Индейские реалии в произведении Г. У. Лонгфелло «Песнь о Гайавате»

The concept of "reality" in linguistic studies and translation studies .

Of the sections of linguistics, in which the concept of "reality" is well studied, one can name linguistic and regional studies and translation studies.
Linguistic and regional studies are based on the comparison of two cultures. In comparative linguistic and cultural studies, words denoting objects or phenomena related to the history or culture, economy or life of the country of the target language, which differ in whole or in part from the lexical concepts of words of the compared language, should be considered realities.
The realities in linguistic and cultural studies include, firstly, onomastic realities:
1) geographical names (toponyms), especially those with cultural and historical associations;
2) anthroponyms - the names of historical figures, public figures, writers, scientists, artists, popular athletes, characters of fiction and folklore;
3) the names of works of literature and art, historical facts and events in the life of the country, the names of state public institutions and many others.
Secondly, the realities denoted by the appellative vocabulary:
1) geographical terms , designating particularly natural geographical environment, the flora and fauna;
2) some words (including general terms) related to the state structure, social and political life of the country, jurisprudence, military affairs, art, education system, production and industrial relations, everyday life, customs and traditions.
The name of individuals (anthroponyms) occupies one of the most significant places in the background knowledge of native speakers of the language and culture. For example, the American reader is well aware of the names of historical figures (sometimes insignificant, but somewhat remarkable) and the connotations associated with them. Professor G.D. Tomakhin believes that authors of works of fiction often use the names of historical figures to create a historical background of a work, to establish cause-and-effect or temporary connections between them and the events described in the work. Semantic and stylistic shades are inherent in reality, which are superimposed on its main meaning and give solemnity, playfulness, familiarity, etc.
In translation studies, in connection with "realities", the term "exoticism" and "barbarism" is sometimes used. Unlike realities, as a more general concept, exoticisms always appear as phenomena of foreign language origin. Unlike loan words, they do not lose anything or almost nothing of the traits inherent in them as units. In linguistic and cultural studies, concepts related to the number of realities can be expressed not only by separate words, phrases (usually - phraseological unit, proverb, proverb, saying), but also by abbreviations. This fact is fully justified, since they are nominative combinations pulled together in one “word”. Example : HU = Harvard University ; MIT = Massachusetts Institute of Technology; OAP = Old Age Pansion.
When it comes to translating realities, there are two main difficulties:
1) the lack of correspondence (equivalent) in the TL due to the lack of a real-life object (referent) for the speakers of this language
2) the need, along with the objective meaning (semantics) of reality, to convey the color (connotation) - its national historical coloring .
There are several ways to translate realities, which can be represented in the form of a diagram:
1 . Transcription (and transliteration) ;
2. Translation (replacement):
1) neologism:
a) tracing paper ;
b) half-calf ;
c) development ;
d) semantic neologism ;
2) replacement of realities ;
3) approximate translation:
a) generic replacement ;
b) functional analogue ;
c) description, explanation, interpretation ;
4) contextual translation .
The correct choice of translation method allows you to convey not only the meaning of the word, but also fully preserve the national and / or historical flavor.
The work " The song of Hiawatha " is considered the most remarkable work of G. Longfellow. It was created on the basis of the legends of the Indian people and brought the author worldwide fame.
This work has attracted the interest of many critics. But, having studied several critical articles by various authors, such as E. Kornilova, I. Bunin, K. Oseneva, I came to the conclusion that their opinions largely coincide. They note that in his poem, Longfellow resurrects America's past. He turns to Indian epic, Indian legends. Knowledge of Indian life and its realities, obtained by Longfellow from the works of scientists, helps him to recreate the integral characters of primitive people, their way of life and outlook. The numerous uses of Indian words and Indian names help to recreate the national Indian flavor in the poem. E. Kornilova believes that the mood of the poem is melancholic, since already in the introduction to the “Song of Hiawatha” there is a theme of death, a theme of loss. The final chapters of the poem are also marked with sadness. Hiawatha's closest friends and associates perish, his beloved wife dies. From the Unknown East come foreigners, people of a different race, of a different faith, whose appearance marks the end of the usual life and the death of all Indian tribes. Here Longfellow , undoubtedly , expresses his attitude to the uncompleted then ruthless purposeful destruction of the indigenous inhabitants of North America, who were being pushed further and further to the West⁹.
The poem takes place in the Ojibuei country, on the southern shore of the Upper Lake, between the Picturesque Rocks and the Great Sands. The protagonist of the poem Hiawatha, a historical person, one of the Iroquois leaders of the 15th century. He embodies the romantic ideal of man, since from childhood he learned to understand nature, freely communicate with everything living and inanimate in nature, and know its language. This knowledge helps him more than once, helps him in his exploits and great peaceful deeds. But, despite all the hardships and losses, Hiawatha manages to unite several warring tribes into a strong alliance. Thus, Hiawatha was a Teacher who preached peace between the tribes, taught people agriculture, gave them another, peaceful weapon instead of a sword - writing. The poem preaches and sings good, lofty feelings, and Hiawatha himself is an example of kindness and nobility¹⁰.
Thanks to the originality of the plot and the brilliant, strictly consistent form, the poem was a success not only in America, but throughout Europe. Immediately after its publication, it aroused tremendous reader interest and attracted the attention of writers and critics. Here is what the French writer Emile Montegut wrote about Longfellow's genius poem :
“The melody of the verse, rapid and monotonous, is like the voice of nature, which never fatigues us though continua lly repeating the same sound. The feeling for nature that pervades the poem is at once most refined and most familiar. The poet knows how to give, as a modern, voices to all the inanimate objects of nature: he knows the language of the birds, he understands the murmur of the wind amongst the leaves, he interprets the voices of the running streams, and yet , not withstanding this poetic subtlety, he never turns aside to minute description, nor attempts to prolong, by reflection, the emotion excited. His poem, made with exquisite art has thus a double character: it is Homeric from the precision, simplicity, and familiarity of its images, and modern from the vivacity of its impressions and from the lyrical spirit that breathes in every page ”.
In Russia, attempts were made to translate the poem by only two writers D.L. Mikhailovsky and I.A. Bunin. D. L. Mikhailovsky dry and with only a few passes translated its chapters, significantly changing the shape and tone of the original. A more complete translation of it was made by I. A. Bunin. He managed to preserve the simplicity and musicality of speech, comparisons, epithets, characteristic repetitions of words.
As for the translation of Indian words-realities, I. A. Bunin checked their meaning according to the German translation of Freiligrat, which was reviewed by Longfellow himself. The author gives a list of these words-realities at the end of his book, so that the reader can understand and imagine the true picture of the life of the Indians, their spirit and thinking.
Longfellow's poem consists of an introduction and 22 chapters, set out in more than five thousand lines of poetry. The text of the introduction and chapters is divided into stanzas of four to sixteen verses. The border between the stanzas is a red line.
There are two opinions as to how large the poem is written. The author of critical articles that appeared in America and Europe immediately after the publication of Longfellow's work defines it as a trohaic diameter, seeing in it a similarity to the size of the verse in the Finnish epic Kalevala. I. R. Halperin in the book "Stylistics" section "Language of poetry" drives the first verse Hiawatha exemplary chetyrehstopnym chorea (trohaic tetrameter) [10; 259]. We adhere to the second point of view and in our analysis we proceed from the fact that “ The song of Hiawatha ” was written with a four-foot chorea. Each verse contains four two-syllable feet, making up eight syllables together. The verse of the poem is not rhymed .
As the review of works devoted to realities has shown, realities are the names of objects of material culture inherent only to certain nations and peoples, facts of history, state institutions, the names of national and folklore heroes, mythological creatures, etc. ways of translating realities, like:
1 Transcription (and transliteration) .
2 Translation (replacement):
1) neologism:
a) tracing paper ;
b) half-calf ;
c) development ;
d) semantic neologism ;
2) replacement of realities ;
3) approximate translation:
a) generic replacement ;
b) functional analogue ;
c) description, explanation, interpretation ;
4) contextual translation .
In order to preserve the national color of the work, Indian realities, as a rule, are not translated into another language, but transliterated, because they belong to the category of "untranslatable in translation", or are explained using an equivalent immediately following the reality, separated by commas¹¹.
When studying the literature on linguistic and cultural studies, we concluded that onomastic realities include geographical names (toponyms), anthroponyms, names of works of literature and art, historical facts and events in the life of the country, etc., and realities denoted by appellative vocabulary - geographical terms , some words related to art, life, traditions and customs.