On retaining metaphorical imagery in literary translation

This article deals with the problem of the translation of metaphorical expressions in the literary text focusing on retaining their communicative and pragmatic functionality. In the research, the use of metaphor as a universal cognitive mechanism for the real-world objects nomination and the creation of artistic images is addressed. National linguistic and cultural features of the communicator creating the metaphoric form are taken into account. By means of linguistic analysis of the form and content of the translated text compared to those of the source text, we have identified the cases of complete and partial metaphor translation, as well as we provided the description of the lexical and grammatical transformations. The impossibility of word-for-word metaphor translation of the source text is explained by both the peculiarities of the internal development of the languages and the nature of the nations’ language worldviews. Omitted metaphor translation is considered to be a factor reducing the functional equivalence of the texts.