Olena Rybchynska
Kamianets-Podilskyi Ivan Ohienko National University
Scientific Supervisor: PhD, Senior Lecturer Svider I. A.
The translation of the realia in the first book of the cycle “A Song of Ice and Fire” by George Martin
This article deals with translation of realia. It analyzes the types of realia in the first novel “Game of Thrones” of the cycle “A Song of Ice and Fire” by George Martin and defines the basic methods of their translation. Attention is also paid to the definition of realia and their role in the language.
Key words: translation, realia, concept, colouring.
The main purpose of teaching any foreign language is not only acquisition of knowledge and skills but also acquiring of cultural, traditional and linguistic background.
Any translator considers the translation of realia to be an interesting as well as difficult work, because insufficient awareness of history, culture, traditions, social order, political life can result in inadequate translation which can fail to be perceived by the recipient or may be perceived in a wrong way.
Such a situation can occur because realia are the words which may convey the cultural identity of the native-speaking population. The peculiarities of the culture may be unknown to the definite person from another country so the translator is that very person who is responsible for the “clear” translation.
A lot of Ukrainian, Russian and foreign researchers devoted their work to the study of the realia. This issue has been researched intensively and skillfully enough, but it still remains relevant and, in some way, quite new for the modern scientists, because life of people is developing and changing, creating new realia, notions which need to be studied.
The word “realia” comes from medieval Latin, in which it originally meant “the real things”, i.e. material things, as opposed to abstract ones. In translation studies realia are used to refer to concepts which are found in a given source culture but not in a given target culture [6, p. 126].
The Bulgarian translators Vlahov and Florin, who were the first to carry out an in-depth study of realia, coined the modern sense of the word. They indicate that since realia carry a very local overtone, they often pose a challenge for translation [7].
Translation of the realia demands the translator to be especially careful. Although we mean the notions and objects which may be accurately described and defined, while translating them into the target language there may occur remarkable deviations and variations. It is connected with the fact that by the frequency of use, by the role in the language, by the household meaning, the words naming the realia do not have any term colouring; they do not outstand even in the most everyday content of the source text thus being usual for the source language which is the biggest difficulty for the translator.
Realia are increasingly found in very diverse kinds of texts. Fiction, in particular, is fond of realia for the exotic touch they bring [1, p. 10]. They reveal the author’s plan, reflect both the fictional world created by the writer and the objective reality.
Each scientist interprets the term “fantasy” in different ways, revealing in its definitions its own meaning, forming a certain group of works characteristic of this genre and constructing their own idea of the origins of the genre. According to V. Goncharov, a fantasy is “a description of the universe from the standpoint of objective idealism” [2, p. 216]. In the book “The Nature of Fantasy” by T. Chernyshova, the fantasy is “an adherent model of reality, a fairy tale story with many assumptions” [4, p. 47].
“A Game of Thrones” is the first novel in “A Song of Ice and Fire”, a series of fantasy novels by the American author George R. R. Martin. It was first published on August 1, 1996.
In this work, it was discovered that the most numerous group of realia in the novel “A Game of Thrones” is formed by onomastic realia: The Seven Kingdoms –Сім королівств, Winterfell – Вінтерфелл, Lord of Bones – Кістяний лорд. A large number of realia of this type is due to the desire to create an earlier non-existent fictional world with new heroes and objects of the real world.
The next one are ethnographic and mythological realia: The Dothraki – Дотракійці, Wildfire – Дикий вогонь, The Others – Білі ходоки. And the realia of administration and social life: The Night’s Watch – Нічний дозор, The Iron Throne – Залізний трон.
Less numerous groups create realia of the world and nature: Godswood – Богороща, Dusk Rose – Сутінкова троянда. We should also mention realia that denote weapons and associative realia: Blackfyre – Чорне полум’я, The Wall – Стіна, Beyond the Wall – За Стіною, The winter is coming – Зима близько.
The novel “Game of the Thrones” is of great interest in terms of analyzing the ways and methods of translating the proper names used by the author to characterize the characters and geographic names. The most common ways of translating the realia are transliteration, transcription, calquing, descriptive translation, approximate translation and transformational translation. When translating this novel, the following methods of translation of the realia are used:
- Transliteration. Original: Tyrion Lannister, the youngest of Lord Tywin’s brood and by far the ugliest [5]. Translation: Тіріон Ланністер, наймолодший з нащадків лорда Тайвіна і, безперечно, найпотворніший [3].
- Transcription. Original: Ser Balon Swannalso fell to Gregor, and Lord Renlyto the Hound [5]. Translation: Сeр Белон Свонн теж поступився Грeгору, а лорд Ренлі програв Псові [3].
- Calquing. With the help of calquing, a large number of place names have been translated: Dragonstone (Драконячий Камінь), Shady Glen (Тіниста Долина), Narrow Sea (Вузьке Море), Shady Glen (Тіниста Долина). Original: The midnight flight to Dragonstone, moonlight shimmering on the ship’s black sails. [6]. Translation: Вони бігли вночі, щоб пробратися до Драконячого Каменю, чорні вітрила корабля блищали в місячному світлі [3]
To translate the realia in a correct way it is necessary to take into account the following factors: the type of the text, the meaning of the realia in the text, the type of the realia and its systematic role in the culture of the source language, the degree of perception of the unusual word-collocations and “exotic” expressions in the target language.
So, translation of realia is a very serious and complicated task. Therefore, a translator must devote a lot of time to the study of both the culture into which the text is translated and the source culture. In such a way both linguistic and cultural aspects of the language will be taken into consideration.
References
- Влахов С., Флорин С., Непереводимое в переводе. Москва, Международные отношения, 1980. 341 с.
- 2. Гончаров В. Русская фэнтези – выбор пути. Если. 1998. № С. 216–223.
- 3. Мартин Джордж Р. Р. Игра престолов: Пер. с англ. Ю. Соколов. [Електронний ресурс]. Режим доступа: http://loveread.me/view_global.php?id=8107
- 4. Чернышева Т. А. Природа фантастики. Иркутск: Изд-во Иркутского ун-та, 1984. 331 с.
- 5. George R. R. Martin.A Game of Thrones [Электронный ресурс]. Режим доступа: http://royallib.com/book/Martin_George/A_game_of_thrones.html
- Leppihalme, Ritva 2011: Realia. Yves Gambier & Luc van Doorslaer (eds): Handbook of Translation Studies. John Benjamins: Amsterdam. P. 126–130.
- Vlahov, S. and Florin, S. “Neperovodimoe v perevode. Realii”. Bruno Osimo. “Manuale del Traduttore, Seconda Edizione”. Hoepli, 2004. P. 63