene perfectly does not know the first accent of
a scene from Racine.
In each work... there are two different meanings, both enclosed under the same signs – one in London, the
other in Paris.
The humour of Wodehouse's novel appears in stylistic comicality, in comic language and phraseology,
which is achieved by a constant collision of literary language and “bookish” manner of speaking with the
New York street jargon, very “colourful” and exotic enough for the average English reader.
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Ukrainian vulgarisms, even those which he himself finds necessary to put in
inverted commas... This also applies to various more or less sassy phraseological
utterances, exclamations and interjections, hackneyed comparisons, and swear
words. By unearthing appropriate Ukrainian non-literary or semi-literary
sayings, roughly adequate in meaning to the American ones, the translator has
demonstrated not only an excellent command of both languages, but also
a masterly capacity for linguistic diversity... From their direct impression, the
reader would probably think they were dealing with an original Ukrainian novel
about the New York life by a knowledgeable novelist. It is very possible that the
translator intended to create just such an impression. Basically, we think that this
approach to literary translation is erroneous: trying to reproduce the specific
stylistic features of the original, which – in fact – cannot be reproduced (the
comic “local flavour” in the language), it leads in practice to stylistic grotesque,
to the notorious mixture of “French with Nizhnyi Novhorod idiom,” and in this
case – to the implausible use of specifically Ukrainian folk expressions by AngloAmerican gentlemen. (Derzhavyn, 1929a; qtd. in Kalnychenko and Poliakova
2015, 151–152)
Finkel expressed doubts that Kulyk’s principles would be able to cater to the
proletarian poetry. He noted that “it contradicts the skills and principles of the
nineteenth century,” that it “opens up the unlimited space to the arbitrariness of
translators and the reduction of the translation to a series of paraphrases and
rehashes,” and that “from the standpoint of the original “the best paraphrase is always
worse than the worst translation” ([1929] 2007a, 66). Much more interesting, according
to Finkel, are Kulyk’s arguments in favour of adapting works to a different audience.
“It may be that Kulyk is on the right track, but it may also be that the essential way
would be the way of careful selecting of foreign literature pieces and refusing to
translate the unacceptable ones” (66).
O lek sa n d(e )r F in ke l 17
While Derzhavyn and Maifet spoke in support of homologous (stylizing) translation,
analogous translation was backed by Oleksander Finkel in his book “The Theory and
Practice of Translation” published in Kharkiv (1929a)18.
e first theoretical chapter of this book outlines the importance of translation in its
cultural, historical, and literary aspects. It analyses the stylistic aspect of the translation
problematics and the historical approaches to resolving it. It addresses the translation
theories of Classicism and Romanticism to demonstrate that the key theoretical issues of
translation are no abstractions, as they have been connected to the development of
17
18
Finkel’s name is often transcribed from Russian (Александр Моисеевич Финкель) as Aleksandr Finkel.
(In the 1920s, his Ukrainian name was written as Олександер – Oleksander).
The book was reprinted in 2007 in the collection of Finkel’s most important works on translation O. M.
Finkel – zabutyi teoretyk ukrayinskoho perekladoznavstva: zbirka vybranych prats [Oleksandr Finkel, the
forgotten theoretician of Ukrainian translation studies: collection of selected works]) (Chernovatyi et al.
2007).
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philosophy and philology throughout centuries. For literary translation studies, in
Kolomiyets’ opinion, Finkel’s concept of the dependence of translation method on the
general poetic worldview of a certain literary school, in particular, the worldview of the
Classicism and Romanticism schools, is especially valuable (2010, 151). He contributes
to Batyushkov’s reasoning about the dependence of the theory of translation on the
historical and cultural location of the translator in relation to the source text (Batyushkov
1920), that in addition to the relationship between the cultural levels of the languages –
the source language and the target language – the nature of the latter also depends to
a large extent on the literary views of the time (Finkel [1929a] 2007a, 63).
For example, the age of Classicism is “a period of dominance of normative
poetics, when absolute artistic values, immortal unsurpassed examples are believed
in. In comparison with them, works taken for translation are of various degrees of
perfection; depending on that degree, the translator is allowed to correct their
imperfections and thus raise them to a higher artistic level” (Zerov 1929, 193; qtd. in
Zerov 2002, 680). This is the way Zerov recounts the pages devoted to Classicism in
his review to this book by Finkel.
And when Сlassicism was replaced by Romanticism,
with a completely different general, aesthetic, and literary outlook, we see how
translators’ attitude towards their tasks immediately and completely changed. e
emancipation of individuality, the great interest in national literatures, the discovery
of new ways of creative writing – all these things bring new tasks for translators,
very different from the views of Classicism... Here there is no longer an ideal
to strive for and try to achieve. ere is a concrete work and a concrete author
whose individuality must be maintained, even with all his or her mistakes and
shortcomings. e principle of translation accuracy, the different interpretations
of the term, the definition of the limits of accuracy, the correlation of different
national languages and its consequences for the possibility and the quality of
translation are the issues which interested Romantic theorists very much and which
were either reconsidered or asked for the first time... Aer Romanticism, no new
principled attitudes have been put forward. (Finkel [1929a] 2007a, 63–64)
Starting with Tycho Mommsen’s classification of the division of translations into
“styleless” and “strict or style-oriented translations,” Finkel goes on to the “Humboldt
dilemma,” the “basic problem of all translation,” expressed by Wilhelm von Humboldt
in a letter to August Schlegel of 23 July 1796.19
19
„Alles Übersetzen scheint mir schlechterdings ein Versuch zur Auflösung einer unmöglichen Aufgabe.
Denn jeder Übersetzer muß immer an einer der beiden Klippen scheitern, sich entweder auf Kosten des
Geschmacks und der Sprache seiner Nation zu genau an sein Original oder auf Kosten seines Originals zu
sehr an die Eigentümlichkeit seiner Nation zu halten. Das Mittel hierzwischen ist nicht bloß schwer,
sondern geradezu unmöglich.“ (Wilhelm von Humboldt in einem Brief an August Wilhelm von
SCHLEGEL. Zitiert nach Werner Koller 1992: Einführung in die Übersetzungswissenschaft. Heidelberg/
Wiesbaden: Quelle und Meyer. Veraltete Rechtschreibung im Original) Finkel translated it into Ukrainian
and then, later, into Russian. The translation of the quotation from Humboldt’s letter into Russian is often
mistakenly attributed to A.V. Fedorov (see, e.g., Lysenkova and Tchaikovsky, 2017), although it belongs to
О. Finkel and is cited in his 1939 article (Finkel 1939, 237).
50
D i s c o v e r i n g e r a s e d d i s c u s s i o n o n t r a n s l a t i o n m e t h o d i n U k r a i n e i n 19 2 7 – 19 31
All translation seems to me simply an attempt to solve an impossible task. Every
translator is doomed to be done in by one of two stumbling blocks: he will either
stay too close to the original, at the cost of taste and the language of his nation,
or he will adhere too closely to the characteristics peculiar to his nation, at the
cost of the original. The medium between the two is not only difficult, but
downright impossible. (Blakesley 2014, 28; qtd. in Wilss, 1982, 35; Ukrainian
translation belongs to Finkel [1929a] 2007a, 68)
In Fedorov’s reformulation, “the translator is left either to use analogues on his
own linguistic ground or to create an alien, unusual verbal form – such are the two
devices possible to the translator” (Fedorov, 1927, 117; English 1974, 2820; emphasis
Finkel in [1929a] 2007a, 68). This is another formulation of the choice between
analogous and homologous translation. According to Finkel, the solution to this
dilemma is the most serious and fundamental problem of translation, around which
all debates and disagreements are centred. “As might be expected, opinions were
divided over any one member of this dilemma, that is, some scholars held the primacy
of alien stylistics, while others held the primacy of their own” (69). This is the answer
to the question that Finkel asks: why do different translation methods are used by the
same people in the same historical period. An excursion into the history of translation
theory allows Finkel to conclude:
We must admit that the views of Schleiermacher, Humboldt, and their supporters
did not prevail. Later on, we see either extreme pessimism – the impossibility of
translation at all – or a tendency to preserve the particularities of one’s language,
i.e., the target language, and target culture. Only occasionally do we see a return to
Humboldt’s principles. Something was tried in this direction by V. Bryusov....
V.N. Derzhavyn (page 44) approached this question from an exclusively theoretical
side, endeavouring to establish the confines of the translation artistry. (70)
However, as Finkel observes, the most common view is to preserve the characteristics
of one’s own language and culture, i.e., to use analogies. He asserts that sticking to the
primacy of one’s own style is a common feature of almost all nineteenth- and
twentieth-century translators.
It should be accentuated, however, that there is no complete opposition or mutual
incompatibility between these two principles. If the extreme view is that
“a literary translation should be, if possible, a literal one – not in the sense that
every word of the source text should be translated separately, but in the sense that
the artistic value of every sentence, word, grammatical or phonetic structure of
the source, should, if possible, be embodied in the style of translation. Such
a translation would be viewed by many as an extremely “exotic” one if not on the
edge of a parody; ... an adequate translation of an exotic text ... cannot escape
stylistic exoticism” (this is precisely the definition of stylization-translation), then
20
The translator of Fedorov’s work is not indicated.
51
I I . O N H I S TO R I C A L J U S T I C E I N T R A N S L AT I O N S T U D I E S
there is no complete opposite of this view. There is only a more moderate
position, according to which phenomena of a foreign culture and a different
language structure should be replaced by phenomena normal for the culture and
language of the translation. (72)
Regarding the concept of, to whom his book was dedicated, Finkel claims that
“the definition of literary translation as stylization-translation, which Derzhavyn
demands, rotates in a vicious circle” (73). He argues that
stylization is a phenomenon possible only within one national language: one may
use the Ukrainian language of the XX century to stylize the language of the XVII
century or use the means of one school of poetry to replace the means of another
(parody is also stylization). But there is no way to stylize the Ukrainian language
to make it sound not only like Chinese, but even like Russian or Polish: the result
of this will be a clumsy Russified or Polonized language. (73)
As it seemed to Finkel, this was the most powerful argument against homologous
translation. But Vitalii Radchuk has reservations about this statement: if so, “would
the style travel from one language to another?” (2007, 21). According to Finkel,
the disadvantage inherent in translation-stylization in the understanding of
Derzhavyn is
ignoring the subject matter of the piece and the socio-cultural significance of the
stylistic elements. The first requires from the translator more or less significant
stylistic sacrifices for its preservation, due to which full and unconditional
adequacy cannot be achieved in any way. The second – the socio-cultural side of
stylistic elements – is even more reflected in their reproduction in a foreign
language. ([1929a] 2007a, 73–74)
The first papers on Finkel’s views were the reviews of “Theory and Practice of
Translation.” Accordingly, Maifet writes about three dominants of the book. Firstly, it
goes about its practical aim, “the translator, after all, does not have to do individual
manipulations of the original, unfolded according to a certain schematic plan, but to
be aware of it as an artistic whole, accordingly (as a whole) rendering in translation.”
Secondly, he speaks about the distinct “emphasis on the stylistic moment which the
translation is meant to reflect,” and thirdly, that “the book has no original concept, but
only joins the theory of the so-called analogous translation, which has a large number
of supporters in its ranks” (1929, 249). Asserting this, the reviewer writes, “one cannot
but emphasize, firstly, the objectivity of the author, who is generally well aware of the
trends of translation thought and carefully informs the reader about them (in Chapter
IV of Part I); and secondly, the fact that this commitment is sufficiently (albeit tacitly)
motivated by the departure from the classicist translation theory with its ideal of
absolute beauty” (249). Maifet considers it necessary to add that “in adhering to the
principles of the analogous translation, the author does it moderately and critically,
taking due account of the moment of the so-called functionality of the author’s
poetics” (250). The third dominant of the book also motivates the rejection of the
52
D i s c o v e r i n g e r a s e d d i s c u s s i o n o n t r a n s l a t i o n m e t h o d i n U k r a i n e i n 19 2 7 – 19 31
theory of stylisation-translation, of which Derzhavyn is a representative in Ukraine.
Maifet also argues that
in practice both O. Finkel and V. Derzhavyn draw essentially the same
conclusion – that it is impossible to reproduce the original in its entirety and
that certain stylistic “losses” are inevitable (in each specific case), but
Derzhavyn’s work has the advantage of fundamentally substantiating these
sacrifices and offering a certain semantic gradation of such sacrifices and the
means of their compensation. (251)
A f ter di scu ss i o n
This debate on homologous or analogous translation, which began with the 1927
publications of Fedorov and Derzhavyn and ended with the last 1931 Derzhavyn’s
reviews, was essentially about the choice between two possibilities. This choice was to
be made between the orientation towards the original, with its language, its culture
and its stylistic features, or the orientation towards the readers, with their language,
their culture and their tastes because translation exists on the boundary of two
languages, two cultures, two literary traditions, and two poetics. The disagreements
concerned the method of translation, “the translator’s general orientation either
towards ‘analogous’ translation or towards ‘stylizing’ (homologous) one,” in Derzhavyn’s
terminology (Derzhavyn, 1930c; qtd. in Kalnychenko and Poliakova 2015, 183). In
modern terms, it was about the “initial norm” of translation: “a translator may subject
him-/herself either to the original text, with the norms it has realized, or to the norms
active in the target culture, or, in that section of it which would host the end product,“
i.e., basic orientation towards the norms of the source-language text (“adequate
translation”) or towards the norms of the target culture (“acceptability”) (Toury, 1980,
53ff.). These two possibilities were figuratively described as early as 1801 by Johann
Wolfgang von Goethe in his letter dated 29 May 1801 to Thomas Holcroft, the English
translator of his Hermann and Dorothea (qtd. in Kopelev 1973) and later on in his 1813
speech “Oration in Memory of Wieland, Our Noble Poet, Brother, and Friend”
(Goethe 2002, 222). They were also and elaborately dwelt upon in 1813 by Friedrich
Schleiermacher in his lecture “On the different methods of translating”: “Either the
translator leaves the author in peace, as much as possible, and moves the reader
towards him; or he leaves the reader in peace, as much as possible, and moves the
author towards him” (Schleiermacher 1992, 149 – English transl. by Lefevere).21 In the
1990s, the American translation theorist Lawrence Venuti called the translation
“bringing the original source to the reader” (“analogous” in Derzhavyn’s terminology)
a “domestication” and the translation “taking the reader back to the original source”
(“homologous” or “stylizing,” in Derzhavyn’s terminology) – a “foreignization” (57),
although Venuti’s notion of “domestication” is somewhat broader than stylization, i.e.,
following the form of the source material. According to Venuti, analyses of translations
21
Entweder der Uebersetzer läßt den Schriftsteller möglichst in Ruhe, und bewegt den Leser ihm entgegen;
oder er läßt den Leser möglichst in Ruhe, und bewegt den Schriftsteller ihm entgegen (Schleiermacher
2002, 74).
53
I I . O N H I S TO R I C A L J U S T I C E I N T R A N S L AT I O N S T U D I E S
and discourses on past translations show us alternative solutions and can offer equal
power relations in the dialogue of cultures. A foreignizing strategy can mark the
difference of a foreign-language text only if it allows for an opposing position to the
domestic, challenging the literary canon, professional standards, and ethical norms
in the target culture, leading to the borrowing of foreign-language cultural forms and
the development of heterogeneous dialects and sociolects (57). e choice to foreignize
or domesticate a foreign-language text, as Schleiermacher pointed out long ago, exists
only for translators of literary texts, as opposed to technical translators, and among
literary texts only for classical, significant, and canonical texts, as Derzhavyn argued
(1930a).
When the “new Soviet reader”-oriented approach, alien to Derzhavyn’s tastes,
began to prevail and when the ideologization of norms (Witt 2013) set off, he no
longer wrote articles on translation or reviews on translated books, being mainly
engaged in translation and editorial work in addition to lecturing and research. Finkel,
on the other hand, joined the campaign against “nationalism” in linguistics. Most of
those who in one way or another took part in the discussion on analogous and
homologous translation, which broke off with the last reviews of Derzhavyn in 1931,
were forced out of translation research by the circumstances that were by no means
connected with the nature of the translation.
For example, Maifet was arrested on December 5, 1934, by the Poltava department
of the NKVD and sentenced to ten years of labour camps. Zerov was dismissed from
the university at the end of 1934 and arrested at the Pushkino railway station near
Moscow on the night of April 27, 1935. On November 3, 1937, he was executed in the
forest tract Sandarmokh in Karelia together with Pavlo Fylypovych, Valerian
Pidmohylny, and many other representatives of the Ukrainian Executed Renaissance.
In 1934, Kulyk was elected to chair the newly created Ukrainian SSR Union of Writers,
but he was arrested in 1937 and sentenced to death by firing squad; on October 10,
1937, his sentence was carried out. Dmytro Rudyk was arrested in 1933 as a member
of the “Western Ukraine” Union of revolutionary writers. The next year, Savchenko
was arrested and exiled; his fate is unknown. Burghardt (Yuriy Klen), an ethnic
German who had previously been granted citizenship of the Weimar Republic, left for
Germany in 1932 after Rylskyi’s arrest in the late 1931. The works of these authors
were consigned to oblivion, with the exception of Rylskyi, who was released from
Lukyanivka prison a year later, and Finkel, who was not persecuted.
Today, as Schmiher points out, “the setting of translation extremes which determines
a particular translation strategy has established itself as one of the basic observations
in translation studies” (2017, 7). The terms for translation extremes designations
borrowed from the biological sciences –“homologous translation” and “analogous
translation” – are forgotten, just as the discussion itself. It was Finkel who casually
recalled the debates in 1939 (2007c, 244). An impressive testimony of this is the
chapter by Yosyp Bahmut “The issues of translation theory in Ukraine during the
Soviet period” (1957), in which only Finkel is mentioned in passing, but as an “obsolete”
researcher (Shmiher 2021, 17).
Another mention of this discussion appears in 1970 in an article by Iieremiia
Aizenshtok dedicated to the memory of Finkel, a friend of his youth. Aizenshtok
recalls those times and the friendly circle of young philologists: “We argued with each
54
D i s c o v e r i n g e r a s e d d i s c u s s i o n o n t r a n s l a t i o n m e t h o d i n U k r a i n e i n 19 2 7 – 19 31
other a lot, sometimes fiercely. Especially fierce were the disputes with V. Derzhavyn...
Particularly for Finkel, Derzhavyn was an invariable object of polemics in regards to
literary translation” (105). In the same article, Aizenshtok recalls the discussion about
analogous and homologous translation:
In the last months of 1927, there appeared an article by V. Derzhavyn, “The
Problem of Verse Translation,” which was an extreme expression of translation
formalism. The author of the article substantiated a “special” view of translation:
literary translation, in his opinion, can exist either as stylizing translation, or as
literal translation “not in the sense that every word of the source text should be
translated separately, but in the sense that the artistic value of every sentence,
word, grammatical or phonetic structure of the source, should, if possible, be
embodied in the style of translation.” I remember that these demands for “literal
translation” and “translation-stylization” caused not only furious indignation in
our circle, but also a flood of parodic frolics, for which A.M. Finkel was especially
inexhaustible. In line with the translation “principles” declared by Derzhavyn, he
made several “stylized” and “verbatim” translations (with maximal approximation
to the phonetic sounding of the original) of the poems by Maksym Rylskyi and
Pavlo Tychyna. (105–106)
Interestingly, the terms “homologous translation” and “analogous translation”
would be used by James S. Holmes, the founding father of modern Western translation
studies, who borrowed them, like Derzhavyn in his time, from biologists. By
“homologous translation” he understood a translation of a source-text feature that
seeks to preserve form at the expense of function; he used the term “analogous
translation” to define a translation that preserves the function rather than the form
(Holmes 1988, 85).
The discussion about homologous and analogous translation that was going on
in Ukraine in the late 1920s had also a certain resonance in Russia thanks to the
effective participation of Fedorov and Usov, who gave accounts of Ukrainian ideas on
translation in their writings. For instance, Usov corresponded with Derzhavyn and
gave a talk on the problem of literary translation as interpreted by Derzhavyn at the
State Academy of Arts Sciences in May, 1928. He also recommended Maifet and Finkel
for reading in his programme on the theory and practice translation course at the
Moscow Institute of New Languages (Usov 1934).
Co n cl u si o n
In the late 1920s and early 1930s, a significant number of Ukrainian scholars and
literati shifted their professional interests (often forcedly) to the field of translation as
translators, editors, authors of commentaries and prefaces, critics of translated works
and, finally, as translation theorists. Collectively, they elaborated a new vision of the
translator’s tasks and a philological understanding of translation as a special method
of text hermeneutics and stylistic analysis, which consisted in the orientation towards
the translated text and comparative linguistic issues. The outcome was the significant
improvement of the quality of translation. Parallel to this, an alternative approach to
55
I I . O N H I S TO R I C A L J U S T I C E I N T R A N S L AT I O N S T U D I E S
the method of translation was emerging in the predominantly Communist Party
environment. Rather than focusing on the source text, it was oriented towards the
mass Soviet readership and allowed for changes, omissions, and additions, especially
in relation to the so-called “class-injurious” literature. As Schleiermacher maintained,
the need for foreignizing translation develops only when knowledge of foreign
languages and interest in the values of other nations spread in the enlightened circles
([1813] 2002). It is indisputable that circumstances in the Soviet Ukraine in the early
1930s were different.
The emergence of philologically accurate (stylization, or homologous, foreign
language-oriented) translation approach was abruptly terminated in the early 1930s
in the wake of changes in national policy in the USSR and the abandonment of
indigenization (or Ukrainization)22 policy (Plokhy 2017, 248–249). Non-Russian
nationalism rather than Russian chauvinism was declared the main danger for the
USSR. This gave rise to the subsequent switch of the All-Union Communist Party
(Bolsheviks)23 to national Bolshevism as an ideology of Stalinism (the emerging cult
of personality, Russocentric traditions, and the development of a state-oriented
patriotic ideology reminiscent of tsarist “great power” (Branderberger and Dubrovskiy
1998) and brought about the resulting changes in language and translation policies as
well as the repression and extermination of many of its representatives. The regime
openly interfered not only with the selection of works to be translated but also with
the method of translation itself. Suspicion and hostility towards Ukrainian translation
arose in official circles, culminating in slanderous publications, in which translators
were accused of “nationalistic sabotage” (Kalnychenko and Kalnychenko 2020).
Accusing the translators of deliberate subversive and counter-revolutionary activity
caused a flood of re-translations and revisions (Kalnychenko and Zarubina 2017;
Kolomiyets 2019). Alongside the encouragement of translating from Russian as a relay
language, there arose the censorship policy of revising and rewriting previously
published translations to make them as close as possible to the Russian language
lexical and grammatical patterns (Kalnychenko and Kolomiyets 2022).
The discussion showed that there was a diversity of views on the method of
translation in the late 1920s. Derzhavyn and Maifet, supporters of homologous
translation, on the one hand, and Kulyk who defended the opinion that a translator
should focus on the reader, on the other hand, took extreme positions. Zerov’s position
could be characterized as realistic and centrist, closer to Derzhavyn’s and Maifet’s,
whereas Finkel’s centrist position is closer to Kulyk’s. The reviewed works of
Derzhavyn, Maifet, Zerov, Finkel, and Kulyk on the development of the method of
translation and the choice of orientation either towards the original language or the
language of translation are important documents of the era that testify to the high level
of development of Ukrainian translation. They remain relevant for those who are
interested in the issues of translation and translation studies.
22
23
Ukrainization was a series of policies pursued by the Communist Party of Ukraine to enhance the national
profile of the state and Party institutions and thus legitimize the Soviet rule in Ukrainian eyes.
The All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) was the name of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
(CPSU) in 1925–1952.
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perekladoznavstva” [An important document from the history of Ukrainian translation
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Brother, and Friend.” In Robinson, Douglas, Western Translation Theory from Herodotus
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Finkel – zabutyi teoretyk ukrainskoho perekladoznavstva [Oleksandr Finkel: The forgotten
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et al., eds. 2007. Oleksandr Finkel – zabutyi teoretyk ukrainskoho perekladoznavstva
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Kharkovskogo gosudarstvennogo pedagogicheskogo instituta inostrannykh yazykov1: 59–82.
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courses in ‘Translation theory and practice’ of the early 1930s]. Visnyk Kharkivskoho
58
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natsionalnoho universytetu imeni V.N. Karazina. Seriia “Inozemna filolohiia. Metodyka
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Kalnychenko, Oleksandr, and Yuliana Poliakova, eds. 2011. Ukraiins’ka perekladoznavcha
dumka 1920–pochatku 1930 rokiv: Khrestomatija [Ukrainian translation thinking of the
1920s-early 1930s: Anthology]. Vinnytsia: Nova Knyha.
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Essays and reviews of 1927–31]. Vinnytsia: Nova Knyha.
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translation]. Visnyk Kharkivskoho natsionalnoho universytetu imeni V.N. Karazina. 896:
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Kolomiyets, Lada. 2013. Ukraiinskyi khudozhniy pereklad ta perekladachi 1920–30–kh rokiv:
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dumka 1920–pochatku 1930 rokiv: Khrestomatija [Ukrainian translation thinking of the
1920s-early 1930s: Anthology], 483–486. Vinnytsia: Nova Knyha.
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kultur.
AB S TR ACT
The study deals with the theoretical discussion of the late 1920’s – early 1930’s about the choice
of a method for literary translation. Initiated by Volodymyr Derzhavyn in 1927, it was joined
by Hryhorii Maifet, Mykola Zerov, Oleksander Finkel, and Ivan Kulyk, whose views on the
issue are compared in this paper. The debate about homologous or analogous translation,
which lasted until 1931, was about choosing between two possibilities: focusing either on the
source text, with its language, culture, and stylistic features, or on the readership, with their
language, culture, and tastes. This discussion revealed a wide range of views on the translation
method. In the 1920s, a significant number of Ukrainian humanities scholars and literati
shifted their professional interests to the field of translation (as translators, editors, authors
of prefaces or footnotes, critics, and reviewers of translated works, and ultimately as
translation theorists). Collectively, they developed a new notion of the translator’s task, the
philological understanding of translation as a special method of text hermeneutics, consisted
in the stylistic analysis of the translated text, which markedly improved the quality of
translations. At the same time, an alternative approach, which focused on the mass Soviet
readership perception and therefore authorized changes, omissions, and additions, especially
for the so-called ‘injurious to the working class’ literature, was emerging within the
predominantly Bolshevik environment.
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The works of Zerov, Derzhavyn, Maifet, Finkel, and Kulyk discussed the translation
method and the translator’s choices between the orientation either towards the source or the
target language culture. Their writings are important documents that serve as proof of a high
level of the Ukrainian translation scholarship of that time; they remain relevant for contemporary
translators and translation studies scholars.
Keywords: Analogous translation. Homologous translation. Literary translation. Translation
method. Translation studies. Ukraine.
CO NTAC T D ETAI L S:
Oleksandr Kalnychenko, Associate Professor
V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University
4 Svobody Sq.
61022 Kharkiv
Ukraine
&
Department of Slavic Languages
Faculty of Arts
Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica
Tajovského 40
974 01 Banská Bystrica
Slovak Republic
kalnychenko@ukr.net
ORCID: 0000-0001-7808-357
62
BE T WE EN CE NS O RS H IP
A ND N ATIO N BU IL DIN G:
THE FIRST UKRAINIAN LECTURE COURSES
O N T RA NS L ATIO N S TU DIE S
F ROM A H IS TOR ICAL PE RS PE C TIV E 1
La d a Kol om iyets
In t ro d u ct io n
At the turn of the 1920s and 1930s, translation into the Ukrainian language and literary
translation, in particular, began to develop and gain momentum rapidly. is fact is
evidenced not only by the numerous printed translations, already available at that time
(on the variety of translators and translations see Kolomiyets 2015) but also by the
publishing plans carefully drawn up for the release of translated literature on a broad
book market of Soviet Ukraine. Most Ukrainian publishing houses had highly
ambitious plans at that point, grounded in the nation-building sentiments and
perspectives. Moreover, the task of translating large numbers of texts was stipulated by
the so-called “five-year plan,” which began in 1928, and therefore, in the long run,
a broad range of translated literature was planned for publication in substantial volumes
and circulations, though incomparable with the print runs of propagandistic literature.
The grand plans and extensive lists of works recommended for translation of
world literature, as well as philosophy, history, and the best works of journalism were
compiled by Ukrainian book editors by the early 1930s. The situation required
a speedy development of a comprehensive map of translation studies as a scientific
and educational discipline that would help analyze, categorize, create, and publish
quality translations.
In September 1932, professors at the Ukrainian Institute of Linguistic Education
(Ukraїns´kyĭ Instytut Linhvistychnoї Osvity,2 abbreviated UILO) Mykhailo
Kalynovych and Mykola Zerov developed two integrated and consecutive lecture
courses for the translation department of this Institute: “Metodolohii͡a perekladu”
(Methodology of Translation) and “Metodyka perekladu” (Methods of Translation)
1
2
I am deeply grateful to the Wenner-Gren Foundation (Sweden) for the generous support of this research
(contract number GFU2022–0029).
I follow the Library of Congress (LoC) transliteration method for transliterating personal names, proper
nouns, titles of books and periodicals, terminology, and so on (separately for Ukrainian and Russian).
Where an individual is known in the English-speaking world under a specific variant spelling, I use that
spelling rather than accurate LoC transliteration, in order to enhance the keyword discoverability of the
individual’s name. These exceptions include, but are not limited to, Korney Chukovsky, Andrey Fedorov,
Maksym Rylsky. However, in bibliographical references to the works, published in Ukrainian or Russian,
I strictly follow LoC transliteration.
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I I . O N H I S TO R I C A L J U S T I C E I N T R A N S L AT I O N S T U D I E S
respectively. The Institute was established in 1930 in Kyiv on the basis of philological
departments of the Kyiv Institute of Public Education (Kyїvs´kyĭ Instytut Narodnoї
Osvity, abbreviated KINO; now the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv)
and the Kharkiv Institute of Public Education, which functioned in 1921–1930 (the
UILO branch was located in Kharkiv). The Institute’s task was to train qualified
teachers of foreign languages and literature for Soviet universities and colleges, as well
as translators of scientific, technical, and artistic literature. From the early 1933, the
Institute began to be sharply criticized on standard political accusations of that time,
e.g., for its “orientation to the West,” apolitical study of Western languages, and so on
(as cited in Mysechko 2007, 37).3 In 1934, the Institute was transferred from Kyiv to
Kharkiv, where in 1935 it was reorganized into the Kharkiv Pedagogical Institute of
Foreign Languages (for more detail see Mysechko 2007).
As evidenced by an excerpt from Zerov’s employment record book (Illustration
1), from October 1932 Zerov worked as Professor at the Kyiv Institute of Linguistic
Education, also holding the post of Head of the Department of Theory and History of
Translation (the record is in Russian4). Zerov was dismissed from the Institute as early
as October 1933, which means that the integrated cycle of the disciplines on general
and special methodology of translation was only taught at the Institute for one
academic year.
3
4
)
Illustration 1. Page from the employment record book of Mykola Zerov; the encircled
entry (written in Russian) reads: “was a professor at the Kyiv Institute of Linguistic
Education, head of the Department of Theory and History of Translation from the fall of
1932.” (From the Collections of the Central State Archives Museum of Literature and Art
of Ukraine; the document is in the public domain)
TSDAVO Ukraïny [Central State Archive of the Supreme Bodies of Government and Administration of
Ukraine]. F. 166. Op. 11. # 325. Sheet 20а-22, 41–47 (Mysechko 2007, 37).
Byl professorom Kievskogo Instituta lingvisticheskogo obrazovanii͡a, rukovoditelem kafedry teorii i istorii
perevoda s oseni 1932 g.
64
Between censorship and nation building: the first Ukrainian lecture courses....
A close reading of the syllabi on methodology and methods of translation
“Methodology of Translation” by Mykhailo Kalynovych
e lecture course “Methodology of Translation” by Mykhailo Kalynovych5 was designed
for the second-year students of the UILO. It included eight thematic blocks and was
aimed to cover twenty academic hours. e syllabus of this course was signed by its
developer, Professor Kalynovych, on September 5, 1932, and was first published in 2015
(Dzhuhastrians´ka and Strikha). Its content and structure are discussed in the article by
Oleksandr Kal´nychenko and Nataliia Kamovnikova (2020), not only in the Ukrainian
but also in the Russian context. In their research, the authors compare the Kalynovych
syllabus with the syllabus of the course in theory and practice of translation, compiled
in 1934 by Russian poet-translator, literary critic, and lexicographer Dmitriĭ Usov for the
Moscow Institute of New Languages (now Moscow State Linguistic University).
The syllabus by Kalynovych embraced the following lecture topics, or thematic
blocks:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
The essence and purpose of translation (4 hrs.);
Translation studies, or the science of translation (1 hr.);
Stages of translation history (6 hrs.);
Stages of the history of translation studies (3 hrs.);
Translation studies at the service of proletarian society (2 hrs.);
Class function of translation during the dictatorship (1 hr.);
The problem of accuracy in translation (2 hrs.);
Organization of work around translation (1 hr.)6 (Kalynovych 1932, 1–7).
The first thematic block was subdivided into the following rubrics:
a)
b)
c)
definition(s) of translation;
the object of translation: the word, morphological-syntactic structure, phonetic
features, style, language functions;
the social function of translation; translation as a tool of class struggle.
The second thematic block was subdivided into:
a)
b)
c)
the object of translation studies;
the branches of translation studies: theoretical and applied translation studies;
translation studies and related disciplines.
Among the theoretical disciplines of translation studies, Kalynovych included
translation methodology, history of translation, and history of translation studies.
)
)
)
)
)
)
6
Mykhailo Kalynovych (1888–1949). Ukrainian linguist, Sanskrit specialist, literary critic, and translator;
since 1939 academician of the Academy of Sciences of the Ukrainian SSR; in the 1940s became a supporter
of the Russification of the Ukrainian language.
1. Sut´ i meta perekladu. 2. Perekladoznavstvo – nauka pro pereklad. 3. Etapy istoriї perekladu. 4. Etapy
istoriї perekladoznavstva. 5. Perekladoznavstvo na sluzhbi proletars´komu suspil´stvu. 6. Kliasova funktsiia
perekladu za doby dyktatury. 7. Problema tochnosty v perekladi. 8. Orhanizatsiia pratsi kolo perekladu.
)
5
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I I . O N H I S TO R I C A L J U S T I C E I N T R A N S L AT I O N S T U D I E S
By Kalynovych, applied translation studies consisted of the general methods of
translation (applicable to translation in general) and the partial methods/technique of
translation (applicable to a specific language pair: from one’s native language into
a foreign language and from a foreign language into one’s native language). e
technique of translation was further ramified into the techniques of non-literary prose
translation, literary prose translation, verse translation, scientific and technical
phraseology (verbatim “nomenclature” in Kalynovych) and terminology in translation,
as well as business correspondence in translation. At the same time, Kalynovych
considered translation studies in relation to the following subjects and topics:
dialectical and historical materialism, linguistics, philology, literary studies, history of
material culture, history of class struggle, and national education (1932, 2–3).
Within the framework of the third thematic block, Kalynovych regarded the
following stages of the history of translation:
a)
b)
c)
the emergence of translation in prehistoric society; stages of the history of
translation based on the history of class struggle and changes in socio-economic
formations;
translation in a pre-capitalist society;
translation under the capitalist socio-economic formation (1932, 3–4).
Within the confines of the fourth thematic block, the field of translation science
was viewed from a social class perspective. Thus, Kalynovych divided the history of
translation studies into the following stages: “translation studies in pre-capitalist
society,” “translation studies under the capitalist socio-economic formation,” and
“classical and romantic theories of translation and their social roots,” having also
mentioned the “bourgeois classification of translations”7 and exemplified it by the
dicta of Fedor Batiushkov8 (Kalynovych 1932, 4).
e fih thematic block consisted of several rubrics, including a separate discussion
of the Marxist-Leninist theory of translation as well as quotations from the classics of
Marxism-Leninism on the problem of translation and their personal translation
experience. e syllabus mentions the lack of methodological literature on translation
studies and argues for the importance of theoretical translation studies (in particular,
in working out a revolutionary proletarian theory of translation), including critical
assimilation of the “bourgeois cultural heritage” by the proletariat. Finally, there is
a synthesized review of translation studies literature (Kalynovych 1932, 5).
The sixth thematic block reiterated the author’s focus on working out the
proletarian theory and class function of translation during the dictatorship of the
proletariat, in particular, by viewing translation as a means of spreading the
7
8
I aim at conveying the definitions by Kalynovych and Zerov with the maximum possible semantic accuracy,
which is why I put some expressions and terms in quotation marks. This mainly concerns ideological
clichés, which entered scientific communication from the Soviet press to become forcibly ubiquitous in
the ideological discourses of that time.
Fedor Batiushkov. A leading literary critic and historian of Western European literature; died in 1920 after
having been fired from his post of the head of the Saint Petersburg State Theatres Committee by the People’s
Commissar for Education Anatoly Lunacharsky (in office October 1917–September 1929).
66
Between censorship and nation building: the first Ukrainian lecture courses....
“proletarian thought” and ideas of socialist building among “all peoples of the world.”
An obligatory mention of worldwide popularization of the “achievements of Soviet
proletarian science, technology, literature, and art” was also made there alongside
a call to “arm” the proletariat with scientific and technical knowledge, to develop the
proletarian artistic style, to familiarize the world proletariat with the work of the
International Association of Revolutionary Writers and literatures of the nationalities
“oppressed by the bourgeoisie” as well as to foster accelerated development of the
languages whose nations and ethnic groups “have fallen behind economically and
culturally.” It is important to note that along this series of tasks the need to revitalize
the pace of Ukrainization and Ukrainian culture building, “national in form and
socialist in content,” was also mentioned. The penultimate and ultimate goals,
formulated in the block, were to “integrate the ideological superstructure of the world
proletariat” and to “construct the world proletarian culture and a new way of life,” in
particular, by translating the works of proletarian art into Esperanto (Kalynovych
1932, 5–6).
These were followed by a thematic block dedicated to the issue of accuracy in
translation and other major issues, which included, importantly, the question of
expediency of political censorship of translations labeled by the then critics as
“class-harmful.” In general, the block was structured as follows:
a)
b)
c)
d)
e)
equivalence to the original and inaccuracy in translation;
the translator’s social background and professional image;
different degrees of objectivity in bourgeois and proletarian translations; proletarian
translation as the only manifestation of objectivity;
the problem of using old translations for reprints; translations from translations;
the principles of editing class-harmful translated literature (Kalynovych 1932,
6–7).
The final eighth thematic block focused on the issues of organizing translationrelated activities. It addressed the need for publishers to conform to the existing
ideological resolutions, instructions, and Soviet publishing regulations, such as the
Decree on Press and Stalin’s instructions to publishers. Translation planning was
described as necessary for the proletariat in its class struggle. The activity of Soviet
publishers was illustrated by several examples of publishing houses from the Russian
Federation; the only Ukrainian example was the publishing plan for translations of
literature compiled by the State Publishing Association of Ukraine. Administration of
the process of translation, editing, and reviewing was also touched upon briefly;
a special emphasis was made on tandem work and pairing translators with one another
or with the author (Kalynovych 1932, 7).
There is every reason to argue that at the turn of the 1920s and 1930s translation
studies rose in Ukraine as a new interdisciplinary science. It was an innovative
initiative not only for the entire Soviet Union but also for the field of translation on
the broadest geographical scale. However, from the early 1930s, as can be seen from
the syllabus, a social-political shift affected the Soviet thought on translation and the
humanities in general. Soviet censorship performed by multiple bureaucratic bodies
broke the backbone of Ukrainian translation studies, paralyzing it for decades.
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I I . O N H I S TO R I C A L J U S T I C E I N T R A N S L AT I O N S T U D I E S
Kalynovych gives a detailed description of the lecture course “Methodology of
Translation,” which he sees as a theoretical branch of translation studies. I hereby
summarize it in Chart 1.
Chart 1. Methodology of translation as a theoretical branch of translation studies
68
Between censorship and nation building: the first Ukrainian lecture courses....
“Methods of Translation” by Mykola Zerov
The lecture course “Methods of Translation” by Mykola Zerov9 preserved in the
archives of the Literary Museum of Hryhoriy Kochur in the city of Irpin in Kyiv Oblast
appeared to be an extension of the course by Kalynovych, who had by then outlined
the general issues and methodology of translation in his introductory course. Zerov
defined his intentions in the beginning of the explanatory note to his course on
translation methods as an extension of the course on translation methodology: “Its
target orientation has been predetermined by the orientation of the methodology
course”10 (Zerov 1932, 1).11
Zerov designed the course on special issues (methods) of translation to help
students in translation in their work in different genres and styles, including both
non-literary and literary prose. The course contained two sections and seven topics
to be covered in fifty academic hours. Signed by its developer on September 9, 1932,
Zerov’s syllabus had the following structure:
SECTION I. General methods of translation.
Topic 1. Main features of translation typology (2 hrs.).
Topic 2. Translation of non-literary prose (8 hrs.).
Topic 3. Translation of literary prose (8 hrs.).
Topic 4. Translation of poetry (8 hrs.).
SECTION II. From the history of Ukrainian translation.
Topic 5. Translation in Ukraine in the times of feudalism (2 hrs.).
Topic 6. Translation in the times of industrial capitalism and imperialism (5 hrs.).
Topic 7. Translation in the times of the dictatorship of the proletariat (5 hrs.)12
(Zerov 1932, 1–9).
The remaining academic hours were allocated to two conferences planned at the
end of each section. Students were also supposed to write a course paper on each
section and make reports on their work in class.
Within the framework of Section I devoted to general translation methods, the
first lecture focused on the issues of possibility and impossibility of an “adequate
translation,” accuracy and inaccuracy in translation, criteria of accuracy in the
translation of non-literary prose, literary prose, and poetry translation, and tendencies
towards originality and foreignness. A classification of the types of translation from
the point of view of their social function was also provided (Zerov 1932, 3). Whereas
11
12
)
)
10
Mykola Zerov. A translator of classical Latin poets, literary scholar, and orator. He was arrested on a charge
of “Ukrainian bourgeois nationalism” and shot dead as an “enemy of the people” in the GULAG on 3 November 1937.
Kurs metodyky perekladu i͡e bezposeredni͡e prodovzhenni͡a kursu metodolohiї perekladu. Tsil´ove i͡oho
spriamovanni͡a napered vyznachene spri͡amovanni͡am kursu metodolohiї.
Unless otherwise noted, all translations from the Ukrainian and Russian languages are by the present author.
Zahal´na metodyka perekladu. 1. Osnovni rysy typolohiї perekladu. 2. Pereklad prozovoho nekhudozhnioho tekstu. 3. Pereklad prozovoho khudozhnioho tekstu. 4. Pereklad virshovyĭ. Z ISTORIЇ
UKRAЇNS´KOHO PEREKLADU. 5. Pereklad na Ukraїni za fevdalnoї formatsiї. 6. Pereklad za chasiv
promyslovoho kapitalizmu ta imperii͡alizmu. 7. Pereklad za doby dyktatury proletarii͡atu.
)
9
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I I . O N H I S TO R I C A L J U S T I C E I N T R A N S L AT I O N S T U D I E S
Kalynovych attributed general methods of translation to the branch of practical
translation studies, Zerov compiled a detailed list of different types of translation
according to the translation techniques known at that time.
Based on the text type, its style, and genre, Zerov split up the section of genrespecific translation methods into such sectors as 1) non-literary prose translation;
2) publicist translation and translation of literary criticism; 3) literary prose
translation; 4) translation of poetry; 5) translation of scientific and technical
phraseology and terminology. The sector of non-literary prose translation, in its turn,
was subdivided by genres and styles and dwelt on translation in the fields of science,
administration style, and business.
The second topic in the syllabus, “Translation of Non-Literary Prose,” began with
the general classification of texts into non-literary prose, literary prose, and poetry.
Zerov enumerated possible procedures for the transfer of new terms in the language
of translation, namely: 1) descriptive replacement, 2) transcription of borrowed words,
3) calquing, 4) creating a new word. Zerov pointed out the importance of morphology
and syntax in non-literary prose translation, as well as intonation, logical accents, and
orthoepic and orthographic norms of transcribing terminology and proper names.
In detail, the second lecture topic focused on the following:
a)
b)
c)
d)
The definition of literary and non-literary prose and the ideological and practical
value of the latter (as a premise of its specifics). Creative nature of prose, its genre
diversity. Classification of non-literary prose: scientific, administrative, and
business texts and their templates. Journalism and criticism as border areas
between non-literary and literary prose. Translator’s tasks by genre.
The problem of conveying individual words in a non-literary prose text:
1) descriptive substitution, 2) transcription of a borrowed word, transcription
variants, 3) calquing, 4) creating a new word in the language of translation.
The word in its communicative function. Terminology. Two trends in the
translation of terms: 1) a “bourgeois-nationalist” emphasis on idiosyncrasy,
2) orientation of the “proletarian translator” towards internationalism in
conveying terms and phraseology. Observance of orthoepic and orthographic
norms in transcribing terms and phraseology.
Morphology and syntax in non-literary prose translation. Morphological features
of the language of the original and the language of translation and the difficulties
in conveying the original text caused by them. Syntax: hypotactic and paratactic
composition of languages, assimilation of hypotactic structures in languages with
paratactic composition; translation practice in this area and its norms in the
“bourgeois and proletarian translation.”
Phonetics in non-literary prose: intonation, logical accents. Cacophonous
coincidences, their nature, reasons for avoiding. Intonational phrase structure
(Zerov 1932, 4–5).
In the section entitled “Translation of Literary Prose,” Zerov focused on the
aesthetic functions, which are difficult to convey in translation, namely, the
socio-cultural pattern and “associative richness.” Zerov dwelt on the role of synonyms
in literary prose, as well as their emotional coloring. He defined variation, explication,
70
Between censorship and nation building: the first Ukrainian lecture courses....
and gradation as the means of developing meaning with the help of synonyms and
periphrases. He stressed the importance of homonyms, puns, and means of conveying
them in translations of literature. He also addressed the issues of the individual word,
grammar, and style choice, which the translator was expected to reproduce. Finally,
he spoke about rendering sociolects and phonetically distorted words as well as about
morphological and syntactic reorganization of texts and rendering phraseology,
proverbs, clichés, and catchphrases.
The third lecture topic covered the following themes:
a)
b)
c)
Conveying lexical and semantic features of the original work. The aesthetic
function of literature and difficulties of conveying it (the socio-cultural pattern
of the word and its associations). Synonyms, their “class-emotional” coloring, and
role in the text (variation, explication, gradation). Homonyms and their role in
literature. Rendering “word plays,” sociolects, and phonetically distorted words.
Translation of “linguistically pathological” phenomena. Tropes, their different
types, methods of their translation (exact reproduction and mitigation). Lexical
choices, the so-called “high” and “low” styles (Zerov put the terms in inverted
commas), means of their reproduction in translation.
Morphological and syntactic problems. Phraseology, translation of sayings,
proverbs, words of address, conditional formulas, phraseological clichés and
catchwords of nationally limited and international usage. Translating the
individual syntax of the writer. Main figures of style, inversions and their role.
Phonetics in a literary text. The rhythm of a prose text (ancient tradition,
bourgeois theoreticians, proletarian theory of prose). Syntactic and metrical
elements of prose rhythm; the concept of tact, phonetic sentence, phonetic
period. The difference between the rhythms of verse and prose. Free verse and
the role of graphics in the perception of rhythm. Euphony in literature:
onomatopoeia, sound repetitions, and methods of conveying them. Types of
literary prose and their requirements for translation (Zerov 1932, 5–6).
Rendering poetry was described in the syllabus in even greater detail. The topic
entitled “Translation of Poetry” included the questions of poetic vocabulary,
morphology, syntax, metric units, enjambment, versification systems, tonic, syllabic,
and free verse, equirhythmic (equimetric) translation, sound repetitions and euphony,
as well as prose translation of verse. Additionally, the author raised the question of the
“correct” degree of requirements for the translator in different genres of poetry.
Therefore, the fourth lecture encompassed such issues as the specifics of verse
translation and the importance of lexical, morphological, syntactic, and phonetic
elements. Zerov also spoke of the poetic vocabulary and its conservatism and
addressed the problem of struggle with conservatism in translation (both “bourgeois”
and “proletarian”). He focused on the following subject areas:
a)
b)
Specific features of morphology and syntax in poetry and its translations; the
mismatch of syntactic and metrical units in the poetic text (enjambment) and
rendering it in translation.
Phonetics of poetry, including rhythm and melody; syntactic and metrical elements
71
I I . O N H I S TO R I C A L J U S T I C E I N T R A N S L AT I O N S T U D I E S
of prosody. e systems of versification (metric, tonic, syllabic, various types of free
verse). Equirhythmic translation. e metric system and its conveyance by means
of tonic verse. Syllabic, accented (tonic-sliding), and free verse in “bourgeois” and
“proletarian” translations. Euphony of verse translation. Sound repetitions. Rhyme
and its variations, the practice of conveying repetitions and rhymes. e translation
of verse passages in works of prose, translation of poetry by means of prose, and
requirements for translations in different genres of poetry (Zerov 1932, 6–7).
Section II was devoted to the history of Ukrainian translation and started with
a lecture on “class styles” in Ukrainian literature in the periods of feudalism era,
industrial capitalism, imperialism, and the proletarian dictatorship. A special focus
was made on the traditional Ukrainian “khutir style” (lit. “hamlet style” or “homestead
style” in the translations by Ievhen Hrebinka, Petro Hulak-Artemovs´kyĭ13 and other
nineteenth-century poets) (Zerov 1932, 8).
The sixth lecture focused on translation in the period of industrial capitalism and
imperialism and dwelt upon the prominent Ukrainian writers-translators of the
nineteenth – early twentieth centuries and the sociological and stylistic aspects of their
translations.
Literature of the bourgeois nobility. Folklorism in translations by Amvrosiĭ
Metlyns´kyĭ, Markiian Shashkevych, Stepan Rudans´kyĭ, Iuriĭ Fed´kovych, and
poets-Osnov’ians, whose works appeared in the Ukrainian journal Osnova,
published in Saint Petersburg from January 1861 to October 1862;14 The polemics
of Mykhaĭlo Drahomanov and Stepan Rudans´kyĭ.15
b) The formation of the “bourgeois style” and translations by Panteleĭmon Kulish
and Mykhaĭlo Staryts´kyĭ.16 Kulish’s theory of the “Old Rus´ky revival” and its
social class foundations; folklorism in the translation style of Kulish. Staryts´kyĭ,
his translations and “controversy”; Staryts´kyĭ’s stylistic “breakdowns.”
c) “Petty-bourgeois style,” its representatives in translation. Ivan Franko17 and his
translations. Lesya Ukrainka, Volodymyr Samiĭlenko,18 and their approach to
13
Ievhen Hrebinka (1812–1848) – Ukrainian romantic prose writer, poet, and ethnographer; wrote in both
the Ukrainian and Russian languages and was recognized as a leading representative of the Ukrainian
school in Russian literature. His 1836 translation of Aleksandr Pushkin’s poem Poltava is considered
a burlesque rendition. Petro Hulak-Artemovs´kyĭ (1790–1865) – poet, fabulist, and translator of classical
literature.
Amvrosiĭ Metlyns´kyĭ, Markii͡an Shashkevych, Stepan Rudans´kyĭ (1834–1873) – Ukrainian poets,
translators, and folklorists; Iuriĭ Fed´kovych (1834–1888) – Ukrainian writer, poet, folklorist, and
translator. Ukrainian poets and belletrists (in total over 40) whose works were published in the journal
Osnova: Taras Shevchenko, Leonid Hlibov, Oleksa Storozhenko, Oleksander Afanas´iev-Chuzhbyns´kyĭ,
Danylo Mordovets´, Hanna Barvinok, etc.
Mykhaĭlo Drahomanov (1764–1880). Ukrainian political theorist, economist, philosopher, and public
figure, known as one of the first socialist activists in Ukraine.
Panteleĭmon Kulish (1819–1897) – Ukrainian writer, literary critic, poet, folklorist, and translator (German
Romantics, thirteen plays of Shakespeare); Mykhaĭlo Staryts´kyĭ (1840–1904) – Ukrainian writer, poet,
playwright, and translator.
Ivan Franko (1856–1916). Ukrainian poet-modernist, writer-polyglot, translator, journalist, political
activist, social and literary critic.
Lesya Ukrainka (1871–1913) – a number one Ukrainian woman-poet and writer, best known for her
)
14
)
a)
15
16
17
18
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Between censorship and nation building: the first Ukrainian lecture courses....
d)
translating civic poetry, especially in translations from Pierre-Jean de Béranger,
Heinrich Heine, and Nikolaĭ Nekrasov. Practice of prose translation, publishing
houses, their publications and book series.
Translations by Ukrainian modernist writers and their “class” foundations, or “the
tendency towards grand-bourgeois decadence in the age of imperialism” (Zerov
1932, 8–9).
The seventh lecture topic of Zerov’s course contained information on translation
during the decade of the “dictatorship of the proletariat.” The lecture is demonstrative
of the negative attitudes to “national democrats” and their writings. Zerov also defines
them as “hostile” to the proletariat and labels their approaches to translation as
“wrecking” in accordance with the requirements of the Bolshevik propaganda
discourse aimed at fighting against national democracy.19
The seventh lecture was designed to review the new anthologies of translated
poetry. The complete collections of classic poets in translations by Ivan Kulyk, Dmytro
Zahul, and Maksym Rylsky20 were mentioned in the syllabus as the most notable
editions, alongside several collections of translation of the works by Emile Zola, Guy
de Maupassant, Jack London, and Russian authors. The lecture also raised questions
of translation repertoire planning and the translated literature bibliography. It
discussed the cases of Knyhospilka Publishing House, the Publishing Plan of the
Union of revolutionary writers “Western Ukraine” for the year 1927,21 and other
examples. A special place was given to translations of political and socio-economic
literature, school textbooks, and children’s literature, as well as to translations of the
works by Ukrainian revolutionary writers into the languages of other nationalities of
the Soviet Union. The importance of cultivating the translation techniques of both
literary-figurative and abstract scientific language was brought into the limelight as
well (Zerov 1932, 9).
The detailed lecture course “Methods of Translation” was seen by Zerov as
a practical branch of translation studies. I hereby summarize it in Chart 2.
19
20
21
poems and plays, political, and civil activist; Volodymyr Samiĭlenko (1864–1925) – Ukrainian writer, poet,
satirist, and translator.
The term “wrecking” (Ukr. shkidnytstvo) in reference to translation meant distancing the Ukrainian language from Russian (See Kahanovych 1934), which was equated to “wrecking” in Soviet industry, collective
farming, education, and communal services. The “wreckers” were blamed for all the troubles and failures
in Stalin’s national economy (for more detail see Kalnychenko and Kalnychenko, 2020).
Ivan Kulyk (1897–1937) – Ukrainian poet, writer, translator, diplomat, and Communist Party activist;
Dmytro Zahul (1890–1944) – Ukrainian writer, poet, and translator; Maksym Rylsky (1895–1964) – one
of the foremost Ukrainian poets, literary critic, translator, academician.
The publishing plan for 1927–1928 included thirty-two literary titles (stories, poetry) with a size of up to
four printed sheets and a circulation of approx. 3,000 (Molotkina, 2016, 63).
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I I . O N H I S TO R I C A L J U S T I C E I N T R A N S L AT I O N S T U D I E S
Chart 2. Methods of translation as a practical branch of translation studies
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Between censorship and nation building: the first Ukrainian lecture courses....
Th e f i r s t m ap o f t ra n sl a t io n s t u di e s, i t s t h e o ret i c a l b ac kgro u n d
a n d p oten t i a l
The discipline “Methodology of Translation” in the context of its time
and fur ther developments in translation theor y
In his syllabus, Kalynovych spoke of multiple tasks of translation brought in line
with the Marxist-Leninist ideology and its political language, which targeted the
dissemination of the ideas of socialist building, Soviet technology, literature, arts,
and the proletarian literary style. A builder of the “proletarian” theory of
translation, whose ultimate purpose was to integrate proletarian ideology
worldwide through translation, was supposed to have strong confidence in
translatability. In this regard, internationalization was considered a marker of the
“proletarian” approach and translating proletarian art into Esperanto a highly
important task. At the same time, the role and significance of Ukrainization in
the mid-1920s – early 1930s constituted an integral part of the Ukrainian theory
of translation, and the “proletarian” translation in particular, although the
Bolsheviks’ policy of indigenization (Ukrainization) basically aimed at the
Socialist reformation of national cultures instead of their development.
Kalynovych and Zerov, like many other Ukrainian intellectuals of that time,
attempted to build Ukrainian translation studies amid the rising campaign of Stalin’s
terror. Professional terminology in their syllabi, for the most part, remains important
and relevant to contemporary research. First of all, this applies to the term
perekladoznavstvo (lit. “translation studies”), which was used by Kalynovych as the
name for the academic discipline concerned with the study of translation in general.
The context of the early Soviet theory of translation is evidenced by the
recommended reading lists for each topic in Kalynovych and Zerov’s syllabi. A closer
look at these sources reveals the worldview imposed on Ukrainian translation studies
during the early Stalinist period, which was supposed to model a new reader with
a class approach to the perception of art.
Two textbooks were defined as mandatory in both Kalynovych’s and Zerov’s
courses. They are:
1)
2)
a monograph in Ukrainian by Oleksandr Finkel´ eory and Practice of Translation
(Kharkiv: DVU Publishing House, 1929, 166 p.);
a collective monograph in Russian by Korney Chukovsky and Andrey Fedorov
The Art of Translation (Leningrad: Akademiia, 1930, 236 [3] p.), consisting of two
chapters, one by Chukovsky and one by Fedorov.
Apart from these two books, the required and recommended readings for
Kalynovych’s course included the following:
•
•
Alekseev, Mikhail. Problema khudozhestvennogo perevoda [The problem of
literary translation]. Irkutsk: Irkutsk University publication, 1931, 50 p. (In
Russian)
Batiushkov, Fedor, Nikolay Gumilev, and Korney Chukovsky. Printsipy khudo75
I I . O N H I S TO R I C A L J U S T I C E I N T R A N S L AT I O N S T U D I E S
•
•
•
zhestvennoho perevoda [Principles of literary translation]. Petrograd: Gosudarstvennoe izdatel´stvo, 1920, 60 p. (In Russian)
Bulich, Sergeĭ. Ocherk istorii iazykoznaniia v Rossii [An essay on the history of
linguistics in Russia]. St. Petersburg: Printing House of M. Merkushev, 1904, XI,
1248 pp. Chapter 4: “Znakomstvo s i͡azykami v drevneĭ i moskovskoĭ Rusi
i prepodavanie ikh” [Introduction and teaching the languages of ancient and
Muskovite Russia], 184–203. (In Russian)22
Kautskiĭ, Karl. Introduction to “Das Kapital. Kritik der politischen Ökonomie”
by Karl Marx, 1st volume, 7th ed. Moscow: GIZ (State Publishing House), 1930,
Х-ХХХ. (In Russian)23
Shalia, Ivan. K voprosu o iazykovykh sredstvakh perevodchikov 18 stoletiia:
Trediakovskiĭ kak perevodchik [On the question of the language means of
translators of the 18th century: Trediakovskiĭ as translator]. Article in “Proceedings
of the Kuban Pedagogical Institute,” Krasnodar: [n.p.], 1929, 215–240. Bibliography
in footnotes and in text. A separate reprint from the second and third issues of
“Proceedings of the Kuban Pedagogical Institute.” (In Russian)
Forty years before Holmes’ chart of translation studies (TS) came about in 1972,
Kalynovych worked out a view on perekladoznavstvo, which substantially corresponds to
the map of the discipline promoted by Holmes (1972; Chart 3), who “is credited with the
first attempt to chart the territory of translation studies as an academic pursuit” (Baker
1998, 277). Holmes’ map of translation studies was commonly recognized as a framework
for organizing research and teaching activities within this discipline (278). In addition to
his scheme, Holmes mentions two important areas of inquiry: the study of TS itself (such
as the history of translation theory, the history of translator training, etc.) and the study
of the methods and models of specific types of research in the discipline (279).
Chart 3. Holmes’ basic map of translation studies (from Toury 2012, 4)
22
23
In these chapters, Bulich focuses on lexicons, grammars, ABC-books, and various kinds of dictionaries in
the framework of Russian imperial historiography.
Direct translations of the book from German into Ukrainian were also available (Marx, Karl. 1923. Do
krytyky politychnoї ekonomiї [Criticism of political economy]. Trans. by Mykola Porsh, ed. by Ievhen Kasia-
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Between censorship and nation building: the first Ukrainian lecture courses....
)
Like Holmes, Kalynovych divided the discipline, which he referred to as the
science of translation, into two major branches: theoretical translation studies (in
Holmes: pure TS) and practical translation studies (in Holmes: applied TS). The
branch of theoretical TS was further subdivided in Kalynovych into three
sections: 1) methodology of translation, 2) history of translation (general history
and national histories), and 3) history of translation studies. The branch of
practical TS was further subdivided in Kalynovych into two sections: 1) general
methods of translation and 2) partial methods of translation (for a specific
language pair) (see Chart 1).
The most important point is that Kalynovych further subdivided translation
studies into 1) the object of study, 2) the branches of the discipline, and (3) related
disciplines. By including the domain of related disciplines into TS, Kalynovych
advocated a view of TS as interdisciplinary, embracing a wide range of methods and
models from other disciplines. Kalynovych took an integrated approach to TS, which
enabled him to add another branch to the discipline. This is the branch of translation
management consisting of such subbranches as 1) translator/editor/ reviewer training,
2) publishing and planning translations, and 3) joint translation activities, or the
tandem method (see Chart 1).
The branch of translation management was discussed by Kalynovych in the
eighth lecture entitled “Organization of work around translation” (Orhanizatsiia pratsi
kolo perekladu), in which he presented his pioneering approach. Along with the task
of translator training, Kalynovych raised the issues of organization of labor and
cooperation in the field of translation as well as editing and reviewing translations.
Kalynovych also dwelt on the problem of joint translation activities, namely, on the
tandem method (verbatim “the brigade form of translation” in Kalynovych). The
method consisted in pairing of a translator with a better knowledge of the language of
the translation with a translator fluent in the language of the original; translators could
also be paired with original authors.
The team method as cooperation of a tandem of translators is a common
phenomenon in the world translation practice. Among the Ukrainian translation
tandems of the late1920s–early1930s, the names of Veronika Hladka and Kateryna
Koriakina are worthy of mentioning. A talented poet, Hladka had an excellent
command of the Ukrainian language, and Koriakina, a Russian speaker, was proficient
in the Scandinavian languages. Their fruitful cooperation gave the Ukrainian reader
an opportunity to enjoy high-quality translations from Scandinavian languages and
English. They translated in tandem three novels, two novellas, and a collection of short
stories of Jack London (1927–1930), science fiction stories and the novella A Story of
the Days to Come by H.G. Wells (1930), the novel Mysteries by Knut Hamsun (1930),
five plays of Henrik Ibsen (1930; 1932) (see Kolomiyets, 2015, 267–269).
In a similar way, several families of Ukrainian writers worked as translation teams
in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Among them were Modest and Zinaїda
)
)
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nenko. Kharkiv – Berlin – New-York: Ukrainian-American publishing house “Kosmos.” Marx, Karl. 1926.
Do krytyky politychnoї ekonomiї [Criticism of political economy]. Trans. by Mykola Porsh, ed. by Ievhen
Kasianenko. Kharkiv: State Publishers of Ukraine.). However, Kalynovych could not refer to them because
the editor, Ievhen Kasianenko was politically persecuted in the early 1930s (see Kolomiyets 2015, 262).
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Esli schitat´ sushchnost´iu proizvedeniia ego obshchee ideĭno-ėmotsional´noe ėsteticheskoe vozdeĭstvie, po
otnosheniiu k kotoromu razlichnye slovesnye sredstva igraiut lish´ sluzhebnuiu rol´, to problema tochnogo
v smysle adekvatnosti perevoda okazyvaetsia razreshimoĭ.
)
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24
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Levytsky, who co-authored a four-volume edition of the novel The Story of a Peasant
by Émile Erсkmann-Сhatrian (1928), the novella At Dawn by Teodor Tomasz Jeż
(1929), the novel e Jungle by Upton Sinclair (1930). Many of their tandem translations
remained unpublished, such as novels by Polish writers Henryk Sienkiewicz, Boleslav
Prus, and Eliza Ozheshko (see Kolomiyets 2015, 190).
Thus, from the point of view of translation history, the “brigade method” as
a collective activity (team translation) was not a communist invention, although the
term “brigade” was intentionally borrowed from the sphere of the Soviet economy,
creating an “appropriate” association with the workers’ brigades of the early 1930s.
Another important area in translation management industry is the publishing
and planning of translated publications. These issues were discussed by both
Kalynovych and Zerov in their syllabi.
All in all, the map of TS by Kalynovych 1) clarified the nature (or “essence”)
of translation, its purpose, and the unit (“object”) of translation; 2) identified
(together with Zerov), the three functions of translation, namely, the a) social
(“class”), b) communicative, and c) esthetic function; 3) developed the principles
for evaluation of the strategies and the result of translation, using such evaluative
terms as accurate, equivalent, adequate, and objective translation. At the same
time, Kalynovych was the first to notice and single out indirect translations, or
translations from intermediary languages, as a separate category, calling them
translations from translations (see Chart 1). By separating such translations from
others, he made it clear that standard evaluation criteria (accuracy, equivalence,
adequacy, objectivity) are not applicable to them. It is very important that this
distinction was made in anticipation of the unofficial recognition of indirect
translations into Ukrainian through Russian as an intermediary language, which
became a mass phenomenon, especially from the mid-1930s to the mid-1950s.
Interestingly, until the early 1930s, the concept of “adequate translation” alongside
the concept of “accurate translation” was mainly considered a close reproduction of
linguistic and stylistic features of the original text. It was interpreted this way by
Volodymyr Derzhavyn (1927), Andrey Fedorov (1927), Oleksandr Finkel´ (1929), and
others. However, since the mid-1930s, Soviet translation thinkers separated the term
“adequate translation” from the source language orientation and linked it to the target
language and the functions in the target environment. In the article entitled
“Translation,” which was published in 1934 in the eighth volume of the Literary
Encyclopedia, the leading Soviet literary theorists Aleksandr Smirnov and Mikhail
Alekseev allocated a separate place to the section “Methods of literary translation.”
They presented the idea of fundamental translatability of foreign language works and
rejected doubts regarding that possibility. “If the essence of a work is its general
ideological and emotional aesthetic impact, in relation to which verbal means play
only a supplementary role, the problem of an accurate translation in the sense of
translation adequacy turns out to be solvable”24 (Smirnov and Alekseev 1934, 527).
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Thus, the authors of the quoted article opposed the theorists of the early 1920s who
addressed the problem of limited or incomplete translatability in both poetry and
prose (see Batiushkov, Gumilev and Chukovsky 1920). For example, Fedor Batiushkov
spoke about the inexpressibleness of some foreign language elements in the book
Principles of Literary Translation, which was the first “alphabet for translators.” Based
on his assumption, he argued that no translation was capable of replacing the original
(10) and at the same time he insisted that precision should be observed in conveying
formal features of a foreign work. Along similar lines, two other contributors to the
book, Nikolay Gumilev and Korney Chukovsky, advocated accuracy in representing
the original form of the source text.
It is worthwhile to comment separately on the term “objective translation” used
in the meaning “independent of language features,” i.e., oriented to objective reality.
In the Soviet school of translation of the early 1950s, it evolved into the concept of
“realistic translation,” which was devoid of any specific meaning and was used as
a synonym for “good” translation (Levý 1974, 43). The basis of the theory of realistic
translation was introduced in the mid-1930s as the theory of “creative translation,”
proponed by the Russian literary scholar Johann Altman, who contrasted creative
translation as “the best translation method” to “naturalism” and “formalism” (the
terms borrowed from literary theory). Altman also argued that “creative translation
is an adequate transfer of content and form” (Altman 1936, 167), while the “stylizers,”
or adherents of stylization in translation, were denounced by the theorist of creative
translation as those reaching out to the most “nationalist” and “reactionary elements”
(167–168).
The sociological aspect began to dominate in the Soviet school of translation
from the early 1930s. Accordingly, in Kalynovych’s course syllabus, the social (class)
function of translation appeared in the first place (along with the communicative and
aesthetic functions). The class function of translation was put forward as early as 1929
in Finkel´’s monograph, replacing the cognitive function distinguished in 1927 by
Derzhavin (who singled out the communicative, or informative, cognitive, and artistic
functions). Compared to the end of the 1920s, views on translation became socialized,
and a shift took place in the translations’ functional typology paradigm.
The Discipline “Methods of Translation” through the prism of debates
on translation practice: Axiological paradigm and relevance
to contemporar y discour ses on translation
Apart from the two obligatory readings (these were the book by O. Finkel´, Theory and
Practice of Translation, and the collective volume by K. Chukovsky and A. Fedorov, The
Art of Translation), the required and recommended readings for Zerov’s lecture course
included the following:
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Derzhavyn, Volodymyr. “Problema virshovanoho perekladu.” [The problem of
verse translation]. Pluzhanyn, nos. 9–10 (13–14), 1927, pp. 44–51. (In Ukrainian)
Fedorov, Andrey. “Problema stikhotvornogo perevoda” [The problem of verse
translation]. Poetics. Journal of the Department of Verbal Arts of the State
Institute of Art History, Vol. II, 1927, pp. 104–118. (In Russian)
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Fedorov, Andrey. “Zvukovaia forma stikhotvornogo perevoda” [Sound form in
verse translation]. Poetics. A Magazine of the Department of Verbal Arts of the
State Institute of Art History, Vol. ІV, 1928, pp. 45–69. (In Russian)
Kulyk, Ivan. [Peredmova to] “Antolohiia amerykans’koї poeziї. 1855–1925”
[Foreword to the Anthology of American Poetry. 1855–1925]. Kharkiv, 1928, 313
p. (In Ukrainian)
Peshkovskiĭ, Aleksandr. “Printsіpy i priëmy stilisticheskogo analiza i otsenki
khudozhestvennoĭ prosy (kak i khudozhestvennoĭ rechi voobshche)” [Principles
and techniques of stylistic analysis and evaluation of literary prose (as well as literary
speech in general]. Moscow: State Academy of Arts, 1927, pp. 29–68. (In Russian)
Peshkovskiĭ, Aleksandr. “Ritmika “Stikhotvoreniĭ v proze” Turgeneva” (Rhythmic
of “Poems in prose” by Turgenev). First published in the collection: “Ars poetica,”
issue 1–2, Мoscow, 1927–1928. Reprint in the collection: Russian speech. New
series Moscow, 2, Leningrad, 1928. (In Russian)
Timofeev, Leonid. Problemy stikhovedeniia: Materialy k sotsiologii stikha.
[Problems of science of versification: Materials for the sociology of verse].
Moscow: Federation, 1931, 227 [5] p. (In Russian)
Zerov, Mykola. “U spravi virshovanoho perekladu. Notatky” [On the case of verse
translation. Notes]. Zhyttia i revoliutsiia, vol. IX, Sept. 1928, pp. 133–146. (In
Ukrainian)
)
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The first section of Zerov’s syllabus brought together four topics under the
heading “General Methods of Translation.” The first topic, “Main Features of
Translation Typology,” addressed the main types of translation, the criteria for
determining them, and the features of each of the type. It started with the problem
that caused heated debates in the late 1920s: the possibility or impossibility of adequate
translation, the importance of accuracy, and the limits of inaccuracy in non-literary
translation, literary prose, and verse translation. Based on the degree of “originality”
of the source text and the attitude to linguistic foreignness in translation, Zerov sorted
translations into six types, with the key terms given in inverted commas: 1) foreignized
translation (verbatim “close to a foreign-text coloring” in Zerov), 2) translation“analogue,” 3) translation-“compromise,” 4) “free” translation, 5) translation“stylization,” and 6) translation-“montage”(see Chart 2).
While Kalynovych devoted a lot of space in his syllabus to the Marxist-Leninist
ideological principles as a new methodology of translation studies (it was MarxistLeninist and later Stalinist ideology that soviet scholars had to adhere to) Zerov
reflected on the existing typologies of translations and listed the classifications of
translation methods and techniques by his contemporaries (Fedorov, Finkel´) as well
as recent predecessors in translation theory (Batiushkov, Gumilev).
The type of translation considered by Zerov first, which is foreignized translation,
corresponds to the term “foreignizing” translation used presently. The rationale for
this type of translation as a foundation for the Romantic school of translation was
worked out by the German Romantics as early as the end of the eighteenth and the
beginning of the nineteenth centuries. The Romantic school’s approach to translating
was described by Finkel´ in the first theoretical chapter of his monograph (1929),
which Zerov multiply refers to in his syllabus.
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The term translation-analogue describes the opposite case of translation. The
concept of analogous translation, or translation-analogue, was substantiated as the
opposite to “stylization” (in Zerov: foreignized translation) by Zerov’s contemporary
Volodymyr Derzhavyn. In his syllabus, Zerov mentions Derzhavyn’s 1927 article
“Problema virshovanoho perekladu” (The problem of verse translation), in which
a “stylized” translation as a true translation is contrasted with the selection of a stylistic
analogue in the native culture. An analogous translation is modelled on a poetic and
stylistic pattern of local literature, chosen by the translator as an “analogue” to the
poetics and style of the original work. The interpretation of the term “translationanalogue” (modern counterpart: “domesticating” translation) as the opposite to
preserving the original form can be also found in Finkel´, who quotes from Andrey
Fedorov’s 1927 article:
“The dilemma posed by Humboldt has been an object of dispute until our time.
A. Fedorov expressed it again almost literally in our time [the turn of the 1920s and
1930s]: “The translator has either to use analogues from his own language soil, or to
approach a foreign, unusual verbal form; these are the two possible options for the
translator.” (Fedorov 1927, 117; as cited in Finkel´ 1929, 68; Finkel´s emphasis)
The term translation–compromise speaks for itself: this type of translation is the
result of a compromise between different translation principles, which targets a balanced
impartial approach. In his part of the 1930 book Iskusstvo perevoda (The art of
translation), Fedorov responded to Batiushkov’s search for the criteria of “adequate”
translation by putting forward the idea of “adequate” translation as a “full-fledged”
(polnotsennyĭ) translation and suggested compromising as a way to “successful
translation.”
In 1930, Fedorov viewed compromise as a combination of:
1)
2)
3)
preference for the native language (vernacularity, svoiemovnist´ in Zerov), when
the translator avoids all tracesof foreign language and expressions that are not
accepted in the language of translation;
preference for foreignness in translation, which consists in conveying other
people’s images and ideas as they are, introducing foreign words that may not be
completely understandable, reproducing the order of words and their arrangement
without mitigations, disregarding (maintaining intelligibility) the rules of one’s
native language;
preference for smoothed-out translation, which neither preserves the national
specifics of the original work, nor introduces specific features of the target
language (Chukovsky and Fedorov 1930, 115–130).
Fedorov saw each of the approaches taken separately as undesirable and thought
that combining them was key to make a translation “successful” (udachnyĭ perevod)
(119).
At the end of the 1920s, the term free translation used in relation to translations
of poetic works had rather negative connotations. Notably, in his 1929 monograph
Finkel´ strongly disapproved of translation related to the concept of “free translation”:
“Paraphrases and renditions (perespivy) have existed throughout the ages, but the best
paraphrase is always worse than the worst translation in terms of characterizing the
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original”25 (1929, 66). At that time, the terms “adapted translation” (adaptovanyĭ
pereklad) and “reworking” (pererobka) were tolerated only in translations for children
and young adults.
Concurrently, the question of translating classical poetry by means of free verse
is worthy of a separate mention. Evgeny Lann, the young Russian poet-translator who
had lived and studied in Ukraine, wrote in defense of free-verse translation as early as
1921: “Ten years of practice – and the poet will master the technique of verse. He will
learn to vary the rhythm, subordinating it to the thematic meaning of the phrase; he
will understand a simple truth: ... arbitrariness of the corset of strict verse” (Lann
2010, 9; as cited in Azov 2013, 62–63; footnote). Zerov as a translator preferred the
translation-analogue framework, and not a free-verse pattern, in his renderings of
strictly metrical, classical poetry.
The term translation-stylization originated from Derzhavyn’s 1927 article
“Problema virshovanoho perekladu,” which has been referred to earlier in the present
research. In his article, he defined a translation as “adequate” to the original if it
corresponded to its stylistic features and reflected them in one way or another.
Derzhavyn categorized translations according to their functions: communicative (the
main purpose: practical message, hence the type “translation-presentation”), cognitive
(the main purpose: scientific terminology, hence the type “translation-transcription”)
and artistic (the main purpose: sensory representation, transfer of external and
internal form of the language, hence the type “translation-stylization”) (Derzhavyn
1927, 45, 46, 47, 48).
Derzhavyn opposed “pale literary imprints” and equated “artistic translation”
with “translation-stylization,” believing that the artistic translation “must be, if
possible, literal – not in that every word of the original is translated separately, but
in the fact that the artistic value of every sentence, word, grammatical and phonetic
structure of the original should, if possible, be reflected in the style of the translation”26
(1927, 50–51). Derzhavyn’s argumentation for equating those two terms is as
follows:
the sound and grammatical possibilities of any language are so wide that if one
does not follow the usual “standardized” structure of the language and formulaic
literary “equality” [between the two languages], one can always select a combination
of linguistic elements that are more or less homogeneous to the structure of
a foreign poetic language. The proof of this lies in the unlimited possibilities of
stylization, which operates in the same ways as artistic translation. Therefore, we
can characterize the latter as “translation-stylization”.27 (1927, 48)
Parafrazy ta perespivy isnuvaly za vsi doby, ale naĭlipshyĭ parafraz zavzhdy hirshyĭ vid naĭpohanishoho
perekladu z pohliadu kharakteryzatsiї oryhinalu.
khudozhniĭ pereklad (pereklad-stylizatsiia) musyt´ buty, po mozhlyvosti, doslivnyĭ, – ne v tomu, shcho
kozhne slovo oryhinalu perekladaiet´sia zokrema, a v tomu, shcho khudozhnia tsinnist´ bud´-iakoho rechennia, slova, hramatychnoї ta fonetychnoї struktury oryhinalu povynna, po mozĭhlyvosti, znaĭty sobi
vidobrazhennia v styli perekladu.
zvukovi ta hramatychni mozhlyvosti bud´-iakoї movy nastil´ky shyroki, shcho koly ne doderzhuvatysia
zvychaĭnoї “standartyzovanoї” budovy movy, shablonnoї literaturnoї “rivnosty,” to zavzhdy mozhna pidshukaty kombinatsiiu iazykovykh elementiv, bil´sh abo mensh odnoridnykh strukturi chuzhoї poetychnoї
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Between censorship and nation building: the first Ukrainian lecture courses....
Stylizing translation, as it was described by Derzhavyn, can be viewed as
“exoticizing” translation and a higher stage of translation defined in Zerov as
“foreignized,” or “translation close to a foreign-text coloring”:
It is impossible to reproduce the structure of a foreign language accurately; but it
is possible to create something similar by successfully combining sound and
grammatical material of the native language. Of course, the language becomes
unusual, not completely clear, and partly artificial because of this: but it has to be
that way. A translator cannot convey the artistic side of a foreign language without
doing considerable violence to his own; therefore, he has the right to demand
significant effort from the reader.28 (1927, 47–48)
Preparing the lecture, Zerov wrote down a continuation of this fragment from
Derzhavyn’s article on a separate piece of paper to read it out to his students
(Illustration 2): “An easy translation is always a forgery, not a reproduction of the
artistic side of the original. Its easiness is false easiness, while a difficult translation
requires from the translator greater combinatorial abilities in the field of poetic
language, but, in principle, it can always create an impression more or less
corresponding to the artistic structure of the original” (1927, 48).
This quotation from Zerov’s handwritten notes to his lecture course on
translation methods is deposited in the archives of the Literary Museum of Hryhoriy
Kochur in Irpin.
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Illustration 2. A quotation from Derzhavyn’s article “Problema virshovanoho perekladu”
handwritten by Mykola Zerov
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movy. Dokazom ts´omu mozhe buty neobmezhena mozhlyvist´ stylizatsiї, shcho operuie tymy sposobamy,
shcho ĭ khudozhniĭ pereklad. Tomu ostanniĭ my mozhemo kharakteryzuvaty iak “pereklad-stylizatsiiu.”
Tochno vidtvoryty strukturu chuzhoї movy nemozhlyvo; ale mozhna utvoryty shchos´ podibne, vdalo
combinuiuchy zhukovyĭ ta hramatychnyĭ materiial, shcho ie v ridniĭ movi. Zvychaĭno, shcho mova staie
vid ts´oho ne zvychaĭnoiu, ne zovsim iasnoiu ta pochasty shtuchnoiu: ale tse tak i musyt´ buty. Perekladach
ne mozhe peredaty khudozhniĭ bik chuzhoї movy bez znachnoho nasyl´stva nad svoieiu vlasnoiu; tomu
vin i vid chytacha maie pravo vymahaty znachnoho napruzhennia.
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29
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The term translation–montage ties translation to the works of modernism and
visual and graphic features of poetic forms. Literary montage (the term “montage” is
borrowed from cinematography) is a combination of fragments of literary works with
other sources, such as memoirs, autobiographies, documentary evidence, critical
reviews, etc. (“Literaturnyĭ montazh” in Hrom’iak, Kovaliv and Teremko 2007, 407).
Literary montage was admired by many Zerov’s contemporaries. Among them
were the Futurists, in particular the members of the Russian writers’ association LEF
(Left Front of Arts), who asserted the factographic nature of arts. In 1922–1929,
branches of LEF existed not only in the cities of Russian Federation (Moscow and
others), but also in Russified cities of Ukrainian SSR, such as Odesa.29
It is worth mentioning that the concept of “translation-montage” was developed
by the Czech-Slovak school of translation in the 1960s–1970s, in particular in the
works of Jiří Levý and Anton Popovič. They viewed translation-montage as an exact
reproduction of the “moment of movement” caught by the author of the source text
in its psychological dynamics. In particular, Levý wrote about the importance of
accurate reproduction of associations present in the source text, or “the associative
montage” (Levý 2011, 117; Levý 1974, 166). Popovič included the notion of “compilative”
technique (calling it “montage” and/or “collage”) into his framework of “faithful”
translation (Popovič 1980, 151).
Translation studies terminology used and coined by Zerov was largely based on
the Ukrainian language models of term building. This terminology remains relevant
to contemporary discourses on translation. For instance, Zerov opposed the translator’s
orientation towards the target language and its originality (his term: svoiemovnist´)
and gave preference to the source language peculiarities (his term: chuzhomovnist´).
This conceptual opposition of the native language-centered strategy to the foreign
language-centered strategy correlates with the opposition between domesticating
(target-oriented) vs. foreignizing (source-oriented) strategies in Western theories of
translation.
It would be appropriate to mention here that in the early 1930s Soviet translation
theorists started discussing domestication and foreignization for purely political
motives. The strategy of domestication began to be associated with a “bourgeoisnationalist” love of the vernacular, while foreignization, on the other hand, came to
be correlated with proletarian internationalism, applied primarily to political discourses,
scientific and technical terminology, and nomenclature mediated by the Russian
language. Under the slogan of linguistic internationalism, Russification was actually
carried out. For political censorship reasons, Zerov had to publicly disapprove of the
orientation towards vernacular originality (svoiemovnist´) in conveying foreign
terminology and oppose it to the so-called “proletarian translator’s orientation
towards internationality” (Zerov 1932, 4).
In this respect, Zerov’s syllabus is a starting point to particularly interesting
discussions, such as the possibility or impossibility of adequate translation, the criteria
The LEF movement was preceded by Cubo-Futurism (also called Russian Futurism) that arose in the early
twentieth century first in the spheres of arts and later in poetry. It is also related to Ukrainian avant-garde.
Cubo-Futurism uses montage of images, fragmentation, and shifts in forms, textures, and colors as a way
to explore the possibilities of non-representational art.
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of accuracy in translating texts of different literary genres, the choice between focusing
on one’s own language culture or focusing on the language of the original. In the Soviet
Union, the discussion of internationalism in the transfer of terms essentially
amounted to the Russification of national languages; in the current geopolitical
situation, it raises a problem of linguistic dominance of lingua francas over minor
languages. In today’s translation studies, the discussion of one’s-own-languageness
(“originality”), or domesticating translation, vs. foreign-languageness, or alienating
translation, has become particularly acute and ambiguous depending on the languages
of the original and the translation. In particular, foreignization in translation into
a global language, such as English, is now associated with the anti-imperialist direction
of translation (Venuti 1995), while foreignization in translation from English into
a “minor” language, such as, for example, Catalan, can mean a colonial offensive
against this language (Pym 1998).
As indicated earlier, the second section of Zerov’s syllabus entitled “From the
History of Ukrainian Translation” covered three topics: “Translation in Ukraine
during the Feudal Era,” “Translation under Industrial Capitalism and Imperialism,”
and “Translation under the Dictatorship of the Proletariat” (see Chart 2). Developing
Finkel´’s ideas regarding the relation of the translation method to the general poetic
philosophy of a literary school,30 Zerov defined the Ukrainian literary translation
history in the context of national literary schools under different socio-political
systems. Zerov was the first to introduce the history of Ukrainian literary translation
into the structure of translation studies as a university discipline. A Ukrainian literature
historian, he viewed the history of literary translation as an integral segment of
national literature and recognized the translations by Ukrainian writers as part of
a broader historical context of national literary schools, traditions, and styles.
Zerov considered contemporary translation a branch of nation and culture
building and provided an overview of anthologies and complete collections of the
classics of world literature in Ukrainian translations. He emphasized the need for
careful planning of translations by the publishers (Knyhospilka cooperative publishing
union described as a positive example). He also spoke of the need for a bibliography
of translated literature of prose and poetry, children’s literature, school textbooks,
works on politics, sociology, and economics.
On the whole, despite the mandatory application of Marxist-Leninist political
clichés to linguistic phenomena, such as searching for the “class-based emotional
coloring” in synonyms, Zerov made a huge contribution to the development of
Ukrainian translation studies and the Soviet theory of translation. In particular, he
introduced into TS numerous terms and concepts from related fields, especially from
the theory and history of literature, linguistics, and art history. These were the
concepts of “social dialect,” “social and cultural relief of the word” and its “associative
saturation,” as well as stylistic techniques of “variation,” “explication,” “gradation,” etc.
(see Chart 2).
30
This idea is based on Finkel´’s study of aestheticism in the eras of Classicism and Romanticism in Western
Europe and the Russian Empire (on the Classical and Romantic theory of translation, see Chapter 1 of
Finkel´’s monograph Theory and Practice of Translation; 1929).
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Co n cl u si o n : Co n s o li da te d e f fo r t s o f Ka l y n ov ych a n d Z e rov
As can be seen from the contents of the Kalynovych and Zerov syllabi’s thematic
blocks (Charts 1 and 2), both lecture courses had to contain the Bolshevik rhetoric
and demonstrate loyalty to the latest ideological trends in the Communist Party’s
national and cultural policy; they also propagated socio-political proletarian views of
the language, literature, and translation studies.
In conclusion, it is important to emphasize that in such extremely unfavorable
and deteriorating political conditions professors Kalynovych and Zerov jointly created
the first Ukrainian map of translation studies and introduced its integral teaching at
the Ukrainian Institute of Linguistic Education. Their lecture courses on the general
and special issues of translation constituted a cycle of university disciplines in
translation studies. This program was the first in Ukraine and, most likely, in the entire
Soviet Union; it gave an outline of the diverse structure of translation studies.
A conceptual analysis of the two syllabi, “Methodology of Translation” and
“Methods of Translation,” encourages us to rethink the early Soviet theory of translation
and recognize the significant contribution of Ukrainian translation scholars. Kalynovych
and Zerov created the first holistic concept of translation studies, presenting it as
a modern science with a complex structure and close interdisciplinary links. My
attempt to map the consolidated efforts of Kalynovych and Zerov resulted in Charts
1 and 2, which illustrate their integrated approach to the methodology and methods
of translation.
Bound by the dogmas of proletarian propaganda, Ukrainian university professors
were practically devoid of academic freedom as early as the beginning of the 1930s.
Despite the mandatory Bolshevik rhetoric, Kalynovych and Zerov’s syllabi contain
promising ideas of early Soviet translation theory. Some of their ideas remained
relevant for later TS in the West, such as the training of translators, editors, and
translation reviewers, translation as professional activity, and stylistic multidimensionality of literary texts. Also relevant for today is the study of the translator’s social
profile and the function of translation, outlined separately in Zerov’s syllabus, as well
as the emphasis on the importance of distinguishing the socio-cultural features of
a word and the associations it evokes in different contexts. Problems of conveying
uncodified speech, social dialects, and colloquialisms also remain relevant for today.
The integrity of TS as a university discipline, as shown by Kalynovych and Zerov,
is based on theory, practice, and management of translation, with each branch
providing the logic and rationale for the other two. Remarkably, in many aspects the
syllabi by Kalynovych and Zerov correlate with the school of descriptive translation
studies, as they were the first to introduce the term “translation studies,” the exact
English equivalent of which was proposed only in the early 1970s (Holmes 1972
[1988]), as well as a holistic view of the structure of TS as a ramified discipline. The
integral model of TS as a separate discipline in Kalynovych and Zerov correlates with
the polysystem theory developed within the framework of descriptive translation
studies (Even-Zohar 1990). In addition to theoretical, methodological, and
organizational activities, this model also includes general history of translation,
national histories and traditions of translation, as well as the history of translation
studies. In particular, Zerov’s syllabus contained the section on the history of
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Between censorship and nation building: the first Ukrainian lecture courses....
translation in Ukraine. Kalynovych and Zerov were the first to outline the diverse
content of translation studies as a discipline with its theoretical, descriptive, and
applied fields. The latter embraced 1) methods of teaching translation, 2) organization
of translation work, and 3) publishing management of translated literature. In general,
Kalynovych and Zerov significantly expanded the field of TS. Some topics first
outlined in their syllabi were later rediscovered by Western translation scholars.
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kritik [Literary critic] 5: 148–169.
Azov, Andrey. 2013. Poverzhennye bukvalisty: Iz istorii khudozhestvennogo perevoda v SSSR
v 1920–1960–e gody [Defeated literalists. From the history of literary translation in the
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Studies, ed. by Mona Baker, 277–280. London and New York: Routledge.
Batiushkov, Fyodor, Nikolay Gumilev, and Korney Chukovsky. 1920. Printsipy khudozhestvennoho perevoda [Principles of literary translation], Petrograd: Gosudarstvennoe izdatel’stvo.
Chukovsky, Korney and Andrey Fedorov. 1930. Iskusstvo perevoda [The art of translation].
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Dzhuhastrians´ka, Iuliia and Maksym Strikha. 2015. “Vazhlyva pam’iatka z istoriї ukraїns´koho
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Even-Zohar, Itamar. 1990. “Polysystem Theory.” Poetics Today: International Journal for Theory
and Analysis of Literature and Communication. Tel Aviv: Schenkman Publishing Company,
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Finkel´, Olexandr. 1929. Teoriia i praktyka perekladu [Theory and practice of translation].
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tvoriv Lenina” [Nationalistic distortions in Ukrainian translations of the works of Lenin].
Movoznavstvo, 2: 9–24.
Kal´nychenko, Oleksandr and Nataliia Kamovnikova. 2020. “Navchannia perekladu: instytuts´ki
prohramy z perekladoznavstva pochatku 1930–ykh rokiv” [Teaching translation:
academic courses in translation theory and practice of the early 1930s]. Visnyk KHNU
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Kalnychenko, Oleksandr and Nataliia Kalnychenko. 2020. “Campaigning against the
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z istoriї ukraїns´koho perekladoznavstva” [An important document from the history of
Ukrainian translation studies]. Novyĭ Proteĭ 1: 133–135.
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Materialy do kursu “Istoriia perekladu” [Ukrainian literary translation and translators in
the 1920s-1930s: “History of translation” course materials]. Vinnytsia: Nova Knyha.
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[Mykola Zerov’s unpublished manuscripts from Hryhoriy Kochur’s archives]. Visnyk of
the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Foreign philology 1(53): 5–15.
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by Vladimir Rossels, ed. by Miron Kharlap. Moskva: Progress.
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Amsterdam – Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Molotkina, Valentyna. 2016. “Osoblyvosti orhanizatsiĭnoho stanovlennia ta funktsionuvannia
derzhavnykh vydavnytstv v USRR (20–i rr. XX st.) [Specifics of the organizational
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Mysechko, Olha. 2007. “Spetsial´ni linhvistychni navchal´ni zaklady iak nova forma pidhotovky
v Ukraїni vykladachiv inozemnykh mov u 30–kh rokakh XX st. [Special linguistic
educational institutions as a new form of training of foreign language teachers in Ukraine
in the 1930s].” Istoriia pedahohichnoї dumky, 2, 34–37.
Popovič, Anton. 1980. Problemy khudozhestvennogo perevoda, ed. by Pavel Toper, tr. by Inna
Bernshteĭn and Irina Cherniavskaia. Moskva: Vysshaia shkola.
Pym, Anthony. 1998. Method in Translation History. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing.
Smirnov, Aleksandr and Mikhail Alekseev. 1934. “Translation.” In Literaturnaia ėntsiklopediia,
Vol. 8, 512–532. Moscow: Sovetskaia entsiklopedia.
Toury, Gideon. 2012. Descriptive Translation Studies – and beyond. Amsterdam and Philadelphia:
John Benjamins.
Venuti, Lawrence. 1995. The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation. London and New
York: Routledge.
Zerov, Mykola. 1932. “Metodyka perekladu” [Methods of translation]. Typescript. From the
archives of the Literary Museum of Hryhoriy Kochur in Irpin. No archival data. Published
by the present author: Kolomiyets, Lada. 2021. “Pershodruk materialiv Mykoly Zerova
z arkhivu Hryhoriia Kochura [Mykola Zerov’s unpublished manuscripts from Hryhoriy
Kochur’s archives].” Visnyk of the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. Foreign
philology 1(53): 13–15.
AB S T RACT
The paper analyzes the first Ukrainian lecture courses on the general issues and methodology
of translation and on methods of literary and non-literary translation into Ukrainian,
developed by Mykhailo Kalynovych and Mykola Zerov for the Ukrainian Institute of Linguistic
Education in September 1932. The paper discusses both the theoretical and terminological
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Between censorship and nation building: the first Ukrainian lecture courses....
innovations and the rhetorical features of these courses in the context of the early Soviet period.
It dwells on the contribution of these programs to shaping of translation studies as an
interdisciplinary subject in the system of higher education.
Keywords: Lecture course syllabus. Methodology and methods of translation. Translation
studies as science and university discipline.
CO NTACT D ETAI LS :
Lada Kolomiyets, Dr. Sci. (Philol.), Prof.
Department of Theory and Practice of Translation from English
Educational and Scientific Institute of Philology
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
14 Taras Shevchenko Blvd.
01601 Kyiv
Ukraine
ladakolomiyets@gmail.com; l.kolomiiets@knu.ua
ORCID:0000-0002-8327-6672
89
ATTACH ÉS O F U KR A INI AN C U LTU R E
IN ES TO NI A
A n ne La n ge
Since the Orange Revolution of 2004, news about Ukraine and its politicians have been
browsed intensively in the awareness that developments in the country in Europe
affect Europe’s possibilities to advance its goal of a ‘union’. Monographs and collections
published on Ukraine in recent years are abundant (Kvit 2015, Reid 2015, Yekelchyk
2015, Moussienko 2016, Dalla Mora 2019, among others) and enable a more
thoughtful reading. But the war of 2022 came to many Europeans still as unexpected;
it was followed by the feeling of helpless shock when its atrocities became known. This
short article will trace the presence of Ukraine in Estonia and introduces some of the
Estonian translators of Ukrainian poetry who have kept us in contact with the mental
milieu of Ukraine. Who were/are the Estonian translators of Ukrainian literature and
what could have been their motivation and systemic support they could rely on in their
work? Translators as agents of translation inevitably interact with their social
environment that either encourages or shuns them. Alongside the attachés of Ukrainian
culture available in Estonia, the article gives an overview of the contribution of
Ukrainian translation scholars in advancing our knowledge of the history of translation
studies through their English language presentations in international forums held in
Estonia.
Uk ra i n e i n E s to n i a i n 1917
It is fair to begin with the politics of the early twentieth century that inaugurated
Estonian intellectuals’ steady interest in the social developments in Ukraine. There is
a series of articles by Jüri Vilms (1889–1918)1 that are well preserved in Estonian
political history. eir inclusion in this article requires a non-traditional understanding
of translation, which is not restricted to close rendering of oral or written prototexts
that have led to translation, but functions as an ideological and political form of
cultural production. Originating from his contacts with Ukrainian politicians and
following the developments in Russia by reading Russian government decrees
and newspapers, Vilms informed Estonian readers about the advancement of the
1
Vilms was a lawyer by education (he studied law at Tartu in 1907–1911) and owned a law firm. After the
1917 February revolution, he was mostly engaged in politics, publishing numerous articles demanding
autonomy for Estonia within the Russian empire. He was one of the authors of the Estonian declaration of
independence, issued on 24 February 1918. Vilms was assassinated on 2 May 1918 in Hämeenlinna,
Southern Finland, where he had volunteered to travel in order to deliver funds to Estonian missions that
were working towards the achievement of the diplomatic recognition of the newly declared sovereign
Estonian state. The assassins were probably Swedish volunteers in the Finnish War of Independence who
mistook Vilms for a Bolshevik.
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Attachés of Ukrainian сulture in Estonia
Ukrainian course. What was it but translation? Most Estonians at that time still needed
translational information even though the late nineteenth century russification had
introduced Russian as the language of education at all levels, primary schools
included.
On 21 June 1917 Vilms published an article in an Estonian newspaper Päevaleht
[The daily paper] entitled “Russian Government and Ukrainian People.” In the article,
he discussed implementation and non-implementation of the eight paragraphs of the
Declaration of the Provisional Government, which included a commitment to waive
national restrictions. The negotiations between the Provisional Government and the
Ukrainian Central Rada on Ukrainian autonomy showed no attempt to fulfill the
commitment at all. Vilms gives an overview of his meeting with a Ukrainian delegate
in a congress of Estonian military, as well as of the contents of the Rada’s First
Universal. He concludes his article by stating that
So far, Russian democracy does not understand that Russia’s future is about the
free self-determination of its peoples. If the Russian government and democracy
follow their own way in national issues, peoples must also find their way.
Ukrainian people have directed us all to it. Long live free Ukraine! When the
Russian government and democracy do not change their position on national
issues, Estonia must follow the path Ukraine has chosen. (Vilms 1917a)2
In December, after the Bolshevik coup, Vilms published an article on the new
administration of Russia with a focus on the self-determination of the peoples within
the former empire. He wrote:
Ukraine has always strived for running its life independently. Ukraine has never
intervened in the internal affairs of others. But now the Bolsheviks demand it to
set up a government of the Soviets of Soldiers and Workers in their country.
Ukraine cannot let Cossacks go home to the Don but is obligated to let Bolshevik
troops cross their country so that they can go and establish the Soviet power in
the region. Ukraine did not abide by these demands because they severely
infringed on its self-determination, and the result was that the Bolshevik
government in Smolny declared war on Ukraine. (Vilms 1917b)
Vilms does not dwell in detail on the history of Ukraine, but these quotes do
impress as resonant today. In 1998, his publicist articles were collected and issued
anew in a prestigious series Eesti mõttelugu [Estonian intellectual history] under the
title Kahe ilma vahel [Between the two worlds]. The more than 500-page volume is
on the reading list for Estonian students of history and international relations,
contributing to their realization that translational activities are social processes that
are systemically related to the cultural and political endeavors of the writer. In his
articles, Vilms combined the existential needs of Ukraine and Estonia and encouraged
Estonians by the example of Ukraine to look for a way to get out of Russia’s imperial
pretensions.
2
All translations into English are by the present author.
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Uk ra i n i an p o et r y i n Es to n i a
The prime translator of Ukrainian poetry into Estonian is Harald Rajamets
(1924–2007). Rajamets translated from Ukrainian, Russian, German, English,
Italian, Polish, Danish, Swedish, and Lithuanian, including Shakespeare’s sonnets
and poems and Dante’s Divine Comedy. In all the Who’s Who reference books of
Estonian culture, his translations from Ukrainian are mentioned first, because
he himself considered these most important. Ukrainian poetry, unlike Shakespeare,
was novel in Estonia.
In 1944, Rajamets was conscripted by age into the German army; he spent 1945
and 1946 in prison camps in Germany, Belgium, and France; in 1947, back in his
homeland, he began his studies of Finno-Ugric languages at the University of Tartu,
which he had to leave because of the threat of repressions due to his dubious past. In
1950s, he lived in Ukraine, doing odd jobs. This is where his knowledge of the
Ukrainian language and interest in the Ukrainian culture come from.
In 1966, Rajamets published a selection of contemporary Ukrainian poetry
entitled Kõnelus gloobusega [A conversation with the globe] in the most prestigious
series of literary translations in Estonia, Loomingu Raamatukogu [The library of
creativity]. It included translations of thirty-three poets, who had published their
poems in 1960–1965, selected by Rajamets from Ukrainian journals, newspapers, and
almanacs. The title of the collection comes from Borys Oliynyk’s poem, where the
narrator talks to the “cardboard head” asking it why there is no Zatshepylivka, his
home village, on the globe, thus highlighting the obvious: the globe is a schematic
abstraction that does not mirror human life. In his introduction to the volume,
Rajamets describes Ukrainian poetry as romantic in its character and admits this is
akin to his tastes (1966, 3).
The same year, in 1966, there also came out a collection of translated poems of
Maksym Rylski entitled as Roosid ja viinapuud [Roses and wine trees]; he published
his translations of Lesya Ukrainka Aoeelsed tuled [Light before dawn] in 1971, Mykola
Vingranovsky’s poems as Armastuse akna all [Under the windows of love] in 1975,
Ivan Drach’s collection Südame kaugusel [Close to the heart] in 1978, Ivan Franko’s
Varastatud õnn [Stolen happiness] and Dmytro Pavlychko’s Vaade kaevu [A look into
a well] in 1985, and Lina Kostenko’s Kordumatus [Uniqueness] in 1990. Several of his
translations from Ukrainian authors (Vingranovsky, Drach, Pavlychko, Kostenko)
were published in the series Soviet Poetry, which, being a good publishing opportunity,
did not automatically brand the authors or their translators into mainstream Soviets.
The series Soviet Poetry was a loophole for Rajamets to render the Ukrainian poets he
appreciated in his mother tongue.
In 2004, Rajamets published a 500-page collection of his translations he had
compiled himself. Such translation anthologies are rare in Estonia, and this
opportunity is offered only to the greatest masters. The volume is chronological,
i.e. translations are not grouped by languages or cultures. Of the Ukrainian authors,
he has included Taras Shevchenko, Stepan Rudansky, Ivan Franko, Lesya Ukrainka,
Maksym Rylski, Andriy Malyshko, Igor Muratov, Dmytro Pavlychko, Lina
Kostenko, Vasyl Symonenko, Borys Oliynyk, Ivan Drach, Mykola Vinhranovsky,
and Oleksandr Zavgorodniy.
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Attachés of Ukrainian сulture in Estonia
The previous paragraphs look like a catalogue, but this is to show that Rajamets
remained a dedicated spokesperson of Ukrainian poetry for decades. In an interview
given to Estonian Radio, he confessed to his belief that “a god’s hand took me to those
poets, and I am happy that these translations appeared, whatever the series” (Rajamets
1994). Introducing Ivan Drach’s poems in his selected translations collection,
Rajamets comments that “... his poems are often so close to his home that they cannot
resound in the land of their translation, therefore the selection includes primarily
more general and lyric poems” (Rajamets 2004, 434). It is true that the twenty-two
translations by Drach included in the volume can be easily read without footnotes.
Lyric poetry and close observance of its rhythm patterns including rhyme was
a distinctive attribute of Rajamets’s work throughout his career. This is one of the
reasons why his translations have not been forgotten. They are abundantly recycled
in contemporary blogs with references to the volumes these were initially published
(e.g. Sulepuru 2022). Therefore, Rajamets was a highly influential representative of
the Ukrainian mindstyle in Estonia.
Recent political developments have enlarged the list of people who translate
Ukrainian poetry. With those translators in mind, it is helpful to think of the concept of
telos as introduced by Andrew Chesterman: “We have become accustomed to use the
term skopos to denote the intended effect of a translation. We might also make use of the
companion term telos to denote the personal motivation of translators” (2009, 17).
In 2019 Mathura, an Estonian author, artist, and translator from Hindi, English,
and other languages published a translation of Lyubov Yakymchuk’s poetry collection
“Apricots of Donbas.” Yakimchuk both selected the poems for the Estonian edition
and wrote a new introduction for the volume. Mathura wrote in his afterword,
Speaking of the communicative value, I feel that apart from other cultures it is
important to maintain the Estonian dialogue with the literatures with which we
share a common history, including the common post-Soviet cultural space. We
understand that, like us, they found their own ways to manage the social-political
situation, which gave birth to new cultural expressions. (Mathura 2019, 74)
This paragraph partly reminds us of what Jüri Vilms wrote a hundred years ago:
common history and thus common sensitivity are good grounds for understanding
what people in Ukraine do.
Activism as an effort to promote or impede changes in society can take many forms.
Mathura’s collection of translations was not activist in the sense that it aimed at bringing
about political change, but it is a token of the translator’s moral agency (Mathura is also
the publisher of the collection) and his selectivity of what to translate and when.
The 2022 March issue of Looming [Creativity], the monthly magazine of the
Estonian Writers’ Union, included a selection where both Estonian and Ukrainian
authors wrote on Ukraine. There were fourteen pieces: poems and a short story by an
Estonian writer. Among the Ukrainian authors were both those from Ukraine and
those living in Estonia. It was an immediate reaction to what had happened in
February. The poems – like the translations of Mathura – “filled the gap between the
coverage of the war in news items and the personal emotional reality of people”
(Mathura 2019, 74). The authors translated were Artem Polezhaka, Julia Musakovska,
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I I . O N H I S TO R I C A L J U S T I C E I N T R A N S L AT I O N S T U D I E S
Serhiy Zhadan, Alex Averbuch, Halyna Kruk, Dmitri Strotsev, Yaroslav Dovgan, and
Katya Novak. Their translators were Maarja Kangro, poet, short story writer, and
essayist; Anna Verschik, professor of linguistics at Tallinn University, and translator
from Yiddish; Igor Kotyuh, tri-lingual poet living in Estonia, writing in Russian,
Estonian, and Ukrainian; and Ellen Dovgan, translator between Ukrainian and Estonian,
who lives in Estonia and studies translatability on the example of Ukrainian-Estonian
translations of fiction.
Translations from Ukrainian at present are activist in the sense that they resist
overtly to the political catastrophe in Ukraine like the authors they translate. Rajamets
had no other option than to play the emotion down, the way Estonian writers had to
conceal the situation in Estonia knowing that their readers would contextualize their
words. As activism implies “deliberate intent or action” (Bandia 2020, 515), it can be
said that whenever a translator and/or an editor/or a publisher initiates a translation,
it is a form of literary activism that parallels other attempts to reconfigure the prevailing
social and cultural situation. Julia Musakovska’s lines “Хочеться вмерти, але
доводиться говорити / ротом, повним каміння і цвяхів, / ротом, повним крові”
[I’d like to die but have to speak, / with my mouth full of stones and nails, / a mouth full
of blood], were posted by Anna Verschik in her Estonian translation on her Facebook
page on 1 May 2022, “Tahaks surra, aga tuleb rääkida / kive ja naelu täis suuga, / verd
täis suuga.” On 13 April 2022, Anna Verschik asked, in her translation, together with
Julia Musakovska, “Kes ütles, et sõnadel pole praegu kaalu? [...] Meie sõnad / püüdlevad
meie lähedaste poole” / “Хто сказав, що слова зараз не мають ваги? [...] Наші слова
/ тягнуться до близьких” [Who said that words carry no weight at present? [...] Our
words / strive to reach our cognates]. Facebook networks are of significance for the
translators of the early 2022, Anna Verschik told me, – and these are not limited to
Ukrainian-Estonian contacts but also include translators of Ukrainian poetry from
Belorussia, Lithuania, and others. Poetry exists to boost morale, and translation
amongst political atrocities reminds us that society has other functions outside politics.
Poetry is an expression of compassion and concern, and although it is not enough in
wartime, as Ellen Dovgan posted on her Facebook page on 25 February 2022, its
absence would be as dreadful as the absence of fiscal help to Ukraine.
When Andrew Chesterman charted his map for translator studies, he differentiated
its cultural, cognitive, and sociological branches (2009, 19). The first one includes,
among other ideologies, ethics, history, networks, and institutions. These aspects
interplay in the work of translators: translators are agents of translation, whether
supported or not by their networks and institutions. Translators of Ukrainian poetry
into Estonian have made the best use of the latter: under their different political
circumstances, both Harald Rajamets and Anna Verschik found a way to reach the
Estonian readership whose intellectual interests, far from provincial, yet need
translational mediation to comprehend Ukraine.
T he p res en ce o f U krai n i a n tra ns l at i o n s t u di e s i n E s to n i a
In Estonia, translation became a field of academic research first in the 1930s (Annist,
Saar 1936), and then, more extensively, in the 1960s within Slavic studies at the
University of Tartu. Estonian researchers almost entirely omitted references to
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Attachés of Ukrainian сulture in Estonia
Ukrainian scholars in the Russian language publications of the late twentieth century.
There may be a few isolated cases like in Peeter Torop’s Тотальный перевод [Total
Translation] (1995), which contains two references to Oleksandr Finkel, but no proper
discussion of the work of Ukrainian scholars or their contribution to the intellectual
history of the discipline took place at that time. Thus, next to nothing had been known
in Estonia about translation studies in Ukraine until the 2010 conference on translation
history in Tallinn, where Oleksandr Kalnychenko presented his paper “A Sketch of the
Ukrainian History of Translation of the 1920s.” In his presentation, Kalnychenko
pointed out the importance of finding a way to introduce historical research to
students of translation studies. In his view, historical knowledge prevents from
dogmatism and leads to circumspection with seemingly new ideas. The latter is what
Brian Baer reiterated throughout his article “On origins: the mythistory of translation
studies and the geopolitics of knowledge.” According to Baer, there has been no linear
advancement of translation research from James S. Holmes’ paper in Copenhagen in
1972 up to its present healthy and versatile state; instead, we have a ramifying network
of discourses on translation that have been pursued across the world and originated
much earlier than the Copenhagen Congress, the legendary site of the birth of
translation studies (2020).
Kalnychenko illustrated his statement that historical knowledge would make
researchers more modest about the originality of their inventions with an example
from a later period. He referred to Mykola Lukash’s 1956 speech on unique items, as
we call them now. Unique items are linguistic commonalities of the target language
that are absent in the source language and tend to be absent also in translations. This
is what editors of translations work with daily (probably also all over the world),
encouraging translators to use grammatical and lexical possibilities that are available
in the language they write in but are not present in the language they translate from.
It may be just that the vocabularies of scholars and translators/editors do not coincide,
as the latter are not too willing to peruse academic terminology.
In Ukraine, the situation seems to have been different. Speaking about the
forgotten findings of the executed intellectuals of the renaissance period in Ukraine
when translation was treated as an integral part of the target culture, Kalnychenko
called these translators scholars of cultural and translation studies. Translation studies,
perekladoznavstvo, was in the curriculum of universities in Ukraine in the early 1930s,
largely due to the initiatives of translators. The list of names referred to in the paper
was impressive: Mykola Zerov, Mykhailo Kalynovych, Volodymyr Samiylenko, Ivan
Kulyk, Pavlo Fylypovych, Oleksandr Finkel, Mykola Lukash, Hryhoriy Kochur, to list
just a few. As we archived the conference with a selection of its papers and edited the
volume (Chalvin, Lange, and Monticelli 2011), we had doubts about the abundance
of facts in the article. Actually, Kalnychenko himself wrote in his article that “there is
a possibility, even a need, for several varieties of translation history with regard to their
target audience” (2011, 255). We therefore suggested some omissions, but not extensive,
and the initial article turned out to be only two hundred words longer than the one
published.
The review of the volume appeared three years later, in The Translator of 2014. It
was written by Franco Nasi of Modena University. Being, by and large, appreciative of
the volume, Nasi dwelled most extensively on Kalnychenko’s chapter.
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It is indeed quite surprising to read about the intense translation activity that took
place in Ukraine between 1918 and 1933, the first 15 post-revolutionary years, in
a period of apparently vibrant “national revival”. All this happened just before the
gloomy period of restrictive Bolshevik control over Ukrainian culture that
ushered in the Stalinist regime in which Soviet cultural policy limited translation
from other languages and imposed Russian as the privileged intermediary
language. (Nasi 2014, 137–138)
Nasi was impressed by the long list of books translated into Ukrainian in the
1920s from many languages, and the original Ukrainian contributions to translation
theory during the same decade: perekladoznavstvo, as it has been mentioned above,
was established as an academic discipline, and numerous studies were undertaken on
the historical and social aspects of translation, including readership reception, the
influence of translated literature on the target poetic and stylistic norms, and other
themes. His obvious conclusion was that it was necessary to reflect in detail on
translation practice in other less known languages and cultures that have had centuries
of experience in translation. English as the present lingua franca has, indeed, won the
battle of languages for the time being, but this does not mean that our narrations of
translation studies and its history should rely basically on the available English
language sources “as a sort of neutral and theoretically unchangeable scenario” (Nasi
2014, 138).
There is no feeling of the end of history in this review even though it would be
cost-effective to reduce our knowledge of translation studies to English-language
readers and handbooks. Nasi ends his review of Kalnychenko’s article by quoting his
final paragraph:
In the 1920s, translation scholars in Ukraine were conceptualizing translation in
terms very similar to those taken up more recently by Western translation
scholars. If mainstream (and often English-language) translation studies were
more familiar with other translation traditions, they would be more moderate
and balanced in their claims and could have saved time and effort in a common
enterprise of trying to define translation. (Kalnychenko 2011, 265)
Nasi calls the paragraph provocative but still repeats Goethe’s dictum from
Wilhelm Meisters Wanderjahre that Kalnychenko had used in his article, “all intelligent
thoughts have already been thought; what is necessary is only to think them again.”
There were three more international conferences in the Itineraries in Translation
History series, the second one in Tallinn (2012), the other two in Tartu (2014, 2018).
The Ukrainian presentations deserve mentioning here, as they informed the audience
better about the significance of translation in Ukraine and the long history of
translation studies in the country.
In 2012, Oleksandr Kalnychenko presented his paper “Ukrainian translation in
the 1920s–1950s under Stalin’s regime,” which showed how Soviet cultural policies
deprived the Ukrainian language of its free development and caused a formation of
a kind of parallel language, abundant in loans from Russian. In the same conference
Maksym Strikha in his paper “Literary translation and the shaping of modern
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Attachés of Ukrainian сulture in Estonia
Ukrainian identity” joined the discussion of translation studies and postcolonial
theory by giving his examples of leading Ukrainian authors, both classical and
contemporary (Panko Kulish, Lesia Ukrainka, Ivan Franko, Mykola Zerov, Maksym
Rylsky, Hryhorij Kochur, Mychajlo Moskalenko), who were writers, literary
translators, and scholars at the same time. The statement visualized itself for the
present author several years later, in 2019, during the tenth international conference
on major issues in translation studies in Kharkiv, when Ukrainian translators came in
for their meeting. Dignified middle-aged gentlemen with their leather portfolios,
moderate but determined in their demeanor, these people were no puppets of
commercial publishing houses but intellectuals who would not compromise the
reputation of their trade.
In 2014, we had with us Lada Kolomiyets from Kyiv with her comparative review
of literary translation policies in the 1920s and 1990s. She focused on the two national
renaissance decades, nation building, and Ukrainization and observed that the share
of printed books of translation books decreased in the late twentieth century. The
reasons in the digital age are obvious: other means of communication are abundant
and people prefer audiovisual media to serve their cultural needs. Anastasiya Vassylyk
from Lviv spoke in 2014 about literary translation in the interwar period stating that
the role of Ukrainian literary translation was not limited to aesthetic and informative
functions but shaped the national identity and, ultimately, facilitated nation-building
in Ukraine. Whatever part of Ukraine the researchers come from, they share the
conviction that translators are not translating for the sake of translation but for
Ukraine or its adversaries. Maksym Strikha’s presentation of 2014 focused on
Ukrainian language policy in the years 1991–2013. The 2010 presidential elections
when Viktor Yanukovych was elected president put an end to the twenty comfortable
years when publications of translations were often funded by Western institutions and
new private publishing houses offered new opportunities. In his abstract, Strikha says,
Although Ukrainian is still treated as the only official language, the interpretation
for the ministers of the Ukrainian government (mainly representatives of
business and criminal elites of the Russian speaking Donetsk region) during
international events is commonly provided into Russian. Therefore, the social
dilemma between Ukrainian and Russian translation in Ukraine is now strongly
correlated with the wider civilization choice between Europe and Russia. (The
online abstract is no more available.)
From the papers by Ukrainian scholars, we learned that “the history of translation
studies is a personified and dramatized translation theory where every scholarly
conception has a label with its names, dates, and specific circumstances of its
emergence” (Kalnychenko 2011, 255). And we also learned that there is little reason
to celebrate in 2022 the fiftieth anniversary of translation studies (fifty years from the
Copenhagen conference), as it was suggested a few times.
“Can translation change history?” Kalnychenko and Kolomiyets ask in their
article on translation in Ukraine during the Stalinist period that was published in the
volume Translation under Communism in 2022 (Kalnychenko and Kolomiyets 2022,
141). They cannot give a definite answer to their question because their research shows
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I I . O N H I S TO R I C A L J U S T I C E I N T R A N S L AT I O N S T U D I E S
that it can both change and save history. Like war. What is clear from this article,
however, is that literary translation has for decades been a conscious form of resistance
to the russification of Ukrainian culture.
Co n cl u si o n
The article brought together political, aesthetic, and academic attachés of Ukraine in
Estonia. Translation – from Russian into Estonian in the case of Jüri Vilms, from
Ukrainian into Estonian in the case of poetry translations, and from Ukrainian into
English in the case of academic research – has been the key for the realization that
Ukraine is a battlefield of choice between Europe and Russia. Nothing doing, the
opposition has not become obsolete. Translation has been the cultural attaché in all
those spheres of contacts and enhanced the ability of readers in Estonia to understand
what Ukraine has been, is, and can be.
RE F ERE NCE S
Annist, August, and Gustav Saar. 1936. Jean Paul ja Witschel. Akadeemilise Kirjandusühingu
toimetised. Publikationen der Akademischen Literarischen Vereinigung zu Tartu XI. Acta
et Commentationes Universitatis Tartuensis (Dorpatensis) B XXXIX3. Tartu: Akadeemilise
Kirjandusühingu Kirjastus.
Baer, Brian. 2020. “On origins: the mythistory of translation studies and the geopolitics of
knowledge.” The Translator 26, 3: 221–240.
Bandia, Paul F. 2020. “Afterword. Postcolonialism, activism, and translation.” In The Routledge
Handbook of Translation and Activism, ed. by Rebecca Ruth Gould and Kayvan
Tahmasebian, 515–520. London and New York: Routledge.
Black, Joseph Laurence, Michael Johns, and Aland D. Theriault, eds. 2016. The Return of the
Cold War: Ukraine, the West, and Russia. London and New Work: Routledge.
Chalvin, Antoine, Anne Lange, and Daniele Monticelli, eds. 2011. Between Cultures and
Texts/Entre les cultures et les textes: Itineraries in Translation History/Itineraires en histoire
de la traduction. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Chesterman, Andrew. 2009. “The Name and Nature of Translator Studies.” Hermes – Journal
of Language and Communication Business 22, 42: 13–22. DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7146/hjlcb.v22i42.96844.
Dalla Mora, Maddalena. 2019. From the Euromaidan to the Hybrid War in the Donbass: An
Analysis of the Ukraine Crisis and the Determinants of Russian Foreign Policy. Saarbrücken:
AV Akademikerverlag.
Kalnychenko, Oleksandr. 2011. “A Sketch of Ukrainian History of Translation of the 1920s.” In
Between Cultures and Texts/Entre les cultures et les textes: Itineraries in Translation
History/Itineraires en histoire de la traduction, ed. by Antoine Chalvin, Anne Lange, and
Daniele Monticelli, 255–267. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang.
Kalnychenko, Oleksandr, and Lada Kolomiyets. 2022. “Translation in Ukraine during the
Stalinist Period: Literary Translation Policies and Practices.” In Translation under
Communism, ed. by Christopher Rundle, Anne Lange, and Daniele Monticelli, 141–172.
London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Kvit, Serhiy. 2015. The Battlefront of Civilizations: Education in Ukraine. Kyiv: Kyiv–Mohyla
Academy.
Mathura. 2019. “Ljubov Jakõmtšuk ja tema kaotatud trööstitu paradiis” [Lyubov Yakymchuk
98
Attachés of Ukrainian сulture in Estonia
and her lost desolate paradise]. In Donbassi aprikoosid ja teisi luuletusi by Ljubov
Jakõmtšuk, 73–75. Tallinn: Allikaäärne.
Moussienko, Natalia. 2016. Art of Maidan. Trans. by Andriy Kulykov. Kyiv: Huss.
Nasi, Franco. 2014. “Between cultures and texts. Entre les cultures et les textes. Itineraries in
translation history/Itinéraires en histoire de la traduction, edited by Antoine Chalvin,
Anne Lange and Daniele Monticelli.” The Translator 20, 1: 136–141. DOI: 10.1080/
13556509.2014.899089.
Rajamets, Harald. 1994. “Tõlkijad.” [Translators] ERR. Arhiiv. Kultuur. Accessed on June 15,
2022. https://arhiiv.err.ee/vaata/tolkijad-tolkijad-harald-rajamets.
Rajamets, Harald. 2004. Pegasos ja peegel. Valimik tõlkeluulet [Pegasus and mirror. Selected
translations]. Tallinn: Eesti Keele Sihtasutus.
Reid, Anna. 2015. Borderland: A Journey through the History of Ukraine. New York: Basic Books.
Sulepuru. 2022. “Ukraina luule”[Ukrainian poetry]. In Luuleleid. Accessed June 18, 2022.
https://luuleleid.wordpress.com/category/ukraina-luule/.
Torop, Peeter [Тороп, Пеэтер]. 1995. Тотальный перевод [Total Translation]. Tartu: Tartu
University Press.
Vilms, Jüri. 1917a. “Vene valitsus ja ukraina rahvas” [Russian Government and Ukrainian
People]. Päevaleht [Daily Paper], 21 June, 2.
Vilms, Jüri. 1917b. “Enamlaste valitsus ja rahvaste enesemääramine” [Bolshevik Government
and Self-Determination of Peoples]. Päevaleht [Daily Paper], 12 December, 1.
Yekelchyk, Serhy. 2015. The Conflict in Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know. New York:
Oxford University Press.
AB S TR ACT
The article traces some of the contacts of Estonian intellectuals with Ukraine, all of them relying
on translation. In 1917, after the February and October revolutions in Russia, Estonian
politicians followed closely the strive for independence in Ukraine and set it as a pattern for
Estonia. During the Soviet occupation, Ukrainian poetry had a dedicated translator in Estonia
in the person of Harald Rajamets, the translator of Dante and Shakespeare. Since 2004 when
interest in the political developments in Ukraine increased, it has been accompanied by
translations of Ukrainian poetry to reveal the mental atmosphere in the country; during the
years of the ongoing war, abundant translations circulate in Facebook. Academic contacts with
Ukrainian translation scholars have considerably improved our knowledge of the rich academic
tradition of Ukrainian translation research and changed radically the notion of Soviet
translation studies as a monolithic and unified field.
Keywords: Translation as cultural production. Telos of translation. Networks of translation.
Ukrainian poetry in Estonia. Ukrainian translation studies.
CO NTAC T D ETA IL S :
Anne Lange, Associate Professor of Translation Studies
School of Humanities
Narva mnt 25
10120 Tallinn
Estonia
anne.lange@tlu.ee
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III. ON METHODOLOGICAL ASPECT S
OF TR AN SL ATI ON
ME TH ODO LO GY O F S PEC IA LI SE D
TRANSLATOR AND INTERPRETER TRAINING
I N U K R AIN E
Le on id C h er nova t y
This article deals with a brief overview of the development of translator and
interpreter training methodology in Ukraine. The discussion will be limited to
specialised translation and interpreting. Besides, it is the methodology as a science,
and not the translator and interpreter training in general, that will be reviewed here,
as the history of the latter is much longer. According to the available research
(Kalnychenko and Kalnychenko 2021), the first attempts to compile translatortraining curricula in Ukraine were recorded back in the 1930s, while the full-fledged
translator and interpreter training programs started in the early 1960s when
translation departments were opened in Kyiv (Taras Shevchenko National University,
1962) and Kharkiv (V.N. Karazin National University, 1966).
There was practically no experience of such training in those centres, as well as
in the country in general. Literary translation did exist, of course, but translators of
literature did not receive any special training, they just emerged due to natural
selection. Therefore, it was up to the teachers, who had some experience in the
translation of fiction or technical literature, to determine the content and methods of
training. The teaching system itself was mostly based on the medieval master-disciple
model, where the master (teacher) was the undisputed authority and the disciple
(student) tried to borrow at least some of the enormous wisdom possessed by the
master. The content of teaching conducted by different instructors was poorly
coordinated, so the overall efficiency of the translator’s professional competence
development mostly depended on the students’ extra-curricular work.
For the time being, this system had functioned relatively satisfactorily. e number
of students at the two centres was relatively small, as the opening of the new translator
training schools was prohibited for ideological reasons. e students’ motivation was
extremely high, as they had a realistic chance to get reasonably well paid jobs abroad,
which was an extraordinary opportunity in the Soviet times. Overall, there were
enough qualified teachers with translation experience, and the requirements to the
quality of translation, apart from literature, were not generally too strict. ere was
a problem with the interpreting practice due to the state control of contacts with
foreigners, but the demand for that type of mediation was rather limited.
The situation dramatically changed in the late 1980s: the ban on translator
training outside Kyiv and Kharkiv was lifted, and by the mid-1990s, translator training
programs were launched in many universities. This happening coincided in time with
the establishment of Ukraine as an independent state and the need to switch over to
Ukrainian as the language of instruction, which resulted in the teaching materials
crisis. The crisis was not easy to overcome, as the new centres did not have experience
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in training or preparing materials, while the old ones did not receive any targeted
financial support. The bitter truth was that they did not have much experience in
materials preparation either, as they had been receiving textbooks from Moscow
before. Some teachers did compile the materials for their classes, but, usually, these
materials were never published and were lost as soon as their author stopped teaching
the specific discipline.
Another problem was the shift of priorities in translator and interpreter training.
In the Soviet times, the main areas of translator training were socio-political (with
a substantial emphasis on the communist ideology) and military (upon graduation,
most translation department students had to serve as military translators at least for
two years). Discussions of literary translation problems were popular as well, while
specialized translation was generally limited to one scientific or technological domain
that was randomly selected by the teacher and depended on the latter’s preferences or
the available teaching materials.
On the other hand, at the end of the twentieth century, it was becoming ever more
evident that despite the increasing volume of literary translation, the demand for
specialized translation, whose share exceeded 90%, was growing fast. Specifically, at
the beginning of the twenty-first century, as compared with the late 1970s, its amount
within the European Union increased more than a thousandfold. Moreover, the need
for sociocultural adaptation of specialized texts, including soware products, expanded
the content of cross-lingual mediation, adding localization to translation proper
(Mishchenko 2012).
The shift in priorities resulted in the corresponding modifications in the views
on the content of professional translator training. Theoretical journals started
publishing papers discussing the specifics of specialized translation and its teaching
in the domains of medicine (Wakabayashi 1996) and law (Harvey 2002). By the end
of the second millennium, there was a serious interest in the use of bilingual corpora
in teaching translation (Bowker 1998; Malmkjaer 1998; Zanettin 1998; Maniez 2001).
Thus, by the beginning of the twenty-first century, some attempts had been made to
study the problems of specialized translation, but they were isolated and caused by
accidental factors (such as the emergence of bilingual terminological corpora) beyond
the teaching methodology or any theoretical model of such instruction.
Solving these problems required the accomplishment of a series of interrelated
tasks.
1)
2)
3)
Developing a model of translator/interpreter training in Ukrainian universities.
This task involved several objectives: compiling the list of the necessary
knowledge and skills, i.e. identifying the composition of the translator’s/interpreter’s
professional competence; outlining the aims, principles, methods, and content of
teaching; developing the system of assessing the translator/interpreter competence
components;
Outlining the domains and, respectively, the subject knowledge and terminology
required for the efficient translation within them;
Formulating the principles of the system of exercises and tasks to be used in the
development of teaching materials for each type of translation and interpreting,
as well as for the complexes of exercise and tasks within each thematic cycle;
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4)
5)
Developing the system of translation and interpreting assessment in the current,
intermediate, and final testing;
Implementing the above model through its experimental testing and the introduction
of the corresponding teaching materials into the translator/interpreter training
process.
The solution of the tasks described above required motivated teachers with
sufficient experience in teaching specialized translation and interpreting. In addition,
they had to have certain professional training and experience in the development of
teaching models, systems of exercises and tasks, textbooks, and other teaching
materials, as well as in planning and conducting experimental teaching, processing
its results, and formulation of conclusions. There were some problems in this respect,
as the Kyiv center, as well as another major translation stronghold, Ivan Franko
National University at Lviv, traditionally focused on literary translation. Moreover,
the institutionalized translator training in Lviv started only in 1996, i.e. 30–34 years
later than in Kharkiv and Kyiv respectively, and it took the university some time to
accumulate the necessary experience there.
The circumstances at that time were such that the professionals who met the
requirements happened to be available at the English Translation Department (the
current name – Mykola Lukash Translation Studies Department) of the V.N. Karazin
National University in Kharkiv. It was mainly due to their effort that the solution of
these tasks was carried out for at least the first 10–15 years, before a new generation
of translator training experts joined them later (see further). The results of their work
are presented below.
Translator/Interpreter Training Model. To provide for the theoretical basis, the
general concept of further research was formulated in several publications in the early
2000s (Chernovaty andHanicheva 2002; Chernovaty 2003; Chernovaty 2004). The
subsequent research by the teachers and post-graduate students of the department, as
well as the international practice (EN 15038 2006; EMT 2009; ISO 17100 2015) and
the experience accumulated in the preparation and experimental testing of teaching
materials culminated in the development of the Translator/Interpreter Training Model
based on several approaches.
The competence approach is generally based on the PACTE translation
competence model (PACTE 2000), though it has certain distinctions as well. As far as
the general translation competence is concerned, this model includes the bilingual,
extralinguistic, translation, personal and strategic components. The technological
competence model developed by the department (Chernovaty and Olkhovska 2022)
specifies the elements of that particular module. The aim of the training involves
a systematic, focused, and integral development of the subcompetences described.
The comprehensive approach is related to the parallel development of translation
(sub)skills in oral (visual, consecutive, simultaneous) and written (equivalent and
heterovalent) forms in the course of the modular, mutually complementary, and
specific-domain approaches’ implementation.
The specific-domain approach favours specialized translation/interpreting as
opposed to the translation of fiction, in line with the former’s share in the total volume
of global translation and the world’s tendencies in translator/interpreter training. The
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Methodology of specialised translator and interpreter training in Ukraine
relevance of a specific domain for translator training depends on the degree of its
likelihood in the future work of the graduate, while the sequence of domains depends
on their conceptual complexity: simpler domains go first, followed by more complicated
ones.
The selection of the domains, in its turn, is based on a number of principles.
According to the pragmatic value principle, the preference is given to the domains
that provide a greater amount of subject knowledge and terminology, which the
students are more likely to come across in their future work.
The modular approach provides for the division of the entire training course into
one-credit (30-hour) modules, each of them being related to a specific domain
(society, politics, science, technology, economics, law, etc.).
The combinatory approach allows for the flexible combination of the modules to
meet the changing requirements of the translation/interpreting market, removing
some of them and substituting them with others, related to the new domains.
The systemic approach applies to devising sets of exercises within a specific
module based on the general translation/interpreting exercise system principles
designed by the Translation Studies Department (Chernovaty and Kovalchuk 2019).
The mutually complementary approach means that each undergraduate level
module suggests skills for both interpreting (mostly in-class) and translation (mostly
self-study); skills of both forms of translation mutually complement each other
contributing to the development of the professional translator/interpreter’s competence
in general.
The cyclic approach applies to the organization of exercises and tasks in the form
of cycles, which are related to one text of a specific topic or subtopic. On the basis of
this text, students perform exercises and tasks (preparatory, for the development of
automatized subskills, and for complex skills). The correlation of tasks depends on
the position of the particular cycle within the thematic module, in line with the
characteristics of the system of exercises and tasks developed at the department.
The system of the students’ translation and interpreting assessment, developed
within the translator training model, is based on the differential approach to the
evaluation of different types of translation and interpreting assessment, taking into
account the specific characteristics of each of them (Chernovaty 2013).
The model under discussion is being used (with natural adaptations depending
on the local specifics and their own interpretation) at many Ukrainian translator/
interpreter training centers. This model is constantly developing alongside the
development of the overall educational system and does not significantly depend on
its authors.
The year 2003 saw the launching of the DictumFactum project (founded by the
Kharkiv and Kyiv translation departments), which aimed at the development, testing,
and publication of the teaching materials within the framework of the model
described above. To involve teachers from other universities in the research and
teaching activities, the Ukrainian Translator Trainers Union (UTTU) was founded in
2013 alongside with a new UTTU series. The technical support for both projects is
provided by “Nova Knyha” Publishers.
The first textbook in the DictumFactum series was devoted to the field of law. In
addition to the importance of the domain itself, the series co-editor, Viacheslav
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Karaban, had by then finished two big Ukrainian-English and English-Ukrainian law
dictionaries (over 70,000 terms each; published in 2003 and 2004 by Nova Knyha) and
was ready for editing legal texts. Besides, the Ohio Bar Association permitted to use
their popular brochure TheLawandYou as the source of the textbook texts selection.
It was a lucky chance because the brochure was compiled by professional lawyers but
was intended for a wide readership. It was therefore ideal for a translator-training
textbook, as the students (as well as their teachers) did not specialize in law either. The
processing of the texts into a textbook required a system of exercises and tasks, the
principles for which were formulated at the Kharkiv department. The book was first
published in 2004 (Chernovaty, Karaban, and Ivanko 2004). It turned out to be in
demand, and its four editions have been used for training lawyers, translators, and
interpreters in many universities ever since. Other textbooks for training translators
and interpreters in the domain of law include those devoted to human rights
(Chernovaty et al. 2006) and the EU law (Chernovaty et al. 2021).
Economics and socio-political domain. The following two textbooks were also
published due to international cooperation. The US Embassy in Kyiv permitted to use
its information materials as source of texts for the textbooks in the domains of
economics (Chernovaty et al. 2005) and the US state government (Chernovaty et al.
2006).
Teaching consecutive interpreting requires the use of interpreter’s shorthand. In
order to provide for this skill, a methodology was developed in Kharkiv; it was then
implemented in the textbook by the current head of the department Oleksandr Rebrii
(2006). Since 2006, the textbook has seen several editions; it is used in many
universities. Rebrii also applied the concept to the domain of international
organizations, and his textbook The European Union and other international political,
economic, financial and military organizations (2009) has been republished several
times
There are some difficulties in training students for whom English is the second
foreign language. ey are related to the students’ insufficient knowledge of terminology
related to politics. To solve the problem, the preparatory stage concept was suggested
in Kharkiv, and it was implemented in the appropriate textbook for these EFL students
(Chernovaty and Kotliarov 2005).
Science and Technology. The first textbook for teaching translation in this domain
was published in 2004 by Karaban (2004). It was followed by publications in Kharkiv:
translation in the field of technology, electric and electronic equipment, metal
production, and processing (Chernovaty, Karaban, and Omelianchuk 2006) and
translation of patents written in cooperation with Kharkiv National Technical
University (Chernovaty and Tsariova 2011).
These textbooks were followed by other publications in the UTTU series in the
areas of psychology (Chernovaty, Karaban, and Khomulenko 2012), technology
(energy, natural resources, and transport) (Chernovaty et al. 2017a), natural sciences
(algebra, geometry, physics, and chemistry) (Chernovaty et al. 2017b), and two
textbooks in medicine (Chernovaty et al. 2019a; Chernovaty et al. 2019b).
us, in less than twenty years, twenty-eight textbooks for teaching specialized
translation have been published in the Dictum Factum and UTTU series. But the series
is not restricted to these publications. It boasts anthologies on the history of Ukrainian
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Methodology of specialised translator and interpreter training in Ukraine
translation, including the volumes devoted to the famous Kharkiv translators and
translation studies experts, like Oleksandr Finkel (Chernovaty, Karaban, and
Kalnychenko 2007), Mykola Lukash (Chernovaty, Karaban, and Cherniakov 2009),
Volodymyr Derzhavyn (Kalnychenko 2015), Vasyl Mysyk (Hrytsiv 2017). It also
includes books on the history of Ukrainian translation in the 1920–1930s (Kalnychenko
and Poliakova 2011), translation of the works by foreign translation studies authors,
like, for example, the Benjamin’s five-volume Handbook of Translation Studies that is
being carried out now (Kalnychenko and Chernovaty 2020–2022), as well as materials
for teaching English to students majoring in translation, etc. However, the discussion
of this part of the series is beyond the limits of the present article.
Generalizing a short history of specialized translation teaching in Ukraine, we
may distinguish a few milestones in its development.
2002. Publication of the first article outlining the tasks to be accomplished to develop
the methodology of teaching specialized translation (Chernovaty and Hanicheva
2002).
2003. Launching of the Dictum Factum series and the publication of the first textbooks.
2007. e first completed Ph.D. dissertation on the methodology of teaching specialized
translation, Mykola Lukash Translation Studies department (Hanicheva 2007).
2013. The publication of the first textbook on the methodology of translator and
interpreter training and teaching (Chernovaty 2013). The textbook provided the
basis for further research in the area and received over 300 citations in Google
Academia.
2013. The foundation of the Ukrainian Translator Training Union (UTTU) and the
UTTU series.
2016–2018. Active expansion of the research activities in Ukraine. Completion of
several postdoctoral (Dr.Sc.) dissertations at different universities: Oleksandra
Popova, Ilia Mechnikov National University in Odesa, on the model of
professional translator training from Chinese (2016); Natalia Zinukova, Alfred
Nobel University in Dnipro, on the methodology of the graduate level interpreter
training in the domain of foreign economy (2017); Iryna Simkova, National
Technical University of Ukraine, on the methodology of the undergraduate level
interpreter training in the domain of technology (2018); Kateryna Skyba,
Khmelnytskyi National University, on modernization of professional translator
and interpreter training (2017); Eugeny Dolynskyi, Khmelnytskyi National
University, on translator and interpreter training within the informational and
educational university space (2018); Alla Olkhovska,V.N. Karazin National
University in Kharkiv, on translator and interpreter training by means of
information and communication technologies (2018).
This qualitative leap may be regarded as evidence of the steady development of
translator and interpreter training methodology in Ukraine.
The methodology of translator and interpreter training is often regarded as
applied translation studies or as part of the methodology of foreign language teaching.
However, there are essential differences between these disciplines. While the object
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of research in translation studies is the subject of the specific type of bilingual
communication, the object of the methodology of translator and interpreter training
is the development of this subject’s ability to provide for the specific type of bilingual
communication. The objects and subjects of the methodology of teaching foreign
languages, on the one hand, and the methodology of translator and interpreter
training, on the other, coincide. However, they differ in the types of activity they teach.
While in teaching foreign languages we deal with the development of the ability to
conduct monolingual communication, the aim in translator and interpreter training
is the ability to provide for bilingual (and intercultural) communication. This basic
difference results in distinctions in the processes of monolingual communication, on
the one hand, and translation, on the other.
Despite reluctance, it seems reasonable to admit that, contrary to the popular
belief, the methodology of translator and interpreter training as a science is not part
of translation studies for the same reason that the methodology of foreign language
teaching is not part of linguistics, or methodology of teaching physics is not part of
physics. The methodology of teaching foreign languages was initially researched by
linguists and, sometimes, psychologists. They tried to build it based on various
linguistic (traditional grammar, structural linguistics, etc.) or psychological (conscious
learning, subconscious acquisition, etc.) models. This work had gone a long way
before there emerged a sufficiently big group of researchers who exclusively or
primarily studied the problems of teaching and did not depend upon the changing
fashions in linguistics or psychology.
In the same way, there will emerge a group of researchers with a solid theoretical
basis in respect to education in general and translation in particular. The global
process of this transformation appears to be currently under way.
Similarly, the Ukrainian methodology of translator and interpreter training seems
to be in transition to become a separate full-fledged science. Taking into account the
positive dynamics, its prospects of development both in theoretical (the study of the
teaching model components) and practical (the development and publication of
teaching materials) aspects seem to be encouraging.1
RE F ERE NCE S
Bowker, Lynne. 1998. “Using Specialized Monolingual Native-Language Corpora as a Translation
Resource: A Pilot Study.” Meta 43, 4: 631–651.
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[Translation and interpreting of the English-language discourse related to politics.
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1
Transliterating from Ukrainian has been carried out according to the current norms through the
programme http://www.ukrlit.org.
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Methodology of specialised translator and interpreter training in Ukraine
Chernovaty, Leonid, and Svitlana Tsarova. 2011. Pereklad tekstiv anhlomovnykh zasobiv
zakhystu intelektualnoi vlasnosti: patenty, znaky dlia tovariv ta posluh [Translation of the
English-language instruments of intellectual property protection: patents, trademarks
and service marks], textbook for university students. Vinnytsia: Nova Knyha.
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studii 2: 198–204.
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Kovalenko, and Natalia Kovalchuk. 2019a. Pereklad anhlomovnykh tekstiv u sferi
nadannia medychnoi dopomohy [Translation and interpreting of the English-language
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Kotliarov, and Tetiana Lukianova. 2019b. Pereklad anhlomovnykh tekstiv u sferi
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Voronina. 2017a. Pereklad anhlomovnykh naukovo-tekhnichnykh tekstiv: enerhiia, pryrodni
resursy, transport [Translation and interpreting of the English-language discourse related
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students. Vinnytsia: Nova Knyha.
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khimiia [Translation and interpreting of the English-language discourse related to natural
sciences: Algebra, Geometry, Physics, Chemistry], textbook for university students.
Vinnytsia: Nova Knyha.
Chernovaty, Leonid, Tetiana Komarova, Natalia Zinukova, and Iryna Lypko. 2021. Pereklad
anhlomovnoho dyskursu v haluzi prava Yevropeiskoho Soiuzu [Translation and interpreting
of the English-language European Law discourse], textbook for university students.
Vinnytsia: Nova Knyha.
Chernovaty, Leonid, Viacheslav Karaban, and Borys Cherniakov, eds. 2009. Mykola Lukash:
Motsart ukrainskoho perekladu [Mykola Lukash – Mozart of Ukrainian Translation].
Vinnytsia: Nova Knyha.
Chernovaty, Leonid, Viacheslav Karaban, and Oleksandr Kalnychenko, eds. 2007. Oleksandr
Finkel – zabutyi teoretyk ukrainskoho perekladoznavstva [Oleksandr Finkel – a forgotten
theoretician of Ukrainian Translation Studies]. Vinnytsia: Nova Knyha.
Chernovaty, Leonid, Viacheslav Karaban, and Oleksandr Omelianchuk. 2006. Pereklad
anhlomovnoi tekhnichnoi literatury. Elektrychne ta elektronne pobutove ustatkuvannia.
Ofisne ustatkuvannia. Komunikatsiine ustatkuvannia Vyrobnytstvo ta obrobka metalu
[Translation and interpreting of the English-language discourse related to technology.
Electric and electronic consumer equipment. Office and communication equipment. Metal
production and processing], textbook for university students. Vinnytsia: Nova Knyha.
Chernovaty, Leonid, Viacheslav Karaban. and Tamara Khomulenko. 2012. Pereklad anhlomovnoi
psykholohichnoi literatury [Translation and interpreting of the English- language discourse
related to psychology], textbook for university students. Vinnytsia: Nova Knyha.
Chernovaty, Leonid, Viacheslav Karaban, Iryna Penkova, and Iryna Yaroshchuk. 2005. Pereklad
anhlomovnoi ekonomichnoi literatury. Ekonomika USA [Translation and interpreting of
the English-language discourse related to the US economy], textbook for university
students. Vinnytsia: Nova Knyha.
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Chernovaty, Leonid, Viacheslav Karaban, Olexandr Rebrii, Iryna Lypko, and Iryna Yaroshchuk.
2006. Systema derzhavnoho upravlinnia USA [Translation and interpreting of the
English-language discourse related to the US government], textbook for university
students. Vinnytsia: Nova Knyha.
Chernovaty, Leonid, Viacheslav Karaban, Tetiana Hanicheva, and Iryna Lypko. 2006. Mizhnarodni
konventsii u haluzi prav liudyny [Translation and interpreting of the English-language
discourse related to international covenants on human rights], textbook for university
students. Vinnytsia: Nova Knyha.
Chernovaty, Leonid, Viacheslav Karaban, and Yulia Ivanko. 2004. Pereklad anhlomovnoi
yurydychnoi literatury [Translation and interpreting of the US legal discourse], textbook
for university students. Vinnytsia: Nova Knyha.
Chernovaty, Leonid. 2013. Metodyka vykladannia perekladu yak spetsialnosti [Methodology of
translator and interpreter training and teaching], textbook for university students].
Vinnytsia: Nova Knyha.
Chernovaty, Leonid. 2004. “Problematyka doslidzhen u haluzi metodyky navchannia perekladu
yak spetsialnosti” [Problems awaiting research in methodology of teaching translation as
a major]. Visnyk Kharkivskoho natsionalnoho universytetu imeni V.N. Karazina [Bulletin
of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University] 635: 192–197.
Chernovaty, Leonid. 2003. “Pryntsypy pobudovy navchalno-metodychnykh materialiv dlia
pidhotovky perekladachiv” [Principles of structuring teaching materials for translator/
interpreter training]. Visnyk SumDU. Seriia: Filolohichni nauky [Bulletin of Sumy State
University. Philological sciences] 4, 50: 230–234.
Dolynskyi, Yevheniy. 2018. Profesiina pidhotovka maibutnikh perekladachiv v umovakh
informatsiino-osvitnoho seredovyshcha universytetu [Professional training of future
translators under the condition of university information and education environment].
Khmelnytskyi: FOP Melnyk A.A.
EMT. 2009. The EMT conception of translation competence. https://www.researchgate.net
EN 15038. 2006. European Standard EN 15038. Translation services – Service requirements.
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dvostoronnoho perekladu u haluzi prav liudyny” [Methodology of teaching two-way
interpreting in the domain of human rights]. Ph.D. dissertation, Kyiv National Linguistic
University.
Harvey, Malcolm. 2002. “What’s so special about legal translation?” Meta 47, 2: 177–185.
Hrytsiv, Natalia. 2017. Vasyl Mysyk: Riznohrannyi diamant ukrainskoho khudozhnoho perekladu
[Vasyl Mysyk: A multifaceted diamond of Ukrainian literary translation]. Vinnytsia: Nova
Knyha.
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translation services. https://www.austrian-standards
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and Culture 2: Rehumanising Translation and Interpreting Studies. Banská Bystrica, Slovakia,
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Kalnychenko, Oleksandr, and Leonid Chernovaty, eds. 2020–2022. Entsyklopediia perekladoznavstva [Encyclopedia of Translation Studies]. Translated from English. Vol. 1–3.
Vinnytsia: Nova Knyha.
Kalnychenko, Oleksandr, and Yuliana Poliakova, eds. 2011. Ukrainska perekladoznavcha dumka
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of English literature in science and technology], textbook for university students].
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economy and the world standard]. Naukovi zapysky. Seriia “Filolohichni nauky” [Scholarly
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[Linguistic and professional training of future translators from Chinese: theoretical
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translators’ professional competence in the two-way interpretation in the domain of
science and technology]. Kyiv: KPI imeni Ihoria Sikorskoho.
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oriientyry [Modernization of translators’ professional training: strategic guidelines].
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Meta 43, 4: 616–630.
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AB S TR AC T
The article outlines the main developmental stages of the methodology of translator and
interpreter training and teaching (MTITT) in Ukraine. The paper analyzes the prerequisites
of its emergence, the characteristics of its initial stages, and the factors that influenced it in the
Soviet period, as well as the complications in its progress in the early years of Ukraine’s
independence. The author offers his model of training and teaching, as well as the principles
of the teaching materials preparation. Taking into account the results of the analysis, the paper
formulates the conclusion about the dynamic development of the MTITT in Ukraine and its
promising prospects for the future.
Key w o r d s : Methodology of training and teaching. Model of training and teaching.
Teaching materials. Translators and interpreters. Ukraine.
CON TACT D E TA I LS :
Leonid Chernovaty, Doctor of Sciences (Pedagogy), Full Professor
Mykola Lukash Translation Studies Department
V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University
4 Svobody Sq.
61022 Kharkiv
Ukraine
&
Department of English and American Studies
Faculty of Arts
Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica
Tajovského 40
974 01 Banská Bystrica
Slovak Republic
leonid.m.chernovaty@meta.ua
ORCID: 0000-0003-3411-9408
112
TR AN S LATI ON S TU DIE S -S PEC IF IC
ME THO DO LO GICAL PR INC I PLE S –
AN (U N )IN TE NTI ON A LLY NE GLE C TED
AS PE CT O F TR AN SL ATIO N RE S EA RC H?
V i a c h es la v Ka ra b a n – A n n a Ka ra b a n
Rec ent deve l o p me n t s i n t ra n sl at i o n s tu d ie s met ho do l o gy
an d a b ri ef h i s to r ic al exc u r su s
As is well known, any full-fledged science should have its own research methodology
in addition to its subject and object of study and terminological/conceptual
apparatuses. Incidentally, the term “methodology” is ambiguous and has at least the
following meanings: a) it is the study of existing and the development of new research
methods, and b) it is a set of research principles (RPs) and approaches. Also, the
methodology of science (in our case, translation studies – TS) must be distinguished
from translation methodology, which deals with methods (techniques) of practical
translating activities.
In the past decade, the attention of translatologists to the TS methodology was
increasingly growing. Several high-profile volumes and articles contributed to the
studies of different methodological aspects, mainly research approaches and methods,
as well as general TS methodology issues. These were works by Anthony Pym(2014),
Gert De Sutter et al. (2017), Gabriela Saldanha and Sharon O’Brien (2014), Sandra
Halverson and Álvaro Marín García (2021), and Jai Vasumathi Valli Rani (2018).
Peter Flynn and Yves Gambier clearly indicate that methodology “can be
considered as the hallmark or defining feature of a discipline or an approach within
a discipline” (2011, 88). The importance of the role of methodology in TS was
emphasized in the latest volume on TS methodology: “In order to navigate research
territories, methodological considerations are needed as a way of interpreting the data
and phenomena studied” (Zanettin and Rundle 2022, 2).
In this respect, the following remark by Wilhelm Neunzig is worthy of
translatologists’ attention: “Translation Studies can adapt and apply the well-defined
tools used by the natural, social, or human sciences. Research problems associated
with each field arise, in particular, at a methodological level: when choosing an
approach, designing and planning the research and when gathering data... that can be
used to validate our hypothesis” (2011, 17).
Borrowing methodologies from other, even neighboring sciences, instead of
developing TS-specific methodology and research tools was justifiably criticized by
Flynn and Gambier, who argued that “[t]hese methodologies are built on a set of
sometimes unarticulated assumptions and previously articulated givens and concepts
that often are at odds with translation data” and that “outsourcing the problem of
methodology to other disciplines may cause us to lose track of the intricate links
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between (translation) phenomena and method. This would further involve our
forsaking the rigor required to adapt and fine-tune a method in order to increase its
explanatory power” (2011, 88–89).
T S m eth o do l o gi ca l p r in c i p le s : an u n de r re s e arch e d a re a
Flynn and Gambier concluded that “Translation Studies has gradually identified
and articulated its own basic assumptions, methodological concerns, research
criteria and questions” (2011, 89). In our opinion, this conclusion was made
prematurely: as will be shown below, TS has failed to identify and clearly define
its major methodological principles (MPs), which account for a very important
portion of TS-specific methodology.
The latest book on TS methodology aims primarily at “methodological tools that
are currently in use” (Zanettin and Rundle 2022, 2). However, the volume is limited
to TS research methods, and the references to RPs lack detail: “While approach and
framework are terms used to refer to abstract theories and organisational principles,
methods and techniques[,] [m]ethodology implies the application of these theories
and principles to actual research” (2).
Regretfully, neither the above volume nor the other abovementioned publications
refer to or, more so, discuss TS-specific MPs. Our analysis of TS literature makes it
possible to argue that methodological and research principles have been practically
ignored by translation scholars for a long time. On the Internet, one cannot find any
mention of TS-specific MPs or of the fact that such principles are important for the
further development of the TS methodology and translation theory, even though this
aspect of TS methodology is very important and essentially necessary for translation
research.
In this respect, one may recall that as early as the first decades of the 1900s,
the role of RPs was strongly emphasized by Harrington Emerson, a practitioner
of scientific management, who wrote: “The man who grasps principles can
successfully handle his own methods. The man who tries methods, ignoring
principles, is sure to have trouble” (1911, 86). Around the same time, philosopher
and educationist Ernest Albee also argued for the importance of MPs in scientific
research (1906). Prospectively, this may clearly indicate that correct principles or
research in the hands of the average researcher are more robust than the
haphazard and/or random attempts of experts.
Met ho do l o gi ca l p ri n ci p l e s o f sci e n t i f i c re se a rch
Scientific principles are statements generally accepted by most representatives of
a particular science about why and how something exists or happens. In the TS case,
these are statements about what happens in translating and how to research this. An
MP is a culmination of scientific laws, theories, and regularities that have been
previously studied. As the experiences of methodologies in more developed sciences
(such as natural ones) show, any scientific inquiry must be based on a small set of
important assumptions or principles. A particular science-specific methodology is
most often defined as a set of research methods, principles, and techniques used in
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a specific branch of science. An interesting instance of registering scientific principles
can be Dictionary of Scientific Principles by Stephen Marvin (2011).
MPs (sometimes also called regulative or research principles) are a set of rules
that should guide researchers in their work and determine the direction and nature of
research inquiry. As methodological guidelines to the discipline, such principles
influence both empirical studies and theory-making. In cognition, MPs play the role
of a filter, as they make researchers choose specific goals and means and discard
others. MPs are brief theoretical statements and proven postulates that summarize the
achievements of science in a particular area; they serve as guidelines for further
translation research. The sources of science-specific MPs are general philosophical
principles, general scientific MPs, TS observations, generalities, and regularities.
T S m et h o do l o gi ca l p r in c ip l e s
A special methodology is expected to have a system of MPs used within a given
science, including TS (Karaban 2019, 155). Such principles are the basic premise
underlying the requirements for the content of a methodology. Special methodology,
especially MPs, allow and facilitate us to formulate laws or regularities and research
guidelines relating to the specific features of the formation, development, and
functioning of the TS phenomena. The MPs now seem to be an underresearched
aspect of TS, it is an aspect that was probably almost neglected. Methodology does not
consist purely in the analysis and development of methods of studying objects of
research in line with the area of knowledge; – methodological tasks also include the
formulation of science-specific MPs, in our case, TS MPs.
Therefore, TS and its methodology may want to search for meaningful MPs of
translation research. The abundance of new approaches currently includes complexity
paradigm, cognitive endeavors, synergetics borrowings, ecological bend, etc.: such
a paradoxical momentum in the course of TS development reflects in the impetus of
its methodological self-cognition: “The need for a methodological study arises in
a situation where the available theoretical and empirical material is insufficient”
(Yolon 2002, 375).1
Admittedly, there are some weak points that hinder this aspect of TS methodology.
ere is uncertainty about formulating translation research MPs. Very few monographs
and textbooks are related to TS methodology with an emphasis on RPs, and there are
practically no conferences with panels devoted to these issues.
How can one explain why of all the TS branches, TS MPs as a key area is the least
developed, although it is essential for the entire science of translation and the
development of translation RPs? Why does it lag behind developments in most fields
of TS? The following negative factors might suggest answers to this question:
1)
2)
1
The difficulties in research and development demand absolute awareness of what
has been done in TS.
The lack of interest of translation researchers in methodology issues. In the
methodology itself, much is left unclear in its subject, in the questions of the
Translation by the present authors.
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3)
4)
juxtaposition of methodological and theoretical problems of science and the
juxtaposition of methodology and philosophy.
e need for a system for teaching general science and applied science methodology
in higher educational institutions. The university curricula currently do not
provide for these courses at all.
Neglect of methodology on the part of translation scholars due to the lack of
awareness of the importance of methodology in the development of science.
In general, translation scholars are likely to disregard methodology for many
reasons. It is not only because it is a difficult field related to general scientific
methodology but also because it may not be seen as worthy of translation scholars’
time and efforts, seemingly remote from translation research.
Although TS methods are thus developing satisfactorily in many leading TS
countries, another aspect of TS methodology – MPs – remains, indeed, unstudied.
However, it may turn out that a seemingly tiny and neglected corner of discomfort is
actually of great importance to our science, as it holds the promise for fundamental
breakthroughs in some areas of TS. Generally, TS demonstrates very slow progress in
identifying, defining, and describing MPs. What we really need in TS is MPs similar
to Karcevskij’s principle of the asymmetric dualism of the linguistic sign in linguistics
(1929).
Understandably, scientific principles tend to vary for the subject at hand. What
are the ways of establishing scientific principles for translation research, then? We
tentatively propose a number of the following requirements for identifying, defining,
and formulating a TS-specific MP, which should:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
be based on general scientific MPs, common to all sciences, and with due account
of research in TS;
be a brief fundamental statement related to a major theoretical TS issue about the
nature and characteristics of translating and translation;
take into account the achievements of translation theory, adequately reflect
translation practice, and not contradict the latter;
facilitate the transparency, reliability, credibility, veracity, novelty, and quality of
translation research;
differentiate between typical and atypical translation phenomena and objects;
allow to formulate most simple hypotheses;
be immanent to the subject matter of TS and its conceptual apparatus;
fulfill normative, constructive, and heuristic functions of all TS methodological
means.
T S met ho do l o gi ca l p ri n ci p l e s a n d t he de f i n i t io n o f t he TU
Further on, we put forward and try to prove the following two working hypotheses:
1)
2)
correct TS-specific MPs are crucial in solving some major theoretical problems
of TS, and
relying on such MPs, it is possible to find the solution to the problem of the
translation unit (TU), which we claim to be a speech act (SA).
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Tr a n s l a t i o n s t u d i e s - s p e c i f i c m e t h o d o l o g i c a l p r i n c i p l e s . . .
e lines of proving the two hypotheses are as follows. First, it must be emphasized
that one of the most important MPs in TS is the principle of differentiating translation
as human activity (the translation process) (Vygotsky 1934, 267). Other important
aspects are the result of such activity (the TT) and the priority of the translation
process over the TT as its effect. The human activity of translating is primary,
a prerequisite of TT, and the latter is dependent on the corresponding activity (this
means that for TS and translation theory, the most important aspect is the translation
process).
The term TU refers to the unit taken for processing by the translator at a given
time during the translation process. There is no consensus regarding the character
and length of such units between translatologists who claim that the TU may be
represented by various SL system elements from phoneme to sentence or the ST as
a whole, or even a “sense/message quantum” (Kushnina 2019) and “translateme”
(Odrekhivs’ka 2016). Language units, however, cannot be TUs because they have
different major features: phoneme ≠ morpheme, morpheme ≠ word, word-group ≠
sentence, sentence ≠ SA, polypredicative structure≠ compound speech act. They are
not units of mental and verbal activity but constitute a mental-linguistic act (simple
or compound) or, simply, an SA. Texts are artifacts; they are only results of activity but
not units of translation activity, and they are not manageable as units of translation at
all. A translateme cannot be a TU, for it cannot be defined in terms of such a physical
parameter as length but can be expressed by linguistic elements of various levels.
What are, then, the TU misconceptions? One of them consists in ignoring MPs
of research in translation studies. The most important principle here is the principle
of determinism: the translation process as a cause takes precedence over the product
of translation as an effect. Therefore, the former is a human activity in which only
units can be singled out, and it is the locus of the TU. The translation is a process of
conveying sense/message in discourse rather than meanings of individual linguistic
elements or their combinations. Sense (not meaning) can be found only in speech
because only speech carries meaning; it is contextual and has a purpose (intention).
Speech is comprised of SA units.
Another misconception of our predecessors who tried to define the TU is that
they neglected the (correct) definition of the term unit, which is a separate entity
“regarded as single and complete but which can also form an individual component
of a larger and more complex whole: importantly” (Lexico Dictionaries, n.d.). Units
can only be components of human activity (in our case translation activity), whereas
elements can only be components of static objects (artifacts) (in our case translation
result/product).
Considering this important MP allows us to solve the TU problem correctly based
on TS MPs. To do so, we propose that the criteria for the definition of TU are as
follows:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
presence in speech produced in any human language;
sense-(or message-) bearing (not only meaning-bearing);
linguistic and/or situational contextualization,
identity of the main characteristics in relation to other speech units;
subjection to rules of use; and
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I I I . O N M E T H O D O LO G I C A L A S P E C T S O F T R A N S L AT I O N
6)
easy identifiability in form, content, and intention (proposition, illocution, and
perlocution). Obviously, according to these criteria, only SA can be a TU.
S p eech a ct s a s TU s
e speech act in context (hereinaer – SA) is a purposeful mental and speech action
or activity performed in accordance with the principles and rules of speech behavior
accepted in a certain speech community. It is a minimal unit of normative
sociolinguistic behavior considered within a pragmatic situation. As a SA is a unit of
speech activity, its analysis uses essentially the same categories necessary to characterize
and evaluate any action: subject, purpose, means, instrument, result, conditions, and
success. A sentence (one-, two-member, or complex) is an “ectype” of a SA or otherwise
a polypredicative asyndetic unit present in a text as a result of its performance.
As any activity and all its units (unlike the elements of static resultant objects
and artifacts), the ST and TT authors’ SAs are characterized by approximately the
same basic features and parameters: propositionality, intentionality/purposefulness
(illocutionary and perlocutionary force), situational embeddedness and contextualization,
intelligibility (comprehensibility, i.e., conformity with language regularities and
norms), and conventionality (conditions of use).
The validity of these considerations and methodological evidence of SAs acting
as TUs is confirmed by the extensive practice of translating texts, where the translator
translates SAs alternately in both oral and written activities, leaving sentences in the
texts as their “ectypes.”
Following the general scientific MP of correspondence of theory to practice,
another argument in favor of the discussed TS-specific MPs and the definition of the
SA as the TU can find its justification in comparing the number of SA “ectypes”
(sentences in context) in ST and TT, which should be approximately the same. The
correctness of the assumption about the nature and characteristics of TUs is confirmed
by our calculations of the difference in the number of sentences in seven English
source texts of O. Henry’s (2010) short stories (979 sentences) and their translations
(Henri 2017) into Ukrainian (1038 sentences). The comparison showed the sentence
number variance of not more than three to nine percent, with an average of six
percent). Further analysis of ten Ukrainian novels – (Dovzhenko 2017), (Honchar
1968), (Pidmohylny 2017), (Prokhasko 2018), (Vovchok 1862), (Zabuzhko 2007;
2010), (Zhadan 2004; 2010; 2017) 55,394 sentences in total – and their English
translations – (Dovzhenko 1982), (Honchar 1989), (Pidmohylny 2014; 2018),
(Prokhasko 2007; 2011), (Vovchok 1983), (Zabuzhko 2011; 2012), (Zhadan 2016;
2018; 2019) – with the total of 48,827 sentences – registered the sentence number
variation range from 96% to 144% that makes an average of thirteen percent. Quite
logically, the sentence number variation increases with a greater length of the ST (from
a short story to a novel). In the case of novels, this can be explained by a greater
number of compound and complex sentences, by the addition of sentences to clarify
the information in the ST, and by the textual features of the respective pair.
Notably, similar results for various language pairs were obtained by Magnus
Merkel (2001). Harry Huang and Canzhong Wu also showed that 87% of translators
translate sentence after sentence in context more often than not, and 96% often
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Tr a n s l a t i o n s t u d i e s - s p e c i f i c m e t h o d o l o g i c a l p r i n c i p l e s . . .
translate sentence after sentence, while 4% rarely or never translate sentence after
sentence (2009, 125).
Thus, the ST author, using appropriate SAs with due account of the SL usage,
produces the ST, and the translator, using his/her knowledge and skills and focusing
on the sense (message) and form of the ST, produces SAs in the target language,
making the TT into an “ST copy.” If accuracy is a translation requirement, it follows
that the number of sentences as “ectypes” of SAs in the ST must be (approximately)
the same as in the TT, for such is the requirement.
It should be particularly noted that the TU might sometimes be confused with
the following likely similar entities. However, according to the MP of differentiating
between similar objects, they are, in fact, not SAs but elements of the SL or TL system
or ST/TT and must not be misidentified or mistakenly called TUs. The sentence is the
highest element in the hierarchy of the SL or TL systems with predicative parts –
a subject and a verb that are actually “ectypes” of SAs. The translator’s orientation unit
is an ST fragment, which enables the translator to start searching and/or choosing the
solution. The translator focuses on the difficulty of translation (an ST linguistic
element or group) that requires more than usual attention/effort. The translation
evaluation unit is a TT linguistic element or a group of elements evaluated for
equivalence/adequacy by the translator. An editing/revision unit is a TT linguistic
element or a group of elements to be edited or revised.
The discussion on identifying and defining the TUs testifies, in our opinion, to
the great importance to be attached to the formulation and use of TS-specific MPs in
theoretical research of translation. They should never be ignored when trying to find
adequate solutions to complex problems in translation theory.
The description of TS-specific MPs will be concluded with a suggested list of
other possible candidates for such principles:
•
•
•
•
•
the principle of reality – typical and atypical objects and phenomena of translation
should be distinguished among the objects of research;
the holism principle – the whole in translation is greater than the sum of its parts;
identification of the most important aspects (things) in translation that functions
as a guideline for other principles (for example, language usage is critical as the
final filter of the translator’s speech norms);
the ST and TT are not identical entities, they are only (very) similar ones;
translation is more complex than we perceive it.
Co n cl u si o n
To our knowledge, this is the first detailed discussion of TS-specific TPs contributing
to the development of TS methodology and description of special TPs. It demonstrates
their important role in adequately solving the problem of the TU-based general
scientific and TS-specific MPs. TS-specific MPs are proved to be instrumental in
identifying and defining SAs as TUs. It also convincingly shows that TS-specific MPs
are extremely understudied and deserve much greater attention from the translation
studies community. It also proves that TS-specific MPs are very likely to be important
and effective in addressing theoretical problems of translation studies.
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I I I . O N M E T H O D O LO G I C A L A S P E C T S O F T R A N S L AT I O N
We are convinced that it is essential to increase methodological awareness,
including that of TPs, in translation scholars in every possible way. Methodological
knowledge and constructs become operative only when they are included in the
cognitive process through their assimilation by the researcher and their transformation
into facts of methodological consciousness, given that this is also a special type of
interaction between translation theory and practice. The translation community can
reasonably expect the world’s leading translation scholars to make a greater effort to
address the problem of TS-specific MPs. Hopefully, this will give methodological
research in the field of TS the necessary impetus to advance both the development of
TS research methods, approaches, and theoretical issues and a more detailed
elaboration of TS MPs.
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AB S TR AC T
The paper justifies the need to pay more attention to the methodological principles of
translation studies and their important role in solving theoretical problems of translation
research, an example of which is solving the long-standing problem of defining the translation
unit (TU). The paper discusses two hypotheses regarding the role of such principles in
translation studies and the speech act as the TU.
Keywords: Translation studies methodology. Methodological principle. Translation unit.
Speech act.
CO NTACT D ETAI LS :
Viacheslav Karaban, Full Professor
Department of the Theory and Practice of Translation from English
Educational and Scientific Institute of Philology
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
14 Taras Shevchenko Blvd.
01601 Kyiv
Ukraine
v.karaban@knu.ua
ORCID: 0000-0002-4229-2641
Anna Karaban, Associate Professor
Department of English Philology and Intercultural Communication
Educational and Scientific Institute of Philology
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
14 Taras Shevchenko Blvd.
01601 Kyiv
Ukraine
a.karaban@knu.ua
ORCID: 0000-0002-1101-4227
122
COM PAR ATI VE S TU DIE S OF H IS TORY,
R EL IGIO N AND TR AN S LATI ON :
TH R EE DIS CIPL IN ES AT ON E LIT U RGICAL
C RO S S ROA DS
Ta ras S h m ih er
Dedicated with the deepest respect and gratitude
to Slovaks and all Europeans
for your support of Ukraine
in the torturous year 2022.
In the impenetrable thicket of humanity
Where dismal gloom has made its dreadful lair,
Where the blind earth nonchalantly sucks
The blood of the worst and the best of us, ...
It is only a feeble ray of human warmth
That alone brings some comfort to our hearts.
Hryhoriy Kochur,
translated by Lada Kolomiyets
A Ukrainian apocrypha tells a story of how humans learnt from nature by using
comparisons. Abel had been lying dead and unburied for thirty years when the
grieving Adam saw one dove die, and another bury it. Therefore, Adam buried Abel
and stopped grieving (Apokrify 1896, 9). This story, extracted from a seventeenthcentury manuscript, described what cognitivists traced long afterward: a great mental
capacity of conceptual comparison and blending, which occurred 50,000 years ago,
which developed an unprecedented power to evolve and innovate (Fauconnier and
Turner 2002, v). This cognitive revolution changed the historical dynamics of human
progress and civilization drastically.
The aim of this article1 is to dwell upon the ability of comparative studies to
advance the exploration of liturgical translation in the domains of translation theory
and history.
1
This article is part of the future book “Liturgical translation in Ukraine and Poland: a comparative
approach to text, religion, and culture” which is the result of the project made possible through Scholarship
Grant No. 52110864 from the International Visegrad Fund. The project was implemented at Maria
Curie-Skłodowska University (Lublin, Poland) under the supervision of Prof. Magdalena Mitura.
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Co mp a ri so n a n d co n t ra s t
In linguistics, the view has been stabilized that comparison only covers similarities
and is good for typological aims (Tötösy de Zepetnek 2006, 352), while contrast is used
to study both similarities and dissimilarities and, thus, fits the systematic description.
In the exploration of a specific language pair (or a culture pair), it is possible to identify
and interpret the convergent and divergent features of phenomenal systems.
The epistemological value of comparison is recognized as an important tool to
study the discipline and its tendencies. Comparative/contrastive studies are known in
humanities and sciences. Comparison is seen as an immanent part of cognition and
a fundamental logical means of cognizing the world (Saidov 2006, 1–2). The need for
classification generates a skill of being more critical towards the compared objects and
deepens the interpretation of these phenomena, their relations, and statuses as well as
their viable and hierarchical systematicity.
In history, comparative studies have triggered debates about the drawbacks and
limitations of the national focus: “To limit the subject of historical study within
national boundaries is always to invite the charge of narrow perspective and historical
nationalism” (Woodward 1997, 3). The perspective uncovers neglected, forgotten or
considered-to-be-minor facts that, vice versa, are the smallest detail to complete the
solid puzzle. In historical studies, even terms like nation and national are often
misinterpreted and misused deliberately or accidentally. There are many practical
definitions of the word nation as “a relatively large group of people organized under
a single, usually independent government; a country,” “the territory occupied by such
a group of people,” “the government of a sovereign state,” “a people who share common
customs, origins, history, and frequently language; a nationality” (American, 2018,
1173). These definitions are rejected, because some historians turn out to see
everything connected with a “nation” through the lens of different historical and
political concepts: nation-state is really a strict social formation, but it should not
overshadow geographical, ethnic, lingual associations which are applicable to describing
social entities beyond the Modern time.
History studies can benefit from the understanding of the major contradiction:
on the one hand, each history is unique and distinctive; on the other hand, it shares
a lot of common and universal civilizational features, which construct the human race.
This contradiction does not elucidate topics remaining on the line between
parochialism andcosmopolitanism, but, strictly epistemologically, it helps combine
uneven knowledge from different research domains in order to demonstrate the
unitary civilization’s smoothness and continuity.
A number of comparative cultural studies (Chrisomalis 1993; Hodgson 1993;
Shulman, Stroumsa 1999; Vulfson 2003) have helped shape visions of what researchers
are welcome to explore in our civilizational history. They can be applied to the
following aspects of translation:
1)
stable correspondences are demonstratively efficient criteria for describing
material under study, though their stability is to be studied in dynamics when
different historical periods need different axiological categories for assessing
reception;
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Comparative studies of histor y, religion and translation...
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
in the existing system of nations’ historical progress, symmetrical and asymmetrical
oppositions equally identify parameters for juxtaposing translation milieus and
products, meanwhile asymmetries are even more thought-provoking for searching
the in-depth factors of civilizational progress;
acceptance can be regarded as a value for identifying a specific set of historical
phenomena whose status is temporarily canonized by a longer tradition or by
a shorter public acknowledgment;
all phenomena contain a culturally specific sense, but if the awareness of this
sense is not recognized by the majority of the readership, thus the misbalance of
power in two traditions becomes an additional point of attention;
liminality and centrality are parameters which can explain how flexible and
changeable power can be in the dynamics of civilizational progress;
the object of research is the topoi of historical – in our case, historically religious –
experience, the continuity of which is witnessed in the context of interregional
cooperation and change.
Any comparison is not an end in itself without the boundaries set up by other
methods (Saidov 2006, 8), and its aims are within the partial methods of a discipline.
In translation studies, they strive for discovering the multifacetedness of translation
phenomena: their agents (personalities and institutions), their products (direct and
indirect results), their targets (individual readers and reading communities), their
implementing ways (like texts and paratexts, levels of introspection), their temporal
boundaries (effective here and now or effective in medium- and long-term prospects),
their spatial locations (milieus and their hierarchies). James Holmes’ map of translation
studies will provide more ideas for partial comparative studies (Holmes 1988, 67–79).
C o mp a ri n g hi s to ri e s a n d so ci et i e s
History is often mistaken for chronology (which is its part) and is interpreted as
a collection of facts (this is true only partially). Summarizing the studies of history in
general and those of translation history in particular, researchers have identified the
following theoretical lines of investigation:
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
the nature of changes: each translation has appeared for a reason and has agents,
whose qualifications determine textual changes of a translation and linguopoetical
fluctuations of the literary process; there are also different ways a translation
influences its readership;
activity: who and how can participate in these transformations (gender, social or
ethnic groups as creators; controversies between an individual and a group):
teleology: this point helps penetrate the asymmetry between the aim and the
result of doing a specific translation;
prognostication: each text can generate transformations for a number of similar
or dependent texts in spatial and temporal dimensions;
producers and consumers: in the social hierarchy, the role of translators can be
a major factor in shaping a literary canon, but they also transfer values of their
authorities for manipulating reading communities;
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I I I . O N M E T H O D O LO G I C A L A S P E C T S O F T R A N S L AT I O N
6)
histotainment is not applicable to this domain of history studies, but market may
demand everything soon.
These parts of literary history can contribute to writing the history of a national
literature that incorporates original writings and translations, social categories as well
as lines of perception and reception.
The plurality of approaches and topics means that histories can be written and
interpreted in various directions. One of these directions is comparative; it serves both
the source and the aim of a study, as the very comparison draws attention to neglected
facts and makes the researcher think over why dissimilarities have appeared during
phenomenal progress in two different national traditions. From this perspective, this
approach should be called contrastive, but the term comparative still dominates.
Mark Bloch differentiates two types of comparison for historical purposes (Hill
1980, 830):
1)
2)
universal comparison (when societies under study are separated in time and
distance);
historical comparison (when a historian’s focus is on neighbouring and
contemporary societies).
Liturgical traditions are better to explore on the examples of contacting societies,
as the differences revealed elucidate the dynamics of civilizational advance. The
Ukrainian and Polish liturgical traditions constitute a good object for comparative
research, because, on the one hand, they represent the same geographical area –
Central/Eastern Europe, and, on the other hand, they inherited the opposite – Eastern
and Western – branches of Christianity. In a way, this comparison returns us to
a millennium-old discussion of “whose faith is better,” but nowadays, scholars have
no necessity to simplify this historical and theological complexity, and they have
opportunities to observe civilizational dynamics in order to build a larger picture later.
In Milan Kundera’s ironical words, “the part of Europe situated geographically in the
centre – culturally in the West and politically in the East” – is in the focus of attention
(Kundera 1984, 33).
The prospects of the comparative history of liturgical translation can be shaped
according to the following research areas or lines:
1)
2)
3)
the Liturgy and the development of Language: the sacredness of a language is
perceived as a cultural and theological value; a language was designed for
liturgical and evangelistic purposes (Church Slavonic); liturgical texts need
retranslations which reflect a reading community’s current religious experience;
the Liturgy and the development of Literature: religious writings substituted for
the system of national literature in some periods; they successfully contributed
to the formation of some genres of meditative lyrics and prose.
the Liturgy and the development of music: the rise of ecclesiastical chants
impacted the advance of national musical cultures; singing and instrumental
arrangements contribute to religious hermeneutics; they can be generally
regarded as instances of intersemiotic translation;
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Comparative studies of histor y, religion and translation...
4)
5)
6)
the Liturgy and the development of book culture: liturgical text has had a high
status in the system of national book-printing histories; the role of some liturgical
book types (like prayer books) supported the dissemination of literacy;
he Liturgy and the development of ideas: Christian lexis changed people’s
worldview; it helped them to move from physical mentality to more abstract
forms; Christianity interacted with the elaboration of national law and aesthetics;
the Liturgy and the development of societal mentality: historical, ethnic, and
national milieus wereshaped around religious values; liturgical texts boosted
national identities via translation in contexts of imperialism, exile, minorities,
and newly independent countries.
e civilizational changes orchestrated by religious praxis mirror the supranational
and interregional evolution of worldview, cultural practices, and art forms. The unity
of synchronic sections with diachronic excursuses reveals the beauty and richness of
a nation’s spiritual life encrypted in translation phenomena.
C o mp a ri n g re l i gi o n s a n d tex t s
In an average conviction, religion is always connected or arranged in the word or via
the word; thus, it is practiced in the text and via the text. The importance of the text
for religious practices also means that this text has its identity, which is determined
by its functionality, communicative efficiency, intertextuality, and even ethnicity along
with sacredness. This is why, from the translation perspective, the comparison of
religions coincides with the comparison of texts.
The identity of liturgical texts is constructed around their being the object of
sympathetic reactions and evangelical praxis. Their core lies in the interpretation of
hymns and prayers as texts for distributing evangelization and sharing sympathy. This
factual symbiosis shaped the unity, which appeals to the classification of functions of
the liturgical text, when historical and dogmatic informativeness, aesthetics,
psychological intentionality, and even magical aspirations are expected from the same
text.
The rhetoric of prayers and hymns encompasses the ways of administering
transcendence, when the whole system looks like a triangle or a tripartite channel
joining God, the Self, and the liturgical text. In all religious texts, immediateness,
visual clearness, and efficacious emotional appeal engage typical verbality, which is
easily remembered and often reproduced by believers by means of their language. The
language serves the foundation of Christian thought by applying insightful rhetorical
figures (Edwards 2017, 57–60, 149–153) or ars oratoria bordering on music
(Ślusarczyk 2009, 192–195).
Religions can be envisioned as spaces, memories, emotions, but all these visionary
programs are encrypted in texts, which can be studied with applying methodologies
of translation quality assessment. Most (or all) religions are empowered by a dual
cosmology or a two-world model: this inspiration to see the “other world” transfuses
all the levels of hierarchical ecclesiastical texts. On the lowest – intimate (individual) –
level, liturgical texts assist the believers to cognize their existence between here and
eternity; on the highest – societal (public) – level, they disclose the eschatological
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value of entire institutions, like the Warring Church on Earth and the Triumphant
Church on Heavens. The greatest power of liturgical texts is that they convert grand
ideas for private use. All the methods of analysis, fermented within cognitive and
communicative linguistics are applicable for revealing the intricate nexus of dogmatic
truths and emotive states, which is encoded in a single liturgical text (Shmiher 2018,
166–304).
History is usually interpreted in the two-phase mode: each religion has a pre-history;
thus, Christian pre-history is paganism. In the meantime, a reading community’s
collective experience has a history, too, but it is beyond the focus of research. The
cultural and axiological models of translation analysis borrowed from ethnography,
postcolonial studies, and sociology contribute to exposing the historical identity of
liturgical texts (Modnicka 2009, 217–226). Impressive, but quite logical was the
interpretation of Roman Catholic texts as symbols of Western hegemony in
non-Catholic areas (Dubets 2015, 25–30). This is historically true to Latin America
and Asia. Not only the religious ideas, but also the Gregorian music triggered some
resistance and colonial associations among local, but non-European Catholics. A similar
case is in Eastern Orthodoxy. Some Orthodox and Greek Catholic churches still use
the Church Slavonic liturgy, which is recited according to the phonetic rules of the
local vernacular. The Russian pronunciation outside Russia is a sample of Moscow’s
hegemony, because the Polish Orthodox Church uses the Russian recension of Church
Slavonic on the territory, which used to be part of the former Kyivan metropolis and,
accordingly, the Ukrainian recension and chants were practiced. Meanwhile, Slovak
Orthodox and Greek Catholic churches have retained the Kyivan liturgical heritage
due to other historical conditions.
A f ter t ho u gh t s
In the history of knowledge, everything starts with the empirical work and collecting
data. Further work on classifications is more experimental: descriptive observations
are not always clear-cut, and fuzzy boundaries can create grey zones. For this reason,
the isolation of phenomena under analysis is supplemented with the non-isolation of
interpreting them in comparative contexts. Comparison (albeit contrast is a better
concept epistemologically) is neither the substitution of the earlier ‘gathering’ – i.e.
positivist – methodology nor a stage of the very paradigm, but it offers an additional
productive source of analytical knowledge that has different values at various stages
of exploring historical – and not only – phenomena.
Like cultural history, ecclesiastical history deals with the issues determined by its
global context and sacred world history. These preliminaries make us think that
supra-national religious projections share repetitive patterns of religious translation.
The history of translating the Bible and the Quran shows a similar change in accepting
sacred texts in vernaculars. This state of affairs leads us to the hypothesis that this
process takes place in all the Abrahamic religions at different speeds depending on
the degree of discrepancies between sacred languages and contemporary vernaculars.
Hypothetically, the same processes are to be observed in other religions.
Inured by tradition, liturgical texts have become gems of high culture, as major
prayers and hymns are samples of the splendour of verbal worship. Beauty, reverence,
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Comparative studies of histor y, religion and translation...
and inspiration given in and taken from liturgies alter believers and their worldview.
It is the reason why the liturgical word is so valuable that all these features change
human senses and speech. These originals continue engendering new-quality
translations, and this is the greatest divine mystery how religious poetry can be better
understood and practiced through the interlingual comparison.
REF E RE NCE S
e American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language. [2018]. Rev. 5th ed. Boston: Houghton
Mifflin Harcourt.
Apokrify i lehendy z ukrainskykh rukopysiv [Apocrypha and legends from Ukrainian manuscripts].
1896. Vol. 1. Lviv: Naukove tovarystvo im. Shevchenka.
Chrisomalis, Stephen. 1993. Numerical Notation: A Comparative History. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Dubets, Adam. 2015. Archypastyr: Vybrani poslannia ta dopovidi [Archpastor: Selected
proclamations and reports]. Sianok: Eparchy of Przemysl and Nowy Sacz.
Edwards, Michael. 2017. Ku poetyce chrześcijańskiej [Towards a Christian poetics]. Tłum.
Monika Szuby. Gdańsk: Wyd. Uniwersytetu Gdańskiego; Pelplin: Bernardinum.
Fauconnier, Gilles, and Mark Turner. 2002. The way we think: conceptual blending and the
mind’s hidden complexities. New York: Basic Books.
Hill, Alette Olin, and Boyd H. Hill, Jr. 1980. “Mark Bloch and Comparative History.” The
American Historical Review 85, 4: 828–846.
Hodgson, Marshall G. S. 1993. Rethinking world history: Essays on Europe, Islam, and World
History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Holmes, James. 1988. Translated! Papers on Literary Translation and Translation Studies.
Amsterdam: Rodopi.
Kundera, Milan. 1984. “The tragedy of central Europe.” Trans. by Edmund White. The New
York Review of Books April 26 (no. 7): 33–38.
Modnicka, Noemi. 2009. “‘Nie jestem z tego świata’ – czyli o osobliwościach mowy protestantów
ewangelikalnych” [“I am not from this world,” or on specific features of Evangelical
Protestants’ speech]. In Protestancka kultura słowa, ed. by Zbigniew Pasek, 212–226.
Krakow: Nomos.
Saidov, А. Kh. 2006. Sravnitelnoye pravovedenie [Comparative law studies]. Moscow: Norma.
Shmiher, Taras. 2018. Perekladoznavchyi analiz – teoretychni ta prykladni aspekty: davnia
ukrayinska literatura suchasnymy ukrayinskoyu ta anhliyskoyu movamy [Translation
quality assessment, its theoretical and applied aspects: Early Ukrainian literature as
translated into Contemporary Ukrainian and English]. Lviv: Ivan Franko National
University of Lviv.
Shulman, David and Guy G. Stroumsa (ed). 1999. Dream Cultures: Explorations in the
Comparative History of Dreaming. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Ślusarczyk, Dawid. 2009. “Biblia jako źródło inspiracji dla kompozytorów luterańskich. Relacje
słowa i muzyki na przykładzie twórczości Jana Sebastiana Bacha” [The Bible as a source
of inspiration for Lutheran composers. Relation of Word and Music as exemplified by
Johann Sebastian Bach’s creativity]. In Protestancka kultura słowa, ed. by Zbigniew Pasek,
191–200. Krakow: Nomos.
Tötösy de Zepetnek, Steven. 2006. “Nowa Literatura Porównawcza jako teoria i metoda” [New
Comparative Literature as a theory and method]. Trans. by Agata Zawiszewska and
Andrzej Skrendo. In Konstruktywizm w badaniach literackich: Antologia, 347–389. Kraków:
Universitas.
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Vulfson, B. L. 2003. Sravnitelnaya pedagogika. Istoriya i sovremennye problem [Comparative
pedagogy. History and current problems]. Moscow: URAO.
Woodward, C. Vann (ed.). The Comparative Approach to American History. 1997. New York;
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
AB S TR ACT
The aim of this paper is to consider the capabilities of comparative studies to translation history
of liturgical texts. The main research methodologies originate from comparative history and
comparative religion. They demonstrate how the role of religious translation progressed in
societies as well as explain why the translation quality assessment of prayers and hymns is to
be adjusted if the very texts are intended for private use or approbated for public use. Although
the researcher focuses on the Ukrainian-Polish parallels of religious translation, these
observations can contribute to the exploration of intercultural and interdenominational
relations of homogeneous and heterogeneous civilizational traditions via the prism of
translation problematics.
Keywords: Religious translation. Liturgical translation. Comparative studies. Historiography.
Religion studies.
CO NTAC T D ETAI L S:
Taras V. Shmiher, Dr Habil., Prof.
Full Professor of the Hryhoriy Kochur Department of Translation Studies and Contrastive
Linguistics
Faculty of Foreign Languages
Ivan Franko National University of Lviv
Vul. Universytetska 1
79000 Lviv
Ukraine
taras.shmiher@lnu.edu.ua
ORCID: 0000-0002-4713-2882
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IV. O N LI N GU IS TI C A SPE CT S
O F TR ANS LAT IO N
IN TE RS E MIOTIC S O F TR ANS L ATIO N
V ita li y Ra dc h uk
Translation as viewed by intersemiotics is reputed to be a very modern field of
research, although it covers ages of development of human spiritual culture. If
rediscovered, the history of literature and art clears up very subtle theoretical points
in translatology. Oddly enough, some of its breakthrough ideas are often cited in the
old terms without being doubted or discussed on the basis of fundamentals that were
considered by Charles Pierce, Charles Morris, Ferdinand de Saussure and later
by Rolland Barthes, Claude Lévi-Strauss and other French structuralists. Some
contradictions and illogical slips in categorization still linger repeatedly and become
stiff patterns to be imitated on a broad scale without any critical insight. That is why
the following revision draws attention to the issue that was already highlighted in my
essay “Proteus or Janus? (On the types of translation),“ the first version of which was
published in the magazine “Vsesvit” (“Всесвіт”) in 2004 and is cited below from
the last of its reprints. The same approach to language(s) and translation was also
applied in my attempt of a linguistic foresight (Radchuk 2008). Taking into account
the current trend in categorization and terminology, let us look at the topic from
a varied retrospective as wells as perspective and reframe some basic ideas afresh.
Intersemiotics, just like semiotics at large, does not rank first in translation
studies today. Nevertheless, it is undoubtful that no analyst can do without semiotics
while evaluating the work of a translator, even if semiotics is not mentioned among
the tools of research. In fact, the obvious is rarely mentioned. One is not obliged to
give names to everything one does. But such accurate names are absolutely necessary
if they are key terms for the key concepts in a fundamental theory.
Intersemiotics is often defined as resemiotisation, as “circulation of meaning
between different sign systems” (Gignoux 2005, 98) that inevitably produces intertextuality. But it can equally be considered as a network of correspondences within
the global semiosphere, as translation from its source sign subsystem to a target one
in order to create some new meaning. From this standpoint, hermeneutics and applied
semiotics are synonymous.
In his famous work “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation” Roman Jakobson
distinguishes three kinds of translation. He labels them as intralingual, or rewording
within the same language, interlingual, or translation proper, done in words (verbal
signs in his terms) of some other language (mind the restricted meaning of the term
language here) and intersemiotic, or transmutation which is “an interpretation of
verbal signs by means of signs of nonverbal sign systems” (Jakobson 1966).
In my view, this scheme is not logical. Moreover, it is a misleading mistake.
What is a “translation proper” and why other kinds of translation are improper?
What is a language proper and why all other codes are improper if the fundamental
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Intersemiotics of translation
laws of semiotics can be applied to all of them? To what kind of translation should we
attribute the recent translation of Don Quixot, the masterpierce of Cervantes, into
Spanglish, a hybrid language, or a pidgin, spoken by forty million people?
British-American glossaries are already in big demand. Have you finished your
porridge? is translated into Are you through with your cereal? Etymologically, any
standard vocabulary has been almost all borrowed, just like any idiolect. The border
between languages is sometimes blurred, conventional, subject to doubt and change,
especially as translations from (into) pidgins and creoles are currently made, and
old texts, like “Beowulf ” and “Canterbury Tales,” are translated into ever modern
English(es).
Phonetician Professor Higgins of G.B. Shaw’s “Pygmalion” becomes a ballet
teacher in “Galatea,” the ballet version of his play, to make Eliza Doolittle a ballerine.
This adequacy of expressive means is only normal because ballet dancers speak only
by means of movement.
A minor logical brainwave gives us a hint that transmutation can equally be done
in the opposite direction. To reword the cited definition, it can be an interpretation of
nonverbal signs by means of signs of verbal sign systems. Examples abound. There are
poems about musical pieces and paintings, verbal descriptions of statues and dance
performances, etc.
A further excursion into the interaction of codes convinces that intersemiotic
translation is done between any two nonverbal systems of signs, just like between any
pair of verbal ones. By making about thirty pictures of the Rouane Cathedral, Claude
Monet translated the art of architecture into the art of painting, and the Gothic style
into the style of impressionism. August Rodin’s sculptures “Ever-lasting spring,” “The
kiss,” “Eternal idol” and some others depicting tender love of man and woman were
translated into a chain of ballet dances by Leonid Yakobson, founder of the theatre“
Choreographic miniatures.”
Why should we restrict intersemiotics to a particular case if it works elsewhere
and everywhere? Rewording within the same language normally entangles two codes,
hence is also a case of intersemiotic translation. Moreover, any translation is
interlingual because it is done by a human being endowed with an ability to create
one’s own language from a number of codes that constitute the idiolect, within which
all transformations occur. In other words, every human being is a polyglot. But the
question “How many languages do you know?” is somewhat biased because every
polyglot knows just one language, the language of his or her mind. Do we always
understand our mothers using our mother tongue?
It is evident that semiotics, intersemiotics in particular, gives a clear understanding
of the concept of language as such. And that of translation, too.
It is owing to translation that the subcodes of a language do not belong exclusively
to that language, with an exception of local dialects and standard territorial variants.
e styles of Shakespeare and Byron as well as the terminology of IT specialists are
not the monopoly of English, just like Dante’s pen is not purely Italian by effect. is
also concerns Sandro Botticelli’s illustrations of “e Divine Comedy” (as artistic
translations, they compare not only with those by Renato Guttuso but also with those
by William Blake, Gustave Doré, Michail Pikov and others). Neither is the style of Taras
Shevchenko the monopoly of Ukrainian, as his poetry is appreciated in dozens of
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languages and his pictures are internationally understood. Moreover, the individual
style of a genius features eternity, not just his epoch. If the so-called subcodes travel
from language to language almost untouched, why should they be called subcodes?
ey do not belong to a language. ey are full-fledged languages by themselves.
Below is a sentence in 6 registers in English, each next step being a translation of
any other one. These “stairs” can be translated into other tongues (as it was done twice
into Ukrainian in an article of mine [4]) to show that registers do not belong to
a particular tongue.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
No foe’s able to rebuff the blow of this knight’s potent hand.
The individual in question is capable of destroying any adversary since his limbs are
of great physical power.
This gentleman with iron fists is apt to win any fight.
This man can beat any other fighter, for he has very strong fists.
This here feller will give any other fighting chap a thrashing: got mighty strong fists.
This guy can damn well give you a lick: he’s nifty with his mitts.
These are different languages, not just one, and they owe to comparison and
translation. Contrary to what dictionaries explain, the task of a translator is not to
change the language but to preserve it in order to be understood.
A variety of semiotic systems brings to life different kinds of translation (within
a language, cross-lingual and nonverbal) urging to revise, branch out and specify the
Jakobsonian triad. If semiotics is to be universal any translation qualifies as
“intersemiotic,” with source and target codes being verbal or nonverbal. Moreover,
any translation can be treated as that within the synthetic individual language of the
polyglot translator. Translation is often wanted even if no language barrier separates
the parties, as they speak alike or are bilingual. Yet, such barriers occur within
a language that normally falls into varieties: styles, registers, jargons, professional,
local and social dialects, etc. These subcodes normally tend to be interpreted in
alternative terms rather than get contaminated. Any rich language splits and
reintegrates, its size becomes a barrier by itself. None can boast knowing the whole of
one’s native tongue. Thus, we resort to rewording to explain and reach beyond. It was
the lexical growth that made Charles Ogden create Basic English of 850 words and
translate Big English into Basic. Short defining vocabularies of two thousand words
are often devised now to explain bigger lexicons. A similar thing happens when you
hear the symphony of an orchestra translated into a ringtone.
RE F ERE NCE S
Gignoux, Anne-Claire. 2005. Initiation à l’intertextualité. Paris: Ellipses.
Jakobson, Roman. 1966. “On Linguistic Aspects of Translation.” In On Translation, ed. by
Reuben Arthur Brower. New York: Oxford University Press, 232–239.
Radchuk, Vitaliy. 2008. “Europe’s crossroads: what language will Ukraine use in 2101? How to
translate into interacting languages?” In Donetskyi visnyk Naukovoho tovarystva im.
Shevchenka. T. 22. Movoznavstvo, ed. by Anatolii Zahnitko. Donetsk: Skhidnyi vydavnychyi
dim, Donetske viddilennia NTSh, 155–177.
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Intersemiotics of translation
Radchuk, Vitaliy. 2018. “Protei chy Yanus? (Pro riznovydy perekladu)” [Proteus or Janus? (On
the varieties of translation)]. Dyvoslovo 9 (738), 36–46, 38.
A BS T RACT
The essay highlights intersemiotic translation as applied witnin the whole variety of sign
systems, those within a language, cross-lingual and nonverbal. Translation as viewed by
intersemiotics is reputed to be a very modern field of research, although it covers ages of
development of human spiritual culture. Intersemiotics, just like semiotics at large, does not
rank first in translation studies today. Nevertheless, it is undoubtful that no analyst can do
without semiotics while evaluating the work of a translator, even if semiotics is not mentioned
among the tools of research. In fact, the obvious is rarely mentioned.
Keyword s: Language. Translation. Sign. System. Intersemiotics.
CON TACT D E TA I LS :
Prof. Vitaliy Dmytrovych Radchuk
Department of Theory and Practice of Translation from English
Educational and Scientific Institute of Philology
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
14 Taras Shevchenko Blvd.
01601 Kyiv
Ukraine
vitaliy_radchuk@ukr.net
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A S T YL IS TIC D IME NS IO N
O F L IT ER ARY TR AN S LATI ON
O len a Du be n ko
In t ro du ct i o n
The explication of the relationship between style and meaning in a literary text can be
safely called a pivotal task of both literary translation and stylistics.1 While the former
aims at faithful recreation of this relationship by means of the target language, the
latter provides the methods designed for decoding the semantics of the original and
prompts the ways of its rendering. Although these profound linkages between the
purport of literary translation, on the one hand, and stylistics, on the other hand,
appear to be undeniable, it is only lately that translation scholars have become
increasingly interested in the concept of style as well as in the question whether style
can be detached from meaning. It goes without saying that literary translation would
only gain from turning to the attainments of modern stylistics, which actively draws
on the advantages that have opened up in this field with the advent of the cognitive
paradigm.
I aim at describing those recently evolved stylistic approaches to translation that
foster artistically accurate interpretation of literary texts in foreign languages and
cultures. However, before doing that it would be logical to analyze the reasons for
underestimating stylistic aspects in translation studies, where style is typically
mentioned only in passing.
Th e co n cept of s t y l e i n t ran s l at i o n s t u di e s
It would be wrong to state that the issue of style has not been addressed in translation
studies. First, one should mention the works of Anton Popovič, whose contribution
to the topic under discussion cannot be overestimated. Based on František Miko’s
model that studies literariness through the effect of a literary text on its recipients
(Valentová and Čechová 2015, 142), Popovič suggests his idea of shifts of expression
in literary translation and presents an extended pattern of the style of a literary text
that comprises macro-stylistics (thematic composition) and micro-stylistics (linguistic
composition) (1975, 130). The scholarly profoundness of this approach, which deals
with the major dimension of a literary text – its literariness, makes Popovič’s theory
unquestionably relevant for current research in literary translation (Valentová and
Čechová 2015). The topicality of this vision appears especially obvious in the light of
the attention currently paid to the notion ‘literariness’ by translation theorists (Garza
1
This article was supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation, IZSEZO 212468.
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A st ylistic dimension of literary translation
2021, 50–66; Rossi 2019, 42–43; Shen and Fang 2019, 327–328; Albaladejo and
Chico-Rico 2018, 116; Katan 2015). It should be emphasized that contemporary
understanding of this concept is in keeping with the standpoint of Roman Jakobson
who in 1921 defined literariness as “what makes a given work a work of literature” (in:
Eichenbaum 1965, 107), i.e. the literary value of the text, its artistic merit. It is in this
meaning that I use the term ‘literariness’ in the article.
In this connection, it is hard to disagree with Jaroslav Špirk, who advocates for
translating all Popovič’s works into English, as without it this valuable scholarly heritage,
unfortunately, remains “inaccessible to the wider professional public” (2009, 22).
Furthermore, Mona Baker’s offer of a methodological framework for exploring
the style of a literary translator (2000), and Tim Park’s insightful analysis of stylistic
aspects of literary translation (2011) are also significant milestones for a better
comprehension of stylistic issues in literary translation.
However, it is not infrequent that translation scholars regard style as a category,
which does not matter so much to the quality of literary translation as cultural and
ideological factors, or differences in language systems.
Adherence to this conviction entails “a lack of critical interest and theory in
translating style” (Pillière 2018, 27). Such treatment of stylistics is all the more
paradoxical in the light of a high dependence of literary translation upon “knowing
not only what a text means in an obvious sense but also what it suggests” (Boase-Beier
2012, 61).
Evidently, this situation is contingent on the special status of stylistics per se.
Although studies in style as the central notion of the discipline have enjoyed a longstanding tradition, there is no generally recognized and exhaustive definition of this
interdisciplinary concept. Style defies any “coherent theoretical approach” (Snell-Hornby
1995, 119), has no clear-cut morphological characteristics, and the nature of
individual-situational semantics it implies cannot be explained solely within the
framework of general linguistics. Due to its complexity and multifarious character,
the notion of style gets various interpretations not only in the fields of research that
are directly connected with linguistics (rhetoric, philosophy of language) but also in
a rather wide spectrum of the humanities: psychology, cultural studies, philosophy,
social philosophy, philosophy of culture, and art criticism.
Only in the domain of linguistic and literary studies, there are at least two types
of stylistics, both of which have their own aims, tasks, and methods: linguostylistics,
or functional stylistics that deals with non-literary texts, and literary stylistics that
studies style in its aesthetic sense. Accordingly, in this sphere one may speak of
individual style, functional style (official, business, scientific, mass media), individual
style (the style of Hemingway) as well as the styles of literary movements (classicism,
romanticism).
Apart from the approaches described above, the field of stylistic studies can be
regarded as “an area of mediation between two disciplines: linguistics and literary
criticism” that has no status of autonomy (Widdowson 1991, 4).
Internationally, studies in stylistics have not only seen a variety of approaches and
methodological principles, but also different degrees of importance ascribed to them
in different scholarly traditions. Stylistics has flourished in Europe and Australia and
has had less impacting in the United States (Stockwell 2002, 9).
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I V. O N L I N G U I S T I C A S P E C T S O F T R A N S L A T I O N
The only irrefutable postulate concerning the aims of all kinds of stylistic research
is that stylistics (both in its linguistic and literary aspects) investigates the means of
appropriate verbal expression of a certain message that should not be misinterpreted
by the addressee. Therefore, stylistics has to deal with interpretation – one of the most
controversial concepts in the realm of liberal arts, which inevitably turns stylistic
studies into an interdisciplinary field described as “an elusive and slippery topic”
(Bradford 2005, xi).
Given the above, it is not surprising that although translation scholars have
a background in stylistics, in some cases, they are reluctant to focus on the recent
developments in cognitive stylistics and linguistics, being more inclined to use the
definitions of style that were topical decades ago.
Typically, researchers tend to equate stylistics to structuralist linguistics or
stylistics, and seeing stylistics as a structuralist project leads to a tangible prejudice
against stylistically-based translation studies. However, modern stylistics “goes far
beyond the rhetoric, poetics, formalism, structuralism and functionalism of the past”
(Burke 2018, 2) dealing with predominately interdisciplinary spheres of investigation
that open new, exciting perspectives in literary text interpretation. A strong research
tradition in text interpretation that associated with stylistics in its pragmatic, semiotic,
and cognitive orientations has yielded unique methods of text analysis. In contrast to
structuralism, modern stylistics convincingly reveals a deep bond between the
meaning of the text and its style, taking into consideration the context that is
understood as “the psychological and social circumstances under which language is
used” (Stockwell 2002, 60).
These new avenues for literary text comprehension that have opened up in the
domain of stylistics, account for the mounting interest in style issues in contemporary
literary translation studies.
S t y l i s ti c a p p roa ch to l i te ra r y t ra n sl a t io n
At the present stage, style-oriented translation studies may be characterized at least
from three perspectives. The first one concerns the type of stylistics involved.
To a certain degree, current research on the problem relies on the concepts and
rules of the structuralist era, especially on Anton Popovič’s theory that proved its
undeniable relevance in terms of contemporary scholarly paradigms (Špirk 2009;
Valentová and Čechová 2015). Meanwhile, most translation scholars who highlight
stylistic aspects of literary translation tend to rely on cognitive stylistics or cognitive
poetics.
Undoubtedly, a more stereotyped character of non-literary phenomena gives
wider opportunities for generalizations, encouraging empirical studies of a fundamental
nature. Suffice it to mention a series of studies aimed at analyzing the implications of
a cognitive approach to translating metaphors (Schäffner 2004; Al-Hasnawi 2007;
Fernández 2011, 2013). The works based on literary material are more introspective
and infrequently lack a straightforward translatological orientation. They may offer
a comprehensive in-depth analysis of certain poetic elements in source and target
texts, making a considerable contribution to cognitive poetics theory’ at the same
time, they may be of little interest to translation studies. This is, for instance, the case
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A st ylistic dimension of literary translation
with Margaret Freeman and Masako Takeda’s paper (2006) where the perception of
the original poem by Emily Dickinson (F1599/J1622, dated 1883), and its Japanese
translation is studied within the framework of conceptual blending theory (Fauconnier
and Turner 2002). A thorough examination of the semiosis processes provided in the
study has an indisputable value for cognitive stylistics, but it is not much help for the
practice of literary translation.
Meanwhile, several translation scholars have already successfully applied the
advancements of cognitive stylistics to such key problems of translation studies as
fidelity of translation, or rendering the ‘literary’ in literary translation. In doing so,
they resort to various major categories of cognitive poetic analysis: it may be a mind
style/a cognitive state (Boase-Beier 2003, 2006, 2010a; Dick 2009), or the voice of the
author/mind style of the character (Pillière 2018). The terms mind style, cognitive state,
and voice of the author are to a great degree interchangeable. They are related to the
narrator’s worldview or the world perception that is encoded in the stylistic patterns
of the source and target texts. The conveyance of a mind style poses specific challenges
for the translator, who should be able to decipher the interplay of textual ambiguities
and suggestions (the cognitive context of the original) and expose the target reader to
a similar world perception, or cognitive state. In the words of Jean Boase-Beier, style
attains a special significance “if we want to both preserve the same possible range of
interpretations of the cognitive state expressed in the text as were implicated by the
original and to keep the same potential range of poetic effects as the original” (2004,
280). The main factor that predetermines the translators’ success in performing this
complicated task is seen in appropriate, artistically motivated stylistic choices made
by the translator in the interpretation of the original.
Although the cognitive perspective offers the greatest opportunities for adequate
literary text comprehension, some scholars speak of a combination of stylistic
approaches that complement each other. These include linguistic stylistics (describing
varieties of languages), literary stylistics (discerning aesthetic aspects of the text),
affective stylistics (activating experiences of reading and our intuitive responses to the
text), and cognitive stylistics (activating the knowledge stored in the human mind on
various linguistic and non-linguistic aspects) (Almanna and Farghal 2016).
The second categorization of style-oriented translation studies is related to the
translatological approach to style, which may be either source-text or target-text
oriented. Speaking about this dichotomy, Gabriela Saldanha characterizes the first
subtype as a traditional style-based trend of translation research, while the second one
is associated with an innovative presentation of translations and translators as stylistic
domains (2014). The source-text oriented approach takes place when the researcher
is concerned about conveying the style of the original (Malmkjær 2004; Boase-Beier
2003, 2010b, 2011, 2014). It is the so-called “translational stylistics” (Malmkjaer 2004,
38) that presupposes the studies of target texts in relation to their original. Boase-Beier
distinguishes between first-order meanings determined by lexis or syntax and
second-order meanings, or weakly implied meanings, where choices can be made by
the author/translator (2010, 112–113). In contrast to first-order meanings whose
translation requires background cultural and linguistic knowledge, weakly implied
meanings presuppose a particular stylistic awareness on the part of the translator.
Thus, the fidelity of rendering the source text becomes the matter of stylistic choices
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I V. O N L I N G U I S T I C A S P E C T S O F T R A N S L A T I O N
made by the translator who, ideally, should be able to decode the in-depth semantics
of the original, which is responsible for the literariness of the literary text. Target-text
oriented approach to style in translation interprets the style as a way of responding to
the source text. Scholars propose to search for stylistic idiosyncrasies that remain
consistent across several translations by one translator and ignore the differences in
source texts (Baker 2000; Saldanha 2014). In other words, the approach under
discussion focuses on the style of the translator.
The third taxonomy of style-based translation studies was presented by
Boase-Beier (2014); it is structured around the type of analyzed material. While some
scholars compare target texts with source texts to define stylistic changes that have
taken place in translation (Malmkjaer 2004; Boase-Beier 2003, 2010b, 2011), others
do stylistic analyses of different translation versions of the same text to describe their
different effects (Millán-Varela 2004; Jones 2011). Finally, there are research works
that focus on rendering particular stylistic features (Marco 2004).
M et h o do l o gi ca l i mp l i ca t i o n s
At least two major operational concepts can be singled out in the studies of style in
literary translation. The first one proceeds directly from the definition of modern
stylistics, which is mainly viewed as a study of reading (Stockwell 2002, 8). This
discipline offers instruments for a close or “stylistically-aware” reading (Boase-Beier
2006, 113) of the original that would help the translator to discover the ‘literary’ in
a literary text. The kind of reading that assesses the style of the source text and its
effects, including the inferences it permits (Gutt 2000), its ambiguity, compression, or
incompleteness it manifests, leads to what may be called a stylistically-aware translation.
A systemic close reading means that, figuratively speaking, the translator has an ear
for style that allows hearing the voice of the author by detecting unique semantic
nuances of the original text.
If stylistically-aware reading is associated with the initial hermeneutical stage of
the translator’s activity, the second important term from the methodological domain
is immediately linked to the target text writing. It is the notion of a stylistic choice that
is applicable both to the author’s and the translator’s literary decisions. The translator’s
choices are regarded as a realization of the translator’s reading style. Besides, it is
important to remember at least two sets of constraints upon the translator’s stylistic
choices. The first set is the style of the author that regulates the selection of expressive
means applied by the translator; the second one is linked to the function that the
translated text is expected to fulfill (Boase-Beier 2010a, 54).
These analytical and evaluating competences (Almanna and Farghal 2016) enable
the translator to find the appropriate strategies and to make appropriate choices to
ensure minimal losses in rendering the conceptual content of the original.
Co n cl u si o n
The analysis of recent research publications suggested here gives ground for
suppositions about the development of a mutually beneficial relationship between
stylistics and literary translation. Although it would be premature to speak of a “stylistic
140
A st ylistic dimension of literary translation
turn” in translation studies, there is, nevertheless, a rising interest in style issues
on the part of translation scholars. One may note a gradual development of the
terminological apparatus by means of translational stylistics. It contains such generally
recognized terms as mind style, cognitive state, voice of the author, stylistically-aware
reading/translation, translator’s stylistic choice, and some others.
Furthermore, the multidimensional approach to style that has established itself
in translation studies can be seen as a promising sign, because it testifies to the degree
of attention to the problem. The vectors of style exploration encompass source-text
and target-text oriented trends as well as the involvement of different types of research
material (the source text vs the target text, or various translation versions of the same
original literary text).
It becomes clear that stylistics provides the methods of revealing the necessary
frameworks of textual language signals, which are highly helpful for the translator in
deciphering the cognitive content of style, or, in other words, in grasping the artistic
message of the source text. To sum it up, the stylistic approach to translation offers the
instruments of producing stylistically-aware translations, i.e. better literary translations,
which convey the literariness of the original literary text.
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A BS T RACT
The article addresses the importance of studies in the stylistic aspects of literary translation,
which, until recently, were not much discussed by translation theorists. It offers an overview
of research in style issues related to the contemporary literary translation studies. A special
emphasis is placed on the cognitive stylistic categories that are valuable in conveying the
literariness of literary texts in translation.
Key w o r d s : Literary translation. Stylistics. Literariness. Mind style. Stylistically-aware
translation. Stylistic choice.
CO NTACT DE TA I LS :
Olena Dubenko, Associate Professor
Department of Theory and Practice of Translation
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
14 Taras Shevchenko Blvd.
01601 Kyiv
Ukraine
helenadoobenko@ukr.net
ORCID: 0000-0001-5720-1637
143
O MIS S IO N A ND ADDI TIO N O F FI C TIO N
S IMI LE S : CO GN ITIV E TR AN SL ATIO N
A N ALYSI S
A lla M a r t ynyu k – E lv ira A k h m ed ova
In t ro du ct i o n
Most papers on the translation of similes describe the simile as a figure of speech that
rests on the comparison of two entities and instantiates in the source text and target
text linguistic expressions that are subject to structural and semantic translation
analysis (Zorivchak 1983; Pierini 2007; Tsepeniuk 2011; Thahara and Hum 2015;
Mohammed 2017; Kendenan 2017; Kautsari 2019). Quite a few studies of similes
(Hilman, Ardiyanti, and Pelawi 2013; Shamsaeefard, Fumani, and Nemati 2013; Ramli
2014) rely on Patrizia Pierini (2007), who proposes six translation procedures that she
calls “strategies” to render different types of similes from Italian into English. These
translation procedures include “literal translation (retention of the same vehicle);
replacement of the vehicle with a different vehicle; reduction of the simile, if idiomatic,
to its sense; retention of the same vehicle plus explicitation of similarity feature(s);
replacement of the vehicle with a gloss; omission of the simile” (31). Focusing on
structural-semantic correspondences between the source and target languages, several
researchers (Zorivchak 1983; Ramli 2014; Thahara and Hum 2015; Mohammed 2017)
make a stress on the impact of different cultural environments and, consequently,
different worldviews on simile interpretation.
This paper is one of the few cognitive studies in the translation of similes (Pohlig
2006; Aasheim 2012; Parkhomenko 2018; Akhmedova 2021; Martynyuk and
Akhmedova 2021) that view similes as phenomena of thought. Inspired by cognitive
linguistics (Lakoff and Johnson [1980] 2003; Ortony 1993; Cameron and Low 1999;
Gibbs 2008) cognitive translation researchers conceive similes as explicit conceptual
metaphors and focus on identifying conceptual structures that underlie linguistic
expressions of similes and influence translators’ decisions.
Unlike most translation papers that compare the source text linguistic expressions
with the target text equivalents, this paper deals with “translation gaps” (Sigismondi
2018, 292), that is, cases in which a source text simile is missing in the target text
(omission) or, vice versa, a simile is employed in the target text to render a source text
expression containing no comparison (addition).
The data for translation analysis constitutes the total number of similes (21)
omitted in Ukrainian translations of the three English novels – Donna Tartt’s The
Goldfinch (2013), The Secret History (2015), and Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin
(2009) – and also the total number of similes (32) added in Ukrainian translations of
these novels. The translations were performed, respectively, by Viktor Shovkun (Tartt
2016), Bohdan Stasiuk (Tartt 2017) and Olena Oksenych (Atwood 2018).
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Omission and addition of fiction similes: cognitive translation analysis
The main objective of this paper is to apply cognitive translation analysis to reveal
correlations between a choice of domesticating translation procedures by means of
omissions and additions of similes and the cultural specificity of the conceptual
structures of these similes.
The significance of the research is accounted for by its cognitive methodology
that gives instruments of differentiation between constrained and free translators’
choices, imposed or not imposed by linguacultural specificity of the conceptual
structures that licence linguistic instantiations of conceptual simile.
Res earch met ho d o lo g y
Theoretical issues
The key principle of cognitive linguistics that has strongly influenced translation
studies is the assumption that our thinking is “metaphorically structured” (Lakoff and
Johnson [1980] 2003, 56). This means that “most concepts are partially understood
in terms of other concepts” (56).
The founders of the conceptual metaphor theory George Lakoff and Mark
Johnson view metaphor as “understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in
terms of another” (5). Structurally a conceptual metaphor involves two domains:
“the target domain, which is constituted by the immediate subject matter, and the
source domain, in which important metaphorical reasoning takes place” (265).
Metaphorical reasoning employs inference patterns “from one conceptual domain
to reason about another conceptual domain” (246), and the “results of source
domain inferences are carried over to the target domain via neural links” (258). e
systematic correspondences across these domains are called “metaphorical
mappings” (246) or “projections” (171). Lakoff and Johnson also emphasize that
“a metaphorical mapping is multiple, that is, two or more elements are mapped
to two or more other elements” (265).
In line with them, Gilles Fauconnier argues that similes like metaphors “project
part of the structure of one domain onto another” (1997, 9), thus supporting the
idea of projections/ mappings: “in order to talk and think about some domains (target
domains), we use the structure of other domains (source domains) and the
corresponding vocabulary” (9). The researcher places a great emphasis on the cultural
and lexical entrenchment of mappings as well as their transparency.
Both metaphor and simile mappings are represented by propositional models,
which slightly differ. Compared to a metaphorical model “A (the target domain/
concept) is B (the source domain/concept),” a simile model contains a marker of
comparison, and, in addition, may include a feature on which the comparison is based,
“a (the target domain/ concept) is like B (the source domain/concept) on the basis of
feature C.” Within the structure of a simile, concept A is also called the topic, and
concept B – the vehicle. For example:
The peonies are almost finished, bedraggled and limp as damp tissue, but the lilies
have come out; also the phlox (Atwood 2009, 62). – Півонії майже відійшли,
обвисли, розм’якли, наче мокра тканина, але з’явилися лілії та ще флокси
(Atwood 2018, 69) [Peonies almost finished, bedraggled, softened like wet cloth, but
appeared lilies and also phloxes].
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I V. O N L I N G U I S T I C A S P E C T S O F T R A N S L A T I O N
Each component of the simile structure is verbalized in both the source and target
texts: the target concept/the topic – peonies/півонії, the source concept/the vehicle –
damp tissue/мокра тканина, the marker of comparison – preposition like/наче, and
the feature of comparison – limp/ розм’якли.
Methodological design
The choice of the novels for translation analysis is justified by the fact that they are
abundant in all kinds of stylistic devices, in particular similes. The authors won
important literary awards (Tartt received the WH Smith Literary Award, the Pulitzer
Prize for Fiction, and the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction and
Nonfiction; Atwood is a Man Booker Prize laureate), which highlights the distinguished
mastery of their art.
In e Goldfinch published in 2013, Tartt tells the story of eo Decker, a teenager
whose mother died in a terrorist attack during their visit to the Metropolitan Museum
of Art. In the aftermath of the explosion, urged by a dying man, Theo took home the
painting called “The Goldfinch.” Describing ten years of Theo’s adventures, Tartt
shows that art may turn into an addiction, which can also be capable of relieving the
pain of loss.
In The Secret History, a detective novel published in 1992, Tartt reveals how going
beyond the normal can turn evil. The narrator Richard Papen, a student of Hampden
College, enrols in a Greek course taught by Professor Julian Morrow, thus joining
a socially isolated group of six students. That becomes the turning point of his life,
which results into two murders.
The Blind Assassin is an intellectual novel by Atwood published in 2000. The
author created a multilevel intrigue with an unexpected finale. The main characters
are two sisters, whose mother died when they were kids and the older, Iris, has to take
care of the younger, Laura. When Tomas Alex, an eccentric newspaper reporter,
appears in their life, Laura almost immediately falls in love with him. After learning
about Alex’s death, Laura drives her car off a bridge. Then Iris finds her sister’s
manuscript, where some uncomfortable things are revealed.
In working with the data, we take the following steps.
1)
Define the type of the target text and source text similes.
Firstly, we distinguish between conventional and original fiction similes in order
to see how the author’s creativity affects the choice of translation procedures and
strategies. Conventional fiction similes are based on the features of comparison,
which are “intrinsic” and “characteristic” (Langacker 1987, 160–161) of the
entities compared. Typically, most people associate such features with an entity
and this association is part of the “generic knowledge” (160). For example, My
new room was as bare as a jail cell (Tartt 2013, 120) is a conventional simile since
most people regardless of their cultural identity would hardly have any difficulties
imagining a prison cell and associating it with a plain, scarcely furnished room
with limited living space.
Unlike conventional similes that rest on group knowledge, original fiction similes
are rooted in individual knowledge and the unique creative imagination of
the authors (Akhmedova 2021, 236). They highlight “non-intrinsic” and “non146
Omission and addition of fiction similes: cognitive translation analysis
2)
characteristic” similarity features that represent “specific knowledge” (Langacker
1987, 160). For example, this massive, jam-packed church ceremony was springing
up around me like a flash mob (Tartt 2013, 273) is an original simile because
a church ceremony is hardly associated with a flash mob by many people, and to
some people such a comparison may seem unacceptable.
Secondly, we take into account that conventional similes can be idiomatic and
have different degrees of conventionality. Some idiomatic similes rest on generic
knowledge shared by representatives of both cultures, like, for instance, he’s strong
as an ox (Tartt 2015, 33). Others root in culture-specific experience, as in the case
of You are white as a fish (Tartt 2013, 375). In Ukrainian culture, whiteness is not
associated with fish contrary to many other entities like death, wall, clay, day,
paper, sour cream, or snow (Aforyzmy 2022). To establish linguacultural
specificity or similarity of idiomatic similes, we use English and Ukrainian
dictionaries of idioms (Aforyzmy 2022; ATSUM 1970–1980; SSFS 2007–2022;
UKRLIT.ORG 2005–2021; Farlex 2015; Merriam-Webster 1828–2022; Your
Dictionary 2022). These dictionaries list similes based on full idioms, the
meaning of which cannot be inferred from the meanings of their vehicles like
happy as a clam, as well as semi-idioms, the meaning of which can be inferred
from the meanings of their vehicles like to work like a horse.
Reveal correlations between the presence or absence of cultural specificity of
fiction similes and the translation procedures and strategies employed.
Integrating fundamental ideas of western and domestic researchers (Lörscher
1991; Chesterman 1997; Koptilov 2002; Cherednychenko 2007; Rebrii 2012), we
view a translation strategy as the translator’s general mental course of action,
aimed at rendering the source text in the target language in a comprehensible way.
We also side with Oleksandr Rebrii that a choice of strategy is determined by the
translator’s wish to discover the “golden mean” between foreignization and
domestication to provide a communicatively relevant translation (2012, 64–65).
In line with Lawrence Venuti, we interpret domestication as the adaptation of
a source text to the canons of the target language culture, and foreignization – as
the retention of the source text structures even if they interfere with the target
text linguacultural conventions (2001, 240–241). In addition, we differentiate
between types of domestication that are dictated and not dictated by
linguacultural specificity of the source text linguistic expressions. Accordingly,
we talk about compulsory domestication and optional domestication (Martynyuk
and Akhmedova 2021). In defining translation procedures, we follow Jean-Paul
Vinay and Jean Darbelnet (1958, 31) as well as Peter Newmark (1988, 81), who
address them as translators’ actions aimed at solving specific translation
problems. While strategies work for texts, “translation procedures are used for
sentences and the smaller units of language” (Newmark 1988, 81).
This paper investigates two contrasting translation procedures – omission and
addition, which both constitute cases of domestication. Omission involves a removal
of a source text simile without providing any compensation in the target text.
Addition, on the contrary, presupposes an insertion of a simile into the target text to
render the source text linguistic expression that does not contain comparison.
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I V. O N L I N G U I S T I C A S P E C T S O F T R A N S L A T I O N
Da ta p resen ta t io n a n d di scu s si o n
Having analysed the samples, we found that omission is employed to translate original
as well as non-idiomatic and idiomatic conventional similes.
The first example illustrates the omission of an original simile:
My dad ... would go outside to smoke or else skulk darkly at the margins looking
like a drug pusher whenever he was forced to attend any sort of school event or kiddie
party (Tartt 2013, 273). – ... він тоді виходив покурити або забивався в якийсь
темний закуток, ______ коли мусив бути присутнім на якомусь шкільному
заході або дитячій вечірці (Tartt 2016, 550) (the gap indicates omission of the simile)
[...he then went out to smoke or got into some dark corner, ______ when [he] had to
be present at some school event or kid party].
Theo compares his father to a drug pusher to stress that his father felt highly
uncomfortable around children and wanted to be as inconspicuous as possible to
avoid any undesirable contact and responsibility, including the responsibility for
his son.
The translator’s choice to omit the simile is not dictated by the cultural specificity
of the simile mapping someone trying to be inconspicuous is like a drug pusher, since
representatives of both cultures can more or less easily conceptualize a drug pusher.
Neither is it imposed by any linguistic difficulties since the target sentence does not
contain any English constructions that are problematic for translation. Since the
translator’s decision to omit the simile is not imposed by any linguacultural constraints,
we qualify such a strategy as optional domestication.
At the same time, the association between one’s father and a drug pusher is far
from conventional. The translator decided to omit the simile because he may have felt
that such a comparison would be a bit too rough for a Ukrainian reader. As a result,
the target text seems to be losing the singularity of Tartt’s style that is “lush with
verbiage but rarely veers into pleonasm” (Cwik 2013), and abounds in metaphors and
similes that “are unique and striking” (Mintsys and Chik 2016, 95). On top of that, this
omission makes it impossible for the translator to render Theo’s complicated
emotional state. It seems to be one of those Tartt’s original similes that “are apparently
in tune with the characters’ mood” (Mintsys and Chik 2016, 97), “percolate with
tragedy” (Cwik 2013), and help “to emphasize Theo’s despair, loneliness, and
hopelessness” (Mintsys and Chik 2016, 97).
The next example presents another instance of an original simile omission:
My mother slid into me and grabbed my arm; and I saw she was clammy and pale
as a cod (Tartt 2013, 13). – Маму відкинуло на мене, і вона схопила мою руку;
я помітив, що вона спітніла й смертельно зблідла ______ (Tartt 2016, 17) [Mother
was thrown on me, and she grabbed my hand; I noticed, that she perspired and deadly
whitened _______].
The simile describes Theo’s carsick mother. Though such characteristics as
paleness andclamminess can be easily associated with codfish by most people, the
comparison of one’s mother with a cod is somewhat unexpected. The translator’s
decision to domesticate the target text omitting the simile is not compulsory, since it
is dictated neither by linguacultural specificity of the simile conceptual mapping nor
by the impossibility to retain the source text linguistic structure. Probably, the
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translator’s choice to omit the simile was prompted by its uncanniness. However,
continuing the line of argumentation started above, we should cite the literary critics,
who see the use of “neat similes based on zoonyms (rat, fish, dog, animal, etc.)” as one
of the peculiarities of Tartt’s style (Mintsys and Chik 2016, 97).
The following example illustrates the omission of a non-idiomatic conventional
simile:
She was sopping like a wet sheep, and I was pretty wet myself (Atwood 2009, 126). –
Лора була геть мокра ______, та і я сама не суха (Atwood 2018, 149) [Lora was
entirely wet______, and also I myself [was] not dry].
The simile is used to describe Iris’s younger sister, Laura, who fell into the river.
The translator’s choice to omit the simile may be explained by the fact that in
colloquial Ukrainian the noun вівця [sheep] used to describe a woman is highly
derogatory. Employed as a direct insult, it is often accompanied by the adjective тупа
[dumb] creating a metaphorical idiom. Thus, we may conclude that the omission was
dictated by the linguacultural specificity of the Ukrainian direct equivalent of
the English simile vehicle, and qualify the translation strategy as compulsory
domestication.
Contrary to the above example, the example below illustrates the omission of
a non-idiomatic conventional simile devoid of any linguacultural specificity:
He was not in a mood to talk – ebullient sometimes, he could also be as mute and
sulky as a child (Tartt 2015, 206). – Чарльз був не в гуморі спілкуватись. Інколи
щебетливий, він так само міг понуро замикатися в собі та не промовляти ні
слова ______ (Tartt 2017, 365) [Charles was not in [a] mood to communicate.
Sometimes chattering, he also could gloomily withdraw into himself and not say [a]
word______].
The simile is used to describe the mood of one of the main characters, who is
frightened of being arrested for murder. The translator’s choice to domesticate the text
omitting the simile is optional since it cannot be explained by its linguacultural
specificity.
In the next example, the omission is applied to render an idiomatic simile:
Although I might smoke like a chimney, who cared, because my mouth would
taste clean as a whistle if I stuck to Spuds (Atwood 2009, 184). – Я можу курити, наче
паротяг, – усім буде байдуже, бо разом зі “Спадз” дихання лишатиметься свіжим
______ (Atwood 2018, 227) [I can smoke, like [a] chimney, – everyone will be
indifferent, because together with “Spuds” breath stays fresh______].
A heavy smoker, Iris employs the simile clean as a whistle (“completely free
of dirt and neat in appearance” (Farlex 2015); “very clean” (Merriam-Webster
1828–2022) to describe the effect of using Spuds (mashed potatoes) to get rid of
the cigarette taste.
In Ukrainian culture, purity/cleanliness is not associated with whistle. It is
associated with water, tears, crystal, sky, glass, ice, mirror, and even fisheye, or pig in
the rain (Aforyzmy 2022). Thus, domestication is compulsory here. However, this
strategy does not have to be realized as an omission. It could have taken shape of
a replacement of the source text idiomatic simile with a Ukrainian one that is based
on a culture-specific conceptual mapping. It would be preferable sinceAtwood’s style
is characterised as “privileging colloquial idioms” (Dvorak 2006, 122). Thus, even
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though the translation renders basic information contained in the source text, the
translator changes the style of the text transforming the stylistically coloured idiomatic
linguistic expression into a neutral one.
The next example is another instance of an idiomatic simile omission:
Then he said that in any case, now that she’d shot up like a weed she looked as old
as I did (Atwood 2009, 151). – І додав, що в будь-якому разі вона так витягнулася
______, що здається не молодшою за мене (Atwood 2018, 184) [I added, that in any
case she so has grown______, that seems not younger than me].
The author compares Laura with a weed, because she has grown out of her dress
extremely quickly. In Ukrainian the expression рости як бур’ян [to grow like weed]
is used to qualify something useless and even harmful that needs to be cut and this
meaning is realized in the expression скосити/підкосити як бур’ян [to cut like weed]
(ATSUM1970–1980).
The translator’s choice of domestication is compulsory in the sense that she is
constrained by the specificity of linguacultural interpretations. However, instead of
omitting the source text simile, she could have replaced it with a Ukrainian
simile-based idiomatic expression рости як на дріжджах [to grow like on yeast],
which means “to develop well; very fast” (SSFS 2007–2022), and preserve the stylistic
scale of the original.
In the following example, omission is employed to render another idiomatic
simile:
Won’t do a thing after school but drink like a fish and go to parties (Tartt 2015,
33). – Після занять напивається ______ й гуляє (Tartt 2017, 58) [After school gets
drunk______ and entertains].
The simile to drink like a fish (“to drink alcohol excessively; to be in the habit of
drinking alcohol excessively;” Farlex 2015) describes one of the Greek class students
with an alcohol addiction. Evidently, the translator resorted to omission because the
conceptual mapping someone drunk is like a fish is foreign to Ukrainian culture. Thus,
the strategy employed is qualified as compulsory domestication. However, there are
synonymic idiomatic similes in Ukrainian that rest on culture-specific conceptual
mappings: набрався як свиня/нализався як свиня з корита [got drunk, like [a]
pig/got drunk like [a] pig from [a] trough]], and п’яний як чіп [drunk as [a] stopper].
Using such a simile-based idiom in translation would make it possible to preserve the
style of the source text.
The following example illustrates the omission of an idiomatic simile that is
rooted in a culturally similar conceptual mapping:
She was a hard worker though, she’d worked like a horse, keeping the joint clean...
(Atwood 2009, 263). – Утім вона була працьовита, підтримувала чистоту
в забігайлівці... (Atwood 2018, 328) [Yet she was hardworking______, kept cleanliness
in [the] joint]...
In spite of the fact that in both cultures a hard-working person is conceptualised
as a horse and this association instantiates in the corresponding simile-based idioms,
the translator chooses to omit the target text simile. Such a translation strategy is
qualified as optional domestication. Probably,the translator’s choice can be explained
by the wish to avoid pleonasm since the expressions to be a hard-worker and to work
like a horse are synonymous, and used together they create tautology.
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In order to see how linguacultural specificity of simile correlates with the choice
of the translation procedure we calculated percentages of culture-specific and
nonculture-specific similes that were omitted taking into account the types of similes.
The data are presented in Figure 1.
Figure 1. Percentage of omitted similes
e data show that translators omit more nonculture-specific than culture-specific
similes. Cultural specificity, characteristic of idiomatic and sometimes of non-idiomatic
similes, is only one of the possible reasons that can influence the translator’s choice of
omission. Original similes that cannot be discussed in terms of cultural specificity as
well as nonculture-specific idiomatic and non-idiomatic conventional similes are also
omitted.
As to addition, we have found out that translators add non-idiomatic conventional
similes as well as similes based on idioms.
The following example instantiates addition of a non-idiomatic conventional
simile:
When he shook her she’d close her eyes and go limp, which incensed him further
(Atwood 2009, 137). – У такі моменти вона заплющувала очі й ставала м’яка,
мов ганчір’яна лялька, від чого він лютував іще сильніше (Atwood 2018, 164) [At
such moments she closed [her] eyes and became limp, like [a] rag doll, from which he
got furious even more].
In the source text, the expression to go limp is used to describe how feeble little
Laura looked when Mr. Erskine, her tutor, got furious because of her distractedness
during the lesson and shook her. The translator introduces the simile built on the
conceptual mapping someone who is limp looks like a rag doll in order to emphasize
Laura’s laxness and passiveness. The simile is conventional since any reader regardless
of their cultural affiliation can associate a little girl shaken by a strong man with a rag
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doll. This case of domestication is optional. Moreover, by introducing the stylistic
device absent in the source text the translator not only domesticates the target text but
also changes its neutral stylistic scale into stylistically coloured.
The next example presents another case of a non-idiomatic conventional simile
addition:
There were no signs and no apparent logic to the house numbers, and after we’d
poked around blind for about half an hour, I began to hope that we would never find
it at all... (Tartt 2015, 219). – Ніяких вказівників та очевидної логіки в нумерації
будинків нам відшукати не пощастило, і після півторагодинного тицяння туди
й сюди, немов ми були сліпими кошенятами, я вже почав був сподіватися, що
потрібної адреси ми не знайдемо... (Tartt 2017, 389) [No sings or apparent logic in
numbering [the] houses we to find were not lucky, and after half-an-hour poking
around, as if we were blind kittens, I already began to hope that the necessary address
we will not find...].
This simile addition can be partly explained by the difference between the
grammatical structures of the English and Ukrainian languages. In the source text, the
adjective blind is part of the mixed verbal-nominative predicate poked around blind,
which is translated into Ukrainian by a subordinate clause of comparison – тицялися
наче сліпі [poked around as if [we were] blind]. It seems the translator added the word
кошенята [kittens] since blindness and helplessness are the qualities associated with
kittens, who are born blind and helpless. This association is materialised in the
Ukrainian metaphor сліпі кошенята [blind kittens]. The simile addition is qualified
as optional domestication, because it is the translator’s free choice. This choice
embodies the translator’s associations and can be explained by the effort to achieve
fluency and naturalness of narration.
Next, we consider an example of an idiomatic simile addition:
Redeemed Repair is generally the best – they’re a bunch of born-agains down
there but they’ll still shake you down pretty good if you don’t keep an eye on them (Tartt
2015, 16). – Найкраще було би звернутися до “Рятівного ремонту” – вони, звісно,
ще ті новонавернені євангелісти, але все одно пильнуй, бо обдеруть як липку
(Tartt 2017, 28) [Best would be to turn to “Redeemed Repair” – they [are], of course,
still those newly converted evangelists, but any way be on alert, because they will pick
[you] out like a linden].
The idiomatic phrasal verb to shake down means “to obtain money from in
a deceitful, contemptible, or illegal manner” (Merriam-Webster 1828–2022) or “by
extension, to ask, pressure, or force someone to pay a sum of money, oen an exorbitant
or unfair amount” (Farlex 2015). In the novel, these are the words of the dean who
warns Richard that the repair’s staff might charge him a double price if they learnt he
was from the college.
The translator renders this phrasal verb with the culture-specific idiomatic simile
обдерти як липку which means “to rob, to take something from someone by force”
(SSFS 2007–2022). The domestication is compulsory here since it is prompted by the
necessity to adapt a culture-specific source text expression, though it does not
necessarily have to be an addition of a simile. At the same time, employing an
idiomatic Ukrainian simile seems justifiable since it helps to maintain the style of the
original text. According to literary critics, idioms are an important part of Tartt’s style,
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Omission and addition of fiction similes: cognitive translation analysis
they “perform a certain stylistic function in the text contributing to familiarity and
informality of speech, making it more colloquial, colourful and lively” (Mintsys and
Chik 2016, 97).
Finally, we consider a case where an explicit idiomatic simile is used to render an
implicit (hidden) idiomatic simile:
He was three sheets to the wind (Tartt 2015, 31). – Сидів п’яний як чіп (Tartt 2017,
54) [Sat drunk as [a] stopper]. The idiom to be three sheets to the wind that means to
be “extremely drunk, especially to the point of being uncoordinated or out of control”
(Farlex 2015) is used to describe one of the key character’s father. Etymologically, the
idiom comes from “sailing ships,” where the “sheet” means “a rope that controls the
trim of sail” (YourDictionary 2022). “If a sheet is loose, the sail flaps and doesn’t
provide control for the ship,” but if several sheets are loose, it will cause “the ship to
rock about drunkenly” (YourDictionary 2022). Thus, if three sheets are loose, the ship
“will stagger like a drunken sailor” (YourDictionary 2022). Thus, etymologically the
expression he is three sheets to the wind is an implicit simile based on the conceptual
mapping someone drunk is like a staggering ship.
The translator chooses to render the idiom with a culture-specific idiomatic
simile п’яний як чіп (UKRLIT.ORG 2005–2021) [drunk as [a] stopper], which is
stylistically equal to the source text expression, and accurately renders the meaning
of the English idiom. We qualify this strategy as compulsory domestication since
representatives of Ukrainian culture do not associate a drunken person with a staggering
ship.
To summarise the results of the analysis of simile addition, we calculated the
percentage of the types of similes that were added in Ukrainian translations and
presented the data in Figure 2.
Figure 2. Percentage of added similes
The data show that translators add more culture-specific idiomatic than
nonculture-specific non-idiomatic similes.
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Co n cl u si o n s
The paper investigates two contrasting translation procedures: omission and addition
of similes, which both contribute to the strategy of domestication. Domestication is
compulsory if the translator’s choice is constrained by linguacultural specificity of the
source text expression, or optional, if it is not.
Omission involves the removal of a source text simile without providing
clarifications or explanations in the target text. Translators omit original as well
as idiomatic and non-idiomatic conventional similes, both culture-specific and
nonculture-specific. Cultural specificity cannot be considered the main cause of
omissions, since translators tend to omit more nonculture-specific similes than
culture-specific ones. The omission of culture-specific similes is compulsory in the
sense that they are built on conceptual mappings that do not exist in the target
language culture and cannot be retained. However, omissions are not the only
solution, since in many cases culture-specific source text similes could be replaced by
culture-specific target text ones, which would help to maintain the original style. The
omission of original and nonculture-specific conventional similes is optional. We
assume that translators omit original similes because they may seem too extraordinary
for the average reader. As far as nonculture-specific idiomatic and non-idiomatic
similes are concerned, one possible explanation of their omissions is to avoid
pleonasms. Anyway, by choosing to omit a simile translators risk failing to reproduce
the features of the author’s style.
Addition involves the insertion of a simile into the target text to translate the
source text expression that contains no comparison. Translators tend to add more
culture-specific idiomatic similes than nonculture-specific non-idiomatic ones to
render culture-specific as well as nonculture-specific expressions that are not based
on simile. In cases of culture-specific source text idiomatic expressions domestication
is compulsory. Additions can be the only solution if the source text idiom has
a simile-based translation equivalent. In cases of nonculture-specific source text
expressions, domestication is optional; it is based on the translator’s free associations
and aims at naturalness of expression.
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AB S TR ACT
This paper reveals correlations between translators’ choices of omission and addition of fiction
similes and addresses the issue of cultural specificity of conceptual mappings underpinning
these similes. It argues that the choice of omission and addition is not always constrained by
the cultural specificity of the source text material. Omissions are also employed to minimise
extraordinariness or avoid pleonasms, while additions are introduced to achieve naturalness
and fluency of expression.
Key w o r d s : Addition. Conceptual mappings. Culture-specific simile. Domestication.
Nonculture-specific simile. Omission.
CO NTAC T D ETAI L S:
Alla Martynyuk, DSc. in Philology
Mykola Lukash Translation Studies Department
School of Foreign Languages
V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University
4 Svobody Sq.
61022 Kharkiv
Ukraine
allamartynyuk@ukr.net
ORCID: 0000-0003-2804-3152
Elvira Akhmedova, full-time postgraduate student and lecturer
Mykola Lukash Translation Studies Department
School of Foreign Languages
V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University
4 Svobody Sq.
61022 Kharkiv
Ukraine
elvira.akhmedova@karazin.ua
ORCID: 0000-0002-4515-4359
157
V. ON T RAU MA AN D MA NI PU LAT I ON
Ü BE RS E TZ U NG U ND MAN IPU LAT ION :
U K R AIN IS CHE L ITE R AT U R IN DER DDR
M a r ia Iva nyt ska
Vo r b emer ku n ge n : Po li t i sc h- ku l t u re ll e r R a hm e n
Nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg verbreitete die Sowjetunion ihre Ideologie auf verschiedenen Wegen, auch mittels Literaturübersetzungen. Man war überzeugt, dass die sowjetische Kultur und Literatur im Bereich marxistischen kulturpolitischen und ästhetischen Denkens starke erzieherische Wirkung auf die Entwicklung der deutschen
Kultur haben konnten (Lehmann 2015, 221).
Das Fundament dafür wurde noch in der Zwischenkriegszeit von deutschen
antifaschistischen Dichtern gelegt, die ab Mitte der 1930er Jahre in der Sowjetunion
Zuflucht gefunden hatten, nach 1945 nach Deutschland zurückgekehrt waren und
sich für die Umsetzung sozialistischer Ideen engagierten. Zu ihnen gehörte zum Beispiel Alfred Kurella, Übersetzer und Herausgeber von Werken ukrainischer Dichter,
der eine leitende Position im Schriftstellerverband der DDR übernahm und als Leiter
der Kulturkommission des Politbüros des Zentralkomitees der SED1 Kulturpolitik in
der DDR beeinflusst hat.
Sehr stark kam der ideologische Transfer zwischen der Sowjetunion und der sowjetischen Besatzungszone zum Vorschein. „Die sofort nach dem 8. 5. 1945 einsetzende
Propagierung russischer und sowjetische Literatur ist sowohl von sowjetischer als auch
von deutscher Seite betrieben worden“ (222). Da die ukrainische Literatur zur sowjetischen gehörte, wurde auch sie für die „erzieherische Wirkung“ herangezogen.
Die neugegründeten Medien Neue Welt und Tägliche Rundschau und Übersetzungen der sowjetischen Literatur, die in hohen Auflagen herausgegeben wurden,
waren dafür ausschlaggebend. Beispielsweise wurden die politisch geprägten Theaterstücke des ukrainischen Parteifunktionärs und Schriftstellers Oleksandr Kornijtschuk, darunter auch Die Front, das in Stalins Auftrag 1942 geschrieben worden
war, in der sowjetischen Besatzungszone mehrmals publiziert und auf den Bühnen
Berlins, Dresdens und Potsdams aufgeführt. Auch in den folgenden Jahrzehnten
wurden Literaturübersetzungen durch den starken Einfluss seitens des sowjetischen
Staates und der SED determiniert. Sicher muss ein differenzierter Blick auf übersetzerische Leistungen in der DDR geworfen werden, damit sie nicht nur im Lichte
der „Anweisungen von oben“ beschrieben werden (Tashinskiy 2020, 20). Aber das
Anliegen dieser Studie ist es zu zeigen, welche Konsequenzen dieser politisch-kulturelle Rahmen für die Repräsentation der ukrainischen Literatur für das deutsche
Lesepublikum hatte.
1
SED – Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands
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Übersetzung und Manipulation: Ukrainische Literatur in der DDR
Meth o do l o gi sch e Gr u n dl a ge n
Der Forschungsgegenstand dieser Studie ist der ukrainisch-deutsche Literaturtransfer
in den ersten Jahrzehnten nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg. Es wird untersucht, inwiefern
Literaturübersetzungen von politischen und sozialen Kontexten dieses Literaturtransfers abhängig waren und welche Besonderheiten sie entwickelten. Als Forschungsmaterial der Studie dienen die in der SBZ und der DDR publizierten Übersetzungen von
den Texten folgender ukrainischer Autoren: Olesj Hontschar, Wadym Sobko, Mychailo
Stelmach, Wassyl Stefanyk und Anthogien der ukrainischen Literatur: Aus dem Buch
des Lebens. Ukrainische und estnische Novellen (Müller 1951), Ukrainische Erzähler
(Runge 1963), Eine beispiellose Hochzeit: Ukrainische Erzählungen aus neun Jahrzehnten (Göbner 1980) samt ihren Para- und Metatexten. Anhand der Analyse von den
Paratexten (Vor- und Nachworten, Kommentaren, Klapptexten), Metatexten (Rezensionen zu Übersetzungen und literaturwissenschaftlichen Arbeiten) und anhand der
vergleichenden Analyse der Ausgangstexte mit den Zieltexten lassen sich wichtige
Merkmale dieses Literaturtransfers feststellen, die im Weiteren dargestellt werden.
Ich beziehe mich bei der Analyse auf die Forschungen von André Lefevere und
Susan Bassnett, die das Verhältnis zwischen Übersetzungen und ihren politischen,
ideologischen und sozialen Rahmenbedingungen und Hintergründen sowie den Einfluss der Gesellschaft auf die Übersetzung als Prozess und als Ergebnis thematisieren.
Im Vorwort zu ihrem Buch Translation, Rewriting and Manipulation of Literary Fame
schreiben sie Folgendes: „Eine Übersetzung ist natürlich eine Neuschreibung eines
Originaltextes. Alle Neuschreibungen, unabhängig von ihrer Absicht, spiegeln eine
bestimmte Ideologie und Poetik wider und manipulieren als solche die Literatur, um
in einer bestimmten Gesellschaft auf eine bestimmte Weise zu funktionieren. Umschreibung ist Manipulation im Dienste der Macht.“2 (Bassnett und Lefevere 1992, vii)
Auf die Wichtigkeit der Berücksichtigung sozialer Komponenten bei translation
studies weisen auch Norbert Bachleitner und Michaela Wolf hin, die sich auf die Theorie von Pierre Bourdieu über Feld, Kapital und Habitus stützen. Der von ihnen herausgegebene Band Streifzüge im translatorischen Feld. Zur Soziologie der literarischen
Übersetzung im deutschsprachigen Raum (2010) beschreibt das Übersetzen als soziales
Handeln und Übersetzer*innen als soziale Akteure. Ihnen zufolge interagiert ein
Übersetzer auf dem globalen Übersetzungsfeld mit anderen Akteuren des Feldes unter
Einhaltung bestimmter Spielregeln, wobei als Akteure Personen, Gruppen oder Institutionen fungieren können, die über ein bestimmtes kulturelles, wirtschaftliches, soziales oder symbolisches Kapital verfügen und entsprechend bestimmte Positionen
im Feld einnehmen können (Bourdieu 1986; Bachleitner und Wolf 2010, 7–14).
Unter dem ukrainisch-deutschen Übersetzungsfeld verstehe ich, in Anlehnung
an Bourdieu, den soziokulturellen Raum, der sich an der Schnittstelle des deutschen
und des ukrainischen literarischen Polysystems befindet und durch mehrstufige Verbindungen zwischen Akteuren gebildet wird, die mit einem gewissen Kapital agieren,
um eine soziokulturelle Gemeinschaft auf dem Literaturmarkt der anderen Gemeinschaft zu präsentieren.
2
Hier und weiter – meine Übersetzung, soweit nicht anders angegeben.
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V. O N T R A U M A A N D M A N I P U L A T I O N
Das Verständnis, dass es im Übersetzungsfeld unterschiedliche Akteure und
Kräfte gibt, die von verschiedenen Motiven und Aufträgen geleitet werden, ermöglicht
uns, den Prozess und das Ergebnis von Übersetzungen umfassender zu betrachten
und zu verstehen, dass Übersetzer*innen bei ihrer Tätigkeit nicht (völlig) frei sind,
die zu übersetzenden Werke und Übersetzungsansätze zu wählen.
A kteu re a u f de m u kra i n is ch - de u t sch e n Ü be r set zu n gs fel d
Wenn man politisch-soziale Kontexte und Bedingungen der Übersetzung von Texten
der ukrainischen Literatur ins Deutsche nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg in der sowjetischen Besatzungszone und in der DDR analysiert, wird klar, dass die stärksten Akteure
des ukrainisch-deutschen Übersetzungsfelds die Kommunistische Partei der Sowjetunion und die Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands waren, die die dominierende
Rolle in allen Lebensbereichen der UdSSR und der DDR spielten. Schriftstellerverbände und Verlage mit dazugehörigen Übersetzer*innen, Lektor*innen, Redakteur*innen, aber auch Zensor*innen sollten die Entscheidungen der oben genannten
Akteure umsetzen, auch wenn sie sich mit der Zeit immer mehr Freiraum genommen
haben (Kerstner und Risku 2014, 168–173; Tashinskiy 2020, 19).
1985 schrieb der Herausgeber von The Manipulation of Literature. Studies in Literary Translation Theo Hermans, dass jede Übersetzung ein gewisses Maß an Manipulation des Textes voraussieht, um ein bestimmtes Ziel zu erreichen (Hermans 1985,
9). Da in der beschriebenen Periode der Staat, die SED und der Schriftstellerverband
eigene ideologische und politisch-kulturelle Ziele hatten, standen Literaturübersetzungen im Dienste deren Erfüllung und waren durch Manipulationen betroffen.
Der von Lefevere eingeführte Begriff der Patronage eignet sich gut, um das existierende System der Beziehungen im ukrainisch-deutschen Übersetzungsfeld zu verdeutlichen. Unter Patronage versteht Lefevere Machtinstanzen, die als ein Instrument
des ideologischen Einflusses und der Steuerung von Literaturübersetzungen zu sehen
sind (Lefevere 1992). Daher betrachte ich den sowjetischen Staat und genauer gesagt
die Kommunistische Partei der UdSSR und die von ihr gegründeten und kontrollierten
Organe und Institutionen, auch in der DDR, als Patrone für die ganze Kulturarbeit,
die nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg in Ostdeutschland organisiert wurde.
Laut Lefevere wird jeder übersetzte Text einer bestimmten Ideologie bzw. Poetik
angepasst und sollte daher als eine Neuschreibung betrachtet werden (ebd.). In Anlehnung an Lefevere kann man „Rewriting“ auch breit verstehen – nicht nur als Manipulation mit fremdsprachlichen Texten selbst, sondern auch als Manipulation mit
deren Präsentation in neuer Form, zum Beispiel in Anthologien und Para- bzw. Metatexten.
Texta u swah l a ls Man i p u l a t io n
Manipulationen mit Übersetzungen manifestieren sich schon bei der Auswahl der
zu übersetzenden Texte. Es ist nicht zu übersehen, dass die Sowjetunion daran interessiert war, sozialistische Ideen und Inhalte in die Länder des Ostblocks zu transferieren (Gröschel 1966). Deswegen wurden für Übersetzungen nur solche Texte
und Autoren zugelassen, die diesem Anliegen eindeutig dienen konnten: sowjetische
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Übersetzung und Manipulation: Ukrainische Literatur in der DDR
Autoren, die den Kampf für Sozialismus und gegen den Faschismus darstellten, und
revolutionäre Autoren der früheren Epochen, die die Ausbeutung von Bauern und
Werktätigen vor der Oktoberrevolution und deren Befreiung durch die Revolution
beschrieben. „Der Zweite Weltkrieg und der antifaschistische Widerstandskampf
wurden zum zentralen Referenzmythos, der auch dem Zensor die Maßstäbe lieferte,“
schreibt Lokatis (2003, 19). Besonders auffallend sind solche Auswahl-Manipulationen in Anthologien.
Anthologie als Text
In der DDR wurden mehrere Anthologien der ukrainischen Literatur publiziert. Gabriele Pizarh-Ramirez analysierte die Arbeit des Verlags Volk und Welt im Bereich der
übersetzten Literatur und stellte fest, dass die Politik der Erstellung und Herausgabe
von Anthologien in diesem Verlag die Übersetzungskultur in der DDR am besten demonstrieren konnte und dass die Form der Anthologie Rückschlüsse auf die Wirkung
nicht-literarischer Faktoren auf die Werkauswahl und die Präsentationsstrategie übersetzter Literatur zuließ (Pisarz-Ramirez 2008, 1779). Auch Walter Höllerer betonte,
dass Anthologien noch stärker als andere Druckformen von der gesellschaftlichen Bewertungsskala her als „die Schnittzone zwischen dem Literarischen und dem Sozialen“
gesehen werden können (Höllerer 1970, vii).
Ich teile die Meinung von Olena Haleta, dass Anthologien als eine besondere literarische Gattung betrachtet werden können, als „Weg zur Schaffung von Werten,“
als „Texte mit einer komplexen Struktur, bei denen der Erzähler ein Kompilator ist,
der seine eigene Geschichte mit bestimmter Moral erzählt, zusammengesetzt aus Texten verschiedener Autoren“ (Haleta 2012, 72). Haleta stellt fest, dass solche neuen
Werte nicht nur die Vergangenheit widerspiegeln, sondern auch Möglichkeiten der
Interpretation der Gegenwart und den Blick in die Zukunft bilden (ebd.). Das literarische Spiel des Verfassers, der eigene Regeln aufstellt, „bleibt aus Sicht der modernen
Literaturanthropologie und des Poststrukturalismus niemals unschuldig: Jede Sammlung wird zu einem literarisch-anthropologischen Projekt, das das Restrukturieren
des Ausgangsmaterials und eine gewisse Politik seiner Bearbeitung beinhaltet, ausgedrückt in einer bestimmten Hierarchie von Werten, in der Textauswahl, Definition
des Feldes und Spielregeln selbst, sowie von Regeln seiner Bewertung“ (73).
Darüber hinaus werden übersetzte Anthologien zum Mittel, das Bild eines fremden Landes und einer fremder Literatur zu schaffen, in unserem Fall – das Bild der
Ukraine und ihrer Literatur. Solche Bände besitzen eine unausgesprochene Autorität
als repräsentative und kanonische Instanz, fügen sich in das imagologische Bild des
Ausgangslandes ein und erfüllen die Funktion der Allegorie dieses Landes. Anhand
von konkreten Beispielen wird gezeigt, wie das in den Anthologien ukrainischer Literatur in der DDR funktionierte.
Rolle von Para- und Metatexten
Alle genannten Anthologien ukrainischer Literatur haben vielsagende Paratexte.
Unter Paratext werden nach Gérard Genette (2003) alle Informationen verstanden,
die den Haupttext, in unserem Fall den übersetzten Text, begleiten. Zu Paratexten gehören Vorworte, Nachworte, Fußnoten, Kommentare, Glossare, die vom Übersetzer
oder anderen Akteuren zusammen mit dem Haupttext (Peritext) eingereicht werden,
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V. O N T R A U M A A N D M A N I P U L A T I O N
sowie Begleittexte des Herausgebers, die in direktem Zusammenhang mit dem Peritext
stehen, aber getrennt von ihm existieren und dessen Rezeption sichern.
Bereits in der ersten Anthologie (1951) ist eine Tendenz zu beobachten, die in
allen folgenden in der DDR publizierten Anthologien entwickelt wurde: Ein Blick auf
die ukrainische Literatur durch das Prisma der russischen Sprache und Literatur und
die immer wieder auftretende Betonung der brüderlichen Verbundenheit der Ukraine
mit dem russischen Volk, das die Rolle eines Befreiers und eines älteren Bruders spielt.
Sehr deutlich wird dies im Vorwort von Erich Müller formuliert: „Die Ukraine ist von
altersher durch Tausende von Fäden mit dem Geschick Rußlands [!] verknüpft, Estland erst seit 1710... Erst Peter I. brachte dem Land Frieden und schloss es Rußland
an“ (Müller 1951, 5).
Der Herausgeber erklärt explizit, dass er ausgewählte Texte in (historisch-politische) Perioden gegliedert hat und schreibt Leser*innen quasi vor, wie die Texte zu deuten sind: „Um dem Leser das Erfassen der geschichtlichen und gesellschalichen Situation zu erleichtern, lassen wir jeder Periode eine Einführung vorangehen. Sie
umfasst den gesellschalichen Hintergrund und stellt den sozialistischen Inhalt bzw.
den Wesenskern der jeweiligen Novelle heraus“ (ebd., 8). Diese kurzen Einführungstexte ordnen sogar Novellen von vorsowjetischen Autor*innen den sozialistischen
Ideen und der sowjetischen Geschichteschreibung unter. So heißen („literarische“) Perioden „Als Stalin Zarizyn verteidigte“ oder „Als die Schlacht um Stalingrad die Wende
herbeiführte.” Es ist erwähnenswert, dass der Verfasser dieser kurzen einleitenden Bemerkungen nicht einmal die Autor*innen von Novellen nennt (!), sondern nur seine
eigene Geschichte schreibt, indem er Texte für das eigene Sujet und die sozialistische
Aulärung auswählt und interpretiert. Alle literarischen Werke ukrainischer und estnischer Schristeller präsentieren einen kurzen, skizzenartigen Kurs der Geschichte
der UdSSR, aber – was am wichtigsten ist – ersetzen literarische Interpretation von
Werken durch ideologische Botschaen, geben klare Richtlinien und festigen Stereotypen, die ein bipolares Bild von der Welt schaffen: „unsere junge sowjetische Macht
und alle fortschrittlichen Kräe“ vs. „reaktionäre Kräe und ihre ausländischen Helfershelfer,“ „Macht des Volkes“ vs. „gehasste Verräter“ usw. Der Verfasser äußert sich
auch zum literarischen Anliegen der Anthologie: „Der Sozialismus hat neue Schristeller geschaffen, die durch realistische Kunst einen neuen Menschen formen, den Erbauer des Kommunismus“ (8). Solche Äußerungen prägen auch andere Paratexte, was
als eine der stärksten manipulativen Strategien verstanden werden kann.
Außer Vor- und Nachworten, die meistens von Herausgeber*innen geschrieben
und von Lektor*innen, Zensor*innen und Gutachter*innen zum Druck zugelassen
wurden, griffen Übersetzer*innen zur Hilfe von Kommentaren und Fußnoten, um
den Leser*innen das „richtige“ Verständnis bestimmter Szenen oder Passagen anzubieten. So geht es in einer Textpassage von Mychajlo Stelmach um die Minister der
Ukrainischen Volksrepublik (UNR), des 1918 aufgerufenen ukrainischen Staates, der
1920 durch den Einmarsch der Roten Armee in die Ukraine aufgelöst wurde: „що не
з добром приїхали уенерівські міністри до чорного барона в Крим“3 (Stelmakh
1962, 11).
3
Wortwörtlich: „nicht mit guten (Vorschlägen) kamen die Minister der UNR zum schwarzen Baron auf die
Krim“
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Übersetzung und Manipulation: Ukrainische Literatur in der DDR
In der Übersetzung von Jurij Elperin „wenn die UNR-Minister zum schwarzen
Baron in die Krim gefahren sind“ wird in der Fußnote die Abkürzung so definiert:
“UNR – Ukrainische Volksrepublik, offizielle Bezeichnung der konterrevolutionären
Petlura-Bewegung“ (Stelmach 1960, 18), indem die Ukrainische Volksrepublik eine
eindeutige abwertende Charakteristik bekommt.
Im Zieltext gibt es auch weitere ähnliche Kommentare, z.B. über den berühmten
ukrainischen Schriftsteller und Politiker jener Zeit Wolodymyr Wynnychenko, den
Autor mehrerer Gesetze der Ukrainischen Volksrepublik und den Vorsitzenden des
Exekutivorgans der UNR: „ukrainischer Schriftsteller, Nationalist und politischer
Abenteurer“ (66).
Solche äußerst negativen Deutungen der ukrainischen Geschichte und der Bestrebungen von Ukrainer*innen, einen eigenen Staat zu gründen, haben allmählich
entsprechende Stereotype über die Ukraine in den Augen von deutschsprachigen
Leser*innen entwickelt: Alle Ukrainer*innen, die für die Unabhängigkeit gekämpft
haben, wurden als Konterrevolutionäre bzw. Nationalisten abgestempelt. Es lässt sich
kaum feststellen, ob solche politisch abwertenden Kommentare und Interpretationen
von Übersetzer*innen, Verleger*innen oder Lektor*innen stammen, aber die Übersetzungen als Kollektivprodukt von Akteur*innen des Übersetzungsfeldes tragen solche Botschaften ganz deutlich.
Eine wichtige Rolle spielen auch Metatexte – Rezensionen und literaturkritische
Texte, die separat von den Haupttexten fungieren, aber mit diesen verbunden sind
und auch einen Einfluss auf die Wahrnehmung von Übersetzungen ausüben können.
Meistens dienen sie mit Haupttexten und Paratexten einer einheitlichen Präsentation
des Ausgangtextes im Übersetzungsfeld. So bezeichnet der bekannte Dichter und
Übersetzer Alfred Kurella in seinem literaturkritischen Text über die ukrainischen
Nationaldichter Taras Schewtschenko und Iwan Franko, die eigentlich für die Freiheit
der Ukraine kämpften, als Internationalisten und „Verehrer der Kultur des russischen
Brudervolkes“ (Kurella 1940, 34), und Ursula Wiebach nennt in ihrem Vorwort zu
Frankos Übersetzung diesen Autor einen „Vorgänger von Lenin und Stalin“ (Wiebach
1955, 5–7). Auf solche Weise ergänzen Para- und Metatexte einander und schaffen
mit dem Peritext ein imagologisches Bild der Ausgangsliteratur und des ganzen Landes. In unserem Falle – das Bild der Ukraine, die in den Augen von Deutschen für
sowjetische Ideen unter der Leitung des russischen Volkes stand.
Doppelte Über setzung und Russif izierung des Zieltextes
Eine Besonderheit der ukrainisch-deutschen Literaturübersetzung in den ersten 20 bis
30 Nachkriegsjahren war, dass ukrainische Texte zuerst ins Russische und dann aus
dem Russischen ins Deutsche übersetzt wurden. Das hatte zum einen den Grund, dass
es nicht genügend hochqualifizierte ukrainisch-deutsche Übersetzer*innen gab, zum
andern aber, dass die zu übersetzenden Texte zweimal von Patronage-Instanzen ausgewählt und kontrolliert werden konnten. Die ukrainisch-russisch-deutsche Übersetzung ist daher nicht nur als Instrument der doppelten Kontrolle, sondern auch als
Instrument der doppelten Zensur zu sehen. Zum dritten trug diese doppelte Übersetzung dazu bei, dass in den übersetzten Texten die Anwesenheit der russischen Kultur als selbstverständlich zu sehen war. Diese Manipulationen lassen sich auf beiden
Ebenen beobachten, sowohl in Paratexten als auch in Haupttexten.
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V. O N T R A U M A A N D M A N I P U L A T I O N
So kann man auch Peter Zimas Meinung zustimmen, dass kulturelle und ideologische Faktoren nicht nur die Auswahl der zu übersetzenden Texte beeinflussen, sondern auch die Semantik und Syntax von Übersetzungen, obwohl die Übersetzer*innen
dies nicht immer verstehen (Zima 1992, 232). Im Falle der ukrainisch-russisch-deutschen Übersetzung verleihen die teilnehmenden Akteure den Zieltexten nicht selten
neue Inhalte, die ich Russifizierung der Übersetzung nenne. Dazu gehören Einschübe
russischer Sprach- und Kulturelemente (Realien, Namen, Sprichwörter, Symbole u.ä.)
in die Zieltexte. Zum Beispiel, aus dem einfachen Satz «Так, − сказав Макс Дальгов, −
добра штука4» (Sobko 1951a, 289) wird in der russischen Übersetzung der Satz «Да,
как говорят русские, хорош гусь! − проговорил Дальгов5» (Sobko 1952, 306) und
der deutsche Übersetzer Harry Schnittke wiederholt das: „Ja, ein schöner Gänserich,
sagt der Russe in solchen Fällen“ (Sobko 1951b, 542). Die Passage stammt aus dem
Roman vom ukrainischen sowjetischen Schriftsteller Wadym Sobko, der 1947–1950
als Leiter der Kulturabteilung der Zeitung Sowjetskoie slowo bei der Sowjetischen
Militäradministration in Deutschland tätig war. Sein Roman Zaporuka myru (Des Friedens Gewahr) thematisiert sozialistische Veränderungen in der sowjetischen Besatzungszone und trägt genug ideologische Botschaften. Max Dalgow, der deutsche Kommunist, äußert sich auch explizit als Befürworter dieser Veränderungen. Aber der
zusätzliche Einschub, von Übersetzer*innen vorgenommen, verleiht seiner Äußerung
Nähe zur und Vertrautheit mit der russischen Kulturwelt, die nun als eine Orientierung
für Deutsche diente und so von Lesenden wahrgenommen werden sollte.
Weitere Fälle der Russifizierung sind mit der Wiedergabe von ukrainischen Realien verbunden. Sie werden nicht transkribiert, was das ukrainische Kolorit hätte behalten können, und nicht domestiziert, erklärt oder durch Hyperonyme übersetzt, um
dem Zielleser den Inhalt leichter wiederzugeben, sondern durch russische Realien ersetzt. Ähnliches betri auch kulturmarkierte Textelemente. So erzählt die Großmutter
in der Novelle von Mychajlo Koziubynskyj Що записано в книгу життя6 ein Märchen
über „die Mutter Luchs.” Eine solche Figur gibt es in der deutschen Märchenwelt nicht
und die Übersetzer gehen mit der mythischen Gestalt unterschiedlich um:
Ausgangstext: Рот розкривався [...] і в ньому шипіли слова – щось про
царенка, злото, дорогі страви [...] і баба кінчала про інше – про кобилячу голову
або риь-мати7 (Kotsiubynskyi 1979, 102).
Böltz: Der Mund öffnete sich [...] und Worte, die irgendein Königssohn von Gold
und kostbaren Speisen gesprochen, fielen heraus [...] und es kam etwas anderes: die
Geschichte vom Stutenkopf oder von der Königstochter, die in einen Frosch verzaubert
worden war (Müller 1951, 14).
Plackmeyer 1: Ihr Mund öffnete sich [...] und Worte von irgendeinem Königssohn, von Gold und teuren Speisen zischten darin. [...] und die Alte endete mit ganz
etwas anderem − erzählte vom Pferdekopf oder vom Froschkönig (Runge 1963, 141).
4
5
6
7
Wortwörtlich: „Ja, sagte Max Dalgow, ein gutes Ding.“
Wortwörtlich: „Ja, wie Russen sagen, ein guter Gänserich, sagte Dalgow.“
Wortwörtlich: Was ins Buch des Lebens eingeschrieben ist.
Wortwörtlich: „Der Mund öffnete sich [...] und darin rauschten Worte – etwas über einen Zarensohn,
Gold, teure Speisen [...] und die Oma endete über etwas anderes – über einen Pferdekopf oder
Mutter-Luchs.“
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Übersetzung und Manipulation: Ukrainische Literatur in der DDR
Plackmeyer 2: Der Mund tat sich auf [...] und zischende Worte kamen heraus
von einem Zarewitsch, von Gold und von herrlichen Speisen. [...] und die Großmutter
schloß mit etwas ganz anderem – einem Pferdekopf oder einer bösen Stiefmutter (Göbner 1980, 7).
Wilhelm Plackmeyer domestiziert das Bild und im Zieltext gibt es dann eine Stiefmutter oder einen Froschkönig, aber Alexander Böltz verwendet dafür ein beschreibendes Verfahren: „Königstochter, die in einen Frosch verzaubert worden war.” Das
ist eine Figur aus einem ziemlich bekannten russischen Märchen. Hier schiebt man
also eine russische Realie ein und so wird der Text der ukrainischen Literatur als solcher markiert, der gleiche mythische Gestalten hat wie die russische Kinderliteratur.
Gleiche Manipulationen lassen sich auch bei Übersetzungen von ukrainischen
Märchen beobachten, wenn ein Kater nicht mehr Bandura (ukrainisches Volksinstrument) wie im Ausgangstext, sondern Balalajka (russisches Volksinstrument) spielt
(Horbach 1963, 42).
Auch die Namen wurden in den meisten deutschen Übersetzungen nicht nach
dem ukrainischen, sondern nach dem russischen Lautbild transkribiert: nicht Wolodymyr (wie es im Ukrainischen klingt), sondern Wladimir (wie im Russischen), nicht
Oleksij, sondern Aleksej, nicht Olenka, sondern Aljonka. So wurde die Ukraine nach
außen als Bestandteil Russlands kommuniziert und der Ausgangstext wurde als Phänomen der russischen Kultur rezipiert. Es ist daher nicht verwunderlich, dass viele
europäische Leser*innen keine Differenzen zwischen der russischen und der ukrainischen Kultur gesehen haben. Noch mehr: auch für einige Verleger war die ukrainische Literatur als eigenständige kaum bekannt.
So erschien 1985 in der DDR der Roman Morgenröte des bekannten ukrainischen
Schriftstellers Oles Hontschar, der nur auf Ukrainisch schrieb. Auf der inneren Titelseite des Romans stand „Titel des russischen Originals – Твоя заря“ (Hontschar 1985),
obwohl der Originaltext auf Ukrainisch geschrieben wurde. Das zeugt davon, dass das
Russische vielen Verlegern als die einzige mögliche Ausgangssprache der Literatur aus
der Sowjetunion erschien. Das lässt schlussfolgern, dass solche Übersetzungen über
das Russische die Position der russischen Sprache in Kulturraum Europas festigten
und für das Image der „großen russischen Kultur“ sorgten.
Kommunisierung der Über setzungen
Außer Einschüben von Inhalten, die auf den russischen Kulturraum hinweisen, beinhalten die analysierten Übersetzungen auch andere Einschübe, die mit sozialistischen, kommunistischen, antifaschistischen Ideen zusammenhängen (Hofeneder
2013). Obwohl für die Übersetzung nur ideologisch „richtige“ Texte ausgewählt wurden, versuchten manchmal Akteure des Übersetzungsfeldes einige politisch wichtige
Aspekte zusätzlich hervorzuheben, etwas zu ergänzen, was nicht genug pointiert war.
Einige Beispiele solcher Kommunisierung (nach Hofeneder 2013) können dies veranschaulichen:
Ausgangstext: Вона стоїть за мир, за демократичні реформи, проти всяких
зандерів і фуксів8 (Sobko1951a, 249).
8
Wortwörtlich: „Sie steht für den Frieden, für demokratische Reformen, gegen verschiedene Sanders und
Fuchs’.“
167
V. O N T R A U M A A N D M A N I P U L A T I O N
Schnittke: Sie ist für den Frieden, für demokratische Reformen, gegen die ganze
Sander- und Fuchsbagage (Sobko 1951b, 471).
Gerull-Kardas: Sie ist für den Frieden, für demokratische Reformen und gegen
Gesindel wie Sander, Fuchs und Konsorten (Sobko 1954, 330).
Die implizit angedeutete negative Stellung zu nicht „sozialistischen Elementen“
wird in der deutschen Übersetzung erweitert und expliziert, indem Lexeme mit negativer Konnotation wie Bagage, Gesindel und Konsorten dort verwendet werden, wo
es im Ausgangstext nur die Pluralformen von zwei Familiennamen stehen.
Besonders viele gravierende Änderungen von Textinhalten lassen sich in den
ersten zwanzig Jahren nach dem Krieg beobachten. Sie folgten den sowjetischen Narrativen und haben allmählich ein Bild einer bipolaren Welt aufgebaut, in der sozialistische Länder hilfsbereit, human, antifaschistisch seien, und ihre Gegner – faschistisch, nationalistisch, menschenhassend.
Ausgangstext: А ти розказала б про розподіл землі між селянами, про
передачу заводів народові9 (Sobko1951a, 249).
Schnittke: Und wenn du erst davon erzählst, wie der Boden unter den Bauern
aufgeteilt worden ist, wie die Betriebe dem Volk übereignet worden sind? (Sobko
1951b,462)
Gerull-Kardas: Du solltest erzählen, daß hier der Grund und Boden an die armen
Bauern verteilt wurde. Daß die großen Industrieunternehmen den Naziverbrechern
abgenommen und in die Hände des Volkes gegeben wurden (Sobko 1954, 324).
Man machte sozialistische Akzente deutlicher und schob antifaschistische Akzente ein: Von Naziverbrechern war im Ausgangstext doch keine Rede.
Zahlreiche ähnliche Beispiele erlauben die Schlussfolgerung, dass solche Verschiebungen die Lesenden in den Ländern des Ostblocks vorprogrammierten, die
Welt so aufzunehmen, wie sie von der sowjetischen Propaganda dargestellt wurde.
Dieser Aspekt wird im Band „Jedes Buch ist Abenteuer.” Zensursystem und literarische
Öffentlichkeit in der DDR bis Ende der 60er Jahre so beschrieben: „Zentrale Kampfund Sinnbildungskonzepte wie „Antifaschismus“ oder „sozialistische Menschengemeinschaft“ scheinen in doppelter Perspektive auf: als Bürokratie- und als Kommunikationsgeschichte, als „geheime“ Verwaltung von Begriffen und als zirkulierende
Deutungsmuster von Geschichte, Gegenwart und Zukunft“ (Barck/Langermann/Loktis 1997, 14).
Textuelle Ver schiebungen
Das Ende der 1960er Jahre wurde durch eine gewisse Milderung der sowjetischen Ideologieeinflüsse auf die Kulturpolitik in der DDR gekennzeichnet. Darüber hinaus arbeiteten in Verlagen schon Übersetzer*innen, die direkt aus dem Ukrainischen übersetzen
konnten. Seit dieser Zeit sind weniger solche explizite Textfälschungen zu beobachten.
Aber trotz der gewissermaßen alltäglichen „gediegenen Arbeit am Text“ (Meinert 1994,
213) lassen sich beim Vergleich der Ausgangs- und Zieltexte zahlreiche manipulative
Strategien nachweisen. Unter den häufigsten kann man Verschiebungen nennen, wenn
nationales Kolorit des Ausgangstextes reduziert oder gar eliminiert wird, d.h., wenn
9
Wortwörtlich: „Und du könntest über die Bodenaufteilung unter Bauern erzählen, über die Übergabe von
Werken ans Volk.“
168
Übersetzung und Manipulation: Ukrainische Literatur in der DDR
Realien oder Symbole, kulturell markierte Metaphern ausgelassen oder durch Hyperonyme wiedergegeben werden. Auch Phraseologismen mit national markierten Elementen wurden o dephraseologisiert oder domestiziert, sodass das territoriale Kolorit
des Textes neutralisiert wurde. Dazu gehören auch sowohl Standardisierung und Neutralisierung der Sprache von Protagonisten, Vermeidung von nicht-literatursprachlichen Elementen (Dialekten, Jargonismen, familiärer Lexik), als auch Veränderungen
des syntaktischen Bildes: syntaktischen Strukturen wurden o vereinfacht, die Sprache
des Autors simplifiziert. Das hatte zur Folge, dass die übersetzten Werke o ihre Eigenart
und ihren Stil verloren haben. Darüber hinaus wurden Passagen mit ideologisch unangemessenen Inhalten, z.B. mit dem religiösen Gehalt reduziert oder ausgelassen. Das
empirische Material gibt dafür reichhaltig Beweise. Betrachten wir einige davon.
Der Epigraph zur Geschichte von Wassyl Stefanyk lautet im Original: „Політичним
арештованим мужикам на Святий вечір“10 (Stefanyk 2015, 98). In der Übersetzung
wird der Heilige Abend weggelassen und durch ein absolut anderes Lexem ersetzt:
„Den politischen Häftlingen aus der Bauernschaft“ (Müller 1951, 136). Außerdem hat
der Übersetzer das Register des umgangssprachlichen Wortes мужики11 geändert und
eine neutral-offizielle Formulierung benutzt. Diese beiden Änderungen lassen sich
durch die ideologisch begründete Eliminierung des religiösen Themas erklären, die
sich auch in anderen Erzählungen des Sammelbandes nachvollziehen lässt, sowie
durch politische Flirts mit der Bauernschaft, die zurVerwendung der Amtssprache
durch den Übersetzer führte.
Texte vieler ukrainischer Autoren von früheren Epochen, die an dialektalen Ausdrücken reich sind, wurden in den Übersetzungen meistes standardisiert, sodass die
sprachlichen Porträts von Protagonisten verwischt wurden, wie z.B. hier:
Ausgangstext: На-ко тобі грейцір, на-ко, але не плач. Аді, чуєш, шо дєдя
каже, аби-с баби слухав, аби-с не пустував. Казав оце Василь до Іванка та й дав
йому новенький грейцар12 (Stefanyk 2015, 101).
Müller: Hier, da hast du einen Kreuzer, aber hör auf zu weinen! Hörst du, der
Vater schreibt, du sollst der Großmutter folgen und keinen Unfug treiben, sagte Wassil
zu Iwanko und schenkte ihm einen blanken Kreuzer (Müller 1951, 139).
Im Ausgangstext gibt es einen Unterschied zwischen den Benennungen der
Münze (Kreuzer), die dem Kind gegeben wird: Der Sprecher verwendet einen phonetischen Dialektismus – грейцір13 und in der Autorenrede steht die literarische Form
jener Zeit грейцар14. In der Übersetzung verschwindet dieser Unterschied, ebenso
wie die Expressivität der Äußerungen, die insbesondere durch Modalpartikel erzeugt
wird. Die Einfachheit und Natürlichkeit der Umgangssprache gehen verloren, und
das Ersetzen des Wortes пустувати15 durch einen Ausdruck der Amtssprache Unfug
10
11
12
13
14
15
Wortwörtlich: „Politisch verhafteten Männern/Bauern an Heiligabend“
Männer/Bauer (umg.)
Wortwörtlich: „Hier, du (dial.), nimm mal einen Kreuzer (dial.), nimm mal (dial.), aber weine nicht. Schau
mal (dial.), hör mal, was der Vater (dial.) sagt, du sollst (dial.) der Oma zuhören, du sollst (dial.) nicht
unartig sein (umg.) So sagte Wasyl zu Iwanko und gab ihm einen neuen (deminutiv) Kreuzer.“
[hrejtsir]
[hrejtsar]
unartig, ausgelassen sein (umg.), meistens mit einer nachsichtigen und wohlwollenden Stellung des
Sprechenden zum Kind artikuliert
169
V. O N T R A U M A A N D M A N I P U L A T I O N
treiben macht die ganze Äußerung offiziell. Der Verlust der Differenzierung zwischen
der Sprache des Autors und der Sprache der Protagonisten simplifiziert den Zieltext
und ignoriert dominierende Züge des autorischen Stils.
F az it
Die Analyse der Übersetzungen von Texten ukrainischer Literatur in den ersten Jahrzehnten nach dem Zweiten Weltkrieg, die in der DDR publiziert wurden, ergibt Erkenntnisse, die auf den manipulativen Charakter des Literaturtransfers dieser Epoche
hinweisen. Ohne die Wichtigkeit und Rolle von Leistungen vieler Übersetzer*innen
zu vermindern, muss darauf hingewiesen werden, dass deutsche Übersetzungen aus
dem Ukrainischen zur Herausbildung des Images der ukrainischen Literatur als Teil
des russischsprachigen Kulturraumes beigetragen haben, was die Aneignung des
ukrainischen geistigen Kapitals durch die „große russische Literatur“ ermöglichte.
Die Übersetzung über die russische Sprache, die in den ersten zwei Jahrzehnten ein
gängiges Verfahren war, eliminierte nationale Eigenschaften des ukrainischen Ausgangstextes und „kämmte“ das Werk entsprechend den ideologischen und ästhetischen Vorstellungen der Auftraggeber und Patronen dieses Literaturtransfers, d.h.,
der Kommunistischen Partei der Sowjetunion, der SED und des Deutschen Schriftstellerverbandes. Zu den wichtigsten Manipulationen gehörten ideologisch bedingte
Textauswahl, Kommentare und Vorworte, bewertende Aussagen, die dem Leser vorschrieben, wie Texte wahrgenommen werden sollten; Russifizierung der Zieltexte
durch die Einführung russischer Sprach- und Kulturphänomene, auch Eigennamen;
Kommunisierung der Texte durch Einschübe zusätzlicher ideologisch beladener Elemente; Neutralisierung und Standardisierung der Sprache durch Weglassen von ukrainischen Kulturphänomenen, Dialektausdrücken und anderen stilistisch markierten
Elementen; Simplifizierung der Texte auf der lexikalischen, syntaktischen und phraseologischen Ebene, was ihre Expressivität und das ganze Erscheinungsbild änderte.
Wenn man bedenkt, dass solche Manipulationen über mehrere Jahre und in vielen Übersetzungen wirkten, aber vom Lesepublikum als solche kaum bemerkt wurden,
kann man den Einfluss der übersetzten Literatur auf die Formierung des Images des
Ausgangslandes besser verstehen. Und das findet bedauerlicherweise auch heute eine
Fortsetzung in dem Krieg, der von Russland gegen die Ukraine geführt wird.
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A BS T RACT
The author analyzes a specific period of the translations of Ukrainian literature in the GDR
and argues that during this period literary relations between the Soviet Union and East Germany were clearly determined by the ideology. This resulted in many manipulations: ideological
changes in selecting texts, ideological motivation by text selection for anthologies, evaluative
statements, additions, extentions, simplifications, tentative comments, and forewords dictating
the reader on text perception. Translations from Ukrainian via Russian into German created
the image of Ukraine as a part of the Russian-speaking cultural area. Russification of target
texts expressed itself in the introduction of Russian language and cultural phenomena, Russian
phonetic transcriptions of proper names, neutralizations, and omissions of Ukrainian cultural
phenomena.
Keywords: Manipulation. Anthology. Ukrainian-German literary translation. Ukrainian
literature. Paratext. Style.
CO NTAC T D ETA I LS :
Maria Ivanytska, Dr. habil., Full Professor
Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv
60 Volodymyrska Str.
01601 Kyiv
Ukraine
ivanytska@ukr.net
ORCID: 0000-0002-4870-431X
172
ON T HE PE RS PE C TIV ES OF T RA NS L AT ING
TH E WA R LI TER ATU R E OF T RAU M A
N a ta lia Ka m ovn ikova
In t ro d u ct io n
The war that broke out in Ukraine on 24 February 2022 forever changed the
relationships, social interactions, and allegiances and disrupted millions of human
lives lost to the war or scattered within and beyond Ukrainian borders in search for
refuge. In the midst of the ongoing crisis, much less is being said, albeit quite naturally,
about the ways the war affects those spheres of life that lie beyond the primary needs
of humans. The war has already affected literature written in Ukrainian and Russian
languages by writers and poets on both side of the front line. The scope of the war
literature will invariably grow in the coming years, and new approaches to representing
the events will emerge as people gradually become able to come to grips with their
losses. This literature will certainly be translated into other languages, and these
translations will also require new approaches to reading the original texts and their
subsequent rendering in other languages. The literary works that will grow out of the
terrors of the Russo-Ukrainian War will clearly have their distinctive features; it is not
only their painful content, but also their underlying implications and very specific
formal features that will undoubtedly present challenges to translators into third
languages. This paper is an attempt at the initial analysis of the tendencies of the
emerging war literature with an eye to potential translation problematics. I have been
gathering the practical material presented here from the very first day of the war. The
sources of examples are predominantly social networks; and, as I continue gathering
data, I am aware of the fact that some perspectives will transform in response to the
rapidly changing circumstances. All examples used in the article were created by
Russian speakers, and my choice of examples is determined both by the fact that
Russian is my A-language and by my wish to share the examples from the new
emerging Russian anti-war literature, access to which might be substantially hindered
to the world outside Russia under current circumstances.
As I am writing this paper in June 2022, I can see two important features of the
Russo-Ukrainian War literature that will determine the future of its literary
translation. One of them, trauma, has psychological origins, and the concept of trauma
has been studied widely by literary scholars. e other feature, bilingualism, introduces
sociolinguistic problematics into the translational context. Bilingualism of war
literature as such presents a wide scope of problems from the purely technical tasks of
rendering to very subtle challenges in decoding the degree of accommodating and
non-accommodating strategies. Incorporating themselves in the new war literature,
trauma and bilingualism intertwine, which makes translation tasks relating to one of
them unsolvable without addressing the other.
173
V. O N T R A U M A A N D M A N I P U L A T I O N
Tra u ma
e literature emerging on both sides of the frontline builds upon the wartime experience
and the memories of the parties, be these memories first-hand, or related on the accounts
of war by immediate witnesses and media. e immediacy of war dictates very specific
means of trauma representation in the new war literature. e physical presence of war
in Europe, in the direct proximity to the writers and poets creating literature, has already
caused a makeover in literary approaches. It was only in 2020 that Robert Eaglestone,
when speaking about trauma fiction, noted that literary interpretation depends on the
questions posed; in the case of Eaglestone 2020 paper trauma fiction meant “less ‘fiction
about trauma’ and more, ‘reading with trauma in mind’” (287). Two years aer these
words were written, we are witnessing the dramatic change of the entire paradigm of the
European literature, which has equalized his definitions of trauma fiction. Literature on
the Russo-Ukrainian War will continue to be read with trauma in mind, but the
immediacy of warfare makes it in default fiction about trauma.
The first quarter of the twenty-first century flings us back from the literature of
the collective traumatic memory, which requires temporal distance from the traumatic
events, to the literature of the trauma as such. Current war literature is a means of
releasing the individual trauma, “a blow to the psyche that breaks through one’s
defenses so suddenly and with such brutal force that one cannot react to it effectively;”
or, after the initial shock spends itself, it releases the collective trauma – “a blow to the
basic tissues of social life that damages the bonds attaching people together and
impairs the prevailing sense of communality” (Erikson 1976, 153–54). The traumatic
experience depicted in the war literature of 2022 will take many shapes. Descriptions
of the national calamity as described by the Ukrainians, both civilians and the military,
will be central to the themes of the new war literature. However, there will be other
themes, probably peripheral and to some readers more disputable from the point of
view of ethics and source. There will appear literary accounts of people from the other
side of the frontline, those anti-war Russians to whom the news of war came as
a shock, who rioted, protested, and were arrested by the regime, who had to flee to
other countries leaving behind all hope of a happy life. For all writers and poets
affected by war, disregarding the nationality, writing about war is much more than
literary engagement: it is primarily a means of releasing trauma and distancing oneself
from the horrors of the witnessed reality.
The other striking feature of the ongoing war is that this is the first war in the
history of Europe unfolding in front of the entire world in an online mode. The
practice of televised wars goes back to the Vietnam War; however, neither the Kosovo
War in 1998–1999, nor the 2003 Iraq War was able to receive such unprecedented
coverage for reasons of technological advancement. The Russian invasion in Ukraine
unfolds in front of our eyes: its videos and photos are streamed into social networks
nonstop and almost instantaneously. The confrontation between the two states has
remained in the focus of media since the Russian occupation of Crimea in 2014, but
the avalanche of information now coming from Ukraine is many times greater than it
used to be before February 2022. The mere psychological awareness of the fact that
the new war is unfolding in the heart of Europe has increased the circulation of
information and public response.
174
On the perspectives of translating the war literature of trauma
Modern means of social communication enable anyone who is willing to gain
knowledge of the ongoing events and, which is particularly important, to compare the
information coming from different sources. In this regard, the Russo-Ukrainian War
literature coming into being will have a different effect on its readership, both domestic
and international. In 2018, Gerd Bayer described all war literature as a gray zone
phenomenon that exists “between the didacticism of educating readers about the
horrors of the battlefields and the enticement that stems from drawing on extreme
emotions” (213). In 2022, the didactical purpose becomes peripheral, for the readership
that is interested in the works on the ongoing conflict has already been widely informed.
e same concerns the “enticement,” which has already been made for by mass media,
which were univocal in presenting the war as a non-enticing dramatic story of grief,
pain, destruction, looting, and descent into inhumanity. Beyond didacticism and
readership entertainment, the Russo-Ukrainian War literature lays the groundwork for
individual confessions, where sharing a single person’s experience becomes as valuable
as sharing a collective memory. is focus on the individual experience without
substantial claims for wide literary recognition is also maintained by the primary forms
of circulation of the new war literature: written under the spell of a moment, it is first
made public in social networks and personal webpages. Having gained so much media
coverage, the Russo-Ukrainian War, is currently coming into literature in the shape of
multiple individual tragedies. Sooner or later, some of these stories are going to be
translated, and one of the main challenges awaiting translators, in my view, is the danger
of de-scaling the original, bringing the collective aspect above the personal one, or,
contrarily, failing to recognize the collective trauma in the personal account.
Another feature of the new war literature will be its integral attempts to define
the figure of the enemy and the boundaries of its existence. Between the two countries
and the two nations bordering on each other and sharing a common, albeit an
extremely difficult history, bound by decades of individual friendships and family ties,
the definition of an enemy as a figure is traumatic experience as such. For is that every
Russian, or some individual Russians, or all Russians excluding some individuals, who
are perceived by the wronged Ukrainian population as enemies? Outlining the enemy
and giving it a clear shape is one of the moral tasks the new war literature is trying to
resolve. On the side of the anti-war Russians, the trauma will consist in drawing the
demarcation line between themselves and the aggressor in order to “wash oneself
clean” from the collective image of the aggressor. The other feature of the anti-war
Russian writings is reflections on the ways of redeeming the deeds of aggressors bound
to them by the mere name of the nation. An illustrative example in this regard is
a poem written and published by Vadim Zhuk on 11 March 2022.
Стремительно, страшно и необратимо стареем.
Ни сил, ни желания нет, чтоб покинуть страну.
Московский еврей перед винницким горько винится евреем,
Никак не умея свою сформулировать толком вину.
– Ты здесь ни при чём, – ему винницкий друг отвечает.
Московский заплакал в свои-то – за семьдесят – лет.
Компьютер нетвёрдой своею рукой выключает
И смотрит на снег за окном и на солнечный мартовский свет. (Zhuk 2022)
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[Rapidly, terribly and irreversibly, we are aging. / There is neither the strength,
nor the wish to leave the country. / A Moscow Jew beats himself up bitterly before
a Vinnitsa Jew / Not being able to formulate his guilt properly. / “You have
nothing to do with it,” his Vinnitsa friend replies. / The Muscovite bursts out
crying for once in his seventy years. / He turns off the computer with an unsteady
hand / And stares at the snow outside the window and at the sunny March light.]1
For a representative of the country directly engaged in the war, this poem is clearly
anti-war and infinitely traumatic. e feeling of the grief is created by means of
omissions, which can be easily restored by the live witnesses of the events. e
conversation between a Russian and a Ukrainian pensioner described in the poem is
one of thousands that took place in March 2022 between Russians and Ukrainians
trapped physically and psychologically on both sides of the frontline. e only directly
formulated phrase – the reply of the Ukrainian pensioner – evokes memories of
multiple confessions and anti-war protests on the Russian side. e image is enhanced
by the recognizable description of March 2022 in Eastern Europe: very cold and sunny,
with long blue shadows of trees lingering in the snow in the hope for the spring warmth.
Paradoxically, the literature of trauma poses two equally important translation
problems with a clearly reverse vector. One of them, as we have seen, consists in the
ability of the translator to recognize the trauma in a seemingly non-traumatic text.
The other, oppositely, is the ability of the translator to resist the trauma and maintain
a distance from the other’s pain when translating. This contrariety in translation
practices is rooted in the ethical nature of literature in general; literature of trauma
increases the ethical aspect manifold, which made Colin Davis describe talks of the
other’s trauma as “an ethical minefield” (2011, 19). Trauma as a literary phenomenon,
states Davis, is capable of causing the secondary witnessing effect, which induces the
reader to participate in the story and trauma of others. This fact calls into question
the possibility of defining the meaning of another’s story without delusion or
falsification (20). Translators as immediate text mediators will therefore be most
subject to secondary witnessing, and the degree of their involuntary interference with
the emotional arrangement of the texts they deal with will be considerably higher in
comparison with the texts of other types. What is more, the temporal and spatial
proximity of the described events will increase the risks of secondary witnessing. The
implications of this fact are numerous; the issue of our prime concern must be the
increase of the awareness of translators engaged in these painstaking tasks. Another
important consequence of the immediacy of literary response to the war is the
anticipated growth in the number of retranslations, which will follow as the war,
hopefully, becomes the event of the past and distances itself in time from its readers.
Bi l i n gu a l is m
Bilingualism as a feature of the new war literature is preconditioned by several important
factors, and the primary reason for the already tangible tendency of both literatures
to combine both the Ukrainian and the Russian language in the literary works is
1
All translations are by the present author.
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On the perspectives of translating the war literature of trauma
a sociolinguistic one. Russian continues to be widely spoken in Ukraine and remains the
mother tongue to a considerable number of Ukrainians. e Russian language, therefore,
is currently facing a double bind, being both the language of the aggressor and of the
victim, this fact becoming but another motive for the active employment of bilingualism
in the ongoing war literature. In a sense, bilingualism has become one of the means of
resolving individual traumas. For the Ukrainian-originated texts, bilingualism oen,
however not always, serves as a means of drawing a demarcation line between the nation
and “the other.” For the Russian-originated texts, bilingualism manifests redemption
and acknowledgement of tragedy. In the first hundred days of war, Russo-Ukrainian
bilingualism has become an instrument of expressing protest in Russia: with the open
resistance movement crashed by government forces, learning the Ukrainian language,
the Ukrainian anthem, and poems by Taras Shevchenko became the means of personal
resistance (Meduza 2022).
Bilingual accounts of warfare by eyewitnesses will undoubtedly present a complex
matter for their prospective translators. Preference of one language to another may be
motivated sociolinguistically; it can therefore target the social manifestation of
distancing oneself from the aggressor or maintaining solidarity with the fellow-nationals
(Giles, Coupland, and Coupland 1991, 2). On the other hand, cladding individual
memories and feelings in words under the conditions of stress and trauma requires
a wider array of linguistic instruments than the use of one single language. In the case
of traumas, the employment of the second/non-native language is capable of working
towards detachment from the described experience in the individual’s first language,
thus enabling the writer to release the emotion otherwise suppressed. This effect of
emotional detachment was widely described in literature on and psychotherapy in
bilinguals, starting as early as 1976, when Luis R. Marcos formulated his fundamental
detachment principle. According to Marcos, speaking across the language barrier may
determine a substantial diminution or deflection of affect, because the transfer to
a non-native language makes the speakers “invest affect in how they say things and
not so much in what they are saying” (1976, 348). Further achievements in the studies
of bilingual autobiographic memory were described with much detail by Jeanette
Altarriba and Rachel G. Morier (2006) and Aneta Pavlenko (2014, 191–205). Within
the framework of literature and translation studies, the findings in bilingualism can
prove to be of key importance when assessing language choices by writers and poets
of the new war literature. These choices can be deliberate, as well as involuntary,
motivated by unresolved traumas and the yet unrendered emotions.
Among numerous examples of bilingual literary and journalistic texts, “The red
nail polish” by Kirill Serebrennikov is probably one of the most widely circulated in
the Russian opposition press (Serebrennikov 2022). Serebrennikov is a well-known
Russian film-director who openly opposes the official Russian policy; he spent two
years under house arrest in course of a headline-making trial case, which the
independent media described as fabricated. “The red nail polish” is an allusion to the
chilling photo image of a dead female hand in Bucha. It was due to her fresh bright-red
manicure that the deceased was identified by her nail artist, who happened to see the
photo in the media. Serebrennikov’s essay is a broad allusion to Nikolai Gogol’s novella
The Viy, in which a young seminarian holds vigil by the body of a young dead woman,
whom he involuntarily killed as she presented herself in an image of an old witch. The
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native language of Serebrennikov, Russian, intertwines with the Ukrainian language
of the dead girl.
Я держу в руках какую-то книгу, написанную по-русски. Буквы умерли.
Губы пересохли. Мертвая украинская девушка стоит передо мной и просит:
«Поглянь на мене, хлопчик. Поглянь». Я думаю: «Не могу, не могу.” «Треба,
хлопчик, треба». Я молчу, не знаю, как быть. Она шепчет: «Бачиш?» Я говорю: «Нет». Она смеется: «А ты побач! Не бійся.” Я тихо говорю: «Тогда
поднимите мне веки». Кто-то поднимает мне веки, заставляет смотреть.
Мне страшно, но я смотрю. Я смотрю. Там – война.
[I am holding some book written in Russian. The letters have died. The lips have
dried. The dead Ukrainian girl stands in front of me, asking, “Look at me, boy.
Look at me.” I am thinking, “I can’t, I can’t.” “You’ve got to, boy, you’ve got to.”
I am silent; I do not know what to do. She whispers, “Do you see?” I reply, “No.”
She laughs, “Go take a look. Fear not.” I am saying quietly, “Raise my eyelids,
then.” Someone raises my eyelids, making me see. I am afraid, but I am looking.
I am looking. There is war.]
As one can see, all remarks by the dead Ukrainian girl are rendered in the
Ukrainian language in the original; the rest of the original is in Russian. In the context
of a scholarly article, I have intentionally translated both languages into English to
ensure understanding. However, the translation targeting literary publication would
require a different set of decisions, which in any case will have dramatic consequences
in both the effect on the translation readership and the representation of the original
author’s intention. What Serebrennikov metaphorically describes here is an encounter
with a different, although a seemingly familiar nation, in whose death the protagonist
feels he has a hand, albeit involuntarily. The voice of the dead girl is the voice of “the
other” speaking a different language. At the same time, this voice is also the voice of
the human conscience, sounding familiar, yet different for the desire to resist it. The
mere call to open one’s eyes and see causes pain; putting it into an understandable but
different language is also a subconscious psychological measure that enables the
protagonist follow his path. As the detachment of the two wanes and the protagonist
obeys the persuasion, the spell is broken, and the awareness of evil arrives.
The bilingual intertextual narrative, understood without translation by the
majority of native Russian speakers, will probably translate with relative ease into
Slavic languages including those using Latin alphabet. However, the inter-Slavic
bilingualism will undoubtedly be a challenging matter for translators into non-Slavic
languages. Individual choices of translators will, of course, depend on multiple factors,
for which one cannot provide universal prescriptions. Yet one thing is clear: translators
of the new war literature will have to familiarize themselves, deliberately or by probe,
with the phenomenon of bilingualism as a means of trauma release in literature.
The bilingualism of the new war literature will contribute into the complexity of
literary forms. The literature of trauma as such has been referred to as a “form of
literary unsettlement” (Eaglestone 2020, 290); the translation of trauma literature
therefore requires a special focus on rendering the formal features of the original.
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On the perspectives of translating the war literature of trauma
Bilingualism as an integral feature of the new war literature will raise the problem of
form rendering to new heights. Decisions regarding rendering or omitting bilingual
features of originals in their translations into third languages will be rather more of
ethical than of linguistic matter, as the bilingualism of the new war literature has
become a unique tool fulfilling multiple purposes: from the expression of alienation,
accusation, and rage, to manifesting protest, proclaiming disagreement, and seeking
for reconciliation.
Co n cl u si o n
The translation of the Russo-Ukrainian War literature written in Ukrainian, Russian,
and both is yet to take place, as the scope of it is rapidly emerging against the
background of the dramatic military events. With the war going on at the heart of
Europe, new literary works will be very soon translated into most European languages.
The traumatic experiences contained in the new war literature and the stylistic means
employed in it will pose new questions to those who will decide to render the poignant
stories of modernity into their languages. As Cathy Caruth wrote in her preface to the
seminal volume Trauma, “[t]he difficulty of listening and responding to traumatic
stories in a way that does not lose their impact, that does not reduce them to clichés
or turn them all into versions of the same story, is a problem that remains central to
the task of therapists, literary critics, neurobiologists, and filmmakers alike” (Caruth
1995, vii). To this, we need to add here, “and translators,” for the desire of the victims
to reveal their pain and the desire of the caring to join in the sorrow often meet in the
determination of translators to mediate the almost unspeakable and empathize the
almost unperceivable meanings that trauma brings into a narrative.
REF E RE NCE S
Altarriba, Jeanette, and Rachel G. Morier. [2004] 2006. “Bilingualism: Language, Emotion, and
Mental Health.” In The Handbook of Bilingualism, ed. by Tej K. Bhatia and William C.
Ritchie, 250–280. Malden and Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
Bayer, Gerd. 2018. “Trauma and the Literature of War.” InTrauma and Literature, ed. by J. Roger
Kurtz, 213–225. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Caruth, Cathy. 1995. “Preface.” In Trauma. Explorations in Memory, ed. by Cathy Caruth, vii–ix.
Baltimore and London: The Johns Hopkins University Press.
Davis, Colin. 2011. “Trauma and Ethics: Telling the Other’s Story.” In Cultural History and
Literary Imagination. Vol. 18. Other People’s Pain. Narratives of Trauma and the Question
of Ethics, ed. by Martin Modlinger and Philipp Sonntag, 19–42. Bern: Peter Lang.
Eaglestone, Robert. 2020. “Trauma and Fiction.” In The Routledge Companion to Literature and
Trauma, ed. by Colin Davis and Hanna Meretoja, 287–295. Oxon and New York: Routledge.
Erikson, Kai. 1976. Everything in Its Path. New York: Simon and Schuster.
Marcos, Luis R. 1976. “Linguistic dimensions in the bilingual patient.” American Journal of
Psychoanalysis 36: 347–354.
Giles, Howard, Nikolas Coupland, and Justine Coupland. 1991. “Accommodation Theory:
Communication, Context, and Consequence.” In Contexts of Accommodation, ed. by
Howard Giles, Nikolas Coupland, and Justine Coupland, 1–68. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
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Meduza. 2022. “Konechno, strashno, no luchshe postradat’ za chestnost’, chem ne imet’ sovesti”
[Of course, I am afraid, but better to take the fall for honesty, than live without
conscience]. Meduza. Accessed on June 12, 2022.
https://meduza.io/feature/2022/06/11/konechno-strashno-no-luchshe-postradat-za-chest
nost-chem-ne-imet-sovesti.
Pavlenko, Aneta. 2014. The Bilingual Mind and What It Tells Us about Language and Thought.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Serebrennikov, Kirill. 2022. “Krasnyi lak” [The red nail polish]. Accessed on June 13, 2022.
https://meduza.io/feature/2022/05/24/soldaty-moey-strany-voshli-v-chuzhuyu-stranu-inachali-ee-unichtozhat.
Zhuk, Vadim. 2022. “Voiuiushchaia storona” [The belligerent party]. Accessed on June 12, 2022.
https://www.kasparov.ru/material.php?id=623FF19DABD56.
AB S TR AC T
The article by Natalia Kamovnikova “On the perspectives of translating the war literature of
trauma” is an overview of the potential problematics of the translation of the literature in
Ukrainian and Russian languages emerging in the course of the Russo-Ukrainian War. The
author recognizes trauma and bilingualism as the major distinct features of the new war
literature that will have effect on the future rendering of the new war literature into third
languages. Studies in the literature of trauma, on the one hand, and sociolinguistic and
psycholinguistic findings in bilingualism, on the other, will therefore be inseparable from
studies in the translation of war literature written in Ukrainian, Russian, and both.
Keyword s: Translation. Literature. Russo-Ukrainian War. Trauma. Bilingualism.
CON TACT D ETA I LS :
Natalia Kamovnikova, Ph.D.
Department of Slavic Languages
Faculty of Arts
Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica
Tajovského 40
974 01 Banská Bystrica
Slovak Republic
natalie_kamov@yahoo.com
ORCID: 0000-0001-7388-2743
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POW ER IN TR AN S LAT ION : A F O RM ATIV E
FACTOR OF RECEPTION AND DISTRIBUTION
A ND A DE F O R MATIV E FAC TOR
IN CO NCE PTUA LI SATI ON O F L ITE R AT U RE
IN S LOVAK TR AN S LAT ION , 1945–1970
M á ri a Ku sá
Power is a factor that not only forms the reception and “distribution” of foreign
literature in the Slovak cultural sphere, but also deforms the conceptualisation of
literature in translation.* In the historical circumstances of the twentieth century, the
phenomenon of power in the Slovak cultural sphere underwent a distinctive journey.
According to Max Weber (1969, 1983, 1997, 1998a, 1998b, 1999), there are five forms
of power: 1) power as the means to achieve one’s aim (as opposed to another person’s
aims); 2) power as will to power; 3) power as rule and control; 4) power as administration
and control: the power to allocate, distribute, administer; the “power of the stamp,”
enabling one to allow, forbid, or grant; 5) power as leadership: when people follow
a leader, the leader is the one with power. The period of former Czechoslovakia
examined in this paper was a witness to and a stage for all these forms of power, and
translation at the time was no exception, subject to power’sinfluence in literature and
culture as a whole. It is not our intention to make cheap comparisons/ analogies with
contemporary Russia, but they are obvious.
What else came into play in the relation between power and culture? In one of
his innumerable cultural and historical studies, Jean Delisle stated the following:
“...translation is a discipline at a crossroads; it has been practised for millennia, so it
comes as no surprise that crossroads of towns or countries are where cultures and
nations meet, mix, hybridise” (2003, 3). In the second half of the twentieth century,
two eminent Slovak theorists – fine art historian Ján Bakoš (1984) and literary
historian Peter Zajac (1996) – described this crossroads aspect in relation to the nature
of literature and the fine arts. Slovakia in the Czechoslovak Republic during the second
half of the twentieth century (1948–1989) embodied a country that could not act as
a crossroads (the borders being almost completely closed off) but most certainly acted
as a border between two worlds, the West and the East, which had an impact on the
cultural and political status of the written word, both original and translated.
Over the decades, the cultural politics of the people’s democracy and later
“socialism” in Czechoslovakia, dating from 1945 (or, if you prefer, from 1948), began
to include in the translation process other literary and non-literary factors that formed
*
This article was written in the framework of the project VEGA “Translation as part of the cultural process
history III. Translation and translating – texts, personalities, institutions in inter- and transdisciplinary
relations”.
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and deformed the shape of translation (e.g. the publishing plans of exclusively
state-run publishing houses with strictly specified proportions between “Western”
and “Eastern” publications, the establishment of so-called “printing supervision”
organizations, direct “control” over literature by Communist Party authorities, the
union monopoly Zväz československých (or slovenských) spisovateľov, distribution
through the state-run monopoly Slovenský knižný veľkoobchod etc.). In this case, we
are referring to state-run publishing houses, now known as the established ones. On
one hand, responsibility or “ethics” were an issue because the publishers basically
decided which texts got to be translated; on the other hand, thanks to their prestige
and orientation,1 translation production overall and, specifically for our research,
translations of social science texts of various origins contributed to the institutionalised
establishment of ideas about the translated literatures and created a canon of this type
of texts in the Slovak cultural sphere.
Naturally, translators always had the option to accept or refuse a text. However,
their autonomy in this respect was tied to their need to make a living.
Katarína Bednárová commented on the disparate cultural situations of the
various post-war decades as follows: “The imaginary compass needle continued to
oscillate wildly between the West and the East, most frequently targeting the translation
of Russian and Soviet literature that dominated this period in every way” (2015, 31).
To make this statement more precise, we should add that in very few spheres of
cultural transfer were works of Russian origin or written in Russian subject to as much
interest as in the translation of social science texts; this was precisely because they had
an operative and educational function, or, as Delisle would call it, “an instrumental
and mediating function” (2003, 3), which was directly connected to the sociocultural
aspect.
Our source material was a bibliography from Libor Knězek (1929–2017) entitled
Preklady z iných literatúr do slovenčiny 1945 – 1968. Bibliografia knižných prekladov
beletrie a umenovedy do slovenčiny (1969). In his essay “Úvodom” (1969, iii), Jozef
Felix, a Romance studies scholar, university teacher, literary scientist, translator and
one of the first historians of translation in Slovakia, enumerates milestones in
translation in the Slovak cultural sphere, basically since its beginning. However, he
also mentions the reason why L. Knězek chose to research the period from 1945 to
1969: “his choice was surely influenced by the beginning of an unusual expansion of
Slovak literature in translation, an expansion both quantitative and qualitative. After
the Second World War ended in 1945, Slovakia started a new national and cultural era
in the restored Czechoslovak Republic, which is, undoubtedly, an important milestone
in the history of Slovak translation and European translation in general” (iii). Seen
from the perspective of our chosen segment of the book market, the year 1945 can
clearly be understood as a milestone.
Another fact concerning translation production that Felix, an intellectual of
pan-European significance, emphasises in the introduction to Knězek’sbibliography, is
the liberation of text selection from randomness and arbitrary, individual whims.
1
Each individual publisher focused on a specific part of the market; e.g. Slovenský spisovateľ focused on
contemporary literary works of Slovak origin as well as translations; Tatran, formerly Slovenské
vydavateľstvo krásnej literatúry, focused on classics, etc.
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Power in translation: a formative factor of reception and distribution
However, he stresses that this does not entail “directive and forced interventions into
translated literature. On the contrary, it suggests work with a clear aim” (ix). ough
this may seem paradoxical, especially if we consider the obvious institutional preference
for literature written in Russian, it is actually a reflection of the period when the text
was written. Knězek’s bibliography was published in 1969, but due to the long process
of preparation for print at the time, the text was compiled during what is known as the
Prague Spring (1967–1968), a period of great political liberation that brought hope.
Let us examine the facts that are obvious from reading and interpreting the
bibliographical data. Just by looking at a simple graph of the number of recorded
translations of various origins between 1945 and 1969/70, it is clear that, just as in the
case of literary works, Bednárová’s words also apply to the translation of social science
texts in the Slovak cultural sphere after 1945: “Translation from Russian and Soviet
literatures is a story in itself. They reflect ideological supervision, and their existence
depended on the situation in the former USSR. It went through periods of harsh
political and cultural pressure to periods of liberalisation” (2015, 57). We would like
to reflect upon this oscillation to avoid false narratives about how the above-mentioned
translations functioned. That is also the reason why it is only possible to perceive them
via thorough research of the connections and context, number, and character of
translations from other cultural spheres. Viewing them in context suggests a possible
participation in the establishment and subsequent shaping of the canon in different
artistic areas/spheres – literature, fine arts, music, theatre etc.
Based on the available bibliographic sources (Knězek 1969, among others), we
will attempt to reconstruct the corpus of non-literary and social science texts
translated into Slovak published between 1945 and 1970 and confirm or refute the
hypothesis that they reflect the social transformations of that era. In Slovník
prekladateľov... we noted the concurrence of the translation of literary and non-literary
texts by Slovak translators (2015, 2017): “The professional profile of a translator is also
shaped by non-literary translations, including specialised texts, mainly in the fields
of literary science, fine arts, philosophy, as well as various guidelines, promotional
publications, manuals etc.; that is why we mention them under the [given] entry...
however, they are not subject to further analysis...” (Kovačičová and Kusá 2015, 9).
Let us look at the statistics from standpoint A – the number of translated social
science texts according to the source language (in contrast to standpoint B – the
areas/nature of the disciplines of the translated texts – see below), as well as reflect on
whether and how power in various forms (the power to get one’s way, power as control,
administrative power, power as leadership, etc.) manifested itself in potential
factors/agents that shaped the idea of translated literature and its form.
If we apply all the definitions of power mentioned above, the overwhelming
dominance of Russian literature is clear (altogether there are 91 titles). Significantly,
however, the first two translations from the Russian cultural sphere are from 1948,
thus after the communist coup, while the next translations are from the beginning of
the 1950s.2 According to Bednárová, “the year 1949 marked the ideological, political,
2
One of the most hostile publications is the selection of works from the “architect” of the persecution of
Russian writers and artists as early as the 1940s, A.A. Zhdanov (1896–1948) A. A. Ždanov a sovietske
umenie, Bratislava: Obroda1951.
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and institutional transformation of cultural life in Slovakia and heralded the infamous
fifties, which were known for political repression and ideological and political
restrictions in culture” (2015, 31). In this case, the “self-identifying” function of
translation took a specific form, imposed by the socio-political power of the time.
There was an aspiration to view literature/art/philosophy according to “the grand
Soviet example.” We could say that these texts had a disseminating function because
they were meant to diffuse and spread the doctrine.
If the period from 1963 to 1969 represented “the reintegration of the translation
situation into the interrupted continuum of the interwar period” (32), this was evident
in, among other things, quantitative changes in translations from Russian literature,
with a clear falling tendency. From the point of view of geopolitics, the absence of
translations of Russian originals in 1966 and 1967 is very telling. In 1968, the year of
the Prague Spring, there was only one translation of Russian originals. In 1965, an
anthology was published and, very characteristically, it would be “used” during
Czechoslovakia’s “normalization” era for citations of Lenin (and Marx), in literary and
other works: Lenin, Vladimir. O literatúre a umení (translation by a group of authors).
At the same time, translations of Russian encyclopaedic texts appear – Maliarstvo,
sochárstvo, grafika3 (Dmitrijeva 1964) played a formative role, as well as O nepredmetnom
svete (1968),4 selected works of suprematist Kazimir Malevich about the theory of the
avant-garde, which is a clear example of the mediating function of translation, one
where translation not only transferred a specific avant-garde experience of the Russian
context into the Slovak one, but also opened doors in the Slovak cultural sphere to the
avant-garde in general, which shows the democratizing function of translation.
The second most translated language was Czech (28 translations). However, the
translated texts went beyond Czech literature and culture, embracing a broader
spectrum of phenomena. Obviously, there were the obligatory translations featuring
major figures according to the dominant ideology of the post-war era – O Juliovi
Fučíkovi (1951), Stanislav Neumann – Antonín Jelínek: O „Mladej garde“, románe
Alexandra Fadejeva (1951), Jaroslav Kojzar: O živote a diele Zdenka Nejedlého (1954),
Z. Nejedlý:Výber z diela (1958). Especially in the 1960s, however, the proximity of the
Prague Spring was noticeably evident in translations of works by important Czech
scholars of art such as the structuralist Jan Mukařovský (1947), Karel Honzík (1961),
and Václav Černý (1964). The mediating function of translations from Czech was also
important during this period, exemplified in works such as Auguste Renoir (1963),
Kapitolky o džeze (1964), Fauvizmus (1966) and Paul Cézanne (1968). The number of
translations from Czech was never more than five publications per year. In 1948 (the
year of the February coup) and 1953 (marked by the deaths of Klement Gottwald and
J. Stalin), but also in 1956, 1957, and subsequently in 1959 and 1960, translations of
Czech origin were completely absent.
In terms of the number of translations, Russian and Czech were followed by
French and German texts (25 translations each). In both cases the number of
publications rose between 1956 and 1958. Translations from French in the 1950s
3
4
Translation from Russian by Michal Čabala, verse adapted by Ľubomír Feldek, afterword by Tomáš Štraus.
State 1915–1922. Translation by Naďa Čepanová. Text selection, afterword, notes by Oskár Čepan.
Bratislava: Tatran 1968.
184
Power in translation: a formative factor of reception and distribution
were strongly marked by ideology (more on this later), while, the 1960s were
characterised by literature about theatre (Jean-Louis Barrault: Som divadelník, 1961;
Jean Vilar: O divadelnej tradícii, 1966), film (Georges Sadoul: Zázraky filmu and
Z druhej strany kamery 1961, 1965; Pierre Leprohon: Michelangelo Antonioni, 1965),
phenomena and figures of various fine arts (Le Corbusier: Kapitolky o modernej
architektúre, 1966; Francis Carco: Priateľ maliarov, 1966; Brassai: Rozhovory s Picassom,
1967), philosophical texts (Henri Bergson: Smiech. Esej o význame komična, 1966)
and texts about aesthetics (Denis Huisman: Estetika, 1966). A similar situation can
be found among the translations from German. To put it simply, they follow the
journey from Marx and Engels (1950, 1954), Bertolt Brecht (1959) and GottholdEphraim Lessing (1949 as well as 1961) to Enno Patalas and his work Filmovým
hviezdam (1966).
English as a source language is, not by accident, throughout the whole examined
period in a different category (7 translations). Aside from one exception, these
translations are ideologically focused literary translations (19535 and 19556) or
translations of texts about music (1961), theatre and the fine arts (1963)7. 1966 and
1967 saw the first two publications in Slovak about the “Western” history of fine arts,
and both were translations from English – Michael Levey: Stručné dejiny maliarstva
od Giotta po Cézanna8 and Herbert Read: Stručné dejiny od Cézanna po Picassa.9 The
translations from English were bookended by two publications that defied
categorisation. One was published immediately after WWII (1946) – Michael Sayers
and Albert Kahn: Veľké sprisahanie proti Rusku.10 The other was published in the
“revivalist” year of 1968, a collection of theoretical reflexions on art from Aldrich C.
Virgil: Filozofia umenia, translated by renowned Slovak art historian Marian Váross,
who added an erudite afterword.11
The narrative of Hungarian as a “brotherly” language in the socialist bloc (7), has
been presented since the 1940s – as a characteristic example, we would mention one
of the “giants” of literary science for the “socialist” (at the time, “people’s democratic”
would have been more precise) camp: György Lukács, whose works were translated
as Literatúra a demokracia12 and Veľkí ruskí realisti.13 From 1954 to 1957, the time of
the Hungarian “counter-revolution,” translations from the then-problematic Hungarian
cultural sphere were naturally absent.
Italian was used as a source language very sporadically (6 translations) in 1945,
1957, 1963, 1967, but quite surprisingly still more often than some other languages
with more ideological “affinity” like Polish (2) or Bulgarian (1).
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
Translation from English by Ján Šimko, verse adapted by Viera Szathmáryová-Vlčková and Milan Kraus.
Translation from English by Alfonz Bednár.
Searle, Humphrey: Hudba Franza Liszta. Translation from English by Lýdia Lenhardtová. Miller, Arthur:
Myšlienky o divadle. Translation from English by Karol Dlouhý. Selection, foreword, and notes by Ján Válek.
Read, Herbert: Umenie a priemysel. Translation from English, introduction, and graphics by Eduard Toran.
Translation from English by Ivan Krčméry.
Translation from English by Marián Fridrichovský.
Translation from English by Alfonz Bednár.
Bratislava: Tatran 1968.
Translation from Hungarian by Imrich Bojsa and Ladislav Szantó. Afterword by Alexander Matuška.
Translation from Hungarian by L. Ivanovičová and A. Kalinová.
185
V. O N T R A U M A A N D M A N I P U L A T I O N
Another important factor is that the authors of the publication Preklady z iných
literatúr do slovenčiny 1945 – 1968, Jozef Felix14 and L. Knězek,15 gave the book
a subtitle that delineated the choice of texts accordingly: Bibliografia knižných prekladov
beletrie a umenovedy do slovenčiny [A bibliography of published translations of fiction
and art theory/history into Slovak]. is can be interpreted and viewed as a perception
of “equality” between the translation of fiction and that of art theory/history; we should
also emphasise the fact that in many cases the latter is a form of fictionalized storytelling
about the lives of artists or their works. In the bibliography, the texts are divided
according to particular disciplines; we have categorised them as works of literary
science, aesthetics, fine art theory, theatre science, musicology and film studies, as well
as overtly politically/ideologically charged and instructive materials. If we think about
and evaluate the statistical data from standpoint B – the areas/nature of the disciplines
of the translated texts – the results confirm our expectations.
A clear dominance of literary science texts can be found (93), followed by texts
from general aesthetics/philosophy of art (30).16 Both types of texts are of course
marked by ideology17, and it is important to highlight the fact that this does not apply
to texts of Russian origin alone; it is visible in French and German texts as well.
If we were to identify the main figures of published literary science, we would
mention two Russian literary figures. In the first half of the 1950s, it was Maxim Gorky,
demonstrated in the translated works: Alex Yuter Roskin. M. Gorkij (translation from
Russian by B.); M. Gorkij a detská literatúra (translation by E. Labáthová); M. Gorky.
Ako som sa učil písať (translation from Russian); Alexandr Michailovich Yegolin.
M. Gorkij a ruská literatúra (translation by Šarlota Barániková); Boris Bursov. “Matka”
M. Gorkého a otázky socialistického realizmu (translation by Viera Fašková); and
M. Gorky. State o literatúre I. (translation from Russian by H. Klačko, annotated by
Hana Kostolanská and Felix Nejeschleba).
The other major figure was Vladimir Mayakovsky, a favourite of Stalin’s after his
death, featured in the translated publications Mark Maslin: Vladimír Majakovskij.
Stenografický záznam verejnej prednášky (translation from Russian by Viktória Lapárová
and Jela Fašková) and Majakovského tvorba. Sborník sovietskych štúdií (translated from
Russian and selected by Viktor Kochol).
Examples of pointedly ideological texts include translations of several French
works by Roger Garaudy: Komunizmus a morálky (translation by Ján Mišianik),
14
15
16
17
Felix studied Slovak and French at Comenius University in Bratislava and Charles University in Prague,
French at the Sorbonne in Paris.
Knězek studied literary science and aesthetics in 1948–1952 at the Faculty of Arts, Charles University.
Ivanov, P.: Problém krásna v marxisticko-leninskej estetike. Translation from Russian by Jela Kresáková.
Bratislava: Slovenský spisovateľ 1952. Yermilov, Vladimir Vladimirovich: Krásno – náš život. Translation
from Russian by Ela Surová. Bratislava: Slovenský spisovateľ 1952. Lunacharsky, Anatolij Vasilievich.:
Umenie a revolúcia. Translation from Russian by Soňa Lesňáková and Mikuláš Šimko. Selection, editing
and afterword by Mikuláš Bakoš. Bratislava: Slovenský spisovateľ 1958.
Yermilov, V. V.: Sovietska literatúra – bojovníčka za mier. Translation from Russian by Viera Fašková. Verse
adapted by Miroslav Válek. Bratislava: Tatran 1951. Druhý všezväzový sjazd spisovateľov. Translation from
Russian by Viera Dovinová, Marta Ličková and Magda Takáčová. Bratislava: Slovenský spisovateľ 1953.
Literatúra a umenie v uzneseniach a dokumentoch KSSS. Translation from Russian, selection, notes and
afterword by Mikuláš Bakoš. Bratislava: Slovenský spisovateľ 1954.O socialistickom realizme. Translation
from Russian by Edo Friš (from periodicals). Afterword Ján Števček. Bratislava: Slovenský spisovateľ 1960.
186
Power in translation: a formative factor of reception and distribution
Cirkev, komunizmus a kresťania (translation by Ondrej Žiška) and Sloboda (translation
by Ján Žigo).
The zeitgeist played an important role in translation policy: in 1950, a typical
example was the collective translation (from Russian and Czech) of the anthology
O socialistickom realizme. 1951 was characterised by the ideological, imposed (via
power) “annunciation,” in this case from the pen of literary scholar A.V. Yegolin:
J. V. Stalin a otázky literatúry (translation from Russian by Soňa Čechová). 1953 was
exemplified by a book by George Thomson Marxizmus a poézia (translation from
English by Ján Šimko, verse adapted by Viera Szathmáryová-Vlčková and Milan
Kraus) and by L.V. Dubrovinová Detská literatúra vo svetle úloh komunistickej výchovy
(translation by F. Michaličová). Stalin’s death was followed by the gradual publication
of V.V. Yermilov’s monographs about classic nineteenth-century authors, who had
been essentially neglected in the late 1940s and first half of the 1950s because, due to
their timeless nature, they did not lend themselves to ideological use (or, more aptly,
misuse). These included Yermilov’s books on Chekhov: A.P. Čechov (translation by
Pavel Branko) and Veľký ruský spisovateľ A. P. Čechov, and particularly Dostoevsky:
F. M. Dostojevskij (translation by Pavel Ličko).
Texts about fine arts basically came in two different types. Several are written in
a semi-encyclopaedic style or that of a manual, such as the previously mentioned
Nina Dmitriyeva Maliarstvo, sochárstvo, grafika18 and B.V. Ioganson O majstrovstve
a maliarstve19 and Vznik a rozbor obrazu20. The second most frequent style was
biographical or autobiographical and, in some cases, almost fictionalised stories
(exemplified by Sochári o sebe a o svojom diele – translated from English, Russian,
Italian and German and selected by Zdenka Volavková-Skořepová; translated from
Czech by E. Grečnerová). Most of these publications were characterized by the
participation of contemporary and important Slovak art historians (Tomáš Štraus,
Ladislav Saučin et al.).
One, often downright bizarre, manner of deformation was the “use” of a Russian/
Soviet example as a “seal of approval” for the perception and acceptance of “Western”
literature, such as A.K. Djivelegov Talianska ľudová komédia. Commedia dell’arte –
though this particular example was a case of “positive discrimination” of sorts.21 This
model of Russian/Soviet reasoning was applied if there was an “enlightened” author
of Russian/Soviet origin whose authority could grant a “problematic” Western author
or work entry into the Slovak sphere, thus paving the way for their publication.
Let us return to the original hypothesis: we can clearly confirm that the
translation of social science texts in the examined period of 1945–1970 is, among
other things, a very accurate reflection of social transformations, which we have
demonstrated by contextualizing the examined texts.
To put it simply, power, according to Weber, is “the ability to achieve any given
result under any circumstances” (see Moc), or “the ability to control reality, especially
18
19
20
21
Translation from Russian by Michal Čabala. Verse adapted by Ľubomir Feldek. Afterword by Tomáš Štraus.
Translation from Russian by Ján Mojžiš in cooperation with L. Saučin.
Translation from Russian by a group of translators. Introduction and notes by A. Richter. Bratislava: Tatran
1953.
Translation from Russian and afterword by Emil Lehuta. Bratislava: SVKL 1959.
187
V. O N T R A U M A A N D M A N I P U L A T I O N
imposing one’s will upon others” (see Slovník filosofických pojmů). It is therefore
clear, or at least clearer in this case than in the case of literary texts, that power acts as
a deformative factor influencing not only the reception but also the distribution of
translated texts. We can conclude this based on the ratio of translated texts from
various languages into Slovak and the dominance of translations of literary science
texts.
This study is the first probe into this issue and poses further questions (the
relationship between literary and non-literary texts translated by specific translators,
translators of social science texts from various languages etc.). These should be the
subject of further research.
Translated by Michael Dove
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AB S TR AC T
The study analyzes power as a factor in (de)forming the reception and distribution or translated
texts in the Slovak cultural space. The subject of study is the translation of scholarly texts in the
humanities and the social sciences and its literary and editorial context in Czechoslovakia in
1945–1970. After defining power and its relationship with culture in the historical context of
the post-war period, the study reflects on A) the relations between power and the language of
the original text (a predictable domination of Russian) and B) the relation between power and
the discipline of the original text (a predictable domination of ideologically driven literarytheoretical texts). In this sense, it shows (paraphrasing Max Weber) that those in power were
able to manipulate reality, especially by forcing their opinion and will on others.
Keyword s: Czechoslovak cultural politics in 1945–1970. Ideologically driven translation
of non-literary texts. Translation as a mirror of social transformations.
CO NTAC T D ETAI L S:
Prof. PhDr. Mária Kusá, CSc.
Institute of World Literature
Slovak Academy of Sciences
Dúbravská cesta 9
841 04 Bratislava
Slovak Republic
maria.kusa@uniba.sk
ORCID: 0000-0002-6051-3997
190
Tra ns la ti on S tu di es in U krai ne
as an In tegra l Par t
o f th e Eu ro pea n Con text
Mar ti n D J OV ČOŠ
Ivana HO STOVÁ
Mári a K USÁ
Emí l i a PER E Z
(ed s. )
Cover: Eva MÁTHÉ (with the use of M. C. Escher’s motif)
Layout: Eva KOVAČEVIČOVÁ
First edition
Published and printed by VEDA, Publishing House of the Slovak Academy of Sciences,
Centre of Operations of the SAS, Dúbravská cesta 5820/9, 841 04 Bratislava, in 2023 as its
4697th publication.
www.veda.sav.sk
Grant VEGA 2/0166/19
ISBN 978-80-224-2015-0
DOI 10.31577/2023.9788022420150
ISBN 978-80-224-2015-0
9
788022
418737