Problems in translation of idioms and proverbs

Family and marriage

Family and marriage among the Kyrgyz are closely related to the patriarchal way of life. The Kyrgyz , together with a small patriarchal family, had a so-called big family when the whole family line from with the family to the youngest members lived in the same area.

Marriage was preceded by courtship. It was a custom in the past when young children were matched, sometimes even unborn yet babies were matched. Like in many other Eastern nations a dowry asked for the bride. And even today, modern Kyrgyz follow this custom.

The born of the baby is marked with mandatory treating - zhentek consisting of a national delicacy boorsok and bread (lepyoshka) with melted butter. A week after the child is placed into the cradle (beshik). This event marked a small celebration - beshik - toy. There is another holiday arranged on the 40th day when the child wears a shirt, sewn out of 40 grafts collected from neighbours and bathed in 40 spoonfuls of water. All these rituals are intended to preserve and protect a child's life.

Russian traditions

People in Russia keep their old customs and traditions and are very proud of them. Customs are changing more often than traditions. Today the most widely spread are the following ones:

Russian people usually give up their seats to the elderly or to other people who need it; When you meet your friend you may kiss him or her or shake hands;

We usually visit our friends not only on holidays and week-ends. We can do it without any warning and it's quite common to bring some tasty things to tea;

Russian people usually go to bed late in the evening especially at weekends. They enjoy drinking tea with their relatives or friends in the kitchen and having long chats;

The Russians are known to be a hospitable and open-hearted people. They like to invite guests to their places, they like to give traditional souvenirs to their foreign friends as Matryoshka dolls, beautiful mugs, plates and spoons from the village of Khokhloma and Palekh boxes, Zhostovo tea-trays, Gzhel dishes, Pavlovo headscarves;

Russian people like having parties and receiving guests. It's common to propose the head of the house's health;

According to an old tradition a very important guest should be welcomed with the symbol of life giving food - bread and salt;

Also when the newly husband and wife come to the groom parents' house, his mother meets molodykh with the bread and salt. All guests watch attentively who takes a bigger piece of the wedding caravay. He or she is supposed to be at the head of the family;

Russian people enjoy reading very much. It's not surprising at all to see reading people in transport, especially on the underground;

The Russians are known as pet lovers. Many families keep different pets at home. They take care of their pets and train them. Cats, dogs, guinea pigs, parrots and fish are the most common pets in Russia;

Until the beginning of the 20th century Russian bath had been the first necessity of home life. People often went to bathhouses. Today it is rather an entertainment or a part of a healthy lifestyle. It's one of the best ways to communicate with friends. The main attributes of Russian baths are birch and oak brooms, steam, sweet tea with herbs, kvass or other drinks. Russian people believe in the healing force of baths, it's very effective for the prevention of cold diseases and a nice way of relaxation;

Many Russians are religious people. When a new baby is born in Russia he or she is usually christened in a church. Christening is an ancient ceremony during which a new baby is dipped 3 times in to the water. After a baby has been christened we usually say: “He or she is a man of God”. It's common to invite relatives and guests after this ceremony and to have a festive dinner;

Russian people celebrate religious holidays such as Easter, Christmas, Christmas-tide, Shrovetide (or Maslenitsa) and others. Easter is one of the most favourite holidays in Russia. It has no the fixed date. It's celebrated on the first Sunday after the first spring new moon. It usually falls on April. Easter is the day of memory of Jesus Christ: his life, death and resurrection. The holiday has some ceremonies: the all-night vigil and the religious procession. On the Easter day we greet each other by the words: “Christ is risen!” And the expected answer is: “He is risen indeed!” The traditional Easter food is kulich and coloured hard-boiled eggs;

The 6th of January is Christmas Eve according to the Orthodox Church. It was said on that day: “It's good to have kutya (ritual boiled rice) on Christmas Eve”. If the kutya was good it was believed that the coming year would be a happy one. The 7th of January is Christmas day by the Julinian calendar. The sun was expected to appear on that day. “On this day the Earth will hear you”, - old people used to say. This holiday is celebrated with all-night services in churches. Nowadays more and more people observe and enjoy the day;

The days from Christmas to the Epiphany are called Christmas tide. Earlier people had carnivals, told fortunes, made snowman, rode troikas, played snowballs, wore fancy costumes and sang carols during this days. At present many people, especially young girls enjoy telling fortunes. The simpliest way is to write down the name of the sweetheart on a sheet of paper, to put it on the plate and to burn it. If the sheet is not burned to ashes, the sweetheart will marry her;

Almost all Russians observe Old New Year which falls on the 13th of January. Until 1918 Russia had used the Julinian calendar which was 13 days behind the European (or Gregorian) one. In 1918 Russia accepted the Gregorian calendar but the tradition to celebrate Old New Year remained. Many Russians stay at home on this day. They invite friends and relatives, have a festive supper, have fun and set off fireworks;

Maslenitsa came to Russia from the pagan Slavs. The most important god in the pagan times was Yarilo, the God of the Sun and Fertility. The Slavs believed that the change of seasons was the struggle between Yarilo and the evil spirits of cold and darkness. According to the ancient beliefs it was necessary to help Yarilo in his fight against winter. And that's why the main element of Shrovetide (or Maslenitsa) was pancake eating. Pancakes symbolized Yarilo, the God of the Sun. The Slavs believed that by eating pancakes they received the vital power, light and warmth of the sun. Today the Russians eat them with honey, red and black caviar, mushrooms, soured cream or jam - to any taste;

We celebrate Shrovetide for seven days. The whole week is filled with fun and games. Every day of the week has its special name and rituals. The last day of Maslenitsa is called the Forgiveness Day. Everybody ask one another for forgiveness in order to redeem themselves from their sins. We bow to one another and say: “God will forgive you”. On the last day of the week we burn the scarecrow of Maslenitsa. It means we say good bye to winter and welcome spring;

Conclusion

Translation is extremely difficult science studying of which needs its own method of research and the use of information of the other sciences lexicology, grammar, stylistics, phonetics, language history, history, philosophy, logics and country-specific studies. Phraseological units also called idioms, a word group with a fixed lexical composition and grammatical structure; its meaning, which is familiar to native speakers of the given language, is generally figurative and cannot be derived from the meanings of the phraseological unit`s component parts. The meanings of phraseological units are the result of the given language`s historical development.

In this qualification paper we have studied the translation theory in general, the strategies of translation and applied the suggested techniques to translate idioms and proverbs in three English, Russian and Kyrgyz languages. There are presented the enormous group of idioms, which possess the specific peculiarities. Among them there are all types of idioms by academic V.V.Vinogradov`s classification: phraseological fusions (сращение, ширешме) phraseological unities (единства, бирдик) phraseological combination (сочетания, тизмек).

This classification is used in these three languages. In our work we conducted a semantic and contrastive analysis of English, Russian and Kyrgyz idioms. If they bring in order phraseological activity according to the English, Russian and Kyrgyz languages.

As it turned out many idioms do not reflect in its content of any historical, social facts, as is most often transmit physiological condition of person appear usually a result of a rethinking of metaphoric phrases that describe the sensation of the body, for examples: in English : Have one's heart in the right place

- be very kind; break someone's heart - upset someone greatly; hand on heart

- promise with sincerity; have the heart

-be able to give someone bad news. In Russian: бередить сердце

-to excite, disturb anyone; открывать свое сердце

-openly talk about their cherished dreams; трогать за сердце

-strong, deeply upset, cause ecstatic feelings. In Kyrgyz: ж?р?г? ачышуу, ж?р?г? каноо, ж?р?г? жаралуу.

Bibliography

1. Albakry, M. (2004). Linguistic and cultural issues in literary translation. Retrieved November 17, 2006 fromhttp://accurapid.com/journal/29liter.htm

2. Bell, R. T. (1998). Psychological/cognitive approaches. In M. Baker (Ed), Routledge encyclopedia of translation studies. London & New York: Routledge.

3. Cohen, A.D. (1984). On taking tests: what the students report. Language testing, 11 (1). 70-81.

4. Culler, J. (1976). Structuralist poetics: structuralism, linguistics, and the study of literature. Cornell: Cornell University Press.

5. Graedler, A.L. (2000). Cultural shock. Retrieved December 6, 2006 fromhttp://www.hf.uio.no/iba/nettkurs/translation/grammar/top7culture.html

6. Harvey, M. (2003). A beginner's course in legal translation: the case of culture-bound terms. Retrieved April 3, 2007 from http://www.tradulex.org/Actes2000/harvey.pdf

7. Hervey, S., & Higgins, I. (1992). Thinking Translation. London & New York: Routledge.

8. Jaaskelainen, R., (2005). Translation studies: what are they? Retrieved November 11, 2006 fromhttp://www.hum.expertise.workshop.

9. Jaaskelainen, R., (1999). Tapping the process: an explorative study of cognitive and effective factors involved in translating. Joensuu: University of Joensuu Publications in Humanities.

10. Krings, H.P. (1986). Translation problems and translation strategies of advanced German learners of French. In J. House, & S. Blum-Kulka (Eds.), Interlingual and intercultural communication (pp. 263-75). Tubingen: Gunter Narr.

11. Kyrgyzdar 1993

12. Leppihalme, R. (1997). Culture bumps: an empirical approach to the translation of allusions. Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.

13. Loescher, W. (1991). Translation performance, translation process and translation strategies. Tuebingen: Guten Narr.

14. Newmark, P. (1988a). A Textbook of Translation. Hertfordshire: Prentice Hall.

15. Newmark, P. (1988b). Approaches to Translation. Hertfordshire: Prentice Hall.

16. Newmark, P. (1991). About Translation: Multilingual Matters. Clevedon, Philadelphia, Adelaide: Multilingual Matters Ltd.

17. Nida, E. A. (1964). Towards a science of translation, with special reference to principles and procedures involved in Bible translating. Leiden: Brill.

18. Richards, et al (1985). Longman dictionary of applied linguistics. UK: Longman.

19. Seguinot, C. (1989). The translation process. Toronto: H.G. Publications.

20. Venuti, L. (1998). Strategies of translation. In M. Baker (Ed.), Encyclopedia of translation studies (pp. 240-244). London and New York: Routledge.

21. Zhongying, F. (1994). An applied theory of translation. Beijing: Foreign Languages Teaching & Research Press.

Размещено на Аllbest.ru