Стратегии перевода национально-ориентированных единиц с русского языка на китайский (на примере фильма "Он - дракон")

Let us further turn to the translation of the phrase: “A terrible rite turned into a wedding custom” into Chinese: 曾经残酷的仪式变成了婚礼的习俗, namely, the transfer of the meaning of the word “обряд” (rite) in the target language. For this purpose, the translator applied such type of transformation as a functional analogue and chose the Chinese unit 仪式, which means “ceremony”. From our point of view, this version does not fully reveal the meaning of the original unit. The reason for this is as follows: if we consider the units 仪式 and 习俗 in the context of the entire sentence, specifically in the pair “rite - custom”, which is considered from the position of “minor”, “part” and “greater”, “whole”, where the first is an intermediate link, one of the stages of the second, then stylistic and semantic inconsistencies in the Chinese language become clearly evident, causing dissonance and conflicting associations. Accordingly, to optimize the translation, we propose to use the units 仪式 and 祭龙式 with the same root and logically matching each other. So, the final version will look like this: 曾经可怖的祭龙式也变成了婚礼的仪式, and the viewer will fully understand this episode and the subsequent plot itself.

Let us analyze the translation of the above units into English. Here, the loan-translation “dreadful ritual” and “wedding rite” were chosen, which are completely equivalent to the original variant: “the dreadful ritual was transformed into a wedding rite”.

Here is another example of nationally biased unit translation with the help of a functional analogue. The older sister, complaining of the younger one, tells her: “Каркаешь еще!” (You are croaking!). The word “croak” in Russian, has the connotation “to bode ill”. The Chinese expression 乌鸦嘴 is very close to it in semantics; it is literally translated as “crow's beak” and has the same meaning as the Russian `word` “каркать”. Thus, the translator managed to translate the words of the sister succinctly and correctly as 你还在这乌鸦嘴. As for the translation of this phrase into English, the translator chose the `word` “jinx”, which means “maleficate, curse, and croak disaster”. The translation can be characterized as a successful, suitable, but still rough, since the `word` “каркать» (croak) in the context of the analyzed episode from the movie “He is a Dragon” implies empty chatter and mumbling of the speaker, which can involuntarily bring something negative into the lives of the characters, while in English it means a conscious desire to bring trouble to a person, to whom the curse is addressed, verbally and through mental attitudes. It allows us to make a conclusion that the meaning of the original text is close to the English version, but the translation loses the emotional coloring of the Russian `word` “croak”, its national bias.

The film introduction starts with the following line of a song: “Было небылью, да стало былью» (It was a malarkey, and it became a reality). The Russian  words “быль” and “небыль” are of the same root and are formed from the adjective “былой”, the literal meaning is “what really happened” (Etymological Dictionary by G. A. Krylov). Here the translator again selects the functional analogue of 往事如烟，转瞬即逝. The first part is translated using the idiom 往事如烟, which literally means “the days of old are like smoke”. Rendering of the transiency, brevity and elusiveness of time by comparing it with 烟 smoke, veil is very poetic and comprehendible to the Chinese audience. And another chéngyǔ, the Chinese idiom 转瞬即逝, was selected to render the ending “да стало былью” (and it became a reality) in Chinese, with the meaning “fleeting, quickly passing”. It should be noted that here the translator managed to find albeit concise, appropriate, but for all that, rough equivalents for the language units of the source language. The meaning of these idioms is clear and comprehendible to the Chinese audience; it is organically woven into the linguistic narrative of the song. However, the idioms contain values and ideas exceptional and specific to Chinese culture, which do not fully coincide with the Russian worldview picture.

Consider the English version of the translation, presented as follows: “what was falsity became verity”. The translator applied the method of loan-translation, thereby preserving not only the original meaning of the phrase, but even the external structure through a play on antonyms: true - fiction, verity - falsity.