PECULIARITIES OF THE TRANSLATION OF PAUL CELAN'S POETRY INTO UKRAINIAN

Abstract

Poetry translation is one of the most difficult tasks in the literary translation. It is an artistic process in which translators create qualitatively novel artistic spaces. As a unique creative endeavor, it is becoming an important research topic in translation studies. A considerable attention of investigators has been focused on the means of preserving in translation poets’ aesthetics, specific features of their linguistic and ethno-cultural character which are jointly the products of particular phonetic, stylistic, lexical and syntactic literary tools used in translation.

Therefore, an important part of the current analysis is to determine specific features of the literary translation of poetry on phonetic, morphological, lexical, syntactic, and textual levels.

The goal of the current study is to examine distinctive features of the Ukrainian translations of Paul Celan’s work done by S. Zhadan, P. Rukhlo, and M. Fishbein. Namely, the study examines the specific literary tools used by the translators to convey the originals. It also aims at discovering unique stylistic features in the work of the translators. To reach the goal, we determined theoretical and methodological bases of the research domain, analyzed translations on the different linguistic levels, determined specific features of the individual style of the translators by using comparative translation, linguistic and contextual analyses. The study found that

(a) the translators actively used transliteration, transcription, and adaptive transcoding; they used assonance and alliteration to preserve the gist and euphony of the original work; (b) there were changes in the grammatical number of nouns and uses of diminutive suffices to accurately transmit the original meanings; (c) lexis without available translation equivalents – the original author’s neologisms were translated using calqueing or the change of the lexical semantics; translators reproduced metaphors most of the time; they frequently used lexico-semantic methods of dispersion, addition, and substitution; constructions uncharacteristic for Ukrainian were adapted avoiding grammatical interference; to preserve melodic structure complex sentences were translated using sentences without conjunctions; (d) translators retained communicative functions present in the original work. There were a number of specific features in different translations known as individual stylistic features of translators: P. Rukhlo uses free (non-literal) translation, frequently utilizing a set of translation tools (addition, emphasizing connotation of depicted images, lexico-semantic switches); S. Zhadan often uses deletion in order not to overload the translated texts, dispersion, preserving the balance between the literal and free translation; Fishbein prefers literal translation, creating less euphonic texts, frequently uses calqueing or partial lexico- semantic substitution.