Translation Features in the Tale Through the Looking Glass and what Alice saw there. By L. Carroll

Through the Looking Glass and what Alice saw there." by L. Carroll is among the most difficult works for translators. Despite the fact that the number of languages in which " Alice” was translated, reached nearly fifty (among them such " exotic" languages like Swahili, Esperanto), and that in many languages it was translated not once, so far there is no single principle of its translation. [10, p.34]

The main heroes of this fairy tale are:

· Alice

· Bandersnatch

· Haigha (March Hare)

· Hatta (The Hatter)

· Humpty Dumpty

· The Jabberwock

· Jubjub bird

· Red King

· Red Queen

· The Lion and the Unicorn

· The Sheep

· The Walrus and the Carpenter

· Tweedledum and Tweedledee

· White King

· White Knight

· White Queen

In every part of Alice meets new characters. The names of these heroes is a kind of cipher. They are named so not by chance; it marks a lot - personal allusions, literary allusions, whole layers of the national culture.

It may seem that the task of the translator is simple: names should be translated " as they are". Alice - it's certainly not “Соня”, not “Аня”, but “Аліса”; the Red Queen is “Чырвоная Каралева”. However, it is not as easy as it might seem at first sight. The Red Queen is a chess man, and therefore, of course, it should be called in Belarusian “Чорная Каралева”. Some of the names in the tale are associated with real existed people. They were well known to the listeners of the tale. Personal allusions are now only of historical interest - we wanted to reproduce them.

There are not so many names that are associated with real people in the book of L.Carroll. Much more names are associated with English folklore, they are often not at all clear to us.

Heralds in Carroll’s tale have unusual and not English names- Hatta and Haigha. In essence, these names are the variants of names Hatter (Hatter) and Hare (Hare), masked by strange spelling. The «continuity" of the characters survived in translation. The translator calls these heralds “Ш.А. Павал” і “З.А. Яц”, giving their names English form as much as possible.

There are also such folklore names of two other characters of " Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There” - Tweedledum and Tweedledee. One of the old English rhyme is dedicated to them:

Tweedledum and Tweedledee

Agreed to have a battle;

For Tweedledum said Tweedledee

Had spoiled his nice new rattle...

The Translator could call these heroes - “Твідлдум” and “Твідлдзі”. But it is not easy to pronounce these names in Belarusian, they do not " fall" into our language, they are pronounced with stress. Then the translator remembered one English poem about the old king Kohl, who called for his musicians. Here's how this poem a variety of musical instruments sounds:

Then, tootle, tootle-too, tootle-too, went the pipers,

Twang, twang-a-twang, twang-a-twang, went the harpers,

Finally, from the " annotated Alice" by Martin Gardner, we learned that these names might have echoes of musical battles of the beginning of the XVIII century between Hä ndel and Italian Bononcini. Perhaps Carol knew a playful poem, written by Byrom devoted to this hatred:

Some say, compared to Bononcini

That Mynheer Handel's but a ninny:

Others aver that he to Handel

Is scarcely fit to hold a candle;

Strange all this difference should be

Twixt tweedle-dum and tweedle-dee.

Obviously, the Tweedledum and Tweedledee are onomatopoeic names, and the translator had to find the sounds of various musical instruments in our language. That’s why the translator named twin brothers “Гу-та-та” and “Гу-ля-ля”.

Раз Гу-ля-ля і Гу-та-та

Распачалі вайнушку

Бо Гу-та-та ў Гу-ля-ля

Раструшчыў бразгатушку.

Але груган зляцеў з гары-

І каркнуў ім па карку!

І з жаху гора-змагара

Забыліся на сварку!

In the translation of this song Vera Burlak combined Belarusian language and onomatopoeia and the names of the two twins. Carroll used a contradiction in the text of " Through the Looking Glass". His White Knight is a good, a little ridiculous Knight, who touches Alice with his eccentricities, and a horse, which participate in a kind of a chess game played in Wonderland. Carroll transfers this figure with one associative plane to another with his inherent freedom and ease. Carroll relies on the context, you can involuntarily forget about the double meaning of the term. We have already discussed one grammatical subtleties associated with defining the names of the characters of Carroll. As it is known, in English there is no grammatical category of gender. According to the established long tradition in English folklore, poetry and tale names are comprehended, when there is a need in the masculine.

Sometimes the translator had to turn to more serious alterations. In some cases the author's text leaves freedom for interpretation. Carol uses the pronoun it, speaking about such characters as the Caterpillar, the Pigeon, the Mouse, and the Fawn. The simplest Belarusian counterparts to these words that come to mind are feminine, and the translator used them: Вусень, Галубка, Мыш, Алянятка. When the translator was selecting the last word, she was guided by the fact that Alice consciously identifies herself with the Fawn (see. III " Looking Glass"). The Caterpillar forced the translator to think - why not to call this character Вусень, Alice uses the form Sir when she talks to him (" (" Чарвяк" " will be too rough, of course). The translator refused to apply it. And because The Fawn is too small, and because this name has the connection with our everyday associations that are not related to the nature of this character. She decided to use the word “Вусень”.

When choosing a new name, the translator has to rely on the range of associations that are known to Belarusian readers. The most important thing was to keep the hokum of L. Carroll, a peculiar logic of his narrative. The choice of a new name for Carroll’s heroes is the definition of their characters, their future behavior. This is the definition of the drama of the book.

The so-called children's etymology comes to help translators with the translation of this book. It is because children hear the word by their so-called " children ears”; they face them in all the richness of their initial contacts. It is the main reason of this true originality of Carroll is the ability to hear the word, as it is heard by the children. The chapter «Залюстэркавая Жамяра " is built on the game with the names of different insects. Carol invents " Mirror parallels" for everyday insects. Horse-fly turns into Rocking-horse-fly; Dragon-fly into Snapdragon-fly; Butterfly into the Bread-and-butterfly.

In Belarusian variant they are Авадзень-Аваноч, Зялёная Муха – Зялёная Сёмуха, Пчала-Пчаладка.

Horse-fly (horsefly) when " gluing" with Rocking-horse (rocking horse) becomes Rocking-horse-fly. Butterfly when " gluing" with Bread-and-butter becomes Bread-and-butterfly; Snap-dragon and the Dragon-fly become Snap-dragon-fly. Snapdragon (or flap dragon) is the name of a fun game, which was held mainly on Christmas. That's why Carroll’s insect Snap-dragon-fly has all the features associated with Christmas.

A translator of L.Carroll could write a lot of books, explaining the methods he uses to translate Carroll’s books. (Carroll didn’t repeat his methods - he was interested in new " anomalies" of the language).