Peculiarities of translation of literary texts

In General, artistic translation has the same tasks as other types of translation. Thus, literary translation, like any other, consists in the reproduction by means of the translating language of information transmitted in the source language. The specifics of literary translation and the specific problems associated with it are determined, first of all, by the specifics of the literary text itself and its significant differences from other types of texts. According to G. Gachechiladze, a literary translation occupies an intermediate position between a verbatim, but artistically incomplete translation, and an artistically complete, but far from the original translation. Theoretically, it is enough to synthesize these two principles and consider the ideal of an artistically complete translation that accurately reproduces the original text. However, in practice, such a principle is impossible, since different languages use completely different means to express the same idea, and therefore literal accuracy and artistry are in constant contradiction.

As you know, the quality of translation depends largely on the goal set by the translator. There are three goals for translating literary texts. The first is to introduce readers to the work of a writer whose works they cannot read themselves because of their ignorance of the author's language. In other words, the translator must acquaint the reader with the author's works, with his creative manner and individual style. The second goal of literary translation is to introduce readers to the peculiarities of the culture of another people, to convey the uniqueness of this culture. The third is to introduce the reader to the contents of the book.

Having set the first goal, the author of the translation will try to translate the artistic text in such a way as to create for the reader of the translation the same "atmosphere" and the same artistic impression that the reader of the original receives. To do this, the translator will have to "smooth out" certain national and cultural differences, carefully make sure that the translation text is perceived by the reader as naturally as the original text, he should not focus the reader's attention on unfamiliar realities, which the original reader, in turn, does not notice when reading, since they are very familiar to him. In this case, the reader will be able to get a fairly complete idea of the writer's creativity, his individual style of writing, but he will not get a complete idea of the culture that the writer of a literary text represents.

Having set the second task, the translator tries to keep the correspondence to the original text as complete as possible and explain to the reader all the realities encountered when reading the text. The author of the translation tries to convey all the features of the culture that the author presents in the work. In terms of country studies, this kind of translation will be quite informative, but it will make a completely different impression on the reader than the original work on its reader. Moreover, due to a significant departure from the original text, the translator will not be able to convey the individual style of the author and his main idea.

Trying to solve the third problem, the translator does not try to find functional analogues of certain expressive means used by the author of the original, he neglects the national specifics and the main form, completely focusing on the content of the work of art. Probably, in certain cases, such a transfer can be called justified. However, it can hardly be called artistic. Unfortunately, in recent years, non-fiction translation of literary texts is becoming more common, and more often translators use this method when translating fiction.

It should be noted that the translations of a number of translators are often characterized by literalism or, in other words, verbatim. Literalism is usually understood as an error when translating from another language, which consists in the fact that the translator uses the main or most well-known meaning instead of the appropriate for a particular case. In a broad sense, literalism is usually referred to as a translator's error in transmitting semantic or formal components of a word, phrase, or phrase to the detriment of the meaning or certain information transmitted in the original text.

As you know, when evaluating the translation of a literary text, we usually refer to the category of translation quality, the content of which is disclosed, through two main concepts: the adequacy of the translation and the equivalence of the translation. The adequacy of literary translation is understood as a comprehensive understanding of the author's idea, which is expressed in the original work, the transfer of artistic and aesthetic orientation of the text of the translated work, an assessment of possible reactions of the reader, who are representatives of the same culture as the author of the work [2, p.147].

In addition to the most accurate definition of the ideological and thematic orientation of the original, the author of the translation must choose the appropriate means for transmitting the images transmitted in the original work and convey the specific features of the author's language. In addition, when translating poems, it is very important to preserve the rhythmic organization and rhyme system, which, in practice, is not always possible [1, p. 137].

Adequate translation refers to the reproduction of the content and form of the original through another language. Adequacy, which is understood as accuracy and equivalence to the original, is usually achieved by lexical-phraseological, grammatical and stylistic substitutions, which in turn create an equivalent effect. It should be noted that thanks to the substitutions made by the translator, it becomes possible to transmit almost all the elements of the original. It is in this skilful use of substitutions that the translator's skill lies. However, sometimes the author of the translation has to sacrifice certain elements, omit some details, weakening or, on the contrary, strengthening certain statements.

Thus, the concept of "adequate translation" is a combination of three components:

• 1.    Accurate and most complete transmission of content of the original text.

• 2.    Transmitting the form of the original text's language.

• 3.    Correctness of the language used for translation.

All of the above components that are included in the concept of adequate translation are an inseparable unity. They are inseparable, since the slightest violation of one of them will inevitably lead to the violation of the other two.

Speaking about the equivalence of translation, we should refer to the definition of V. V. Sdobnikov, who understands it as the maximum possible linguistic proximity of the original texts and the translation.

According to A. Parshin, two concepts should be distinguished: potentially achievable equivalence, which is defined as the maximum commonality of the content of two multilingual texts, due to the differences between the two languages in which these texts are created, and translation equivalence, which is understood as the real semantic proximity of the texts of the original works and the translation.

A. A. Smirnov, in turn, believes that the main purpose of literary equivalent translation is to convey the meaning of the content, emotional expressiveness and verbal and structural design of the original text. According to A. A. Smirnov, an equivalent translation is one in which the author's intentions and idea are transmitted as much as possible, i.e. the ideological and emotional impact on the reader, all the means of imagery, color and rhythm used by the author are observed; however, this should be considered only as a means of achieving a General artistic effect. As you know, the translation of the text of a work of art, as a rule, always involves certain losses, so, according to many researchers, the most adequate translations may contain only conditional changes compared to the original. Change of this sort is necessary in that case, if the main purpose – creation similar to the original unity of form and content from one language to another, however, we should not forget that the amount of such changes depends on the accuracy of the translation, equivalent translation will be at least such changes.

Thus, it can be concluded that the translation of a literary text makes it necessary for the translator to take into account all the characteristic features of the text of a work of art, not limited to just one task, but to use all available techniques together to achieve the highest quality translation.