Metaphor and Simile in Translation 2012
Techniques to translate metaphor:
Word-for-word (or calque) translation consists in reproducing the same image in the target language. This procedure is employed if the image has comparable frequency and similar associations in the appropriate register. For example:
ray of hope – промінь надії
to wound national pride – ранити національну гордість
post-election drama - після виборча драма
a white crow - біла ворона;
Translation with an equivalent metaphor (or the image substitution) consists in replacing the image in the source language with a standard target language image, e.g.:
What you hear is not genuine. She makes clouds with one hand, rain with the other. (A. Tan) – Тобі не слід вірити її словам. Ліва рука не знає, що коїть права.
To these people he was a queer fish. – Для цих людей він був білою вороною.
The cry brought his heart to his mouth. – Від цього крику у нього ледве серце від страху не вискочило (кров стигла від жаху).
He shot all my arguments. – Він розбив всі мої аргументи.
Sometimes the image substitution helps the translator to play upon the extended metaphor:
She was inclined to think … that her brother was the apple of Mrs. Ashbury’s eyes, and (that she thought) the apple was full of worm-holes. – Вона була схильна думати, що місіс Ешбері…носиться зі своїм сином, як з писаною торбою, і що торба ця гнила.
Substitution of the trope consists in replacing of the TL metaphor with the other trope (for example, simile or epithet):
Books are mirrors. – Книги як дзеркало
My house was an eyesore on this island – Мій будинок був немов більмо на оці на цьому острові.
Word-for-word (calque) translation with explication of the metaphoric base consists in using the same metaphor combined with sense. This transformation is used if there is risk that a simple transfer of metaphor will not be understood by most readers, e.g.:
He was a Machiavellian who would employ all means to attain to power. – Він був підступним (віроломним) Макіавеллі, який використовував всі засоби, щоб досягти влади.
Demetaphorisation or logization of the metaphor consists in converting metaphor to sense, that is explicatory translation, e.g.:
I guess that if we stay right where we are, she’ll come back, and we can turn the clock back. (D. Steel) – Мені здається, що якщо ми залишимося тут, вона вернеться, і все буде як було.
It was raining cats and dogs, and two little puppies fell on my writing-table. - Шел проливной дождь, и две маленькие капли упали на мой рабочий стол.
This procedure is justified only in case of a dead metaphor (white night – безсонна ніч, чорна робота - unskilled work). In other cases, the expressiveness of the metaphor should be compensated in a nearby part of the text.
Techniques to translate simile
Word-for-word (or calque) translation, e.G.:
As white as snow – білий як сніг;
The time flies like a bird - час летить, як птаха.
Translation with an equivalent simile which consists in substitution of the image in the source language with a conventional target language image:
drunk as a lord – п’яний як ніч (чіп, пень і т. і.);
timid as a rabbit – лякливий як заєць;
quick as a monkey – швидкий як блискавка;
to spend money like water – викидати гроші на вітер
ноги як ватні – legs like jelly
Substitution of the trope:
Її очі сяяли, як діаманти - Her eyes were shining brilliantly (epithet).
Elizabeth listened him like an iceberg. – Елізабет слухала його з кам’яним обличчям. (metaphor)
Demetaphorisation or logization of the simile consists in reduction of the simile, if idiomatic, to its sense:
as plain as an apple pie – дужу просто
Tasks1
Compare the English metaphors with their equivalents in the Ukrainian translation. Is the imagery retained in them? Comment on the cases when the system of images is unique to each culture:
She was small and slight in person; pale, sandy-haired, and with eyes habitually cast down: when they looked up they were very large, odd, and attractive; so attractive, that the Reverend Mr. Crisp, fresh from Oxford, and curate to the Vicar of Chiswick, the Reverend Mr. Flowerdew, fell in love with Miss Sharp; being shot dead by a glance of her eyes, which was fired all the way across Chiswick Church. (Thackeray, Vanity Fair)
Ребека була маленька, тендітна, бліда дівчина з рудими косами, що звичайно ходила опустивши очі, та коли підіймала їх, вони здавалися великими, загадковими і чарівливими, такими чарівливими, що містер Хрумлі, якого щойно спекли в Оксфорді і прислали в Чізвік заступником вікарія Флауердью, закохався у міс Шарп; вона вбила його тими очима, стрельнувши ними через усю чізвікську церкву.
With the morbid thirst of the confirmed daily news drinker, he awkwardly folded back the pages of an evening paper, eagerly gulping down the strong, black headlines, to be followed as a chaser by the milder details of the smaller type (O’Henry, The trimmed lamp).
Склавши вдвоє вечірню газету, він з похмурою жадібністю спраглого споживача новин ковтав жирні чорні заголовки, передчуваючи, як запиватиме їх меншим шрифтом тексту.
Harry, imagine a girl, hardly seventeen years of age, with a little, flowerlike face, a small head with plaited coils of dark-brown hair, eyes that were violet wells of passion, lips that were like the petals of a rose. (O. Wilde).
Гаррі, уявіть собі дівчину літ сімнадцяти, обличчя в неї — наче квітонька, голівка грекині, а на голівці тій вінок темно-каштанових кіс. Очі її — немов бузкові плеса пристрасті, а вуста — пелюстки троянди...
Montemar Vista was a few dozen houses of various sizes and shapes hanging by their teeth and eyebrows to a spur of a mountain and looking as if a good sneeze would drop them down among the box lunches on the beach (R.Chandler, Farewell, my lovely) – У Монтемар-Віста, що розташувався на віднозі гори, було кілька десятків будинків – різних розмірами і формою. Вони стриміли то там, то там якось безладно, а поміж ними уздовж берега тулилися маленькі кафе.(пер. Наталія Бойко)
The coupe stopped. The motor died. The headlights died. Silence. (Chandler, Farewell, My Lovely) - Машина зупинилася, мотор змовк, світло погасло. Запала тиша.
Task2
Translate the sentences into Ukrainian, point out metaphors and simile, and explain the choice of the translation method:
She went swiftly down the dark front steps without her coat or bonnet and into the misty night. She rounded the corner, walking in a still wet world, and even her footsteps were as noiseless as a dream.
She was standing again amid death and stillness. All that mattered in the world had gone out of it, life was in ruins and panic howled through her heart like a cold wind.
She sank down, clutching at her nerves as though they were ropes slipping swiftly through her hands.
“Nothing was more soothing than a swift rush along the empty roads, this whizzing anaesthesia of speed.”
The city seemed stretched on a broiler directly above the furnaces of Avernus. There was a kind of tepid gaiety afoot and awheel in the boulevards…
The only completely stationary object in the room was an enormous couch on which two young women were buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon.
On the opposite bank an emerald ribbon of fields and foliage bordered the river; beyond lay the desert, the Red Land of the ancient texts.
The coconut trees came down to the water's edge, not in rows, but spaced out with an ordered formality. They were like a ballet of spinsters, elderly but flippant, standing in affected attitudes with the simpering graces of a bygone age.
The wind screamed over the Gulf and turned the water white, and the mangroves plunged like frightened cattle, and a fine sandy dust arose from the land and hung in a stifling cloud over the sea. The wind drove off the clouds and skimmed the sky clean and drifted the sand of the country like snow.
The slash of sun on the wall above him slowly knifes down, cuts across his chest, becomes a coin on the floor and vanishes.
All the time the big Pacific Ocean suffered a sharp pain down below, and tossed about to prove it. May it be from sympathy I was in the same fix.
Mr Dombey`s cup of satisfaction was so full at this moment, however, that he felt he could afford a drop or two of its contents, even to sprinkle on the dust in the by-path of his little daughter.
Mr. Picwick buried his head in his hands, and ruminated.
When, in an ocean of sweat, they reached the top of the hill, they found Leslie.
Theodore represented a fountain of knowledge on every subject from which I drank greedily.
Jan’s hand between his was an anchor holding him steady in a world they had built together. The narrow hospital bed in which she lay propped against the pillows was an oasis. The tumult of his body grew quiet. In all the mad world, only Jan was real.
The sun would pour through the shutters, tiger-striping the table and floor.
He had hoped that Sally would laugh at this, and she did, and in a sudden mutual gush they cashed into the silver of laughter all the sad secrets they could find in their pockets.
Task3
Writers use metaphors to explain things, to express emotion, and to make their writing more vivid and entertaining. Discovering fresh metaphors in the following sentences and define the semantic field of metaphor (for example, the first sentence uses the metaphor of a beast "crouched" and "fanged in flints" to describe the farm and the fields). Can it be retained in the Ukrainian translation?
The farm was crouched on a bleak hillside, where its fields, fanged in flints, dropped steeply to the village of Howling a mile away.
Time rushes toward us with its hospital tray of infinitely varied narcotics, even while it is preparing us for its inevitably fatal operation.
On the Exchange there were hurricanes and landslides and snow-storms and glaciers and volcanoes, and those elemental disturbances were ул reproduced in miniature in the broker's offices.
The rain came down in long knitting needles.
Love is a fruit, in season at all times and within the reach of every hand. Anyone may gather it and no limit is set. (Mother Teresa, No Greater Love, 1997)
The seabirds glide down to the water--stub-winged cargo planes--land awkwardly, taxi with fluttering wings and stamping paddle feet, then dive.
«It’s not a will-power thing anymore when they get to my temples. It’s a button, pushed, says air raid, turns me on so loud it’s like no sound, everybody yelling at me, hands over their ears from behind a glass wall, faces working around in talk circles but no sounds from the mouths. My sound soaks up all other sound. they start the fog machine again and it’s snowing down cold and white all over me like skim milk, so thick I might even be able to hide in it if they didn’t have a hold on me».
Task4
Zoosemy is a special type of nominal metaphor that draws on the animal world: it consists of using animal nouns for characterizing human beings. For example, a cunning person is called a fox; a silly young woman is a chicken (or a chick, in colloquial speech); a heavy, awkward person is a bear; a stupid one is an ass; a person who spends a lot of time reading is a bookworm; politicians are referred to as doves (the good ones) or hawks (the bad ones), etc.
What human qualities or characteristics are usually attributed to the following animals? Do images coincide in English and Ukrainian cultures? If not, what tactic should a translator apply to render the meaning in TL?
wolf / snake / lizard / turtle / hare / lion / lamb /sheep / monkey / crocodile / worm / ant / bee / beaver/ elephant / cow / mule / donkey / eagle / horse / scorpion /dog / pig / shark / weasel / ostrich / eagle
In the cases of simile that follow state the animalistic components that serve the foundations to the metaphoric comparison and associations created. Translate them into Ukrainian commenting upon the transformations applied to retain connotations.
As the crow flies, to live like fighting cock, as a bull in a china shop, as fussy as hen with one chick, as scarce as hen’s teeth, to eat like a horse, to work like a horse, as cross as a bear with a sore head, as busy as beaver, to fight like Kilkenny cats, mad as a March hare, as timid as drunk as a drowned mouse, as snug as a bug in the rug, as close as a clam, as happy as a clam at high tide;
Apply a proper method to translate the following proverbs and sayings into Ukrainian and maintain the imagery of the metaphoric component. Compare animalistic components in the source and target languages and state what images they create. Take into account the part of the cultural and national background in the creation of the associations of the phrasal units.
Birds: a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush; the bird has flown; the early bird gets/catches the worm; a little bird told me; birds of a feather flock together; chicken come home to roost; each crow thinks its own bird fairest; fine day for ducks; the day the eagle screams/ shifts; all his geese are swans; can’t say “bo” to a goose; the old woman is picking her geese; little pigeons can carry great messages; that’s my pigeon; curses come home like roost; one swallow does not make a summer; till/ until the cows come home;
Animals: curst cows have cut horns; Holy cow!; the cow knows not what her tail is worth until she has lost it; all cats are grey in the night; the cat got one’s tongue; that cat won’t jump; curiosity killed the cat; has the cat got your tongue?; no room to swing a cat; enough to make a cat laugh; every dog has his day; hair of the dog that bit me; enough to make a horse laugh; pigs to you!; you must not sell the skin till you’ve shot the bear; first catch your hare then cook him; don’t look a gift horse in the mouth; rat me if…; there are no flies on him; a pretty kettle of fish!; all’s fish that comes to his net; never offer to teach fish to swim; it is a silly fish that is caught twice with the same bait; you cannot flay the same ox twice