81 2Англ ПЕРЕВОДОВЕДЕНИЕ

б 81.2Англ П З О ПЕРЕВОДОВЕДЕНИЕ

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF TRANSLATION

GRAMMATICAL ASPECTS OF TRANSLATION

EXERCISES

TEXTS FOR TRANSLATION

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ФЕДЕРАЛЬНОЕ АГЕНТСТВО ПО ОБРАЗОВАНИЮ

НИЖЕГОРОДСКИЙ ГОСУДАРСТВЕННЫЙ ЛИНГВИСТИЧЕСКИЙ УНИВЕРСИТЕТ им. Н.А. ДОБРОЛЮБОВА

О. В. Петрова

ВВЕДЕНИЕ В ТЕОРИЮ И ПРАКТИКУ ПЕРЕВОДА

(на материале английского языка)

Рекомендовано Учебно-методическим объединением по образованию в области лингвистики

Министерства образования Российской Федерации в качестве учебного пособия для студентов вузов,

обучающихся по специальности «Перевод и переводоведение»

Москва ^ айсФСНч

A C I 3 -а Л -а Д

УДК 811.111*25(075.8) ББК 81.2Англ-7

г г зо

Подписано в печать 23.01.07. Формат 84x108 ,/зз- Уел. печ. л. 5,04. Доп. тираж 3000 ткч Заказ № 7620.'

Петрова, О.В. ПЗО Введение в теорию и практику перевода (на материале

английского языка) / О.В. Петрова. — М.: ACT: Восток — Запад, 2007. — 96 с.

ISBN 978-5-17-038019-0 (ООО «Издательство АСТ»)ISBN 978-5-478-00312-8 (ООО «Восток - Запад»)

Учебное пособие «Введение в теорию и практику перевода» предназначено для студентов переводческих факультетов и переводческих отделений факультетов иностранных языков. Пособие может использоваться как при проведении семинаров по курсам теории и практики перевода, так и при самостоятельной работе студентов.

Цель пособия - дать студентам представление об общих принципах перевода, познакомить их с приемами и способами решения типичных лексических и грамматических проблем при переводе с английского языка на русский, а также сфор-

«nnrt ц гтулентов навыки использования этих приемов.С~°Райгыроа "Т)

? 5 ^ с р Д1Ч II Г 0 УДК 811-11 Г25(075.8)

Ш А ш тЛIlM AnXAH ArJ l

РецензентыЛитвин Ф.А. - д. филол. наук, профессор (Орловский государствен

ный университет)Лаврова А. Н. — д. филол. наук, профессор (Нижегородский государ

ственный технический университет)

Ответственный редактор Ивашкин М .П .- д. филол. наук, профессор

© О.В. Петрова, 2006 © «Восток - Запад», 2006

CONTENS

General principles of translation..........................................4Translation of lexical un its ....................................................8Types of correlation between words in SI and T L ........ .......... 8Context and its role in translation..........................................10Translation of words having no correspondence in TL.......... 12Translation of Phrases............................................................15Lexical transformations................ ................. ....................... 22Grammatical aspects of translation....................................31Grammatical transformations.......... ...................................... 31Translation of specifically English grammatical formsand constructions ...................................................................40Exercises ...............................................................................46Texts for translation ............................................................691. Matching the man and the right job ...................................692. Talking like your parents? You could do worse ................ 713. Investing in paper...............................................................734. In the bank..........................................................................755. Indomitable little m an........................................................776. Congress - what is i t ? ........................................................797. Introduction to the U N .......................................................818. Is the monroe doctrine dead?.............................................839. The great debate............................. ................................... 8510. Why flog a dying white elephant.....................................87Abbreviations .......................................................................93Fiction and dictionaries c ited ..............................................94

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF TRANSLATION

Translation is a process and the result of turning a text from one language into another, which means expressing the same by the signs of a different language. Bearing in mind that every sign has two planes (plane of expression and plane of content) the essence of translation could be described as changing the elements of the plane of expression while the plane of content remains constant.

The language of the original text is called "source language", the language into which the text is translated is called "target language" (the corresponding Russian terms are "исходный язык" and "переводящий язык").

One of the main difficulties of translating lies in the fact that the meaning of the whole text is not exhausted by the sum of meanings of its elements. The meaning of a text is made up by words (characterized by their denotative and connotative meanings and stylistic reference), syntactic meaning of sentences and utterances larger than sentences, suprasegmental elements and lexico-semantic connections between words and phrases.

Every language is characterized by a specific structure of its lexico-grammatical fields and has its own lexical, morphological and syntactic systems. It may result in lack of coincidence between the means of expressing the same content in SL (source language) and TL (target language).

That is why good practical knowledge of the two languages is quite necessary but not sufficient for translating. Besides this knowledge one must possess a number of skills and be guided by a number of principles worked out by the theory of translation. These principles are connected both with linguistic and extralinguistic aspects.

While translating one must keep in view typological characteristics of both the languages and remember that the same idea

General Principles of Translation 5

may be expressed lexically in one of them and grammatically in the other. To illustrate this let us compare the ways of expressing priority in English and in Russian.

The actor, Gilbert Caster, who had been "out" for six months, emerged from his east-coast seaside lodging about noon in the day, after the opening of "Shooting the Rapids", on tour, in which he was playing Dr Dominick in the last act.

(J.Galsworthy)

It is clear from the sentence that the period of Caster’s being "out" was prior to the moment when he "emerged from his ... lodging", this priority is expressed by the Past Perfect form "had been". Now that he was playing Dr Dominick he was no longer "out". In Russian, however, it is impossible to render this idea using grammatical means only. The phrase "он был без работы" does not contain any indications to priority of this state. Hence the necessity of introducing additional lexical units conveying the meaning of the English grammatical form:

Актер Гилберт Кейстер, который перед этим шесть месяцев был без работы,...

Concrete ways and means of overcoming such difficulties depend on the structural peculiarities of SL and TL, therefore when translating one must employ one’s theoretical knowledge of phonetic, morphological, lexical and syntactic systems of the two languages.

Besides purely linguistic difficulties, translation involves a great number of problems caused by numerous extralinguistic factors. The content of any text is based upon extralinguistic reality, the text itself reflects the cultural background of the author and of the whole people speaking the language, it also reflects the history of the people, their habits and traditions, a peculiar national way of thinking, etc. All these things should necessarily be taken into consideration in order to translate the text adequately.

6 О. В. Петрова • Введение в теорию и практику перевода

One must know much more than the lexical meaning of the words to translate the following:

"What will you have?" he asked me. I looked at him doubtfully. Prohibition was in force and to all appearance the ship was bone-diy.

(S.Maugham)

First of all it is necessary to know that the formula "What will you have?" has a conventional meaning of an invitation to choose some liquor. Besides one should know what "Prohibition" is meant here (the eighteenth amendment to the US Constitution) not to translate it as "запрет”. Only in this case there may appear a correct version:

"Что Вы будете пить?", спросил он. Я посмотрел на него с недоверием: сухой закон был в силе, и на корабле, судя по всему, не было ни капли спиртного.

It is also most essential to remember that nations speaking different languages have different experience, and things naturally known to one nation are quite unknown to another. To see it one may try to translate into English the title of the film "Петровка, 38", making it as informative for the Englishmen as it is for us because we know perfectly well what office is situated there.

One of the main demands upon a person translating any text is that he should be well acquainted with its subject matter. It certainly requires some knowledge of physics to decide if the word "power" in a particular context means "сила" or "мощность", which is not the same thing.

If all these principles are taken into consideration there will be no danger of so-called "literal" translation, which means a word-for-word translation. This type of translation with all its seeming accuracy ignores both linguistic and extralinguistic factors discussed above. It leads to preserving the meanings of separate words and at the same time it distorts the meaning of the

General Principle» o f Translation 7

whole text (or sentence), thus often creates an undesirable comic effect. The reader is sure to be surprised at such a sentence:

...в гостиной стояли одиннадцать кресел, диван, три столика, две этажерки, ...и часть большого рояля.

The phrase "part of a large grand piano" does not mean that the grand piano was divided into parts, just as the Russian expression "четверть скрипки", denoting a special little violin for children, does not mean that the violin is broken into four parts. So the phrase should be translated as "небольшой рояль", which differs from "part of a large grand piano" in structure, but conveys the same meaning.

These are the main principles one should follow in the process of translating.

TRANSLATION OF LEXICAL UNITS

TYPES OF CORRELATION BETWEEN WORDS IN SOURCE LANGUAGE AND TARGET LANGUAGE

There are different types of correspondences between the elements of the SL and TL lexical systems.

I. A word of SL and a word of TL may be identical in their meaning. Such words are called equivalents (the corresponding Russian term is эквиваленты). To this group usually belong proper names such as "London - Лондон", "Galsworthy - Голсуорси", etc.; terms such as "a morpheme - морфема", "logarithm - логарифм", etc.; names of the months, days of the week; numerals. Equivalents are usually monosemantic words and they are easily translated.

II. The meanings of a SL word and a TL word may coincide partially (частичные, или вариантные соответствия). There are three variants within this type.

1. A word in one of the languages may have more meanings than the corresponding word of the other language, so that the meaning of the latter is as it were included in the meaning of the former, e.g. the English noun "finish" and the Russian noun "финиш" both denote "the conclusion, end", which completely exhausts the meaning of the Russian word. The English word "finish", however, also denotes "that which finishes, completes or perfects", which corresponds to the Russian words "окончание", "отделка", "аппретура". Thus the meaning of the word "finish" includes the meaning of the word "финиш”, but is not exhausted by it. This is the first variant of semantic relations characterized by partial coincidence of meanings.

2. The second variant of semantic relations between partially corresponding words may be described as intersection. It means

Translation of Lexical Units 9

that both the words have some meaning (or even meanings) in common, but at the same time each word has some other meanings which do not coincide. E.g.: the English word "cup" and the Russian "чашка" both mean "a drinking-vessel", besides which the word "cup" means "an ornamental vessel offered as a prize for an athletic contest" (in Russian - "кубок"), while the Russian "чашка" denotes also "круглая и плоская тарелка, подвешенная к коромыслу весов", which corresponds to the English word "pan". Thus the meanings of these two words ("cup" and "чашка") intersect in one point only - i.e. they both denote a drinking-vessel.

3. The third variant of relations within this type is somewhat more complicated. The fact is that different peoples reflect reality in different ways, and these differences find their manifestation in the languages which the peoples speak. It is well known that for the English it seems quite necessaiy to differentiate between a hand and an arm, while in Russian we usually do not feel it so very important and use the word "рука" to denote both the notions indiscriminately (cf. also "watch" and "clock" - "часы", "mirror" and "looking glass" - "зеркало", etc.). On the other hand we usually differentiate between "вишня" and "черешня", while for the English there exists one notion ("cherry"), as well as both "клубника" and "земляника" are indiscriminately called "strawberry"; we think that "почка" and "бутон" are quite different things and Englishmen always call it "a bud", no matter whether it is going to form a leaf or a blossom.

It does not mean, of course, that we cannot express the difference between a hand and an arm in Russian or that Englishmen do not see any difference between a leaf bud and a blossom bud. They do, but traditionally some aspects of reality are reflected as differentiated notions in the mind of one people and as undifferentiated notion in the mind of another people. Theoretically speaking every language can express everything, but it differs from other languages in what it should express.

This group of words demands special attention because it often causes trouble in the process of translation (for instance, tiy

10 О.В. Петрова * Введение в теорию и практику перевода

to translate the following sentence into Russian; "They both married their cousins")..

In all the cases when the meanings of words coincide partially there arises a problem of choosing the right variant of translation. This choice should be based on two factors: on the knowledge of possible semantic relations between the words of SL and TL and on the information derived from the context.

III. Finally in one of the languages there may exist words which have no correspondences in the other language at all (безэквивалентная лексика). They are usually proper names which are not used or even known in other countries (personal names such as Aubrey, Hope, Игорь, Галина, etc.; place-names such as Hindley, Catmose, Молитовка, Урень, etc.), and names of specifically national notions and phenomena (such as lobby, muffin, drugstore, самовар, щи, агитбригада, стройотрядовец, etc.).

CONTEXT AND ITS ROLE IN TRANSLATION

The meaning of equivalents practically does not depend on the context, so to translate them one should merely look them up in a dictionary. The demand to consult dictionaries is essential. No guesswork is allowed in translation: a word should be either known or looked up; otherwise there is always a risk of translation the word "data" as "дата" or "billet" as "билет" or writing some other nonsense of the kind.

It is much more difficult to translate those words of SL which are characterized by partial correspondence to the words of TL. Such words are mostly polysemantic. That is why in order to translate them correctly it is necessary first of all to state which particular meaning of such a word is realized in the utterance. The most reliable indicator in this case is the context in which the word is used.

Translation o f Lexical Units 11

They usually differentiate between linguistic context and extralinguistic context (or context of situation). Linguistic context in its turn is subdivided into narrow (context of a phrase or a sentence) and wide (utterance-length context or sometimes context of the whole text). Very often the meaning of a word is revealed in the minimum context, i.e. in a phrase ("green" - зеленый, юный, незрелый, etc., but there is no problem in translating the phrase "green trees" - "зеленые деревья" or "green years" - "юные годы"). However, there are such cases when we need at least a sentence to see what the word means, e.g. "I’ll be sitting in the 3rd carriage from the front of the train" - "Я буду в третьем вагоне от начала поезда". The whole sentence is necessary here to understand the meaning of the word "carriage" and to choose the variant "вагон" but not "экипаж, повозка".

Sometimes linguistic context is closely connected with extralinguistic factors. It may be illustrated by the following sentence:

... he came to be convicted of peijury ... in Wakawak, Cochin China..., the intent of which perjury being to rob a poor native widow and her helpless family of a meager plantain-patch, their only stay and support in their bereavement and desolation.

(Mark Twain)

The word "plantain" denotes either "банан" or "подорожник". In the sentence there is no direct indication of the type of plant. However, we know that the events took place in Cochin China, where the climate is quite suitable for bananas, not for "подорожник". Moreover, it is said in the sentence that the plantain-patch was the "stay and support" which gave the family either food or profit. All this settles the problem of choice: in this case "plantain" means "банан".

The context o f the situation becomes especially important if the linguistic context is not sufficient for revealing the meaning of the word. When one of G.B.Shaw’s characters warns his in


terlocutor not to drive him too far, it is necessary to know that they are both sitting in the parlor and not in any vehicle, so the verb "to drive", is used in the meaning "привести в какое-то состояние, довести до..." It may so happen that linguistic context does not give any clue to the meaning of the word. Especially often it is the case with neologisms that do not correspond to any words in TL. To understand the word "Reagangate", which appeared in American newspapers in 1983, one must remember the notorious political scandal called "Watergate" in 1972-1974 and know some facts characterizing political methods or President Reagan. Only in this extralinguistic context can we understand the meaning of the word "Reagangate" - "a new political scandal revealing dishonest methods used by Reagan during the election campaign and resembling the methods once used by Nixon".

So translation of any word begins with contextual analysis of its meaning after which it becomes possible to choose correctly the corresponding word of TL. All types of context can help to identify the meaning of words in SL characterized by partial correspondence to the words of TL, as well as the meaning of words that do not correspond to any words of TL. Translation of the latter group causes many difficulties and requires special means.

TRANSLATION OF WORDS HAVING NO CORRESPONDENCE IN TL

There are several ways of translating such words. The simplest way is to transcribe them (lobby - лобби, lump - ламп, спутник—sputnik, комсомол — Komsomol, etc.). This method is widely used for rendering personal names, placenames, titles of periodicals, names of firms and companies.

Sometimes transliteration is used for the same purpose, but transcription is preferable because it renders the original


sound-form of the word, while transliteration is based upon its graphical presentation (cf. two ways of rendering the name of Shakespeare in Russian: its transcription is Шекспир while its transliteration is Схакеспеаре). It is evident that for the purposes of oral communication it is necessary to know the sound-form of the names, so with the growth of contacts between the countries transliteration is being gradually ousted by transcription. Those names which have already been rendered by means of transliteration are now traditionally used in this form (King George - король Георг, not король Джордж) and there is no need to change them. Such names should not be translated anew, they have their translated equivalents. However, in translating those names which have no equivalents, it is preferable to use transcription. Being a very good way of rendering proper names, transcription is not very convenient for translating notional words. Substitution of the Russian sounds for the English ones does not make the English word understandable for the Russian readers. The words "драгстор" or "ламп" are hardly more informative for them than the original "drugstore" or "lump". That is why transcription is often combined with footnotes or explanations introduced into the text by the translator. As soon as the new word is thus explained it can be freely used in the text in its transcribed form. A good example of such introduction of a foreign word is found in one of G.Simenon’s books:

...они отправились на авеню Фридланд к юрисконсульту посольства - к "солиситору", как его называют американцы. ...Солиситор позвонил по телефону следователю... А затем они возвратились в "Маже- стик", и там Кларк в компании с солиситором, выпили г, баре по две рюмки виски...

(translated by Н.Немчинова)

The word "solicitor" here is transcribed and its meaning is explained ("юрисконсульт"), after which the transcription is used without further explanation.

14 О. В. Петрова * Введение в теорию и практику перевода

The same method is used when translating the names of companies or titles of periodicals. E.g. "'Daily Express' reports...” should be translated as "Английская консервативная газета 'Дейли Экспресс' сообщает..." because the title "Daily Express" is well known to the Englishmen and "Дейли Экспресс" is not known (and not informative in itself) for the Russian readers.

It is necessary to remember that explanations and footnotes contain additional information which is not expressed directly in the original text and is introduced by the translator. So it demands great knowledge on the part of the translator. In case of composite words loan-translations (кальки) can be coined in the TL, e.g. the English noun "moonquake" is quite adequately translated as "лунотрясение", "as well as the Russian "луноход" is rendered in English as "moon crawler".

The next method of translating words having no correspondence in TL is based on approximate rendering of the notion (приближенный перевод). It can be described as "translation on the analogy". If a word in SL expresses some notion that has no name in TL it is necessary to look for some analogous, similar (though not identical) notion in TL. E.g. : if we are not translating a cookery book but a story or a novel it is quite possible to translate the Russian "кисель" as "jelly", though actually they are different things (they use starch for "кисель" and gelatin for jelly). Another example - in our country we do not use wardrobe trunks and it is next to impossible to find a Russian way of expressing this notion, but usually (unless it is very important for the context) it can be quite satisfactorily translated as чемодан (or, if necessary, большой чемодан).

The last way out of the difficulty caused by lack of correspondence between words of SL and TL is the so-called descriptive translation (описательный перевод). In this case the meaning of one word in SL is rendered by a group of words in TL ("spacewalk" - "выход в открытый космос", "spacesick" — "не переносящий условий космического полета"; "самодея


т е л ь н о с т ь " "amateur talent activities", "районирование" - "division into districts", etc.).

So there are five principal ways Of translating words that have no direct lexical correspondences in TL. They are 1) transcription, 2) footnotes and explanations, 3) loan translation, 4) analogical translation, and 5) descriptive translation. They all have certain drawbacks and their use is limited both by linguistic and extralirtguistic factors (explanations make the text too long and sometimes clumsy, loan translation is applicable only to composite words, analogues are not always accurate enough, etc.). However, proper combination of these means makes it possible to translate any text rendering all the necessary information. When choosing the means of translating it is also important to keep in view stylistic characteristics of the text itself and of different words in both the languages. Special attention should be paid to peculiarities of word combinability in TL, which may differ greatly from that of SL.

TRANSLATION OF PHRASES

Usually translation of free phrases does not cause any specific difficulties. The main thing to be remembered here is the interplay of the meanings of components, because every component should be translated in such a way as to form the whole meaning of the phrase. In the English language, however, there are some types of phrases, which deserve special attention due to peculiarities of their semantic structure. Fist of all it refers to phrases with preposed attributes. All these phrases are built according to the pattern ATTRIBUTE + (ATTRIBUTE + ...) + SUBSTANTIVE but their semantic structure may vary considerably. Preposed attributes may denote properties and qualities of the substantive itself or of other attributes (cf. "south-coast convalescent camp" — where both "south-coast" and "convalescent" characterize "camp" - and


"free educational institution" where "free” is not connected semantically with "institution"); besides properties and qualities, they may denote some notion with which the substantive is connected, they may express local, temporal and other characteristics. That is why it is often impossible or at least undesirable to translate such phrases using similar Russian constructions, since in Russian semantic relations between a preposed attribute and a substantive are rather uniform: if a "happy man" is certainly "счастливый человек", "a medical man" can hardly be translated as "медицинский человек". There may be several attributes in a phrase and they are not necessarily expressed by adjectives. Very often the function of a preposed attribute is fulfilled by a noun (the "stone wall" type of phrases) which, in its turn, may also have an attribute (e.g. "the front door key"). Sometimes it is not easy to see which of the nouns is characterized by a particular attribute (does "retail philanthropy business" mean "business of retail philanthropy" or "retail business of philanthropy"?). Such ambiguity is practically impossible in Russian attributive phrases.

Another peculiarity of English phrases with preposed attributes is that an attribute may modify a noun which is as it were omitted and only implied (e.g. "diy pruning" does not mean that the process of pruning is dry, the word "dry" denotes the state of branches that are being pruned).

These semantic and structural peculiarities should be taken into consideration when translating attributive phrases with preposed attributes. First of all it is necessary to translate the final noun, which is always the main word in such a phrase. Then one should single out sense groups within the phrase and analyze relations between them. If all these groups modify the final noun they may be translated in the same succession as they are in English, or in a different succession, according to the norms of the Russian language. If they modify each other in consecutive order the reverse way of translation is often recommended:


u -------4 2 3"Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty" -

"Договор об ограничении стратегических вооружений" 1 2 3

There are several ways of translating such attributive phrases.

1. A preposed attribute may be translated with the help of a corresponding Russian preposed attribute: "a fine day" - "чудесный день", "matrimonial ad" - "брачное объявление".

2. A postpositional attribute may be used in Russian: "always-at-ease-girls" - "девушки, всегда чувствующие себя непринужденно". Often these postpositional attributes are expressed by nouns in the genitive case: "opposition leader" "лидер оппозиции".

3. A preposed attribute of an English phrase may be expressed in Russian by a postpositional attribute joined to the modified noun by a preposition (usually N + prep + N): "highway robbery" - "грабеж на большой дороге", "youth unemployment" "безработица среди молодежи".

4. A preposed attribute may be rendered in translation by an apposition: "her millionaire friend" - "ее друг-миллионер".

5. Sometimes one of the components of an English phrase (usually the preposed attribute itself) is best translated descriptively, i.e. by a group of words: "a bargain counter" "прилавок (отдел) товаров по сниженным ценам".

6. When translating English attributive phrases with preposed attributes it is often advisable or even necessary to rearrange components of the phrase and transfer the attribute to another noun (present in or omitted from the phrase): "free educational institutions" - "бесплатные учебные заведения", though in English the word "free" is connected with "educational" and not with "institutions"; "Parliamentary Labour Party" - "парламентская фракция лейбористской партж!ЬфУм4йм4 ламентская" here is an attribute to the not

атындагы ПМУ-дЦ Академик С.БвАсем

• Шъандагы

К>ТАПХАНАСЫ1


duced into the phrase according to the norms of the Russian language); "the nine Common Market foreign ministers" - "девять министров иностранных дел стран Общего рынка", where two nouns are introduced ("дел" and "стран") to show real semantic connections.

For the purposes of translation an attribute may be transferred to another noun used in the same sentence outside the phrase. E.g. "dismal array of titles" in Mark Twain’s "Running for Governor" should rather be translated as "набор ужасных прозвищ", though in English the adjective "dismal" modifies the noun "array", and not "titles".

7. Very often English attributive phrases are translated with the help of Russian adverbial phrases, especially in case of English

"to give a loud whistle" - "громко свистнуть", "to have a good dinner" — "хорошо (вкусно, как следует и т.д.) пообедать", etc.

8. Finally there are cases when due to different reasons it is impossible to preserve the structure of a sentence including an attributive phrase with a preposed attribute, so the structure of the sentence is changed completely: "a girl with whom he had previously had a slight party-going acquaintance" - "девушка, с которой он раньше лишь иногда встречался на вечеринках".

The choice of a particular way to translate preposed attributes is predetermined mainly by semantic relations between the components of a phrase, grammatical norm, and combinability of words in TL.

There is a specific type of preposed attributes in English - attributes with inner predication. Their translation mainly depends on their stylistic properties. If such an attribute is rather extended and used for the purpose of irony, it is usually translated by means of a


subordinate clause (mostly an object clause): "one of those quick Send-me-two-hundred-by-messengerold-man-or-my-head-goes- in-the-gas-oven touches" (P.G.Wodehouse) - "одна из тех наскоро написанных записок, в которых обычно пишут: "Пришли мне, старина..." If it is not very long and no special ironical effect is intended it is better to find some laconic variant of translation using a preposed or postpositional attribute or sometimes even a noun without any attribute (if the meaning of this noun includes the characteristics which in English are expressed by the attributive phrase): "a 'God, you are wonderful' type of woman" - "восторженная женщина", "a grab-it-and-run ... counter" - "место, где можно наскоро перекусить" or "забегаловка".

* * *

Speaking about set phrases it is first of all necessary to differentiate between figurative and non-figurative set phrases. Non-figurative set phrases are translated according to the principles that have already been discussed in connection with words and free phrases. The main guiding principle here is to remember the norms of TL.

Figurative set phrases deserve special discussion. The main peculiarity of these phraseological units is their specific meaning that often cannot be deduced from the meanings of their components. It is the meaning of the whole, not of separate words, that should be rendered in translation. Based on imagery, phraseological units serve to make the text more expressive; they are also often responsible for stylistic coloring of the text. Since the text in TL must be as expressive as it is in SL and characterized by the same stylistic coloring, it becomes very important to find an adequate variant of translating every phraseological unit.

There are four main ways to translate an image-bearing phraseological unit: 1) the image may be preserved as it is; 2) it may be partially changed; 3) it may be replaced by an utterly different image, and 4) a translated version may contain no image at all.


1. They usually preserve the image (and even the structure) of the so-called international phraseological units. Such units are mostly based on some historical, mythological, biblical, etc. references: "In the seventh heaven" — "на седьмом небе", "to go through the fire and water" - "пройти (сквозь) огонь и воду", "а blue stocking" - "синий чулок", "not to see the wood for the trees" - "за деревьями леса не видеть", etc. Such phraseological units of SL and TL are called equivalents. In case of equivalents, there arise no difficulties of stylistic or any other character.

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 jn 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 Englishmen 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 meaning 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: "a skeleton in the cupboard" - "семейная тайна" (an attempt to translate it as "скелет в шкафу" leads to utter misrepresentation of sense), "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.

When translating phraseological units it is necessary to remember that some of them have a definite national character, which makes their translation rather difficult On the one hand, it is not always easy to preserve the national "flavour" in translation, on the other — there is always a danger of introducing national elements of TL. Semantically "to cany coals to Newcastle" and "ездить в Тулу со своим самоваром" are analogues, nevertheless one can hardly insert Тула in a text translated from English. In such cases it is advisable to find (or coin, if necessary) a neutral expression with the same figurative meaning: "носить уголь в шахту (воду в реку, дрова в лес и т.д.)". There should be по "коломенская верста" or "Тришкин кафтан" or "щи лаптем хлебать" in a Russian translation of any foreign text.

LEXICAL TRANSFORMATIONS

They say that translation starts where dictionaries end. Though somewhat exaggerated, this saying truly reflects the nature of translation. Dictionaries list all regular correspondences


between elements of lexical systems of languages. Translation deals not so much with the system of language but with speech (or to be more exact - with a text, which is a product of speech). So in the process of translating one has to find it by himself which of the meanings of a polysemantic word is realized in a particular context, to see if under the influence of this context the word has acquired a slightly new shade of meaning and to decide how this new shade of meaning (not listed in any dictionary) can be rendered in TL. E.g. no dictionary ever translates the verb "to be" as "лежать", nevertheless it is the best way to translate it in the sentence "She was in hospital" - "Она лежала, в больнице". Moreover, it has already been said that every language has its specific way of expressing things, a way that may be quite alien to other languages. That is why a literal (word-for-word) translation of a foreign text may turn out clumsy (if not ridiculous) in TL. To avoid it one has to resort to some special devices worked out by the theory of translation and known as lexical transformations (or contextual substitutions) (лексические трансформации, или контекстуальные замены). There are several types of such transformations.

1. The first type of lexical transformations is used in translating words with wide and non-differentiated meaning. The essence of this transformation lies in translating such words of SL by words with specified concrete meaning in TL (трансформация дифференциации и конкретизации). When translating from English into Russian they use it especially often in the sphere of verbs. If English verbs mostly denote actions in rather a vague general way, Russian verbs are very concrete in denoting not only the action itself but also the manner of performing this action as well: "to go (on foot, by train, by plane, etc.)" - "идти пешком", "ехать поездом", "лететь самолетом", etc.; "to get out" - "выбираться","выходить", "вылезать", "высаживаться", etc. The choice of a particular Russian verb depends on the context. It does not mean, of course, that the verb "to go" changes


its meaning under the influence of the context. The meaning of "to go" is the same, it always approximately corresponds to the Russian "перемещаться", but the norms of the Russian language demand a more specified nomination of the action. The same can be illustrated with the verb "to be": "The clock is on the wall", "The apple is on the plate and the plate is on the table" — "Часы висят на стене", "яблоко лежит на тарелке, а тарелка стоит на столе", though in all those cases "to be" preserves its general meaning "находиться". The sentence "He’s in Hollywood" in J.D. Salinger’s "The Catcher in the Rye" should be translated as "Он работает в Голливуде", but if "Oxford" were substituted for "Hollywood" the translation would rather be "учится". This transformation is applicable not only to verbs but to all words of wide semantic volume, no matter to what part of speech they belong: adverbs, adjectives, nouns, etc. E.g. due to their most vague meaning such nouns as "a thing", "stuff', "a camp" are used to denote practically anything, often remaining neutral stylistically. In Russian, however, nouns with so general a meaning are less universal, besides, they sometimes belong to the colloquial register which often makes it impossible to use them in translation (cf. "a thing" - "вещь", "штука", "штуковина"). That is why in every case there should be found a word with a more concrete meaning denoting that particular "thing" or "stuff" which is meant by the author: "...this madman stuff that happened to me" - "идиотская история, которая со мной случилась"; "...all the dispensary stuff' - "все медицинские препараты" or "лекарства": "toilet things" - "туалетные принадлежности". "you have never done a single thing in all your life to be ashamed of' - "за всю свою жизнь ты не совершил ни одного постыдного поступка".

It is necessary to take into consideration not only denotative but connotative meanings as well. The verb "to employ" is usually translated as "нанимать, принимать на работу". But if Mark Twain’s character is "accused of employing toothless and incompetent old relatives to prepare food for the foundling hos


pital", of which he is warden, the verb acquires a shade of negative meaning (he is said to have used his position in order to pay money to his relatives for the work which they could not do properly); so it should be translated by a less "general" verb - e.g. "пристроить".

The English pronoun "you" deserves special attention. It can be translated only with the help of differentiation, i.e. either "ты" or "вы". The choice depends on the character, age, the social position of the characters, their relations, and the situation in which they speak. One should remember that the wrong choice can ruin the whole atmosphere of the text.

2. The second type of transformation is quite opposite in its character and is usually called "generalization" (трансформация генерализации). In many cases the norms of TL make it unnecessary or even undesirable to translate all the particulars expressed in SL. Englishmen usually name the exact height of a person: "He is six foot three tall". In Russian it would hardly seem natural to introduce a character saying "Он шести футов и трех дюймов росту"; substituting centimetres for feet and inches wouldn’t make it much better: "Он 190,5 сантиметров росту". The best variant is to say: "Он очень большого роста".

Generalization is also used in those cases when a SL a word with differentiated meaning corresponds to a word with non-differentiated meaning in TL ("a hand" - "рука", "an arm" - "рука", etc.).

The necessity to use generalization may be caused by purely pragmatic reasons. In the original text there may be many proper names informative for the native speakers of SL and absolutely uninformative for the readers in TL. They may be names of some firms, of the goods produced by those firms, of shops (often according to the name of the owner), etc.: Englishmen know that "Tonibell" is the name of various kinds of ice-cream produced by the firm Tonibell, while "Trebor" means sweets produced by Trebor Sharps LTD and "Tree Top" denotes fruit drinks produced

26 О. В. Петрова « Введение в теорию и практику перевода

by Unilever. Transcribed in the Russian text these names are absolutely senseless for the reader who would not see any difference between "Тонибелл", "Требор", "Три Ton" or even "Тоутап", which is not eatable since it is petrol. An English reader in his turn can hardly guess what they sell in "Динамо" shops (even if it is spelt "Dynamo") or in "Весна" (no matter whether it is rendered as "Vesna" or "Spring"). Hardly are more informative such names as "Снежинка" (a cafe or a laundry), "Байкал" (a drink), "Первоклассница" (sweets), "Осень" (a cake), etc. That is why it is recommended to substitute names (unless they are internationally known or play a special role in the context) by generic words denoting the whole class of similar objects: "Он сдает свои рубашки в 'Снежинку1" - "Не has his shirts washed at the laundry", "Они ели 'Осень', запивая ее 'Байкалом'" - "They were eating a cake washing it down with a tonic"; "...Domes of glass and aluminium which glittered like Chanel diamonds" - "купола из стекла и алюминия, которые сверкали, как искусственные бриллианты". То translate "Chanel diamonds" as "бриллианты фирмы 'Шанель'". would be a mistake since the majority of Russian readers do not know that this firm makes artificial diamonds. If the text permits a longer sentence it is possible to add this information ("искусственные бриллианты фирмы 'Шанель'"), which may be useful for the reader’s scope but absolutely unnecessary for the text itself. However, the generalized translation "искусственные бриллианты" is quite necessary here.

3. The third type of transformation is based upon logical connection between two phenomena (usually it is a cause-and-effect type of connection), one of which is named in the original text and the other used as its translated version. This transformation presupposes semantic and logical analysis of the situation described in the text and consists in semantic development of this situation (in Russian the transformation is called смысловое развитие). If the situation is developed correctly, that is if the original and


translated utterances are semantically connected as cause and effect, the transformation helps to render the sense and to observe the norms of TL: "Mr. Kelada’s brushes ... would have been all the better for a scrub" (S.Maugham) - "Щетки мистера Кела- ды ... не отличались чистотой". It may seem that the translation "не отличались чистотой" somewhat deviates from the original "would have been all the better for a scrub". However, the literal translation "бьши бы много лучше от чистки" is clumsy while "не отличались чистотой" is quite acceptable stylistically and renders the idea quite correctly: why would they have been all the better for a scrub? - because they не отличались чистотой. Another example: "When I went on board I found Mr. Kelada’s luggage already below" (S.Maugham)".. .я нашел багаж мистера Келады уже внизу" is not Russian. The verbs "нашел" or "обнаружил" do not render the situation adequately. It is much better to translate it as "...багаж мистера Келады был уже внизу", which describes the situation quite correctly: why did I find his luggage below? - because он был уже внизу.

These two examples illustrate substitution of the cause for the effect (замена следствия причиной): the English sentence names the effect while the Russian variant names its cause. There may occur the opposite situation - substitution of the effect for the cause (замена причины следствием): "I not only shared a cabin with him and ate three meals a day at the same table..." (S.Maugham) - "...три раза в день встречался с ним за одним столом"; "Three long years had passed ... since I had tasted ale..." (Mark Twain) - "Целых три года я не брал в рот пива..." In these examples the English sentences name the cause while the Russian versions contain the effect (I ate three meals a day at the same table with him, so Я три раза в день встречался с ним за одним столом; three long years had passed since I tasted ale, so целых три года я не брал в рот пива).

4. The fourth type of transformation is based on antonymy (антонимический перевод). It means that a certain word is


translated not by the corresponding word of TL but by its antonym and at the same time negation is added (or’ if there is negation in the original sentence, it is omited in translation): "It wasn’t too far." - "Это оказалось довольно близко" ("far" is translated as "близко" and negation in the predicate is omitted). Not far = близко.

The necessity for this transformation arises due to several reasons: 1) peculiarities of the systems of SL and TL, 2) contextual requirements, 3) traditional norms of TL.

1) The necessity to resort to antonymic translation may be caused by various peculiarities of SL and TL lexical systems:a) in Russian the negative prefix не coincides in its form with the negative particle не, while in English they differ (un-, in-, im-, etc. and the negative suffix -less on the one hand and the particle "not" on the other hand); so it is quite normal to say "not impossible" in English, while in Russian "не невозможно" is bad;b) groups of antonyms in SL and TL do not necessarily coincide: in English the word "advantage" has an antonym — "disadvantage," while in Russian the word "премущество" has no antonym, in English there are antonyms "to arrange - to disarrange", while in Russian there is only "систематизировать", etc.

2) Sometimes antonyms become the most adequate way of rendering the contextual meaning: "a murderer is only safe when he is in prison" - "убийца не опасен, только когда он в тюрьме". The word "safe" taken separately is easily translated as "безопасный", but in this context the variant "не опасен" is preferable since it is not "безопасность" of the murderer that is meant here but the fact that he is "не опасен" for the others. This shade of meaning is better rendered by the antonym. _

In a particular context this transformation may help to render emotional and stylistic coloring of the text: "He’s probably thirsty. Why don’t you give him some milk?" - "Наверное, он хочет пить. Может, дать ему молока?". "Direct" translation "Почему бы не дать ему молока?" is not colloquial, while the characters of P.G.Wodehouse speak in a highly informal way.


3) Finally the transformation is often necessary for the purpose of observing the traditional norms of TL: "I only wish I could. I wish I had the time" (S.Leacock) - "Мне очень жаль, что я не могу. К сожалению, у меня нет времени". Generally speaking the English construction "I wish smb + Past Tense form of verb" should always be translated "жаль, что ... не". The variant "Я бы хотел, чтобы я мог (в прошлом)" is not Russian. "Not ... (un)till" corresponds to the Russian "лишь, только ... тогда-то". "He won’t be back till tomorrow night, will he?" "Он ведь вернется только завтра к вечеру, правда?".

5. The fifth transformation is usually called "compensation" (компенсация). To be exact, it is not so much a transformation but rather a general principle of rendering stylistic peculiarities of a text when there is no direct correspondence between stylistic means of SL and TL. This transformation is widely used to render speech peculiarities of characters, to translate puns, rhyming words, etc. The essence of it is as follows: it is not always possible to find stylistic equivalents to every stylistically marked word of the original text or to every phonetic and grammatical irregularity purposefully used by the author. That is why there Miould be kept a general stylistic balance based on compensating some inevitable stylistic losses by introducing stylistically similar elements in some other utterances or by employing different linguistic means playing a similar role in TL. Suppose a character uses the word "fool-proof1 which is certainly a sign of the colloquial register. In Russian there is no colloquial synonym of the word "надежный" or "безопасный". So the colloquial "fool-proof' is translated by the neutral "абсолютно надежный" and the speech of the character loses its stylistic coloring. This loss is inevitable, but it is necessary to find a way of compensation. It is quite possible to find a neutral utterance in the speech of the same character that can be translated colloquially, e.g. "I got nothing". Taken separately it should be translated "Я ничего не получил" or "Мне ничего не дали", but it allows to make up for


the lost colloquial marker: "Я остался с носом (на бобах)”. It results in getting one neutral and one colloquial utterance both in the original and in the translated texts.

There is another variety of compensation which consists in creating the same general effect in TL with the help of means different from those used in SL. A combination of phonetic and grammatical mistakes is used by G.B.Shaw to show that his character is an uneducated person: "Old uns like me is up in the world now". It is impossible to make the same mistakes in the corresponding Russian sentence: "Такие старики, как я, сейчас высоко ценятся". Nevertheless, speech characteristics are very important for creating the image of Beamish, so it is necessaiy to make him speak in an uneducated manner. In Russian mistakes in the category of number would hardly produce this effect, they would rather be taken for a foreign accent One also can’t omit sounds in any of the words in the sentence. That is why it is better to achieve the same result by lexical means, using words and their forms typical of popular speech (просторечие): "Старички-то навроде меня нынче в цене!". Another example: "You can’t have no rolls" (G.B.Shaw) Since double negation is the literary norm in the Russian language it doesn’t help to render the effect of illiterate speech; it is necessary to make a typical Russian grammatical mistake. The most widespread mistakes are connected with case formation in Russian, so something like "А булочков-то не будет" may serve the purpose .

With the help of these five types of transformations one can overcome practically all lexical difficulties.

1 A wonderful example of compensation is described in: Я.И.Рецкер. Теория перевода и переводческая практика. М., 1974, стр.61-62

GRAMMATICAL ASPECTS OF TRANSLATION

GRAMMATICAL TRANSFORMATIONS

It is well known that languages differ in their grammatical structure. Apart from having different grammatical categories they differ in the use of those categories that seem to be similar. This naturally results in the necessity to introduce some grammatical changes in the translated version of any text. These changes depend on the character of correlation between the grammatical norms of SL and TL. Various as they are, all the possible changes may be classed under four main types: transpositions (перестановки), replacements (замены), additions (добавления), and omissions (опущения).

1. Transpositions. There may appear a necessity to rearrange elements of different levels: words, phrases, clauses or even sentences. Transposition of words and phrases may be caused by various reasons: differences in the accepted word order in SL and TL, presence or absence of emphasis, differences in the means of communicative syntax.

Speaking of word order, it would be more accurate to say that to change word order really means to rearrange not so much words but parts of the sentence When translating from English into Russian one has to change word-order because normally it is fixed in English while in Russian it is relatively free: "George has bought some new things for this trip..." (Jerome K.Jerome) - "K этой поездке Джордж купил кое-какие новые вещи..." or "Джордж купил к этой поездке кое-какие новые вещи..." or "Джордж купил кое-какие новые вещи к этой поездке", which depends (in this particular case) on the rhythm of the whole utterance. But such freedom of choice is rather rare, since the word order of the Russian sentence is not as arbitrary as it


seems to be. The position of a word in the sentence is often predetermined by its communicative function. In the English sentence ".. .1 realized that a man was behind each one of the books" (R.Bradbury) the rhematic function of the noun "man" is indicated by the indefinite article. In order to make it the rheme of the Russian sentence it is necessary to put it in the final position: ."...я понял, что за каждой из этих книг стоит человек". Another example: "A certain man. was seen to reel into Mr. Twain’s hotel last night..." - "Вчера вечером видели, как в отель, где проживает мистер Марк Твен, ввалился некий человек..."

Transposition of clauses is also used to preserve die semantic and communicative balance of the whole sentence: "The sun had got more powerful by the time we had finished breakfast..." (Jerome K.Jerome) — "К тому времени, как мы позавтракали, солнце припекало уже вовсю..." If the Russian sentence began with the principal clause ("Солнце припекало...") the logical meaning would be different - the sentence would state the time by which the sun got more powerful, while the real meaning of the sentence is to show what was die state of things by the time they finished their breakfast and had to decide upon further course of action.

Transposition of sentences does not become necessary very often. However, it helps sometimes to render the meaning which is expressed by the Past Perfect form in the English text, so as to indicate the succession of actions or events: "The village of StPetersburg still mourned. The lost children had not been found" (Mark Twain) - "Пропавших детей так и не нашли. Городок Сант-Питерсберг оплакивал их".

2. Replacements. Replacements are also made at different levels.

A. To conform to the demands of the grammatical system of TL it may become necessary to change the grammatical form of a word: "fifteen thousand dollars" — "пятнадцать тысяч долларов" ("thousand" — singular, "тысяч" — plural), "And your hair’s so lovely" - "У тебя такие красивые волосы", etc.

Grammatical Aspects o f Translation 33

B. They often have to replace one part of speech by another. Most frequent replacements of this type are the following: a) English nouns with the suffix -er denoting the doer of an action are usually replaced by verbs in Russian: "I’m a moderate smoker". (J.D.Salinger) - "Я мало курю". "When George is hanged Harris will be the worst packer in this world" (Jerome K.Jerome) — "Когда Джорджа повесят, хуже всех на свете укладывать вещи будет Гаррис". However, if such a noun denotes a person’s profession the replacement is not recommended: when Holden Caulfield describes a girl, saying "She

[ looked like a veiy good dancer" (J.D.Salinger), it should be translated "Похоже, она здорово танцует", but the sentence from S.Maugham’s "Gigolo and Gigolette" "Stella was a good ballroom dancer", characterizing Stella’s professional skill, should be translated "Стелла была хорошей исполнительницей бальных танцев". English deverbal nouns (usually converted from verbs) may be translated by verbs (especially if they are used in the construction "to give (to have, to make, to take) + N": "to give somebody a lift" - "подвезти кого-то". "He gave us all a look" (S.Maugham) - "Он взглянул на нас", etc. b) They often replace nouns by pronouns and vice versa. In the story "The Broken Boot" by J.Galsworthy Bryce-Green says to Caister: "Haven’t seen you since you left the old camp". "The old camp" is a phrase with an extremely wide and vague meaning, it means "some place we used to be at together and some people we were somehow connected with", so it is quite adequately translated "He видел Вас с тех пор, как Вы ушли от нас". The pronoun "нас" here is substituted for the noun "camp" (or, to be more exact, for the nominal phrase "the old camp"). A noun is substituted for a pronoun in the following example: "...and Harris sat on it, and it stuck to him., and they went looking for it all over the room" (Jerome KJerome). At first sight it seems possible to translate the sentence as it is: "...Гаррис сел на него, и оно к нему прилипло, и они принялись искать его. по всей комнате". However, the sentence is "overloaded" with pronouns, the


more so because the Russian "его" can denote both Harris and the butter. That is why it is necessary to replace some pronouns by nouns to make the situation clear and the sentence more readable: "...a Гаррис сел на этот стул, и масло прилипло к его брюкам, и они оба принялись искать его по всей комнате".

Occasionally some other replacements may become necessary.

However, it must be remembered that the choice of parts of speech influences the general stylistic coloring of the text, cf. "бросить взгляд" and "взглянуть", "хранить молчание" and "молчать", etc. Russian abstract nouns are usually more appropriate in newspapers and official texts, short-form adjectives and passive participles are somewhat bookish and should be avoided if possible when rendering colloquial speech, which means that part of speech replacements may be caused sometimes by purely stylistic considerations.

C. Replacement of parts of the sentence. The most frequent among such replacements is that of substituting an object for the subject and vice versa. It is very helpful in translating English passive constructions. Statistics shows that in English they use passive constructions much more often than in Russian. Moreover, in English these constructions in themselves are not marked stylistically while in Russian they are mainly bookish and official, cf.: "мне дали интересную книгу" and "мне была дана интересная книга". The essence of this replacement is in making the subject of the English sentence the object of the Russian version: "She was brought here last night" (Ch.Dickens) - "Ее. принесли сюда вчера вечером". If the English sentence has an object denoting the doer or the cause of the action, it automatically becomes the subject of the Russian sentence: "The psychiatrist was shocked by the smile" (R.Bradbury) - "Эта улыбка, поразила психиатра". If the subject of the English sentence denotes some place or time it may be replaced by an adverbial modifier in translation: "Anyway, the corridor was all linoleum


and all..." (J.D.Salinger) - "А в коридоре у нас - сплошной линолеум" (translated by Р. Райт-Ковалева). This transformation is regularly used when the subject of the English sentence is expressed by a noun denoting some message: "the text (the telegram, the letter, etc.) says..." - "в тексте (в телеграмме, в. письме и т.д.) говорится (сказано)". Occasionally this transformation is applied to other nouns in the function of the subject.

D. One of the most important syntactic peculiarities of the English language is the existence of secondary predication created by various participial and infinitive constructions. These constructions are included in the structure of simple sentences in English while Russian simple sentences have only one predicative center. This may lead to the necessity of substituting Russian composite sentences for simple sentences of the original text: "I remember a friend of mine buying a couple of cheeses at Liverpool" (Jerome K.Jerome) - "Я помню, как один мой приятель купил в Ливерпуле пару сыров" (a simple sentence in English and a complex sentence in Russian); "I let the day slip away without doing anything at ali" (Mark Twain) - "Прошел целый день, а я так ничего и не предпринял" (translated byН.Тренева) (a simple sentence in English and a compound sentence in Russian).

Sometimes two or more simple sentences may be joined together to form one sentence (simple or composite) in translation; usually they do it for logical, stylistic and rhythmical reasons: "I made my way into the smoking-room. I called for a pack of cards and began to play patience." (S.Maugham) - "Я отправился в курительную комнату, спросил себе колоду карт и принялся раскладывать пасьянс"; "Quite the reverse is the truth in the case of great men. The nearer you go to them, the smaller they seem" (G.Mikes) - "С великими людьми все наоборот: чем вы к ним ближе, тем они кажутся мельче".

On the other hand, English composite sentences with formal, purely grammatical subjects (introductory "it", "this”, etc.)


often correspond to Russian simple sentences: "This was hardly what I intented" (G.B.Shaw) - "У меня были совсем другие намерения"; "It’s the natural, original sin that is born in him that makes him do things like that" (Jerome K.Jerome) - "Его толкает на все эти проделки врожденный инстинкт, так сказать, первородный грех." (translated by М.Салье).

A long and syntactically complicated sentence containing secondary predication may be translated by several simple sentences: "A few months ago I was nominated for the Governor of the great State of New York, to run against Mr. Stewart L.Woodford and Mr. John T.Hoffman on an independent ticket" (Mark Twain) — "Несколько месяцев назад моя кандидатура была выдвинута на пост губернатора великого штата Нью Йорк. В качестве кандидата от независимых мне предстояло выступать против мистера Стюарта Л.Вудфорда и мистера Джона Т.Хоффмана."

E. In some cases it is possible to replace the principal clause by a subordinate clause (and vice versa) if it helps to conform to the logical and stylistic norms of TL: "They put him under laughing-gas one year, poor lad, and drew all his teeth, and gave him a false set, because he suffered so terribly with toothache..." (Jerome K.Jerome) — "Он так жестоко страдал от зубной боли, что однажды его, беднягу, усыпили, под наркозом вырвали все зубы и вставили искусственные челюсти." His suffering with toothache is here the main thing the author stresses; to show how terrible his sufferings were he says that they had to draw all his teeth; that is why it is but logical to state the main idea in the principal clause, while the clause which is principal in the English sentence becomes subordinate in Russian.

F. A different type of syntactic bond may be used in translation instead of that used in the original text, i.e. subordination may be replaced by coordination and vice versa. Generally speaking, subordination is more frequently used in English than in Russian, since subordinating words in English are rather vague semantically


while in Russian they state rather definitely the character of semantic connection between the clauses. The conjunction "while" does not really indicate any temporal connection between the actions in the sentence "Once she faltered for a minute and stood still while a tear or two splashed on the worn carpet" (O’Henry), so it is hardly possible to translate it "...в to время как..." Such translation would create a humorous effect which was not intended here by the author. It is much better to introduce co-ordination instead of subordination: "Один раз руки ее дрогнули и она замерла на мгновение, а на потертый ковер скатились две слезинки."

G. Syndetic connection used in English sentences is not always appropriate in Russian, so it would often create a wrong stylistic effect if preserved in translation. That is why asyndetic connection of parts of the sentence is rather regularly used in Russian instead of the English polysyndeton: "It made them nervous and. excited, and. they stepped on things, and. put things behind them; and. then couldn’t find them when they wanted them; and they packed the pies at the bottom, and put heavy things on top, and. smashed the pies in" (Jerome K.Jerome) - "Они волновались, нервничали; они роняли то одно, то другое, без конца искали вещи, которые сами же перед тем ухитрялись спрятать. Они запихивали пироги на дно и клали тяжелые предметы сверху, так что пироги превращались в месиво" (translated by М.Салье).

So, the following types of replacement may be used in order to overcome difficulties created by differences in the grammatical systems of SL and TL: A. Replacement of word-forms (замена форм слова). В. Replacement of parts of speech (замена частей речи). С. Replacement of parts of the sentence (замена членов предложения). D. Replacement of a simple sentence by a composite one and vice versa (замена простого предложения сложным и наоборот). Е. Replacement of the principal clause by a subordinate one and vice versa (замена главного предложения придаточным и наоборот). F. Re


placement of subordination by coordination and vice versa (замена подчинения сочинением и наоборот). G. Replacement of syndetic connection by asyndetic and vice versa (замена союзной связи связью бессоюзной и наоборот). Within the fourth type (replacement of a simple sentence by a composite one and vice versa) they also single out two additional varieties: joining several sentences together (объединение) and dividing a long sentence into several shorter sentences (членение).

3. Additions. It is very difficult to say whether this transformation is lexical or grammatical: it is both. Its lexical aspects have already been discussed: it is necessary to make some explanations of transcribed words, describe those notions which have no names in TL, add the words which are implied but not expressed in the structure of attributive phrases, etc. However, in all these cases the structure of the sentence is involved, that is why the transformation is considered to be grammatical. Sometimes there appear grammatical reasons for adding new words: it happens when some meaning is expressed grammatically in the original text while there is no way of expressing it grammatically in TL. E.g. in English they use articles to differentiate between an author and his creation: "...the jewel of his collection - an Israels..." or "...Madame Lamotte, who was still in front of the Meissonier". (J.Galsworthy). In Russian it is necessary to add the word "картина": "...жемчужина его коллекции — картина Исраэлса..." and "...мадам Лямот, которая все еще стояла перед картиной Месонье". Another example: the existence of the special possessive form (George’s, Harris’s) in English allows to use names in the absolute possessive construction: "Of course, I found George’s and Harris’s eighteen times over..." (Jerome KJerome). In Russian the corresponding grammatical form is that of the genitive case, the use of which would create an undesirable ambiguity:"... находил Джоржа и Гарриса". So it is necessary to add the word "щетка" implied in the English sentence: "Конечно же, щетки Джоржа и Гарриса попадались


мне раз восемнадцать, если не больше...". In this way the translated version restores as it were the complete structure of the original sentence some elements of which might be only implied and not expressed materially. When using the transformation of addition one should be very careful to add only that which should really be added. It requires good knowledge of deep structure and surface structure grammars of both SL and TL and ability to analyze semantic and pragmatic aspects of a text.

4. Omissions. This transformation is seldom structurally obligatory, it is usually caused by stylistic considerations and deals with redundancy traditionally normative in SL and not accepted in TL. A typical example of such redundancy is the use of synonymic pairs in English: "...their only stay and support..." (Mark Twain) - both the words mean "поддержка", "опора". There is no need to translate them both, one is quite enough: "их единственная поддержка" or, according to the demands of the context, "единственное, что спасало их от голода" (translated in the same way as any one of these words would be translated).

Sometimes it is recommended to omit semantically empty "tags" of declarative and interrogative sentences: "British to the backbone, that’s what I am." (S.Maugham) — "Англичанин до мозга костей!" "I can’t leave the room and send myself to you at the same time, can L?" (G.B.Shaw) "He могу же я уйти из комнаты и в то же время прислать самого себя к вам!" They sometimes recommend omitting logical redundancies and repetitions to achieve what is called "compression of the text". However, it must be remembered that logical redundancy of speech and various repetitions are used by writers to characterize the personage’s individual manner of speaking, his way of thinking, etc. In such cases omissions are not allowed.

* * *

These are the main types of grammatical transformations. It should be born in mind, however, that in practice it is hardly


possible to find these elementary transformations in their "pure form": in most cases it is necessary to combine them.

TRANSLATION OF SPECIFICALLY ENGLISH GRAMMATICAL FORMS AND CONSTRUCTIONS

To translate English grammatical forms and constructions one should not necessarily look for the same forms and constructions in Russian - there may be none. Nevertheless, it is always possible to translate them adequately since it is not the form itself but its meaning and function in the sentence that should be rendered in translation. That is why translation of any such unit should begin with its semantic and functional analysis. It can be illustrated with the problem of rendering the definite and indefinite articles. Unless articles have some special role in the sentence or some additional meaning, they are not translated at all - they are merely omitted. However, there are cases when articles are used to mark the rheme of the sentence. Here again there is no need to translate the article itself: it is necessary to find the proper word order placing the noun which is the rheme of the English sentence in a rhematic position in Russian (most often it is the final position). Sometimes, besides their usual meaning of definiteness or indefiniteness articles have some additional meaning, e.g., the indefinite article used with personal names has the meaning "some, a certain", showing that someone is unknown to the speaker. Such meaning should be rendered by corresponding means of the Russian language: "a Mrs. Smith" "некая миссис Смит, какая-то миссис Смит". The indefinite article may also coincide in its meaning either with the pronoun "one” ("I remember a friend of mine buying a couple of cheeses..." - "Я помню, как один мой приятель...") or with the numeral "one" ("a stitch in time saves nine" - "один стежок, сделанный вовремя..."). There are many more meanings which the article may combine with its main grammatical function ("New Eng

Grammatical Aspects of Translation 41

lish-Russian Dictionary" edited by I.R.Galperin lists 11 meanings of the indefinite article and 9 meanings of the article "the"). In this respect translation of articles does not differ from translation of other words - first its meaning should be analyzed and then a proper word of TL can be chosen.

The same is true of prepositions and conjunctions. It is most important to remember that even such a "simple" conjunction as "and" has at least 10 different meanings; in different contexts it may correspond to the Russian "и" ("John and Mary"), "a" ("they stayed at home, and we left" - "они остались дома, а мы ушли"), "неужели" ("And you did it?" - "Неужели Вы это сделали ?"), etc.

Speaking of conjunctions, it should also be mentioned that besides their main function (connecting and introducing different clauses and parts of the sentence) they enter idiomatic constructions the meaning of which cannot be guessed: it should be known or looked up in the dictionary ("She is sixty if (she is) a day" - "Ей добрых шестьдесят лет" или "Ей не меньше шестидесяти лет" "if anything" - "если уж на то пошло, во всяком случае, как бы то ни было").

One and the same preposition is also translated differently in different constructions and contexts (see 17 meanings of the preposition "on", the same number of meanings of the preposition "of', etc.).

As for the so-called notional parts of speech, they may differ in SL and TL in the set of syntactic functions that they fulfil in the sentence. That is why translation should always be based on a thorough syntactic analysis since it is not the grammatical form itself but rather its function in the sentence that predetermines the way of translation. For example, before translating an infinitive it is necessary to state its role in the sentence - to see if it functions as a subject, object, attribute, or adverbial modifier, etc. If it is an adverbial modifier, it is essential to see its type - an adverbial modifier of purpose, of result, of attendant circumstances, etc. After this functional and semantic analysis it is


possible to render the infinitive into Russian using any part of speech in the corresponding function (or changing the structure of the sentence in order to express the same idea according to the norms of TL).

It is impossible to warn a beginner against all possible difficulties. However, it seems reasonable to point out some English constructions that are most likely to cause trouble.

Most frequent among them are the so-called absolute constructions. There are two main difficulties in dealing with them: first of all they are not always easy to recognize and besides they do not correspond to any particular construction of the Russian language. Based on secondary predication, these constructions usually express some additional thought, something that happens in connection with the main action, but still "outside" it. Unlike subordinate clauses, absolute constructions are characterized by rather a vague semantic connection with the main body of the sentence. It is often hard to say if the construction indicates time or cause of the main action - it may indicate them indiscriminately. As a rule, constructions coming before the main body of the sentence have temporal, or causal, or conditional meaning; constructions coming after the main body express some attendant circumstances or serve as an adverbial modifier of manner.

They usually single out four structural types of absolute constructions:1 1) nominative participial constructions - "...I got them to be quiet, when - enter Admiral Ass, in full regalia, epaulettes quivering with indignation." (Bel Kaufman); 2) nominative constructions without a participle - "And, chin on hand, he stared through his monocle into an empty cup" (J.Galsworthy);3) participial constructions without the subject - "Being liable himself to similar unlooked-for checks from Mrs. Chick, their little contests usually possessed a character of uncertainty that

1 B.H.Комиссаров, Я.И.Рецкер, В.Н.Тархов. Пособие по переводу с английского языка на русский, т. II, М., 1965


was very animating" (Ch.Dickens); 4) absolute constructions with the preposition "with" - "With renewed handshaking and messages to be delivered to Miss Lawson, we at last made our exit." (A.Christie). Knowing these structural types, it is easier to identify such a construction and differentiate it from expanded secondary parts of the sentence.

There are four possibilities in translating absolute constructions, though they do not directly correspond to the four types of constructions themselves.

1. If the type of semantic connection between the absolute construction and the main body of the sentence is more or less definite, a subordinate clause may be used in translation: "...those things having been invariably found on Mr.Twain’s person ... they felt compelled to give him a friendly admonition." (Mark Twain) - "...и так как вещи эти впоследствии неизменно обнаруживались у мистера Твена, ...они сочли своим долгом сделать ему дружеское внушение."

2. However, it is not always possible to choose the proper type of the subordinate clause: "Bessie and Abbot having retreated, Mrs. Reed ... thrust me back and locked me in, without further parley" (Ch.Bronte). Really, did she do it after Bessie and Abbot retreated or because they retreated? Evidently, both after and because she got rid of those women who were less cruel than she was. In Russian such an indiscriminate way of expressing time and cause in one subordinate clause is impossible, so other ways should be sought. The best way to combine these meanings is to use an adverbial-participial construction (деепричастный оборот): "Отослав Бесси и Эббот, миссис Рид снова затолкнула меня в комнату, не вступая больше ни в какие объяснения".

3. Being very close functionally to English absolute constructions, Russian adverbial-participial constructions are more limited in usage, since the action indicated by them should always be performed by the subject of the sentence, which is not necessarily the case with English absolute constructions. If nei


ther a subordinate clause nor an adverbial-participial construction can be chosen for translation, an absolute construction can be rendered by a separate sentence or an independent clause joint by co-ordination: "Miss Arundell walked home, Bob trotting sedately at her heels..." (A.Christie) — "Мисс Арендэлл пошла домой, и Боб спокойно побежал за ней.".

4. Finally, an absolute construction can be translated with the help of a Russian prepositional phrase with the preposition "c": "Coffee-cup in hand, Mr. Scogan was standing in front of the ... bookshelf' (A.Huxley) - "Мистер Скоуген с чашкой в руках стоял перед ... книжной полкой." It should be noted, however, that such phrases are practically never employed to translate English absolute constructions with the preposition "with". There are some other English constructions that are rather difficult: not so much for translation but for understanding (as soon as they are understood correctly they are translated according to the principles already discussed). First of all they are the so-called causative constructions having the general meaning of making somebody do something or causing some action, effect, etc. It is necessary to remember that besides the typical causative constructions with the verbs "to make", "to force", "to cause" and constructions with the verbs "to have" and "to get" ("to have somebody do something", "to get somebody to do something", "to have, get something done"), there exists another way of expressing this meaning:

as in "to talk somebody into (out of) something" - "уговорить (отговорить) кого-то делать что-то", "to laugh somebody out of a habit" — "отучить кого-то от привычки, посмеявшись над ней", e.g. "Managed herself to death, damn her." (J.Collier) - "Своим умением все организовывать довела себя до смерти, черт побери." The first verb in such con-

Verb + smb + + smth (or doing smth),


structions usually denotes the way, the manner in which some effect or action was caused.

Another type of constructions causing misunderstanding, comes close to comparative constructions: "as ... as ever", "as ... as any (or anything)", "as much as doing something", etc. These constructions do not contain any real comparison. The phrases "as ... as ever (any, anything)" denote the superlative degree of some quality or high intensity of some feeling or state: "it’s as simple as anything" - "это же совсем просто". "Не will be as peeved as anything" - "Он будет страшно раздражен", etc. The phrases "not (or never) as much as doing something", "no more than", "much less" are used as emphatic means of expressing the idea that somebody cannot or does not want to do something, or never happened to do it.

Close to those pseudo-comparative constructions come phrases with the word "too", "cannot + be + too + Adj." or "cannot + Verb + too + Adv.". They are synonymous to the phrases "to be very + Adj." and "to do (smth) very + Adv": "One cannot be too careful" — "Нужно быть очень осторожным".

Generally speaking, translation of specifically English grammatical constructions consists of two stages: first it is necessary to understand their meaning and then find a corresponding way of expressing it in Russian. For the purpose of translation, grammar does not exist separately. It is not the grammatical form but the grammatical meaning that is of primary concern for a translator or an interpreter. A mistake in grammar (whether it is a misunderstood construction of SL or a wrong variant in TL) always tells on the sense and logic of the text. As soon as the sense and logic of a sentence stop to be transparent it is necessary to stop and look for a mistake in the translation.

EXERCISES

Exercise 1. Translate the following, paying attention to the meanings o f the verb to MAKE. How does the context influence the choice o f a variant?

1. You’re making a big mistake, Mrs. Grey. (B.P.)2. I always make a cup of tea last thing. She drinks it in bed...

(K.M.)3. It made me feel worse than ever. (K.M.)4. They were made for each other. (O.R.D.)5. "I’m not going to make any speech," the Boss said.

(R.P.W.)6. Clutterbuck’s father makes all the beer round here. (E.W.)7. "And flags, Diana. There should be flags left over from last

time." "I made them into dusters," said Dingy... (E.W.)8. Presently, the door opened again, and two more boys looked

in. They stood and giggled for a time and then made off. (E.W.)

9. "Me, a butler," said Philbrick, "made to put up tents like a blinking Arab." "Well, it’s a change," said Paul."It’s a change for me to be a butler," said Philbrick. "I wasn’t made to be anyone’s servant." (E.W.)

10. As if to make their appeal the more imperative, the following appeared in one of the papers the very next day... (M.T.)

11. The clerk makes for the door, whistling the latest popular love ballad. (B.Sh.)

Exercise 2. Translate the following, paying attention to the meanings o f the verbs to GET, to WANT. How does the context influence the choice o f a variant?

1. You can always get money. (B.P.)2. How did you get into my apartment? (R.L.)

Exercises 47

3. "Is it quite easy to get another job after - after you’ve been in the soup?" asked Paul. "Not at first, it isn’t, but there’re ways". (E.W.)

4. "So he sat down there and wrote me a letter of recommendation... I’ve got it still." (E.W.)

5. By this time anonymous letters were getting to be an important part of my mail matter. (M.T.)

6. "I’ve got to help the gardeners..." (E.W.)7. All this was a great deal easier than Paul had expected; it didn’t

seem so veiy hard to get on with the boys, after all. (E.W.)8. "Florence, will you get on to the Clutterbucks on the tele

phone and ask them to come over..." (E.W.)9. [Mary doesn’t feel well in the morning. Her husband is

trying to comfort her] "I’ll get you something ... Stay down". "I can’t. I’ve got to get the children to school" ... After a moment she said, "Ethan, I don’t think I can get up. I feel too bad". (J.S.)

Exercise 3. Translate the following, paying attention to the underlined words. How does the context influence the choice of a variant?

1. The river is getting low and will soon dry up. (L.D.)2. They were still talking in low voices. (J.F.)3. The coal’s getting low, we must order some more. (L.D.)4. You’ve changed such a lot since I last saw you. (L.D.)5. He [David] was glad he had finally decided to dress up a

little — the jeans suit, a shirt and scarf - when he went downstairs ...He [the old painter] too had changed: a pale summer coat, a white shirt, a purple bow tie. (J.F.)

6. I somehow felt that I had one prominent advantage over these gentlemen and that was - good character. (M.T.)

7. ... what sort of characters Messrs. Woodford and Hoffman8. are... (M.T.)9. A salary of four pounds a week would not, he was con

scious. remake his fortunes... (J.G.)

48 О. В. Петрова ■ Введение в теорию и практику перевода

10. Не walked on, and became conscious that he had passed a face he knew. (J.G.)

11. Jack held out his hands for the conch and stood up, holding the delicate thing carefully in his sooty hands. (W.G.)

12. ..1 couldn’t stand him, personally..." (J.F.)

Exercise 4. Give Russian equivalents for the following proper names. Explain your choice.King Charles I Charles DickensKing George П1 George OsborneKing James I James WattQueen Mary Mary BartonQueen Elisabeth Elisabeth GaskellSt Paul’s Cathedral Paul Dombey

Exercise S. Transcribe and transliterate the following names. Which of the variants is accepted in Russian?Evelyn Waugh, Somerset Maugham, Bernard Shaw, John Galsworthy, George Byron, William Thackeray.

Exercise 6. Give equivalents for the following geographical names. What means did you use to render them into Russian? London, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Connecticut, Kentucky, Hollywood, Hereford, Hertford, Liverpool, the Mersey, New York, New England, Great Slave Lake, Great Bear Lake, Cape of Good Hope, the Rocky Mts, the Lake District

Exercise 7. Translate, paying attention to elements having no equivalents in Russian. By what means do you render them?

1. AUGUSTUS. What! Must you go?THE LADY. You are so busy.AUGUSTUS. Yes: but not before lunch, you know. I never can do much before lunch. And I ’m no good at all in the afternoon. From five to six is my real working time. (B.Sh.)

Exercises 49

2. "I’m going to build a cottage for myself up at Red H ill... I might even stay there part time in the winter and commute to work." "That’s a long commute," Dan observed doubtfully. (B.P.)

3. Then Henry suddenly asked if we’d like to stay to lunch. (J.F.)

4. I am now more than glad that I did not pass into the grammar school five years ago, although it was a disappointment at the time. (M.S.)

5. He was one o f those boys who thinks he knows it all. Public school and all that... (J.F.)

6. ...starlets were especially attracted to him because o f his seriousness. (M.S.)

7. ...it’s out o f the question to shoot an old Harrovian... (E.W.)

8. I got a pardon straight from the White House. (R.Ch.)9. After this, this journal customarily spoke o f me as "Twain,

the Montana Thief." (M.T.)10. ...the flight was delayed for half an hour. There was fog at

Heathrow. (J.F.)11. Philbrick, evidently regarding himself as one o f the guests,

was engaged in a heated discussion on greyhound racing with Sam Clutterbuck. (E.W.)

12. "In there. That’s the Common Room." (E.W.)13. Lord Augustus Highcastle ... is comfortably seated at a

writing-table with his heels on it, reading The Morning Post. (B.Sh.)

14. One August bank holiday in the late nineties they travelled fifty miles to compete in a town where prizes o f solid cash were to be given... (A.C.)

Exercise 8. Analyze the semantic structure o f the given attributive phrases. Translate the sentences.

1. Yet that stern-eyed woman had been so sure. (B.P.)2. I’m a metallurgical chemist turned civil engineer. (B.Sh.)


3. ...he will keep the telephone numbers straight... (R.P.W.)4. "In other words they’re Medical Students, I suppose?" said

Mr. Pickwick. (Ch.D.)5. "The paper publishes my endorsement of Callahan for the

Senate nomination..." (R.P.W.)6. A slight weak woman in a pretty muslin print gown (her

best)1 (B.Sh.)7. She gave me a sharp sidelong look from her furtive eyes.

(R.Ch.)8. Annabel got her good start. (M.S.)9. .. .the men who lived on the first floor usually had first grab

at the books... (J.D.S.)10. Paul sat down disconsolately on the straight chair. (E.W.)11. He stood at the end of a long room with his back to a rococo

marble chimneypiece. (E.W.)12. "Boys," he [Dr Fagan] said, "I have some announcements to

make. The Fagan cross-country running challenge cup will not be competed for this year on account of the floods." (E.W.)

13. He was seated on a folding wooden chair at a small, messy-looking writing table, with a paper-back overseas novel open before him... (J.D.S.)

14. DOYLE. Man alive, don’t you know that all this ... more-power-to-your-elbow business is got up in England, to fool you... (B.Sh.)

15. Clay left his feet where they were [on his friend’s bed] for a few don’t-tell-me-where-to-put-my-feet seconds, then swung them to the floor and sat up. (J.D.S.)

Exercise 9. What is the nature of the phraseological units in the sentences below? Translate the sentences.

1. We have taken all the precautions we can against the painting being stolen. (L.D.)

1 Bracketed by G.B.Shaw

Exercises 51

2. We must take steps to help the families of those who were hurt (L.D.)

3. The new truck meets our needs. (L.A.D.)4. You only want to sell the land... That’s the lone and short

of it. Ian. (B.P.)5. "Hello, Prendy,.. .How are things with you?" (E.W.)6. I told her that I’d never written a story for anybody, but that it

seemed like exactly the right time to get down to it. (J.D.S.)7. She let go Charlie’s sleeve. (J.D.S.)8. "Dear me. you seem to think about killing a good deal." "I

do. It’s my mission, you see." (E.W.)9. "Old boy," said Grimes, "you’re in love." "Nonsense".

“A sweet despair?"..."Nothing of the sort". (E.W.)

10. This new book will be of interest to policemen and prison officers; and, for that matter, to anyone who has to deal with criminals. (L.D.)

Exercise 10. Define the nature of the following phraseological units. Translate them

a) preserving the imagery of the original1. I wash my hands of this job. (B.Sh.)2. To kill time before the train left, we went to a movie.

(W.Foster-Koonin)3. My uncle Henry ... was on these occasions in the habit of

saying that the devil could alv/ays quote scripture to his purpose... (W.S.M.)

4. ...I don’t care what you say about my race, creed, or religion, ...but don’t tell me I’m not sensitive to beauty. That’s my Achilles’ heel, and don’t you forget it. (J.D.S.)

5. "Money, John," said Mr. Pecksniff, "is the root of all evil." (Ch.D.)

6. One swallow does not make a spring.7. to shed crocodile tears.


b) changing the imagery of the original partially1. That’s past. There’s no use looking back. It’s water over the

dam. (В.Ю2. Well, you leave and learn, don’t you. (B.P.)3. Others will say ... that you have lied and fawned and

wormed yourself through dirty ways into my favour. (Ch.D.)

4. Old friends and old wine are the best.5. a wolf in sheep’s clothing.6. as like as two peas.7. dumb as an oyster.

c) changing the imagery of the original completely1. "Listen, Clive," she said, "you’re making a mounting out of

a molehill." (B.P.)2. As you make your bed, so you must lie on it.3. He would not set the Thames on fire.4. Queen Ann is dead.5.' Never cackle till your egg is laid.6. One fire drives out the other.7. to make a mountain out of a molehill8. have all one’s eggs in one basket9. like a cat on hot bricks

10. early to bed and early to rise

d) leaving the imagery out of the translation1. He had a sweet tooth that, because he was in fine shape, he

could afford to indulge. (B.P.)2. Mrs. Grey, I have no crystal ball. (B.P.)3. She wanted to talk my head off about it, but I wouldn’t let

her. (B.P.)4. ["You don’t want it to come into Court?" "No, though I

suppose it might be rather fun." [Mr. Settlewhite smiled again.] "That entirely depends on how many skeletons you have in your cupboard." (J.G.)

Exercises 53

5. PROTEUS. How did you get on with the King?6. BOANERGES. Right as rain, Joe. (B.Sh.)7. to have too many irons in the fire.8. to have other fish to fry.9. to make fish o f one and flesh o f another.

10. Many happy returns o f the day!11. the three R ’s

Exercise 11. Define the nature o f the phraseological units in the sentences below. Translate the sentences. What means do you employ?

1. "Now your predecessor was a thoroughly agreeable young m an... But he used to wake up my daughters coming on his motor bicycle at all hours o f the night. He used to borrow money from the boys too, ...and the parents objected. I had to get rid o f him." (E.W.)

2. "You have never done a single thing in all your life to be ashamed o f - not one. Look at the newspapers... and comprehend what sort o f characters Messrs Woodford and Hoffman are and then see if you are willing to lower yourself to their level and enter a public canvass with them." (M.T.)

3. And yet I can lay my hand on the Book and say that I never slandered Governor Hoffman’s grandfather. (M.T.)

4. He’s been looking awfully down in the mouth lately. (E.W.)5. "Why are you so reluctant to reveal sources?" The question

visibly pleased the old man; as if David had fallen into a trap. (J.F.)

6. So one moment you turn up your nose at a heart o f gold. (J.F.)

7. The discussion was resumed in Welsh, but it was clear that the stationmaster was slowly giving way. (E.W.)

8. I don’t know how to give up. That’s my trouble. I always have to stick things out to the bitter end. (J.F.)

9. I went back to town and left the candidate to his own devices. (R.P.W.)


10. It is a very ill wind that blows nobody any good. (Ch.D.)11. "You gave up college..." "It was totally against my nature.

You’ve no idea. Trying to prove I wasn’t what I am. And anyway, it was only out of the frying pan. I’m even worse now than I was before." (J.F.)

12. Happily enough, it did not rain next day, and after morning school everybody was dressed up to the nines. (E.W.)

13. "He lived for his art, he said. He just moved into a bigger house and went on writing away fifteen to the dozen." (E.W.)

14. "I’m engaged to be married to Flossie... We haven’t told the old boy [the girl’s father] yet. I’m waiting till I land in the soup again. Then I shall play that as my last card." (E.W.)

15. "You see Philbrick is really sir Solomon Philbrick, the shipowner.""The novelist, you mean," said Grimes."The retired burglar," said Paul.The three masters looked at each other."Old boys, it seems to me someone’s been pulling our legs." (E.W.)

16. Mr. Philbrick, senior, ...had two kids: Philbrick and a daughter called Gracie. From the start Philbrick was the apple of the old chap’s eye, while he couldn’t stick Miss Gracie at any price. (E.W.)

Exercise 12. Translate the following, employing concreti- zation of the underlined elements.

1. In a corner were some golf clubs, a walking stick, an umbrella, and two miniature rifles. Over the chimneypiece was a green baize notice-board covered with lists; there was a typewriter on the table. In a bookcase were a number of very old textbooks and some new exercise-books. There were also a bicycle pump, two armchairs, a straight chair, half a bottle of invalid port, a boxing glove, a bowler hat, yesterday’s "Daily News" and a packet of pipe-cleaners. (E.W.)

Exercises 55

2. Do you know, I’ve never been in a boat before in all my life. (K.G.)

3. Let this be a lesson to you. (B.P.)4. Sally was extremely uncomfortable. (B.P.)5. ...an opera singer tells o f the persecution she currently

endures at the hands o f the tenor’s w ife... (M.S.)6. The baby, Carl, was the only reality o f her life. (M.S.)7. I’m going to Ireland. (B.Sh.)8. She took a drag o f the coffee and then a deep drag o f the

cigarette. (R.P.W.)9. I’m a photographer. I do celebrities and authors for book

jackets, stuff like this. (B.P.)10. Sighing, Dan took the phone. (B.P.)11. I want to get married. (P.G.W.)

Exercise 13. Translate the sentences employing generalization.

1. When they had gone, she was left with a well-remembered dread from her school and college years. Had she passed the finals? (B.P.)

2. He wants his dinner. (B.P.)3. The Boss was already sitting in the front by the driver’s seat

when I got to the Cadillac. (R.P.W.)4. Jack sat up and stretched out his legs. (W.G.)5. Three long years had passed over my head since I had tasted

ale, beer, wine, or liquor o f any kind. (M.T.)6. Paul did not have to travel alone. Potts was at Croydon,

enveloped in an ulster and carrying in his hand a little attache case (E.W.)

7. . ..a waiter advanced staggering under the weight o f an ice-pail from which emerged a Jeroboam of champagne. (E.W.)

8. Close to the window... Jam es..., like the bulky Swithin, over six feet in height, but lean, - brooded over the scene with his permanent stoop. (J.G.)


9. But Christmas with no children about - he still remembered the holly and snapdragons of Park Lane in his own childhood - the family parties;... (J.G.)

10. "What’ 11 you have now—cheese?" "Thank you, sir; I’ve had too much already, but I won’t say 'N o'" "Two Stiltons," said Michael. (J.G.)

Exercise 14. Translate the following sentences employing semantic development.

1. "Does it make any difference?" "It always makes a difference". (I.Sh.)

2. "Daddy and I are going out to dinner. It’s Uncle Oliver’s birthday". "You is always going out". "No, honey. We haven’t been out all week". (B.P.)

3. That’s your opinion, not mine. (B.P.)4. "Has Tina told you anything?" "Not directly, in so many

words". (B.P.)5. "Dan, listen - you’d like to stop progress, but it can’t be

done. Set your mind on the twenty-first century." Gloom settled on Dan’s face. "My mind’s already on it (B.P,)"

6. "Are your shoes all right.? The dew’s so heavy now." (J.F.)7. Between the towns the roads were comparatively empty, he

was making ample time. (J.F.)8. He searched for writing paper, but there wasn’t any in the

room, it wasn’t that kind of hotel, an endless one-nighter. (J.F.)

9. Off the screen Annabel Christopher looked a puny little thing. (M.S.)

10. "Oh, dear, oh, dear. I can see that things are going to be very difficult" (E.W.)

11. Then a second later a little bald-headed fellow, wearing a white coat which ought to have been in the week’s wash came plunging through the crowd... (R.P.W.)

12. What did she want? (B.P.)13. The telephone rang. "Answer it. I’m not home." (B.P.)

Exercises 57

14. What makes you think that? (B.P.)15. His luck was with him. (B.P.)16. "Ah, don’t be stupid." "Men always like to think women are

stupid." (B.P.)17. I suppose the funeral will be a big event. (B.P.)18. You see he’s a new person, don’t you? (B.P.)19. Clive made no comments. (B.P.)20. We don’t like to intrude on a day like this, Mrs. Grey. (B.P.)21. ...the trees gave way to sunlight and a grassy orchard...

(J-F.)22. He throws it [the bullet]1 on the table; the noise it makes

testifies to its weight. (B.Sh.)23. The tide was low and there was a strip o f weedstrewn beach

that was almost as firm as a road. (W.G.)

Exercise 15. Employ antonymic translation.1. I don’t suppose you are in any hurry to get back? (B.P.)2. I cannot forget the smallest detail o f that room. (B.P.)3. You have to remember that this was in the sixties. (B.P.)4. "It wasn’t a pretty story, was it?" "No, not pretty." (B.P.)5. I don’t suppose you were too fond o f him. (B.P.)6. "Are you sure you’re feeling all right, Sally?" "Meaning

'Am I sane?' Yes, I’m quite, quite sane, Oliver." (B.P.)7. He tried to be off-hand and not too obviously uninterested.

(W.G.)8. Honey, a thin, not unattractive Negro girl o f twenty, enters

the living room with the morning paper. (G.&d’U)9. "I didn’t come here to make any speech... And I didn’t

come here to ask you to give me anything, not even a vote." (R.P.W.)

10. He wished Beth [his wife] were there... (J.F.)11. I don’t think he knew what he was saying. (G.G.)

1 Words and phrases cited in [...] are given for creating the necessary context and should not be translated.

58 -О. В. Петрова • Введение в теорию и практику перевода

12. .. .the wretched plane didn’t land till after seven. (J.F.)13. "There’s nothing wrong with your eyes. Off you go." (M.S.)14. I wish the doctor hadn’t gone. (B.Sh.)15. It wasn’t long before I heard the pacing start (R.P.W.)16. Paul had very little difficulty in finding the dining hall.

(E.W.)

Exercise 16. Compensate for the underlined elements in translation.

1. "How’s your boy?" the Boss asked. "Ain’t been so good," Old Leather-Face allowed. "Sick?" "Naw", Old Leather-Face allowed, "jail." (RJ*.W.)

2. There is things which you have done which is unbeknowens to anybody but me. You better trot out a few dols, to yours truly, or you’ll hear through the papers from HANDY ANDY. (M.T.)

3. AUGUSTUS. I came here to promise the Mayor a knighthood for his exertions.THE CLERK. The Mayor! Where do I come in? AUGUSTUS. You don’t come in. You go out. (B.Sh.)

4. .. .Mr. Prendergast made a little joke about soles and souls. (E.W.)

5. My daddy’s coming tomorrow on a nairiplane. (J.D.S.)6. I’ve noticed he don’t — doesn’t — talk that way. He has nice

manners. (B.P.)7. "What else had you to learn?" "Well, there was ... Mystery,

ancient and modern, with Seaography..." (L.C.)8. "...he taught us Drawling, Stretching, and Fainting in

Coils". "What was that like?" "Well, 1 can’t show it you, myself," the Mock Turtle said: "I’m too stiff." (L.C.)

9. "...different branches of Arithmetic - Ambition, Distraction, Uglification, and Derision". "I never heard pf 'Uglifi- cation,1" Alice ventured to say. "What is it?" The Gryphon lifted up both its paws in surprise. "Never heard of uglifying!" he exclaimed. "You know what to beautify is, I sup

Exercises 59

pose. Don’t you?" "Yes," said Alice, doubtfully: "it m eans- to - make - anything — prettier". "Well then," the Gryphon went on, "if you don’t know what to uglify is, you are a simpleton". (L.C.)

Exercise 17. Translate, employing transposition o f whatever elements it is necessary or desirable.

1. Dawn was already rising at the window. (B.P.)2. A great storm was predicted for tomorrow. (B.P.)3. There was sweat on his forehead, and his knees buckled. (B.P.)4. I should have phoned ahead. (B.P.)5. I’ve been using it [perfume] for the last two years at least.

(B.P.)6. There were few wedding presents. (E.W.)7. A line o f stiff yellowish half-washed clothes jittered on a

rusty wire in the side yard. (R.Ch.)8. A stout elderly woman dressed in a tweed coat and skirt and

a jaunty Tyrolean hat advanced to the Doctor. (E.W.)9. A child had appeared among the palms, about a hundred

yards along the beach. (W.G.)10. Presently there was a knock at the door, and a small boy

came in. (E.W.)11. The poet’s lips moved as he read... (M.S.)12. Breasley ... came in from the garden, as David stood at the

foot o f the stairs uncertain o f where breakfast took place. (J.F.)

13. Billy lifted it [the script] and started to read it, standing by the refrigerator, while she fried his eggs and bacon. (M.S.)

14. The environment was comparatively new to him, he had never acted in films. (M.S.)

15. He didn’t seem to notice my silence, he was so wrapped up in his own. (R.P.W.)

16. He wasn’t a film actor, really, Annable said. (M.S.)17. My grandmother said, after she had sighed, "It’s time you

had your eyes tested." (M.S.)


Exercise 18. Translate the following sentences using the transformation of replacement at the Irvel of

a) parts of speech:1. Dr Fagan gave a long sigh. (E.W.)2. Mr. Simmonds saw me out at the front door and gave me a

pleading unhappy look. (M.S.) ’3. "Oh, Grimes", said Mr. Prendergast, and he blushed warmly

and gave a little giggle. (E.W.)4. David forced a smile. (J.F.)5. He became a quarreller, but not with her. (M.S.)6. I had just managed to get down the last spoonful of choco

late ice cream, ...when the Boss, who was a powerful and systematic eater... said,... (R.P.W.)

7. Talking cheerfully, the party crossed the hall and went down the steps. (E.W.)

8. You are a sentimentalist. (B.P.)9. She is a fast learner. (B.P.)

b) parts of the sentence:1. "I was just reminiscing, seeing the carousel on the shelf." "And

that made you sad?" "But I am not sad. Really. Truly". (B.P.)2. I even wrote letters to him, asking for help for her... But

they didn’t get any answer. (R.Ch.)3. She was pleased with the apartment. (B.P.)4. So Ian and I have something in common. (B.P.)5. "What’s your name?" "Ian". "It’s a queer name. How do

you spell it?" (B.P.)6. Can you understand that? (B.P.)7. The August day was miserably humid; one felt it even in the

air-conditioned room. (B.P.)8. I love your dress. (B.P.)9. He had nothing to say. (B.P.)

10. I know he was shocked by the marriage, I’m sure you all were, but that’s no reason to be like this. (B.P.)

Exercises 61

11. But tomorrow was hours away. (B.P.)12. "Was it a break-in, a robbery?" "I don’t think so. Nothing

was taken." (B.P.)13. The den was warm, as a den should be. (B.P.)14. But that’s only to be expected. (B.P.)15. Later that week, Ian received a telephone call at the office

from his father. (B.P.)

c) syntactic type o f the sentence:1. He saw them look at him ... (G.G.)2. "Dingy wants you to help her in there," he said firmly. (E.W.)3. Then came the charge o f poisoning my uncle to get his

property... (M.T.)4. I heard her fumbling steps going into the back part o f the

house. (R.Ch.)5. It was the sound o f something being pushed into the front

door mail slot. (R.Ch.)6. He thought o f her as doing something far different from

anything he wanted to do. She always agreed with him in this, being uncertain anyway, what he meant. (M.S.)

7. No one came to his aid, for there was no aid, nor anything to be done except to watch him cough, speed from the room, and return still purple-faced, but calmed. (B.P.)

8. I remember her saying something about that a while ago. (B.P.)

9. For a minute or two, she watched his car go down the driveway and pass out of sight. (B.P.)

10. I want to see you happy. (B.P.)11. You claim to be a religious man. (B.P.)

Exercise 19. Translate the sentences making all necessary additions.

1. Clive was hardly a man to pay much attention to women’s jewelry... (B.P.)

2. The neighbors are very friendly. (B.P.)


3. Не wants a few days before Christinas up at Red Hill, did you know? (BJP.)

4. Then the loneliness overwhelmed her... (B.P.)5. ["Margot, darling, beloved, please, will you marry me?" ...

"Well, that’s rather what I’ve been wanting to discuss with you all day" ...] "Does that mean that possibly you might, Margot?" (E.W.)

6. "I don’t want to hear about your affairs, you must manage them yourself." "Very well," said Soames immovably, "I will." (J.G.)

7. "Well, if you are all ready," said Irene, looking from one to the other with a strange smile, "dinner is too." (J.G.)

8. Dinner began in silence, the women facing one another, and the men. (J.G.)

9. Cutlets were handed, each pink-frilled about the legs. (J.G.)10. June ... sat silent, with her face to the breeze. (J.G.)11. She was upset. Something was therefore very wrong. Odd!

She and Irene had been such friends. (J.G.)12. She looked up at "the Goya" hanging opposite. (J.G.)

Exercise 20. What elements in the offered sentences want omission in translation? Translate the sentences.

1. What difference does it make? (B.P.)2. How can you even think of such a thing? (B.P.)3. Listen to me. (B.P.)4. You’re a sweet person, Roxanne. (B.P.)5. It was a dreadful thing that she had just said. (B.P.)6. "So don’t be too upset." "1*11 try not to be..." (B.P.)7. He had no enemies, 1 suppose. Not Oliver Grey, oh no.

(B.P.)8. "If it’s not one problem, it’s another," she said ... "No it’s

not, Sally. You solve one thing and go on to the next" (B.P.)9. Wait let me tie my shoes, will you? (B.P.)

10. I’ve baked a batch of chocolate brownies. (B.P.)11. "Do you really and truly think so?" (E.W.)

Exercises 63

12. "Oh, one other thing. Not a word to the boys, please, about the reasons for your leaving Oxford." (E.W.)

13. "...and do you think it would be a good thing to buy Mr. Prendergast a new tie?..." "No," said Dingy with finality, "that is going too far. Flowers and fireworks are one thing, but I insist on drawing a line somewhere." (E.W.)

14. " ...She’s also the one person Henry never but never loses temper with." (J.F.)

15. "Well, have you ever known a butler with a diamond tie-pin?" "No, I don’t think I have". "Well, Philbrick’s got one, and a diamond ring too... Colossal great diamonds..." (E.W.)

16. "Hallo, you two!" he said. (E.W.)

Exercise 21. Translate sentences containing verbs in the Passive Voice. Explain your choice o f a variant.

1. My grandmother was sentenced to Alaska for witchcraft. (J.S.)2. "The Belle-Adair burned to the water-line, sir... She was

insured". "Of course she was". "Well, I wasn’t". (J.S.)3. It [the lawn] was protected from the North by a high wall.

(E.W.)4. I was sent to have my eyes tested. (M.S.)5. I was sent for to try on my new reading glasses. (M.S.)6. Paul was awakened next morning by a loud bang on his

door... (E.W.)7. He knocked at the gate, was admitted, put away his bicycle,

and diffidently, as always, made his way ... towards his room. (E.W.)

8. The smoke was being fanned away from his face by his hand. (R.Ch.)

9. Malvern went through the doors ... then past a row o f small desks at which typewriters were being banged. (R.Ch.)

10. His clothes looked as if they had cost a great deal o f money and had been slept in. (R.Ch.)

11. I said, "The bottle may have been tampered with, have you thought o f that?" (M.S.)


Exercise 22. Translate, paying attention to the gerund. Explain your choice of a variant.

1. But, there, thinking’s no good to anyone - is it, madam? Thinking won’t help. (K.M.)

2. By money, Mary means new curtains and sure education for the kids and holding her head a little higher and... being proud rather than a little ashamed of me. (J.S.)

3. You are too fond of leaving the door open when you go out. (L.D.)

4. He stopped reading and put my paper down. (J.D.S.)5. Pussycat, stop saying that. It’s driving Mommy absolutely

crazy. (J.D.S.)6. She said gently, "Stop pretending. You’re very tired." (J.F.)7. He thought of smoking a pipe and reading another chapter

of the F o r s y t e S a g a before going to bed. (E.W.)8. "I wonder whether I’m going to enjoy being a schoolmas

ter," thought Paul. (E.W)9. "And then I wonder whether there’s any connection be

tween becoming a decent painter and ... being normal." "You’re not going to paint any better by forcing yourself to be abnormal." (J.F.)

10. That morning just before luncheon the weather began to show signs of clearing, and by half-past one the sun was shining. (E.W.)

Exercise 23. Translate. What means do you employ to render the meaning of the Past Perfect tense and the Perfect Infinitive?

1. "Maybe I shouldn’t say that. Bankers are not supposed to tell". "You didn’t tell". They had come to the comer where Elm angles into High Street. (J.S.)

2. "Croissant?" he asked. "No, thank you", she said. "I’ve eaten". (I.S.)

3. I had just filled and lit a pipe when the telephone rang again. (R.Ch.)

4. He was smaller than he had been two years ago. (M.S.)

Exercises 65

5. I had nothing more to say. Indeed, I had said too much. (G.G.)6. Ralph had stopped smiling and was pointing into the la

goon. (W.G.)7. Nulty didn’t seem to have moved. He sat in his chair in the

same attitude of sour patience. (R.Ch.)8. "What you been doing?" "What you ought to have done."

(R.Ch.)9. It must have been forgotten that I was arriving that after

noon. (J.F.)10. Could I have dropped my wallet in the Pavilion? (G.G.)11. Presently - it may have been within a few days or weeks -

my reading glasses arrived and I wore them whenever I remembered to do so. (M.S.)

Exercise 24. Define the meaning of the underlined articles and translate the sentences.

1. The officer is the one who gives the orders. (L.D.)2. What wonderful news: the painting on my wall is a Rem

brandt! (L.D.)3. I’d like a coffee, please. (L.D.)4. Utility, economy, and apparent durability are the qualities

to be sought for, I think. (E.W.)5. During the fourteen years that I have been at Llanabba there

have been six sport days and two concerts... (E.W.)6. It is easy to look back and paint a picture of how things

went. At the time it was all unclear. (M.S.)7. "You are die Mrs. Florian whose husband once ran a place

of entertainment on Central Avenue?" (R.Ch.)8. [Nulty turned over a photo that was lying face down on his

desk and handed it to me. It was a police mug, front and profile, with a fingerprint classification underneath]. "That’s the boy." (R.Ch.)

9. She opened the second door they came to and went a step in, holding the handle, watching him, uncannily like the pa- tronne [Fr - the mistress of the hotel] at the hotel where he had stayed the previous night. (J.F.)

4

66 О. В. Петрова • Введение и теорию и практику перевода

10. (The negro bent regretfully and heaved a city directory up on top of the desk and pushed it towards m e...) There was a Jessie Florian ... in the book. (R.Ch.)

11. [Malwem, a private detective - hero of the story, - is making his way through a fighting crowd in a night club] Malvern shook an arm off... (R.Ch.)

Exercise 25. Define the function of the infinitive in each sentence. Translate them.

1. The trouble is, you need capital to start. (J.S.)2. "You’ve given me a lot to chew on... But I wonder if you

can give me some little idea of when you will start". (J.S.)3. He was alone... Alone with his heart, his boot, his life to

come... (J.G.)4. "To work", said the Doctor, "We have a lot to see to." (E.W.)5. "Grimes," he said, "I can’t keep you in the House after what

has happened. I have the other boys to consider." (E.W.)6. Nulty paused to collect a little breath and wait for my

comments. (R.Ch.)7. ... it seemed too good an opportunity to be missed. (E.W.)8. I held the phone tight enough to crack it. (R.Ch.)9. Alex shook my hand... and slapped me on the shoulder with a

palm that was tough enough to crack a black walnut (R.P.W.)10. He got to Orly [airport in Paris] to find the flight was de

layed for half an hour. (J.F.)11. I’m afraid you’ll find my attitude rather difficult to under

stand. (E.W.)

Exercise 26. Single out absolute constructions, analyze their structure. Translate the sentences.

1. The May day was a late reminder of March, the sun having abruptly gone in behind gray-white clouds that, colored and curled like a sheep’s back, lay low in the sky. (B.P.)

2. At last Ralph ceased to blow and sat there, the conch trailing from one hand, his head bowed on his knees. (W.G.)

Exercises 67

3. As the bell stopped ringing Dr Fagan swept into the hall, the robes of a Doctor of Philosophy swelling and billowing about him. (E.W.)

4. The prowl boys ... walk in, the front door not being locked. (R.Ch.)

5. He was a boy of perhaps six years, sturdy and fair, his clothes tom, his face covered with a sticky mess of fruit. (W.G.)

6. The boys stood ranged along the panelled walls, each holding in his hands a little pile of books. (E.W.)

7. Bryce-Green was sitting, with cigar held out and mouth a little open... (J.G.)

8. ...Francesca had them photographed with a low table set with a lace-edged tray of afternoon tea and the sun streaming in the window. (M.S.)

9. I went I worked around the edge of the grandstand, through the crowd, with Willie’s voice hammering on the eardrums and shaking dead leaves off the oak trees. (R.P.W.)

10. Close to the road a cow would stand knee-deep in the mist, with horns damp enough to have a pearly shine in the starlight... (R.P.W.)

Exercise 27. Translate the following, paying attention to causative verbs.

1. His wife ... had been compelled..., owing to the ailing state of their child, to go up to the mountains to her mother... (Th.D.)

2. He had a shower and forced himself to reread his draft introduction to "The Art of Henry Breasley"... (J.F.)

3. The country air tempted us to get up early. (B.Sh.)4. ...she continued the story how she was led to give up gen

eral practice and take up psychology. (M.S.)5. "We got to find the others. We got to do something." (W.G.)6. If you could try and get her to talk. (J.F.)7. Why don’t you get him to see you in town sometime?

(R.P.W.)

68 О. В. Петрова » Введение в теорию и практику перевода

8. [The child comes home and the parent puts the hooks on him... ] All he wants is to have his child sit in a chair for a couple of hours and then go off to bed under the same roof. (R.P.W.)

9. It’s all up with his candidature. He’ll be laughed out of the town. (B.Sh.)

10. [Under such circumstances many other women besides Mrs. Dungeon find themselves sitting up all night waiting for news.] Like her, too, they fall asleep towards morning at the risk of nodding themselves into the kitchen fire. (B.Sh.)

Exercise 28. Translate the following emphatic sentences. What means of emphasis were used by the authors? How is adequacy of translation achieved?

1. "You seem to have got over your mullygrabs"1 "I had them... yesterday. Don’t know where they come from". "Don’t I know! Sometimes with me not for the usual reason". (J.S.)

2. Not for five minutes could they drag themselves away from this triumph. (W.G.)

3. "On your marks! Get set." Bang went Mr. Philbrick’s revolver. Off trotted the boys on another race. (E.W.)

4. It should have been stuff called eserine. That’s what she usually had, the doctor says. (M.S.)

5. Well, that’s what we all think about, him, anyway. (E.W.)6. I think it was then she recognized me. (M.S.)7. There was a strong hope that Miss Simmonds’ one eye would

survive. It was she who made up the prescription. (M.S.)8. "But I expect I’m boring you?" "No, do go on." (E.W.)9. I knew he was going to select one sheet of paper from the sheaf,

and this one document would be the exciting, important one... He did extract one long sheet of paper, and hold it up. (M.S.)

10. "And now I am going to play the organ", said Be- ste-Chetwynde. "After all, my mother does pay five guineas a term extra for me to learn." (E.W.)

1 mullygrabs,mulligrabs - сплин, хандра, тоска

TEXTS FOR TRANSLATION

Text 1

MATCHING THE MAN AND THE RIGHT JOB

Art Buchwald

Vice PresidentGlucksville DynamicsGlucksville, California

Dear Sir:

I am writing in regard to employment with your firm. I have a B.S. from USC and a Ph.D. in physics from the California Institute of Technology.

In my previous position I was in charge of research and development for the Harrington Chemical Co. We did work in thermo-nuclear energy, laser beam refraction, hydrogen molecule development, and heavy water computer data.

Several of our research discoveries have been adapted for commercial use, and one particular breakthrough in linear hydraulics is now being used in every oil company in the country.

Because of the cutback in defense orders, the Harrington Co. decided to shut down its research and development department. It is for this reason I am available for immediate employment.

Hoping to hear from you in the near future, I remain.Sincerely yours,Edward KASE


Dear Mr. Kase:

We regret to inform you that we have no positions available for someone of your excellent qualifications. The truth of the matter is that we find you are "overqualified" for any position we might offer you in our organ izatioa Thank you for thinking of us, and if anything comes up in the future, we will be getting in touch with you.

Yours truly,Merriman HASELBALD

Administrative Vice President Personnel Director Jessel International Systems Crewcut, Mich.

Dear Sir:

I am applying for a position with your company in any responsible capacity. I have had a college education and have fiddled around in research and development. Occasionally we have come up with money-making ideas. I would be willing to start off at a minimal salary to prove my value to your firm.

Sincerely yours,Edward KASE

Dear Mr. Kase:

Thank you for your letter of the 15th. Unfortunately, we have no positions at the moment for someone with a college education. Frankly, it is the feeling of everyone here that you are "overqualified", and your experience indicates that you would be much happier with a company that could make full use of your talents.

It was kind of you to think of us.Hardy LANDSDOWNE

Texts for Translation 71

Personnel Dept.To whom it may concern

Geis & Waterman, Inc.Ziegfried, III.

Dere Ser,

I’d like a job with your outfit. I can do anything you want me to. You name it, Kase will do it. I ain’t got no education and no experience, but I’m strong and I got moxy an I get along great with people. I’m ready to start any time because I need the bread. Let me know when you want me.

Sincerely yours,Edward KASE

Dear Mr. Kase

You are just the person we have been looking for. We need a truck driver, and your qualifications are perfect for us. You can begin working in our Westminster plant on Monday. Welcome aboard.

Carson PETERS, Personnel

Text 2

TALKING LIKE YOUR PARENTS? YOU COULD DO WORSE

John Rosemond

In this time o f widespread parent-bashing, it’s risky to be writing a column in praise o f the attitudes my parents’ generation brought to the job o f raising children, but I’ve always been a risk-taker, so...


"Because an automobile wears out. In three years you’ll be lucky to get 900 pieces of paper for i t" , »

"Yeah, but you can’t get around town on a piece of paper.""Believe me, this is no time to get out of paper. If you don’t

want to put your money in notes, put it in stock. It’s more of a gamble, but it’s still paper."

"What kind of stock?" "There is a company called A&C that is rumored to be buying out the P&Q Company. The buyers have offered 65 pieces of A&C paper for each P&Q certificate, which is only worth 30. If you buy, and the deal goes through, you’ll make a paper profit of 35 certificates."

"What does the A&C Company do?""Who knows!""Is the P&Q Compamy making any money?""No. That’s why A&C wants to buy it You see, P&Q had a

bad year and has huge tax losses. A&C had a good year and made a lot of profits. So, if it buys the losing company, A&C will be able to offset its profits against P&Q’s losses, and then it won’t have to pay any taxes to the government"

"Sounds like a good deal. Would it be all right to buy a dishwasher this fall? Ann says the other one is falling apart."

"This is no time to buy a dishwasher. I need all your cash to put into an ALL-Savers account so you can get tax-free interest."

"Great. But what do we do with all the dirty dishes?""Let them pile up until the loan rates go down.""I don’t think Ann’s going to like that.""She will when you show it to her on paper.""My wife was never much for paper. She likes to buy things

like chairs and lamps and clothes.""Most of my clients’ wives are like that and, believe me, it

doesn’t make my life any easier. But you just have to hang tough and explain that the more pieces of paper you can put away right now, the less you’ll have to worry about your future."

"What do I give my grandchildren for Christmas?""How about some nice, safe municipal bonds?"


Text 4

IN THE BANK1

Stephen Leacock

When I go into a bank I get rattled. The clerks rattle me; the wickets rattle me; the sight o f money rattles me; everything rattles me.

The moment I cross the threshold o f a bank and attempt to transact there, I become an irresponsible idiot.

I knew this beforehand, but my salary had been raised to fifty dollars a month and I felt that the bank was the only place for it.

So 1 shambled in and looked timidly round at the clerks. I had an idea that a person about to open an account must needs consult the manager.

I went up to a wicket marked "Accountant". The accountant was a tall, cool devil. The very sight o f him rattled me. My voice was sepulchral.

"Can I see the manager?" I said, and added solemnly, "alone". I don’t know why I said "alone".

"Certainly", said the accountant, and fetched him.The manager was a grave calm man. I had my fifty-six

dollars clutched in a crumpled ball in my pocket."Are you the manager?" I said. God knows 1 didn’t doubt

it. "Yes," he said."Can I see you", I asked, "alone?" 1 didn’t want to say

"alone" again, but without it the thing seemed self-evident.The manager looked at me in some alarm. He felt that I

had an awful secret to reveal.

1 from "My Financial Career"

76' О. В. Петрова • Введение в теорию и практику перевода

"Come in here", he said, and led the way to a private room. He turned the key in the lock.

"We are safe from interruption here", he said; "sit down".We both sat down and looked at each other. I found no

voice to speak."You are one of Pinkerton’s men, 1 presume", he said. He

had gathered from my mysterious manner that I was a detective. 1 knew what he was thinking, and it made me worse.

"No, not from Pinkerton’s", I said, seeming to imply that I came from a rival agency.

‘ "To tell the truth," I went on, as if I had been prompted to lie about it, "I am not a detective at all. I have come to open and account. I intend to keep all my money in this bank".

The manager looked relieved but still serious; he concluded now that I was a son of Baron Rothschild or a young Gould.

"A large account, I suppose", he said."Fairly large", I whispered. "I propose to deposit fifty-six

dollars now and fifty dollars a month regularly".The manager got up and opened the door. He called to the

accountant."Mr. Montgomery", he said unkindly loud, "this gen

tleman is opening an account, he will deposit fifty-six dollars. Good morning".

I rose.A big iron door stood open at the side of the room."Good morning", I said, and stepped into the safe."Come out", said the manager coldly, and showed me the

other way.


Text 5

INDOMITABLE LITTLE MAN1

Joseph North

Only those who reach for their gun when they hear the world "culture" (like the late critic, Herr Dr. Joseph Gobbels) can dislike Charlie Chaplin whose works are enjoying a revival in New York today. I took the occasion in the current torrid spell to re-see his "Modern Times". I can only say that it remains a masterpiece of art, and a profound comment on contemporary life in these United States.

I recall no author of novel or treatise, or, for that matter, sociologist, historian or journalist or labor figure who captured so memorably the condition of his time as Chaplin did in this film. Since it has become fashionable in many circles to deride the Thirties as an era of literary and cultural renaissance, one must add Chaplin’s works as refutation. The apex of his career can be found in that period, for he, the prescient artist, involved with mankind, reflected the power o f the people’s resistant will with which he identified himself.

The film of ironic genius portrays a time of unemployment and simultaneously, the march of the machines. His hero, the hapless vagrant, is fired by the resolve to earn a living to help the child of a workingman shot dead in an unemployment demonstration. In his inimitable flatfooted way, Charlie races through a vast crowd of desperate jobless seeking work in a newly opened factory. After screwing the bolts in the ever-faster belt, which attains a lunatic speed at the bidding of the polished, well-clad gentleman in the executive’s office, Charlie goes in as crazy the tempo. Wrench in hand, and obsessed by the need to fasten all the

1 "The Worker", July 12. 1964

78 О. В. Петрова • Введение в теорию и пракгик г севода

bolts tight, he goes after anything that looks like a bolt. And this to the consternation of several ladies adorned with large buttons in delicately strategic spots.

There are many delicious, yet profoundly pertinent moments, like his natural desire to snatch a moment’s respite from the belt and steal a smoke in the men’s room. The televised image of the scowling man in the front office flashes on the wall with a command to drop that cigarette and get back to work. Remember this film was made in the mid-Thirties, the use of television as a tyrannical spy awaited full comment for nearly thirty years in the current best seller by Vance Packard.

He is caught up in a demonstration of the jobless and is mistaken for a "Communist leader" by the police. Again the clubs descend, again there is jail, and he makes acid comment of contrast between his life behind bars and the roaring hunger outside.

There is the dream of the good life he describes to the discouraged and lovely waif whom he aspired to help. It is that of a rose-covered cottage with fruit-trees growing outside the kitchen. He can pluck an orange from the window, milk a convenient and congenial cow for the breakfast coffee, all is clean and brilliantly cheerful in this imaginary homestead where his lunch is packed with 6clat and abundance. The security of love and ample food reigns over his household. A dream.

Whatever the vicissitudes and thwarted aspirations, this underdog is indomitable. There is that ultimate fade-out that can be translated as corny as he and the little lady finally proceed up the road into the dawning sun. The scene can be interpreted otherwise. Though there is no safe harbor, they have eluded the cops, and survived the clap of despair, and they go anew and undaunted.

It is a tale worth telling, worth hearing, and seeing. Certainly it is one of the best products of the Thirties, or for that matter, of modem times, certainly the finest in cinema.


To the cavemen at the helm o f society, Chaplin is o f course a dangerous man. Thus they exiled the finest artist o f our age, made him go through the paces as Voltaire did who had to flee the Paris o f his time; or Zola after his " J ’accuse", or Brecht after the "critics" came to power who reach for their gun when they hear that damnable word.

Text 6

CONGRESS - WHAT IS IT?1

D.C.Coyle

The United States Congress differs from a parliament chiefly in the fact that it does not contain the executive. The President and his Cabinet are not members o f the House, as the Prime Minister and his Cabinet are in England. The Congress cannot peremptorily ask a question o f the President except in an impeachment proceeding; and if it refuses to pass an Administration bill, there is no "crisis". The President in that case does not resign; nor does he dissolve Congress and force a new election.

In the United States Government, the people are represented in one way by the Congress and in another by the President. Each has the right and the means to appeal directly to the people for support against the other, and they do. The effect is that the struggle between the Executive and Congress varies between open hostilities and armed truce, even when the President’s party is in control o f Congress. Another situation, that cannot occur in a parliament, arises when the people choose a President o f one party and a Congress o f another, putting the executive and the legislative branches automatically in opposition to each other.

1 from "The U.S. Political System"


The United States Congress is therefore more irresponsible than a parliament, for the member of the President’s party can vote against an Administration proposal without voting to have the President resign. This lack of responsibility encourages demagogues in Congress to play for headlines, since the party in power does not feel that strict discipline is a matter of life and death.

One effect of the separation of powers is that the Senate is as important a body as the House. In other countries there is a tendency for the lower house, since it controls the executive, to assume all the power, letting the upper house live on as a debating society of elder statesmen.

The tradition of a two-chambered legislature is deeply rooted in American political life. The colonial governments had two chambers and so do all the States except Nebraska. But the principal reason that no one can conceive of any movement toward a one-chamber Congress is that the United States is still a Federal Union of large and small States.

The fact that all bills have to pass two different bodies does not cause delay in emergencies when the people are united in favor of following the President’s leadership. But on ordinary matters in ordinary times, legislation is slow, hearings are duplicated, and an opposition has advantages over the proposition.

The Senate and the House of Representatives differ in their composition and attitude, even though the Constitution has been amended to shift the election of senators from the State legislatures to the plain voters. The senators average a few years older than the congressmen. Congressmen often move up into the Senate, but few ex-senators have ever run for the House. The senators are more distinguished by their office because there are only 100 of them while there are 435 congressmen. A seat in the Senate has a high publicity value which can be used for good or ill purposes.


Text 7

INTRODUCTION TO THE UNITED NATIONS1

Peter Lyon

Those who depend upon the press - and upon the televised "news" programs - for their information about what is going in the world can be excused for believing that there is nothing to the United Nations but the Security Council and the General Assembly; that what goes on there is only an interminable, sterile debate, periodically punctured in the Security Council by Soviet vetoes; and that there is no achievement, no progress, no positive action proposed, planned, or indeed possible.

A glance at the structure o f the United Nations, however, affords a quite different and happier view o f our present and future. It also shrinks the Security Council to its proper scale.

The General Assembly is the core o f the United Nations, here the nations, whether great or small, sit on an equal basis, each with one vote. Ringing the General Assembly like five planets around the sun are the Secretariat, the International Court o f Justice, the Security Council, the Trusteeship Council, and the Economic and Social Council. Each has its particular function, each its particular authority.

The influence and authority o f the Secretariat depends to an extent (though not nearly to the extent that is popularly supposed) on the talent o f one individual - the Secretory General. The job is a peculiar one. Some o f those who drafted the Charter imagined that the Secretary General would be merely a superclerk, taking orders from the great powers as they desired; others sensed that he might become an executive, willing and doing, even sometimes obliging

1 from "The UN in Action"


a Great Power to tail along after him. In the event, the Secretary General has exerted power according to his individual capacity.

The International Court of Justice, which: sits in the Peace Palace in The Hague, is the juridical arm of the United Nations adjudicating international squabbles of a special kind. The qualification is a weighty one, involving that sacred shibboleth, national sovereignty. Obviously, there are times when a proud power does not care to have fifteen impartial judges, citizens, as it may be, of fifteen foreign countries, deciding that particular power’s rights. The rights may be so important that the power may elect to fight for them. This being the case, no issue comes before the Court unless the disputing parties have agreed to abide by the Court’s decision. (Many treaties and international conventions contain clauses binding the signatories to accept the jurisdiction of the Court). Despite this limitation on its jurisdiction, the Court manages to smooth a considerable number of petty frictions, and keep them form becoming serious vexations.

The Security Council, as we are all painfully aware, has the responsibility of keeping peace in the world. Since war, as one of its proponents has observed, is only the continuation of politics by other means, the Security Council has in practice taken on the more intransigent political problems of the time; when they have continued to resist solution, they have been transformed into various bureaucratic appendages of the Security Council: the Disarmament Commission, the United Nations Operation in Congo, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and so on. To the Security Council has also been delegated the decisions as to whether a state qualifies for membership in the United Nations: down through the years this responsibility has spawned some epic spats, and provoked repeated use of the veto (not always by the USSR). Moreover, in the Security Council the dialogue, spoken and snarled, is exceedingly public, and therefore the diplomats are obliged to strike the posture of propagandists. In the process the cause of peace is not served, but the kindergarten theory flourishes.

Texts for Translation S3

Text 8

IS THE MONROE DOCTRINE DEAD?1

Let me assure you that any report that you may have read concerning the death of the Monroe Doctrine was greatly exaggerated.

Carl Vinson, Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

Is the Monroe Doctrine outdated? Not by a long sight. It cannot be possibly regarded as dead. Has it been put in the hands of an inter-American committee? Or does it have the pristine vigor with which President James Monroe challenged the threats of banded European powers to recapture the colonies that had revolted against Spain? That is one o f the questions posed by the Soviet presence in Cuba.

In 1825, President Monroe told the monarchs of the Holly Alliance "that we should consider any attempt on their part to extend their system to any portion of this hemisphere as dangerous to our peace and safety".

The doctrine worked - with the blessing of the British fleet. And when Napoleon III set up Archduke Maximilian an Emperor of Mexico during our Civil War, it worked again, this time supported by a 50,000 army of observation moved to the Mexican border, as soon as the war had ended.

President Cleveland vigorously invoked the Monroe Doctrine in 1895 against Britain in a dispute over the boundaries between British Guyana and Venezuela, and the British consented to put all the disputed territory under arbitration.

1 New York Herald Tribune, September 10, 1963


At this time Cleveland wrote that the doctrine "cannot become obsolete while our Republic endures". Perhaps not — but it did change. Still its importance has been as great as that of any principle in America.

Originally the United States did not object, in theory, when European Nations resorted to debt collecting by force against defaulting Latin American states. But it did not fail to grasp the danger of such expeditions. The Caribbean became recognized as a particularly sensitive area, and President Theodore Roosevelt in 1904 produced a variant on the doctrine, which became known as the Roosevelt (or Caribbean).

Flagrant cases of chronic wrongdoing or governmental impotence, said Roosevelt, may ultimately require intervention by some civilized nation, and in the western hemisphere the adherence of the Monroe Doctrine may force the United States, however reluctantly, to the exercise of an international police power. The power was exercised in a number of Caribbean nations — Cuba (where it was provided for by the treaty of 1903), Santo Domingo, Haiti and Nicaragua among them.

The idea of the United States as international policeman was, of course, not popular in Latin America, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, dedicating the nation "to the policy of the good neighbor", moved rapidly toward the renunciation of "armed intervention".

So the Americas moved by degrees toward common measures for defense and mutual assistance. In 1939, when the war broke out in Europe, the Act of Panama set up a neutral zone on the seas (sometimes called the Pan-American Security Zone, but more commonly "chastity belt").

Measures for defense against the Axis powers were concerted (with some feet-dragging) and the destroyers-for-bases deal with Britain was billed as a measure for hemispheric protection.


With the war’s end, the hemisphere moved to a treaty o f mutual defense and establishment o f the Organization o f American States. These provide for consultation and joint action. There has been rather more consultation than action.

Feeling against intervention, joint or single, is strong in Latin America, as well as fear o f the Yankee "Colossus o f the North". Some are afraid lest it should apply the Monroe Doctrine independent o f and even opposing the Charter o f the United Nations.

Text 9

THE GREAT DEBATE1

The "captains and kings"2 o f the Commonwealth having departed, the tumult and the shouting about the Common Market are more likely to flare up than to die down. This is as it should be. The Government’s pledges about the Commonwealth and EFTA were not given to them. They were assurances given to the British people. Whether the pledges have been kept or not, and whether Britain will be in a position honourably to join the Six, will be for Parliament to decide. Even more strongly is it for the nation through Parliament to weigh the advantages and disadvantages, the opportunities and the hazards, o f such a step. The sooner the great national debate can get under way the better.

1 "The Times", September 24,19622 Quotation from Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem "Recessional"

(последнее песнопение) written to celebrate the 60 anniversary of the reign o f Queen Victoria:

The tumult and the shouting dies.The Captains and the Kings depart;Still stands thine ancient sacrifice,And humble and a contrite heart.

86 О. В. Петрова » Введение в теорию и практику перевода

It has always been unreal to believe it could be postponed until after everything had been signed in Brussels. Now that the talks threaten to go on for a further appreciable time the Government will be forced to campaign if a national will to enter is to be maintained. This is not merely a matter of the merits of the case having to be kept in mind. A government that does not appear to be actively fighting for a cause it believes in is apt to find that cause losing ground whatever its merits. The same thing is true within the Conservative party. It is by no means unanimous about the Common Market. The opponents will not match any official restraints. Next month’s party conference could start a hardening process one way or the other.

Mr. Gaitskell is perhaps in the most difficult position. Exactly how his party is split on the Common Market is hotly disputed on another page. That it is split is obvious. However much he may lean one way or the other, Mr. Gaitskell cannot afford yet to come off his fence. He declares the economic arguments are evenly balanced. He is ominous about the political hazards. He summons up the glow of our historic past generally and the gloom of today’s Commonwealth on this particular issue. The one thing he is forthright about is that the terms Mr. Heath is likely to get will not be good enough, the implication being that a Labour Government’s negotiator would get better ones.

There is no need to warn so able a politician as Mr. Gaitskell of the dangers he runs. If a general election gave him office he might find himself quickly having to justify his assertions. Either he would have to negotiate, with no certainty of making good his terms or he would have to turn his back on Brussels and lead Britain in some other direction.

The national debate will be healthy only if in this matter of alternatives certain questions are frankly answered. What are the actual possibilities of Commonwealth trade being built up to be a satisfactory alternative? How many Commonwealth countries would be willing to mortgage enough of their economic freedom


for a sufficient number o f years ahead and advantageously enough for Britain to make this abandonment o f the will to join the Six a fair exchange? Most important o f all, how long under such an arrangement would Britain be able to remain a satisfying enough market for the Commonwealth? The debate on the Common Market must never be allowed to stray far from the state o f the British nation.

Text 10

WHY FLOG A DYING W HITE ELEPHANT1

A galaxy o f Ministers have gathered at the wake o f Nato in Paris for the last meeting o f the Nato Council there before General de Gaulle bundles the organisation and all its works out o f France.

They are the Foreign Secretary (George Brown), the Defence Minister (Denis Healy), the Chancellor o f the Exchequer (Jim Callaghan), and the Minister for Europe (George Thomson).

De Gaulle took France out o f Nato some time ago, because he said staying in meant being run by the United States and he wasn’t having that.

VETO

By the same token he proposes once more to veto Britain’s entry into the Common Market, because, in the words o f the Evening Standard Paris correspondent (December 14), "he regards Mr. Wilson as President Johnson’s stooge agent and so it follows for him that Britain must not be allowed to stage any Trojan horse staff for the Americans inside the Market".

1 Morning Star, December 17, 1966


Meanwhile there was a considerable row in the House on December 12, and, according to the press, another at the Parliamentary Labour Party’s meeting two days later.

This was a result of George Thomson’s announcement that the Government had agreed to "make no changes in their troop and supply dispositions in Germany" and to go on talking with the Americans and Germans at least until next July about our share of Nato defence costs.

It had further been agreed that they would continue to "act in concert with their allies and follow the prescribed Nato and Western European Union procedures".

CONSENT

These require the consent of our allies to reducing our commitments in Nato, however tough our economic situation, instead of cutting our Nato defence costs now and by our own decision, as the Government has so often said it would do and as the state of our economy says we must do.

The House was treated to the extraordinary spectacle of Labour backbenchers cheering Sir Alec Douglas-Home when he recalled the Chancellor’s pledge on introducing his budget last May, that the Government would secure "relief from the whole of the foreign exchange costs of keeping our forces in Germany", and concluded that therefore George Thomson’s statement represented "a complete failure of the Government policy in this respect".

FEEBLE

Michael Foot banged home that point: it was about time the Government understood, he said, that many of us on the Labour back benches "find the continued stalling of the German Gov-


emment on this subject, and the utterly feeble response o f the British Government to it totally intolerable".

This was particularly so as when they introduced the wage freeze on July 20 they had repeated that "part o f those very stringent measures involved severe cuts in the amount which we spend on our forces in Germany".

He warned the Government that if it did not do better than that, it was going to have a first-class row on its hands.

"Manny" Shinwell, who as chairman o f the Parliamentary• Labour Party and former War Minister is no longer often a rebel,

pointed out that "this matter has been dragging on for many years", and that "Field-Marshal Lord Montgomery, who certainly

| knows as much as anybody on either Front Bench about military matters, has asserted that no more than 20,000 troops are required

! in Germany" (instead o f our present 55,000).

IM POSSIBLE

On the former point, the Prime Minister told the House two | years ago (December 16, 1964) that the upkeep o f BAOR meant

"a gap falling on our balance o f payments o f £55 million to £60 - million. I am certain the House will agree that this is an impos

sible situation".

Over a year and a half ago, on May 11, 1965, he told the Nato Council that "a very high proportion o f Britain’s balance o f payments problem is created by overseas defence expenditure, not least within the Nato area... I want my colleagues to realise that we cannot and do not intend to continue to take this unfair share o f the economic burden".

But ten days ago, on December 6, Foreign Secretary George Brown told the House that the BAOR is costing us £94 million in foreign exchange this year and the Bonn Government is offering only £31 million by way o f off-set payments.

90 О. В. Петрова ♦ Введение в теорию и практику перевода

RACKET

That means the "gap" is several million pounds wider today than when the Prime Minister declared two years ago that the situation was impossible.

On the second point - the value of Nato - Lord Montgomery told the Lords on November 30, not only that 20,000 British troops would be ample, but that "the real danger in Europe is Germany", and that Nato is well on the way to becoming a political racket. Money is being chucked like water. Every nation is trying to grab as much as it can. There are enormous military headquarters, from Norway right across Europe down to Naples.

Parkinson’s Law is evidently working on an American scale in Nato. It is working politically as well as financially: the more Nato costs, the less sense it makes, and the wilder the reasons advanced for trying to keep it going.

In the November 30 Lords debate the long-standing pretext that Nato is necessary to protect us against Soviet forces marching in to impose Communism was all but officially scuttled.

After all, not even their Lordships can swallow that stuff any longer.

REVIVAL

Instead speaker after speaker agreed that we must not cut our forces in Nato, because we want to enter the European Economic Community (whereas our loyalty to the U.S. is going to keep us out), and that we have to keep them there because of the revival of Germany nationalism.

One Noble Lord said he had "always regarded Germany, and not Russia, as our potential enemy".


In view of the revival o f German nationalism and neo-nazism he thought we should keep all our forces in Nato to "guard against possible trouble in Germany". He was "profoundly glad that the Russians are along the frontier".

The logic of that muddled argument would be that Britain should get out of Nato and join the Warsaw alliance.

OPPOSED

Instead, the Nato Council decided to admit West Germany to a share in taking nuclear decisions.

On January 31 and July 3, 1963 Mr. Wilson declared that the Labour Party was utterly and unalterably opposed to such a policy, on the double ground that it would whet the Bonn Government’s nuclear appetite and make impossible any agreement with the USSR on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.

That is equally true today.

In any case it would make more sense to close with the repeated Soviet offers to scrap both Nato and the Warsaw alliance and conclude all-European agreements for disengagement and disarmament, non-aggression and peaceful settlement o f disputes and collective security on lines consistent with the UN Charter.

That would, in effect, mean at long last acting on the policies to which the Labour Party has been officially pledged ever since 1958, arid on the principle, proclaimed as recently as in the Government’s 1966 Defence White Paper, that defence must be the servant and not the master of foreign policy.

Ay - there’s the rub; to do that would mean ceasing to flog the dying white elephant Nato, owned and trained and entered for the Armageddon Stakes by Uncle Sam.


LOYALTY

In other words, it would mean breaking with the policy pursued by all three parties in Parliament ever since the war, of basing our world position on all-in loyalty to the U.S. alliance, which, because of the vast disparity of power, necessarily and inevitably means total subservience to the U.S. Administration. It is the United States in conjunction with Blimpish and arms manufacturing interests at home which is forcing the Government to go on playing the economically ruinous, military megalomaniac "east of Suez worlds" role and to scrap our own policies for making peace in Europe.

Anglo-American policy confounds the social and ideological challenge of Communism which is real, with an entirely mythical and non-existent threat of Soviet aggression. It reverts to type the exploded fallacy, which nuclear weapons have made literally deadly, that the way to preserve peace is to prepare for war - through a balance of power sustained by the U.S. run alliance Nato, Cento and SEATO and a crushingly costly race in weapons of universal destruction, in service of President Johnson’s anti-Communist crusade.

NUCLEAR

The American alliance has become a nuclear Holy Alliance, a global successor to Hitler’s anti-Communist Axis.

The alternative is to take our stand on the United Nations Charter in deed and not only in word.

That means co-operation on equal terms with West and East, the U.S. and USSR; peaceful co-existence and co-operation with both and not being allied with either against the other.

That is the policy to which Labour is pledged and in which most of the party believes. It is the only policy which will work.

ABBREVIATIONS

A.C. - A. CoppardB.Sh. - B. Shaw B.P. - Belva Plain Ch.D. - Ch. DickensE .W .-E . WaughG.& d’U. - G. Gow and A. d’UsseauG.G. - G. GreenJ.D.S. - J. D. SalingerJ.F. - J. FowlesJ.G. - J. GalsworthyJ.S. - J. SteinbeckI.Sh. - 1. ShawK.G. - K. GrahameK.M. - K. MansfieldL.C. - L. CarrollL.D. - Longman Dictionary of Contemporary EnglishL.A.D. - Longman Dictionary of American EnglishM.S. — M. SparkM.T. — M. TwainR.Ch. - R. ChandlerR.L. - R. LudlumR .P.W .-R . P. WarrenTh.D. - Th. DreiserW.G. - W. Golding

FICTION AND DICTIONARIES CITED

. Bradbury, R. Fahrenheit 451. Shot Stories. Raduga Publishers, 1983.• Bronte, Ch. Jane Eyre. Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1954.• Carroll, L. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Progress Pub

lishers, 1979.• Chandler, R. Farewell, My Lovely. Progress Publishers, 1983.• Christie, A. Dumb Witness. Pan Books in association with

Collins, 1979.• Collier, J. Back for Christmas // Making It All Right (Modem

English Short Stories). Progress Publishes, 1978.• Coppard, A. The Third Prize // Stories by Modem English Au

thors. Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1961.• Dickens, Ch. Martin Chuzzlewit Foreign Languages Publishing

House, 1951.• Dickens, Ch. The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club.

Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1949.• Dreiser, Th. Will You Walk into My Parlor (extract). See Zeltin et aL• Fowles, J. The Ebony Tower. Progress Publishers, 1980.

Galsworthy, J. In Chancery. Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1949.Galsworthy, J. The Broken Boot. See Zeltin et al.Galsworthy, J. The Forsyte Saga. The Man of Property. Progress Publishers, 1974.Galsworthy, J. A Modem Comedy. The White Monkey. Progress Publishers, 1976.Golding, W. Lord of the Flies. Progress Publishers, 1982.Gow, J. and d’Usseau., A. Deep Are the Roots. Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1951.Grahame, K. The Wind in the Willows. Progress Publishers, 1981 Greene, G. The Quite American (extract). See Zeltin ei al. O’Henry. The Gift of the Magi // O’Henry. Selected Stories. Progress Publishers, 1977.Huxley, A. Crome Yellow. Progress Publishers, 1979.Jerome, K. Jerome. Three Men in a Boat. Moscow Higher School, 1976.Leacock, S. Perfect Lover’s Guide and other stories. Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1963.

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. Ludlum, R. The Matlock Paper. Bantam Books', 1989.• Mansfield, K. The Lady’s Maid. See Zeltin et al.• Maugham, W.S. Gigolo and Gigolette//L.S.Golovchinskaya. Oral

Practice in Modem English. Higher School Publishing House, 1967.. Maugham, W.S. The Moon and Sixpence. Progress Publishers, 1972.. Maugham, W.S. Mr. Know-All. See Zeltin et al.. Mikes, G. How to Be the Centre of the Universe // L.S.Golovchin-

skaya. Speak Good English. 4th Year. Higher School. 1978.. Plain, B. The Carousel. Del Publishing, New York, 1996• Salinger, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Progress Publishers, 1968.• Salinger, J.D. Nine Stories, Fanny and Zooey, Raise High the

Roof Beam, Carpenters Progress Publishers, 1982.• Shaw, G.B. Augustus Does His Bit. See Zeltin et al.• Shaw, G.B. Selected Works. Foreign Languages Publishing

House, 1958.. Shaw, G.B. Four Plays. Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1952.• Shaw I. Evening in Byzantium. Dell Publishing Co., Inc., 1978.. Spark M. The Public Image. Progress Publishers, 1967.• Steinbeck, J. The Winter o f Our Discontent. Vyssaja Skola, 1985.. Twain, M. Running for Govemer. See Zeltin et al.. Wodehouse, P.G. Mulliner Nights. Penguin Books, 1981.• Warren, R.P. All the King’s Men. Progress Publishers, 1979.• Waugh, E. Prose. Memoirs. Essays. Progress Publishes, 1980.• Woodehouse, P.G. Mulliner Nights. Penguin Books, 1981.• Zeltin, E.M., Zhivotovskaya, D.I., Tenson, I.A. English Gradua

tion Course. М.: Междунар. отн., 1972.• The Oxford Russian Dictionary. Oxford University Press, 1995.• Longman Dictionary o f Contemporary English. Longman.

Longman Group Ltd. 1978.• Longman Dictionary o f American English. Longman, 1983.. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles.

Third edition. Oxford. At the Clarendon Press, 1956.• Большой англо-русский словарь в двух томах / Под общим

руководством проф.И.Р.Гальперина. М.: Сов. энц., 1972.• Дополнение к большому англо-русскому словарю / Под общим

руководством проф. И.Р.Гальперина. М.: Русский язык, 1980.• Рум А.Р.У., Колесников JI.B., Пасечник Г.А. и др. Великобрита

ния: Лингвострановедческий словарь. М.: Русский язык, 1978.• Кунин А.В. Англо-русский фразеологический словарь. В 2т.

3-е изд. М.: Сов. энц., 1967.

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