Авторське «я» в перекладах Миколи Дмитренка

Abstract

This paper reflects on the key issues of literary translation approaches suggested by Mykola Dmytrenko, an outstanding Ukrainian prose translator. Despite the vast research made by Ukrainian and foreign scholars regarding the translation (A. Bennet, S. Bassnet, M. Strykha) little is known about the contribution made by Ukrainian translators to the promotion of the Ukrainian literature on the international arena. Mykola Dmytrenko’s original arguments coming from value-based interview questions reveal the nature of translating process in terms of cultural transfer with a special emphasis on the literary standards and the distinctive nature of translation paradigm. As many translation theorists and researchers claim, there has been an accepted recognition of the fact that the use of the strategies and techniques of contemporary linguistics shift away to cultural studies. This article attempts to outline the scope of translation as a process by syndicating various extralinguistic phenomena as they occur in Mykola Dmytrenko’s translation project. Firstly, his translation programme embraces the issues of self with their close relation to the problems of cultural identity and the ones connected with tracing the target text within its new sociocultural context. Secondly, Mykola Dmytrenko’s translations provide his exceptional position in developing general principles through which he adequately clarifies the algorithm of choosing literary texts for translation and sheds light on the author selection as well as the ways literary translation networks function in a number of respects. Furthermore, the translator aims his works to be viewed in a broader context of building up the relations with the author of the original on the equal basis so that the target reader would feel he deals with the original text, not with the translation. With this purpose, Mykola Dmytrenko claims that he not only aspires to getting Ukrainian readers acquainted with the masterpieces of world literature, but also aims to develop the ability of cultivating their deductive skills as well as sharpening observation and forming the power of imagination. These explicate the reasons for the translator’s selection of literary texts by A. C. Doyle («A Scandal in Bohemia», «The Red-headed League», «A Case of Identity», «Boscombe Valley Mystery», «Thе Five Orange Pips», etc.). All these have been illustrated by the examples from A. Conan Doyle’s collection of detective stories «The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes» («The Reigate Puzzle»). So, the translator’s pragmatic view comes to be both from an inborn talent and a professional skill to produce the target text of the highest quality.