PROVERBS AND PHRASEOLOGICAL UNITS IN IVAN VAZOV’S NOVEL “UNDER THE YOKE” AND THEIR RENDERING INTO ENGLISH AND RUSSIAN

Abstract

The paper examines the use of proverbs and phraseological units in Ivan Vazov's novel “Under the Yoke” and their rendering in the English and Russian translations of the novel. It studies the specifics of proverbs and the types of phraseological units as well as similes which have been excerpted from the English and Russian translations of the novel. The approaches of their rendering in these languages and the explanation of the reasons for their absence (if any) in the translation are also discussed. The paper focuses on the difficulties a translator may have when translating proverbs and phraseological units into another language. This is because these linguistic elements reflect a people’s life – their cultural, social, historical development, which poses a serious challenge for a translator to find an equivalent in a language quite different from the one in study. The study tries to discuss the most appropriate approaches a translator into English and Russian may use so as to render the specific meaning of the proverb, phraseological unit or simile without losing their “native flavor”. The theoretical framework is mainly based on the study of realias (or "non-equivalent vocabulary") by S. Vlahov and S. Florin in their book "The Untranslatable in Translation".