MYTHOLOGICAL REALIA RENDERING FEATURES IN ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF LESYA UKRAINKA’S FAIRY DRAMA “LISOVA PISNYA”

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to define the “reality” notion and to classify ways of realia translation; also to ascertain and to study functional-pragmatic factors of realia usage in fiction and to compare the level of correspondent rendering of connotative national-marked information in the translation. Hence, the actuality of the article lies in the fact that the question of mythological realia translation is not yet investigated, despite the fact that it has the remarkable interest for philological researches. Such studies are especially important when this typological unity is translated into the language, which cultural realia are very different from the original language. The reflection of the national world outlook of Lesya Ukrainka in her writings always interested English-speaking translators. There exist five English interpretations of “The Forest Song”. Drama was translated into English by Percival Cundy, Vira Rich, Gladys Evans, Florence Livesay, Virlana Tkacz and Wanda Phipps. Therefore, folklore-mythological images, used by Lesya Ukrainka, are a kind of folk archetypes of mythological mentality of Ukrainians. Obviously, that folklore-mythological mentality of Ukrainian and English nations differ one from another. This indicates the historical and genetic difference in their mythological system, which explains the absence of analogues of mythological realia in the English language and requires their transformation during the translation. That’s why for the adequate reproduction of mythological realia translator must use not only his or her linguistic, but also extra-linguistic knowledge (background knowledge). That very knowledge helps the translator to accomplish an adequate translation without any content deformation of culturological realia.