Abstract
The rural epic “Metai” (Seasons of the Year) by Kristijonas Donelaitis, a milestone of Lithuanian literature, has enjoyed the status of similar literary writings viewed as a ‘must’ for being translated into different languages. Up to now, translations of “Metai” have appeared in 13 different languages (Armenian, Byelorussian, Czech, English, Georgian, German, Hungarian, Latvian, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, and Ukrainian). As regards translations into English, the poem was not translated in full until 1967; the translation was carried out by Nadas Rastenis and published in Los Angeles. The other complete translation of “Metai” is almost 20 years apart, performed by Peter Tempest and published in 1985. The present analysis aims to find out which of the opposing strategies – foreignization or domestication – is more consistently employed in the two English translations (on the macrolevel). The specific research questions on the micro-level concern two text properties, lexical density and lexical diversity, in the source-text and the two translations. These parameters were evaluated using corpus linguistics methodology and tools. The overall evaluation of the domesticating and foreignizing strategies employed in the two translations demonstrates that each of them is applied to a certain degree. The domestication is fair, revealing respect for the original, the author and the reader, whereas foreignizing strategies are mainly seen on the discoursal, generic level. The translators tried to balance the two approaches for the target reader to be able to appreciate both, the specificity of the cultural content and the fluent domesticated narrative. As for the lexico-semantic level, the highest lexical density was found in the analyzed Lithuanian data (excerpts from the poem), reaching over 62%, while the two translations show statistically important lower density, roughly about 54% each. This means that about 8% of content words were lost in the translations. With respect to lexical diversity, N. Rastenis with a 789-word text seems to be more loquacious than P. Tempest (the total number of words – 654).
Highlights
Straipsniai show statistically important lower density, roughly about 54% each
The specific aspects that are applicable to both English translations on the foreignization / domestication continuum will be focused on; the differences between the two English versions will be highlighted
The analysis shows that steps towards foreignization in the two translations are seen in the following treatment of the original text: 1) The author’s name is written correctly in its complete form, showing respect for his identity
Summary
The rural epic Metai (Seasons of the Year) by K. Her article on Peter Tempest’s translation was published two years earlier than the influential book by Lawrence Venuti, The Translator’s Invisibility (1995), and. Tempest’s translation in a rather general way focusing mainly on the lexical level and the form of the epic (hexameter vs iambic pentameter), she provides interesting insights regarding the strategies applied in translating culture-specific items, the topic explored later by a number of researchers. This brings us to one of the key issues in recent translation theories, Lawrence Venuti (1995) in particular, on domesticating or foreignizing practices in translation
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