ХУДОЖЕСТВЕННОЕ СВОЕОБРАЗИЕ ПЕРВОГО ПЕРЕВОДА И ИЗДАНИЯ ПЬЕС И. КРЫЛОВА В КИТАЕ

Abstract

The article is devoted to the first translation of I. A. Krylov's plays in China, published in 2020. The translator is Li Chunyu, a lecturer at the Faculty of foreign languages of Xiamen University. This is the first book to introduce Chinese readers to Krylov as a playwright. As a fable writer he has long been well known in China, but his plays were translated for the first time by Li Chunyu, and he translated all 13 of Krylov's plays, including three unfinished ones. The article discusses some features of these translations, primarily the specifics of the title transformations, when the comic opera “The Coffee Lady” is translated as “The Soothsayer”, the comedy “Naughty Men” as “Chickens Fly and Dogs Jump”, the comedy “Pie” as “Chicken Cutlet”, and the most famous Krylov comedy “Lesson to Daughters” as “French Marquis” (the entire book is also called that). The article explains that the names of Krylov's plays were not changed accidentally, that the choice made by the translator is justified both by the peculiarities of the literary text perception by Chinese readers, and in terms of the history of Russian literature, when the title of Krylov's play “The French Marquis” (instead of “The lesson for daughters”), according to the translator, corresponds to the name of the famous comedy by N. V. Gogol “The Inspector General”. The article pays special attention to the analysis of the Golden Russia series of books, whose publication was launched in 2014 by the People's Publishing House (Zhenmin Chubanshe) of Sichuan province, edited by Wang Jianzhao, professor of the Institute of Foreign Literature at Beijing University of Foreign Languages, aimed at studying and publishing the best works of Russian culture for Chinese readers.