The Ways of Translation of Ukrainian Realias in I. Franko’s Fairytale Poem «Fox Mykyta»

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the peculiarities of the translation of Ukrainian realias into English and the means of their transmission in poetic works, namely in the Ivan Franko’s poem-tale «Fox Mykyta», translated into English by Bohdan Melnyk. The article deals with such phenomenon as realia and elaborates methods of its translation, describes the main opinions of scientists on this type of words. Particular attention is paid to the reproduction of Ukrainian names, folk vocabulary in the English version of the poem-tale «Fox Mykyta». The translation of realias is part of the problem of reproducing the national and historical color of a country. Realias are objects of material culture that are characteristic of a particular people, nationality or community, conveying national identity, self-awareness and color. Translating realias has been, is and will be a difficult task for a translator. Because realias denote concepts that do not exist in other languages and cultures, they often complicate the translation process. Nevertheless, such a phenomenon as realia because of its complexity is of interest to scholars and translators. The urgency of the topic is due to the fact that the question of the nature of cultural and everyday realias in literary texts and the means used to convey them is insufficiently studied. At the same time, the translation of fiction is one of the ways of communication between representatives of different cultures and the enrichment of these cultures, and realias, as carriers of national color, in turn play an important role in intercultural communication. The purpose of the article is to study the peculiarities of the translation of national realias into English and the means of its transmission in poetic works, namely the poem-tale «Fox Mykyta», the purpose is in the analysis of translation techniques used by translator B. Melnyk in translating lexical items to denote the nicknames of characters and national realias in Ivan Franko’s poem «Fox Mykyta». The object of our research is the Ukrainian realias, which cause difficulties in reproducing them in English. The subject is the specifics and main ways of reproducing Ukrainian realias by means of the language of translation.