Publication details
Perjevod izbrannych častjej romana braťjev Strugackich Trudno byť bogom na anglijskij, nemeckij i češskij jazyki
| Title in English | Translation of selected passages of Strugatsky brothers’ Hard To Be A God novel into English, German and Czech |
|---|---|
| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2013 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Novaja rusistika |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | Digitální knihovna FF MU |
| Field | Linguistics |
| Keywords | Arkady Strugatsky; Boris Strugatsky; Hard To Be A God; literary translations; Soviet science-fiction; Strugatsky brothers; translation to Czech; translation to English; translation to German; Wendayne Ackerman |
| Description | The author of the present article occupies himself with translations of Hard To Be A God novel, one of the most famous works of Strugatsky brothers, into English, German and Czech. He briefly describes the novel itself and afterwards depicts specific style and means of expressions that make the translation of this book (as well as other Strugatsky brothers’ books) difficult and troublesome. Next, the profiles of all three translators are being examined – their short biographies are presented and their careers are briefly described. The main part of this article deals with problematical passages; many examples are given, of where the translations are inaccurate and far from original. The author is brought to the conclusion (which is being supported with many elements of the translation itself) that the English translator, Wendayne Ackerman, simply couldn’t translate the book from Russian original, since she was mainly a Germanist and didn’t know Russian. It is therefore more than likely that it was not the Russian original, but the German translation (created a bit earlier) that served as source text for the English translation (which has led to many additional discrepancies and mistakes). Moreover, the author finds all examined translations to be far from perfect (though each of them has a different level of quality), changing the overall impression and making the result much shallower and unimaginative than the original text. |