Unreliable narrators and translating the remains of the day

В статье рассматриваются типичные проблемы, которые могут возникнуть при переводе художественных произведений с ненадежным повествователем. На уровне макроструктур текста мы попытались классифицировать возможные несоответствия оригинала и перевода, подкрепив исследование примерами из романа К. Исигуро «Остаток дня» (1986) и перевода этого произведения, выполненного В. Скороденко. Нашей задачей стало показать, насколько сложно переводчику сохранить авторскую модальность при работе с произведениями с ненадежным повествователем.

It is beyond any doubt that every text represents a unique structure. In the process of translating, however, e.g. in the process of creating a text using a new language code, some specific features of the work of fiction are inevitably lost. It can be revealed through the slight shift of the author’s modality or in the change of tone. Certainly these incongruities may be caused by the wrong interpretation of the context or obviously by the translator’s insufficient knowledge of realia and foreign cultural traditions.

But we will try to investigate the problems which appear in the process of translating the works of fiction, containing unreliable narrators.

We call a narrator unreliable, when he or she, being an active participant of the events, interprets them in a way that is at odds or contrary to our own. This kind of narrator distorts facts because of an accidental mistake or on purpose. Thus, the act of story-telling becomes a part of the story. The texts which contain an unreliable narrator are very complicated, that’s why they represent a real challenge for a translator.

To illustrate this idea we will turn to the novel The Remains of the Day written by Kazuo Ishiguro. Kazuo Ishiguro is a well-known contemporary British writer of Japanese origin; he is the author of 6 novels praised both by critics and readership, his novel “The Remains of the Day” (1986) won the Booker’s Prize and was screened by James Ivory. The narrators introduced by Ishiguro are considered to be unreliable, and “The Remains of the Day” has become a classical example of the novel containing this literary phenomenon. The novel was translated into Russian by Vladimir Skorodenko in 1999, and the translation immediately became popular with the Russian readers. It should be stressed that the translation is undoubtedly very professional and good, but its comparison with the original text brings interesting results.

First of all, let us deal with the level of content. In the process of transmitting the chain of events of the story (i.e. the fabula) we have to face the inevitable losses, which sever the original and the translated text.

Thus we are able to distinguish the following 4 classes of inconsistencies:

• i)    “irrelevant” from the first sight information, which is not formally necessary for interpretation, is being left out.

But in the works which contain unreliable narrators we always face the conflict between the narrator’s story and the data from the objective reality, and even subtle hints and details which seem irrelevant are very important for construing the text correctly.

We can take the very beginning of the novel “The Remains of the Day” as an example:

It seems increasingly likely...

In the translated text (done by V.Skorodenko) we find «Все вероятней и вероятней...», and the degree of doubt expressed by the narrator is not completely performed, shift is made to the side of accepting the offer.

the

• 2)    some consequences, conditions or constituents of the propositions are left out, because often these pieces of information given in the original may seem to be excessive, and the synonymic chain is not reflected.

Again we contemplate the example at the beginning of the novel: the word “expedition”, framed by clauses, is repeated on purpose and is being obviously stressed by the author. This repetition is simply ignored in the Russian translation:

An expedition, I should say, which I will undertake alone in the comfort of

Mr Farraday’s Ford; an expedition which, as I foresee it, will take me through much of the finest countryside of England to the West Country...

Поездку, нужно заметить, я предприму один, в удобнейшем «форде» мистера Фаррадея; направлюсь же в западные графства, что, как я ожидаю, позволит по дороге обозреть много красивейших мест сельской Англии.

• 3)    concepts containing the constituent parts of the referent can be also omitted or substituted by the superconcept.

For example, in the “The Remains of the Day” we face the introduction phrases like «I should say», «as I foresee it», «I should point out», etc., which are not reflected in the translated text at all or they do not carry exactly the same meaning, because often they are expressed by the general phrase «я должен сказать».

• 4)    sometimes the combination of explicit and implicit propositions generates the framed proposition of the more general meaning.

The roles of the subject and the object of action in English can be interchangeable, and it can’t be expressed in Russian the same way.

“an expedition which may keep me away” will appear in the form of «меня не будет...».

These inconsistencies mentioned above are applied to the analysis of the translation on the level of the textual content, so here we deal with the general impression of the decoded text. The semantic differences are not taken independently but they form a distinct pattern of the whole text.

In the novel “The Remains of the Day” we have found the inconsistencies of the 4 classes, but those of the 2nd class are the most frequent and remarkable, because the careless attitude to the consequences and conditions given in the original leads to further separation of the text by K. Ishiguro and its Russian translation. This is especially explicit since we face the text with unreliable narrator, whose motives and motivations are harder to trace.

In the process of translating texts with unreliable narrators one must definitely take into account the general interdependence of lexical and grammatical strings. Every text to a certain extent carries the words which are repeated during the narration. They can be separated by other components of the text, but nevertheless they create the important links between the constituent parts of the narration.

Dealing with the works of fiction with unreliable narrators we reveal the high degree of these implicit links between the components of the text, which allow us to interpret the text according to the data of the objective reality and define the narrator as “unreliable”.

Thus we may single out 3 levels of semantic equivalence:

• 1)    one word or even a phrase is often repeated and thus

becomes stressed)

We have already mentioned the example with the word ’’expedition”, which is repeated several times in one passage. This trend is preserved through the whole narration:

People are suffering. Ordinary decent working people are suffering terribly.

Люди страдают. Простой достойный рабочий люд неимоверно страдает.

As the last example shows, in some cases the translator keeps the lexeme, though he uses another word, semantically close.

• 2)    synonyms

We perceive the importance of synonymic chain in the text, although synonyms can stand rather far from one another.

For example, the string of verbs becomes indeed essential for construing the novel: they represent the concept of memory -“to recall, to remember, as it seemed, as I saw it, as it was, it seemed, it happened”. They all may be called contextual synonyms since they reflect the idea of the past events, but simultaneously we find out the hints of doubt, instability, lack of confidence. Even in the verbs, which usually merely reproduce the objective course of events - to recall, to remember, there abruptly appears the feeling of nervousness and reticence.

In the Russian translation the synonymic chain was not taken into account, that’s why «как мне казалось» becomes the synonym of «я вспоминаю».

• 3)    the use of pronouns

It is essential that the personal pronoun “I” is stressed in the text as it quite obviously confronts other personal pronouns.

The point is that the events are transmitted by the narrator, thus this contradiction forms the border between him and other characters of the story.

In the translated text we come across the less frequent use of personal pronouns. Often they are changed into impersonal sentences.

I should say - «нужно заметить», I’ll say - «именно», I suppose - «можно предположить», etc.

While translating the work of fiction with unreliable narrator we cannot skip the indefiniteness which occurs in the course of transmitting information from the narrator to the reader. This atmosphere of uncertainty plays an immense role in the process of interpretation as it reveals the intention of the narrator to get through to the reader and to induce him to some actions.

Summing it up, we can claim, that the translation of the novel “Remains of the day” reflects the general tone of the original and preserves the importance of this instability and indefiniteness:

• -    on the lexical level these concepts are expressed via using the introductory words «вероятно», «вполне возможно», «кажется» etc., and frames like «я не уверен», «правда», which provide the idea of “lack of confidence”, “unreliability”.

• -    on the grammatical and syntactic level we encounter a big amount of clauses, which means that subordinate connection becomes the dominating one. That also allows us to contemplate the idea of “doubt” and “fluctuation” as the leading one. To obtain this effect the syntactic repetitions, frames and detailed descriptions of the narrator’s gestures, actions and emotions are used:

Эту фразу я сопроводил легкой улыбкой, недвусмысленно дав понять что сострил: не хотелось бы, чтобы мистер

Фаррадей подавил взрыв непринужденного смеха из-за моей неуместной почтительности.

We have investigated and tried to classify some possible problems which may be faced while translating the text with unreliable narrator. On the whole we can conclude that one must pay special attention to preserve the semantic coherence of the text and the author’s intentions to avoid inconsistencies and to bring the original and the translated text together.