Let us begin with an analysis of the translations of a short folktale that well illustrates the respective translation strategies and practices under discussion (the text on the left is Ralston’s, that on the right Ransome’s):
VAZUZA AND VOLGA way side by side, and then they join and flow together. And the Vazouza is a little river;
but the Volga is the mother of all Russia, and the greatest river in the world. And the little Vazouza was jealous of the Volga. ‘You are big and noisy’, she says to the Volga, ‘and terribly strong; but as for brains’, says she,
‘why, I have more brains in a single ripple than you in all that lump of water. ‘Of, course the Volga told her not to be so rude
26 Sundmark, pp. 1-2.
27 Tatiana Bogrdanova, ‘Rol’ Andriu Langa v transformatsii folklornoi skazki dlya detei’, Nauchnaia mysl’ Kavkaza, no. 4, Part II (2010), p. 76.
‘Let us lie down this day Vazuza is the first to awake in the Spring, and then she arouses Volga from her wintry sleep.28
and said that little rivers should know their place and not argue with the great. But the Vazouza would not keep quiet, and at last she said to the Volga: ‘Look here, we will lie down and sleep, and we will agree that the one of us who wakes first and comes first to the sea is the wiser of the two’. And the Volga said, ‘Very well, if only you will stop talking’.
So the little Vazouza and the big Volga lay and slept, white and still, all through the winter. And when the spring came, the little Vazouza woke first, brisk and laughing and hurrying, and rushed away as hard as she could go towards the sea. When the Volga woke the little Vazouza was already far ahead. But the Volga did not hurry. She woke slowly and shook the ice from herself, and then came roaring after the Vazouza, a huge foaming flood of angry water. And the little Vazouza listened as she ran, and she heard the Volga coming after her; and when the Volga caught her up—a tremendous foaming river, whirling along trees and blocks of ice—
she was frightened, and she said,—’O Volga, let me be your little sister. I will never argue with you any more. You are wiser than I and stronger than I. Only take me by the hand and bring me with you to the sea’. And the Volga forgave the little Vazouza, and took her by the hand and brought her safely to the sea.
And they have never quarrelled again. But all the same, it is always the little Vazouza that gets up first in the spring, and tugs at the white blankets of ice and snow, and wakes her big sister from her winter sleep.29
2829
28 Ralston, p. 215.
29 Ibid., pp. 322-3.
Russian Folk Tales for English Readers 123 That the story is in fact about a dispute between rivers is explained by Ralston in a short introduction, though the absence of articles before their names in the title and text seems to be deliberate, as this better serves their personification and accords with the original. The effect is further enhanced by the choice of lexical items. For example: mien, defined in Merriam-Webster as ‘air or bearing especially as expressive of attitude or personality’.30 A contrastive textual analysis of the original story31 with Ralston’s translation has shown that it may serve as a substitute for the Russian folktale, its copy or photograph, so close is it to the original: it may therefore be further contrasted with the second English parallel text to continue our analysis.
In the chapter entitled ‘Christening in a Village’32 Ransome’s variant is preceded by a long introduction that describes for the reader village life in pre-revolutionary Russia. As Old Peter and his grandchildren return from the village, they have a discussion about rivers and about which of them is the first to wake up in spring, and so the grandfather tells the story about the Vazouza and the Volga. The beginning of the story contains an explanation that leaves no doubt that these are rivers which nevertheless, according to Ransome’s interpretation, behave like little children and grown-ups. The stereotypical situation of an argument is created with the help of appropriate lexis (marked above in bold). Thus, the story becomes more explicit but also somewhat trivial. In accordance with his adaptive strategy, Ransome transforms the original story, adding details and expanding on the themes that he thinks are important, mostly those that may educate as well as entertain. He never forgets his little reader, changing the linguistic features of the text according to their level of understanding and emotionality. One such characteristic marker of children’s speech is the word little, which is repeated several times throughout this short piece of narrative. Direct speech, used quite extensively, also helps to enliven the narrative, making it more emotional and expressive. Whereas Ralston, following the original as closely as possible, nevertheless fails to render such prominent stylistic characteristic of the original Russian tale as its rhythmical character and almost melodious tone based on numerous repetitions, Ransome employs them to the full. For example, one cannot fail to notice the frequency with which most sentences begin with the
30 Merriam-Webster Online, http://www.merriam-webster.com [accessed 29.8. 2012].
31 ‘Vazuza i Volga’, in Narodnye russkie skazki A.N. Afanas’eva, I (Moscow, 1984), p. 112.
32 Ransome, pp. 316-34.
conjunction and, as well as the parallel use of syntactic constructions. The important feature of Ransome’s interpretation of the original story is that its events are rendered in a dramatic and emotional way, which is achieved by both syntactic and lexical features of the text as discussed above.
It may therefore be concluded that the difference in translation practices of both authors in question may be accounted for primarily by the difference in their translation strategies—which are, in their turn, to be understood within the framework of the cultural and translation traditions of their times.