Топик: Translatioin of Political Literature
Новое британское правительство столкнётся со многими проблемами как неотложного, так и затяжного характера. К неотложным проблемам относится положение в Северной Ирландии, а к проблемам, носящим затяжной характер , - инфляция и рост цен.
While translating this piece we had to decipher the structure filling words and render their meaning by means of conforming nouns.
When comparing the grammatical categories and forms of English and Russian languages we identify the following differences: a) the absence of the categories in one of the comparing languages, b) partial correspondence and c) complete correspondence. The necessity of grammatical transformations arise only on two first cases. When comparing the English with Russian we should mention that Russian does not have the notions like article and gerund and absolute nominative constructions as well. Partial conformity and unconformity in meaning and usage of corresponding forms and constructions also demands grammatical transformations. We can refer to this case the partial unconformity of the category of number, partial unconformity in the forms of passive constructions, partial unconformity of the form of infinitive and gerund and some other differences in expressing the modality of the clause and so on.
First of all we should consider the article for article both definite and indefinite which despite its abstract meaning very frequently demands semantic expression in translation. As we know both these articles originated from pronouns; the definite one originated from index pronoun and the indefinite one from indefinite pronoun, which refers to number one . These primary meanings are sometimes obvious in their modern usage. In this cases their lexical meaning should be rendered in translation otherwise the Russian sentence would be incomplete and ambiguous for denotative meaning of articles is an inseparable part of the whole context meaning of a given sentence. There are cases when classifying function of indefinite articles is so obvious that one should render its meaning by some lexical item.
It is commonly stated that government should resign if defeated in a major issue in the House of Commons which has been made one of confidence. (The Times ).
Обычно утверждают, что правительство должно подать в отставку, если оно потерпит поражение в Палате общин по какому-нибудь серьёзному вопросу, который оппозиция считает вопросом о доверии правительству.
In this case the indefinite article acquires the meaning of the pronoun some. One can easily see its historical relation with the number one in the following example:
Yet, H.G. Wells had not an enemy on earth.
Однако у Герберта не было ни единого врага на свете.
As has been pointed before the most difficult are cases when classifying meanings of indefinite articles demand semantic transfer in translation.
We need a Government which believes in planning ahead for jobs and which will use available labor to build homes for the British people.
Нам нужно такое правительство, которое было бы убеждено в целесообразности планирования занятости и использовало бы наличную рабочую силу в строительстве домов для населения.
The emphatic role of the indefinite article in its classifying function is more expressed in the following sentence.
The Vietnam war had revealed the true nature of a U.S. foreign policy that can be purchased ruthlessly for the benefit of a view in the “military-industrial complex”.
Война во Вьетнаме вскрыла истинную природу той внешней политики США, которая проводится беспощадными методами ради выгоды немногих представителей «военно-промышленного комплекса».
Pretty often the definite article demands translation in cases when it comes before numerals.
The two sides also signed a Treaty in the Limitation of Underground Nuclear Tests.
Обе стороны подписали договор об ограничении подземных испытаний атомного оружия.
The Southern nations remained quiet between 1948 and 1958 as Latin America’s economy grew at an impressive annual rate of 4.3 percent.
С 1948 по 1958 южные страны пребывали в относительном спокойствии, в то время как экономика Латинской Америки развивалась впечатлительным темпом в 4.3 процента в год.
In the following sentence both articles demands translation.
The influence and authority of the UN Secretariat depends to an extent (though not nearly to the extent that is popularly supposed) on the talents of one individual – the Secretary-General. The job is a peculiar one .
Влияние и авторитет секретариата ООН зависят в известной степени (хотя и не в такой степени, как обычно полагают) от качеств одного человека – Генерального секретаря. Это чрезвычайно своеобразная должность.
The lexical meaning of the article is strongly expressed when it acts in like a link connecting parts of the sentences or two separate sentences as given in the example above. From the mentioned above cases we can judge that missing article translation may lead to misinterpretation or incorrect and incomplete translation of a sentence.
The role of verb complexes in English is quite evident therefore we will consider only some peculiar cases of verb transformations during translation.
First of all let us consider the verb construction with the preposition for :
…American military bases on foreign territories which are intended for launching missiles possessed by United States’ armed forces.
… американские военные базы на территориях других государств, которые предназначены для запуска ракет американскими ВВС.
In this case the infinitive construction is translated like adverbial modifier of purpose.