Введение в теорию и практику перевода (на материале английского языка)

Sometimes it is possible to preserve the image underlying a phraseological unit in SL even in the case when there is no corresponding unit in TL. It is achieved through loan translation: "no man can make a good coat with bad cloth" – "из плохого материала хорошего платья не сошьешь", "nothing comes out of the sack but what was in it" – "из мешка не вынешь больше, чем в нем было" (or – "ничего, кроме того, что в нем было"), etc. However, this means may be resorted to only if the image is absolutely transparent for the people speaking TL, that is if the figurative meaning of the phraseological unit is easily and unmistakably deduced from its direct meaning. In this case the translated version is no longer phraseological, but it remains figurative, so it renders the idea of the original phraseological unit and adds to the expressiveness of the whole text. If the image is not transparent and the meaning of the whole (and mainly its figurative meaning) cannot be deduced from the lexical meanings of the components, loan translation is absolutely impossible. "To send somebody to Coventry" (бойкотировать) cannot be translated as "послать в Ковентри", and translating "to find a mare’s nest" ("попасть пальцем в небо") as "найти гнездо кобылы" one really finds a mare’s nest.

2. It often happens that phraseological units of SL and TL express the same idea and are based upon similar though not identical images. They both express the idea figuratively and the imagery underlying them is basically the same. In such cases it is possible to ignore slight differences between the images, and though in the phraseological unit of TL the image is partially changed in comparison with that of SL, it can still be accepted as an adequate translated version: "a fine suit doesn’t make a gentleman" – "не одежда красит человека", "at a glance (at a glimpse)" – "с первого взгляда", "a burnt child dreads the fire" – "обжегшись на молоке, на воду дует". In the last example the difference between the English and the Russian variants seems to be rather serious: there is practically no lexical correspondence between the words. But the image is nearly the same – he who once was burnt is afraid of everything which is hot (hence the same generalized figurative meaning). Some more examples: "a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush" – "лучше синица в руке, чем журавль в небе", "look not a gift horse in the mouth" – "дареному коню в зубы не смотрят", "to lay by for a rainy day" – "отложить про черный день", etc.

3. Since the phraseological stock of every language reflects the history and culture of the people speaking the language, many ideas which are common to all peoples are expressed differently in different languages: in Russian we say "когда рак на горе свистнет", while in English they say "when pigs fly", in Russian – "рыбак рыбака видит издалека", and in English – "birds of a feather flock together". Since the meaning of the first phraseological unit is in no way connected with either crayfish or pigs the lexical way of wording the idea ("something never going to happen") is of secondary importance. The main task here is to find a phraseological unit of TL expressing the same idea and belonging to the same stylistic register (стилистический регистр) as the original phraseological unit. The same is true about the second example. The complete substitution of the image does not in any way change the general meaning of the proverb. "У семи нянек дитя без глазу" is an adequate translation of the English "Too many cooks spoil the broth" because of complete coincidence of sense and stylistic reference.

So in all the cases when phraseological units of SL have no equivalents in TL, and in TL there are no expressions based on the same image, complete substitution of image (i.e. use of phraseological analogues) is recommended.

4. In SL there may exist phraseological units that have neither equivalents nor analogues in TL. The idea expressed in these units has no fixed expression in TL. If the image underlying them is not transparent and loan translation is impossible, such phraseological units are translated descriptively, i.e. by free phases which are neither phraseological nor figurative: "get the right (wrong) end of the stick" – "оказаться в выгодном (невыгодном) положении", "in a whole skin" – "благополучно, без повреждений", etc.

These are the main ways of translating figurative phraseological units.