carry this constantly changing stability to readers of other nations. It
is interesting that for some works this process lasts more than ten
years till the form is adopted and reconstructed.
Reconstruction of national coloring in the translation very often
depends on the prevailing methods used in different literary schools.
The volume of the translation is not underlining of national specifics
of origin text but it is the creation of its truly wholeness, finding of
adequate concrete form that is to help to show the unity of national and
common to all mankind coloring in the origin.
Translator must convey adequately the national character connected with
the real representation of life. It means that he must know social
conditions and nation development whose literature he translates, he
must know and understand the specific spiritual way of life, find
explanations of problems caused with peculiarities of this nation and
originality of his development. For example, the figure of Marullo in
John Steinbeck’s novel The winter of our discontent is a collective
figure of one of the representatives of Italian emigrant in America who
became rich in the period of 20-s years. Such figures were in many other
works of that period and like them Marullo is the bearer of common for
native Americans problems but at Steinbeck’s work this figure differs
with his national and artistic originality, caused by peculiarities of
American emigrants development at that period.
What does every translator imply and what kind of tasks are in front of
him? Why does he begin to translate works from another national
literature?
At first he must know and understand the individuality, unique of
figures. Every artistic figure is unique according to its nature and
irrespective of its national origin.
Secondly he must know and understand the essence of figures and ideas of
works of social class.
Thirdly he must take into account the national originality reflected in
the work: its plot, form, images, style, language etc.
Fourthly he must reveal international coloring of the work that is
significant for different countries, states and nations elements.
Fifthly he must reveal elements common to all mankind irrespective of
their belonging to any country, epoch, and nation.
National and international, folk and common to all mankind activities
are tightly connected with each other and perform the complicate
dialectic unity.
Translation is not only outward form of these mutual relations; it is
also dialectic unity of the national and international coloring of its
essence.
The point of the translation is a bridge between national and
international coloring. That is why its main function is the turning of
spiritual values of one nation into the property of other nations;
translation is transmission assisting to mutual penetration and
influence of national cultures. In our days we can be witnesses of the
powerful aspiration to mutual knowing, intellectual and spiritual
communication. Every nation culture goes out the limits of its own
country. Its relations with cultures of other nations development on
multilateral basis, they become more and more all embracing, acquiring
bigger significance.
It is easy to note that major part of themes and problems in the
different national literature coincide. But treatment to these themes
and solutions of these problems are various and original in the works of
different cultures. For example the theme of Motherland in three poems
of A. Block, R. Burns and I. R. Beher.
Common to all mankind theme of Motherland these three poets express in
different ways: their lyrical characters express their feelings
differently and have different notions of Motherland. Ideal of
Motherland in these poets' minds was formed in the different nations and
spiritual environment. Originality of their attitude and artistic
representation, originality of expressive means are the result of
environment and other factors.
For Russian poet Alexander Block his Motherland is the most desirable
dream, hope that it will be the place of his last rest. In his poem
Russia embodies its beautiful nature; for Robert Burns Motherland is
associated with the figure of the mother's sadness missing her sons who
fight for the freedom and will never come back; in Beher's poem we do
not hear cry but anger and appeal to revenge for the outraged and
ashamed Motherland. Grief, ache, anger and love are lyrical moods common
to these three poets.
But for this specific feature in the expression of common to all people
feeling of love to Motherland these poems would lose their concrete
character.
International character in spiritual literature does not exist
abstractly; in every national culture it acquires concrete forms. It is
this dialect that must become ruling principle in the translating
activity. The translator must convey truly both components on this unity
keeping in his mind the frequent absence of confines between national
and international coloring because they interlace with each other.
The translator only conventionally finds and marks out national, social,
individual, international, common to all mankind coloring.
They cannot be separated in any artistic work. Their separating leads to
the art destroying. if the translator does not manage to convey this
floating it means that he has not able to create high-quality authentic
translation.
Coloring and erasure of coloring.
The notion of coloring appeared in the literary criticism terminology
and meant a special quality of literary work, speech characteristic of
personage, a special emotional or linguistic look of separate literary
work or an writer’s works, that is all peculiarities and originalities.
Coloring of a word shows its belonging to a certain people, country,
concrete historical epoch.
National (local) and historical coloring of realia is a new additional
meaning to its main signification. A.S. Pushkin uses realias евнух,
гарем, гяур, чубук, щербет in Bahchisaray’s fountain; their specific
coloring gives an oriental coloring to the poem. According to
dictionaries щербет is an oriental fruit soft drink and it differs from
lemonade by its regional belonging and it is considered as a coloring.
This neutral word turns into realia owing to relation with this region.
But if an inhabitant of this region who works in the West faces with this
word it gives him an association connected with his motherland, his
recollections and feelings.
It makes us consider coloring a part of connotative meaning of a realia.
It is appropriate to compare realias – words with specific national and
historical coloring – connotative lexis – with words deprived of such
coloring. We may use two words – bird cherry and rook. They are only
details of nature: bird cherry is a tree that grows in Northern America,
Europe and Asia; and rook is specie of birds from crown family. These
words are not realias because of their wide-spreadness and they are not
connected with people or country. However associations connected with
bird cherry (the height of spring) and rook (expectation of spring) make
a heart of Russian man quicken. He connects their connotatively with
realia not turning them into realia.
Another example touches up some difficulties translating of the title of
famous Russian film Летят журавли into the French language: the French
word grue also means silly girl and a woman of easy virtue.
So they had to substitute the word “crane” for the word “stork”.
In these examples connotative words in contradiction to realia have full
and significant equivalents.
“Inconvenient” word is often substituted for its functional analogies.
Foe example, bird cherry can be substituted for early blooming tree or
bush – for England it can be substituted for plum or cherry-tree or even
for lilac; instead of rook they can use any convenient bird. The main
idea is to evoke a reader of translated text the same associations that
has a reader of origin text.
The transmission of connotative word by means of devices that are
characteristic feature for the transmission of realia usually leads to an
undesirable results: a corresponding word must evoke a definite reaction.
Classifying the realia we noted that realias were allocated according to
their place or/and time. It is often happens that realia that means the
same or close material notions can be from different places and
historical rubric: that is, they differ from each other according to
connotative meaning, coloring. For example, supreme organ is called seim
in Poland, Supreme Court in Russia, cortes in Spain and Portugal, Public
Meeting in Bulgaria, bundestag in Germany, rikstaf in Swiss, storting in
Norway, folketing in Denmark, knesset in Israel. All these words mean
Parliament and they do not differ much from each other but their
traditional names represent characteristic national realia. Each of them
has its own features that belong only to it. However, but for these
distinctions, national and historical coloring would not allow
substitution for another word in translation. Such substitution would
