Rendering of artistic imagery in poetic translation (based on the poetry of R. Burns)

Abstract

The study aims to identify the features of rending artistic imagery in the translation of Robert Burns’s poetic texts from English into Russian. The scientific novelty of the study lies in the fact that the researcher for the first time focuses on translation techniques from the perspective of their image-forming function. Using the comparative method and contextual analysis, the most effective ways of translating tropes, stylistic devices and the specifics of preserving the author’s imagery are revealed. The results showed that when translating R. Burns’s poetry, such translation techniques as trope omission, equivalent translation, replacement of the original trope with another stylistic device and word-for-word translation have the greatest distribution. It is noteworthy that it is not always possible to find the equivalent necessary to recreate the image in the target language. Omission is resorted to in the case of cultural and linguistic inconsistencies. A distinctive feature of the translation of the analyzed poetic text is the presence of cases in which the translation of the poetic form and the image it contains virtually have nothing in common with the original and such translation is interpreted as an independent text created on the basis of the original.