Елена Андреева - Basic literary translation

6 . Translate the extract from Ex. 1.

7 . Translate the extract from Ex. 2.

8 . Translate the following text paying attention to epithets.

Нельзя записать тропического неба и чудес его, нельзя измерить этого необъятного ощущения, которому отдаешься с трепетной покорностью, как чувству любви. Где вы, где вы, Владимир Григорьевич? Плывите скорей сюда и скажите, как назвать этот нежный воздух, который, как теплые волны, омывает, нежит и лелеет вас, этот блеск неба в его фантастическом неописанном уборе, эти цвета, среди которых утопает вечернее солнце? Океан в золоте или золото в океане, багровый пламень, чистый, ясный, прозрачный, вечный, непрерывный пожар без дыма, без малейшей былинки, напоминающей землю. Покой неба и моря – не мертвый и сонный покой: это покой как будто удовлетворенной страсти, в котором небо и море, отдыхая от ее сладостных мучений, любуются взаимно в объятиях друг друга. Солнце уходи как осчастливленный любовник, оставивший долгий, задумчивый след счастья на любимом лице.

На этом пламенно-золотом, необозримом поле лежат целые миры волшебных городов, зданий, башен, чудовищ, зверей – всё из облаков. Вот, смотрите, громада исполинской крепости рушится медленно, без шума; упал один бастион, за ним валится другой; там опустилась, подавляя собственный фундамент, высокая башня, и опять все тихо отливается в форму горы, островов, с лесами, с куполами. Не успело воображение воспринять этот рисунок, а он уже тает и распадается, и на место его тихо воздвигся откуда-то корабль и повис на воздушной почве; из огромной колесницы уже сложился стан исполинской женщины; плеча еще целы, а бока уже отпали, и вышла голова верблюда; на нее напирает и поглощает все собою ряд солдат, несущихся целым строем.

Изумленный глаз смотрит вокруг, не увидит ли руки, которая, играя, строит воздушные видения. Тихо, нежно и лениво ползут эти тонкие и прозрачные узоры в золотой атмосфере, как мечты тянутся в дремлющей душе, слагаясь в пленительные образы и разлагаясь опять, чтоб слиться в фантастической игре…

Simile is a stylistic device, partial assimilation of two different objects/actions or their attributes. Simile is an imaginative comparison ( He shone like a new pin . – S. Maugham). Simile can be expressed in various forms: a) compound word ( dog-like , tasty-looking ); b) construction with conjunction like ( to fit like a glove ) or as ; in some cases it double as can be used ( as bright as a button , as proud as a peacock ); c) simile can be implied in other phrases, i.e. of-phrases ( to have an eye of an eagle ).

Possible means of translation:

full translation;

Darkness poured out, submerging the ways between the trees till they were dim and strange as the bottom of the sea [32].

Тьма хлынула на лес, затопляя проходы между стволами, пока они не стали тусклыми и чужими, как дно морское [18].

substitution of the image;

The pig’s head hung down with gaping neck and seemed to search for something on the ground [32].

Голова металась под зияющим горлом и будто вынюхивала дорогу [18].

conversion (structural transformation);

Now the sea would suck down, making cascades and waterfalls of retreating water, would sink past the rocks and plaster down the seaweed like shining hair <���…> [32]

Упадёт, взметнув брызги, разденет скалы, облепленные мокрыми прядями водорослей <���…> [18]

omission / addition (extension).

Sometimes land loomed where there was no land and flicked out like a bubble as the children watched [32].

А то земля вдруг вставала там, где никакой земли не было, и тут же на глазах у детей исчезала, как мыльный пузырь [18].

At last the way to the top looked like a scramble over a pink rock , with no more plunges through darkness [32].

К вершине теперь вели только голые розовые скалы, и больше не приходилось нырять во тьму [18].

Also: concrete definition, descriptive translation, etc.

Exercises

1 . Find in the given text the words used in metaphorical sense and write out of a dictionary all their meanings. Compose your own sentences using every word in direct and figurative meaning.

While we were talking, as I have said, we noticed a dark line, like a low cloud or fog-bank, on the seaward horizon. The day was a fine one, though cloudy, and a gentle breeze was blowing, but the sea was not rougher, or the breaker on the reef higher, than usual. At first we thought that this looked like a thunder-cloud; and, as we had had a good deal of broken weather of late, accompanied by occasional peals of thunder, we supposed that a storm must be approaching. Gradually, however, this line seemed to draw nearer, without spreading up over the sky, as would certainly have been the case if it had been a storm-cloud. Still nearer it came, and soon we saw that it was moving swiftly towards the island; but there was no sound till it reached the islands out at sea. As it passed these islands, we observed, with no little anxiety, that a cloud of white foam encircled them, and burst in spray into the air: it was accompanied by a loud roar. This led us to conjecture that the approaching object was an enormous wave of the sea; but we had no idea how large it was till it came near to ourselves. When it approached the outer reef, however, we were awe-struck with its unusual magnitude; and we sprang to our feet, and clambered hastily up to the highest point of the precipice, under an indefinable feeling of fear.

I have said before that the reef opposite Spouting Cliff was very near to the shore, while, just in front of the bower, it was at a considerable distance out to sea. Owing to this formation, the wave reached the reef at the latter point before it struck at the foot of Spouting Cliff. The instant it touched the reef we became aware, for the first time, of its awful magnitude. It burst completely over the reef at all points, with a roar that seemed louder to me than thunder; and this roar continued for some seconds, while the wave rolled gradually along towards the cliff on which we stood. As its crest reared before us, we felt that we were in great danger, and turned to flee; but we were too late. With a crash that seemed to shake the solid rocks the gigantic billow fell, and instantly the spouting-holes sent up a gush of water-spouts with such force that they shrieked on issuing from their narrow vents. It seemed to us as if the earth had been blown up with water.

2 . Find in the given text similes and define their forms, their function and appropriateness of their usage in the text.

Towards noon, as the floods of light fell more nearly to the perpendicular, the stark colours of the morning were smoothed in pearl and opalescence; and the heat – as though the impending sun’s height gave it momentum – became a blow that they ducked, running to the shade and lying there, perhaps even sleeping.

Strange things happened at mid-day. The glittering sea rose up, moved apart in planes of blatant impossibility; the coral reef and the few, stunted palms that clung to the more elevated parts would float up into the sky, would quiver, be plucked apart, run like raindrops on a wire or be repeated as in an odd succession of mirrors. Sometimes land loomed where there was no land and flicked out like a bubble as the children watched. Piggy discounted all this learnedly as a “mirage”; and since no boy could reach even the reef over the stretch of water where the snapping sharks waited, they grew accustomed to these mysteries and ignored them, just as they ignored the miraculous, throbbing stars. At mid-day the illusions merged into the sky and there the sun gazed down lake an angry eye. Then, at the end of the afternoon, the mirage submerged and the horizon became level and blue and clipped as the sun declined. That was another time of comparative coolness but menaced by the coming of the dark. When the sun sank, darkness dropped on the island like an extinguisher and soon the shelters were full of restlessness, under the remote stars.

3 . Compare the original and its translation. Define means of translation used by the translator.

4 . Translate the following sentences paying attention to the similes. Explain what means of translation you have used.