Translation as a link between cultures: Leo Tolstoy’s novel “Anna Karenina” in the interpretation of the Tatar translator

Abstract

The article discusses the translation of “Anna Karenina” into the Tatar language made by the writer and translator Mahmud Maksud. The relations between the fictional discourse of the two texts (primary and secondary) are interpreted as phenomena of the integration process. In fact, the translation of Mahmud Maksud, thanks to his special gift of perception and interpretation of the artistic and aesthetic features of the original text as, in general, any worthy translation of fiction, is not a simple tracing paper of the primary text, but a new artistic creation. The translator interprets the work: while preserving the fictional truth of the primary text, he/she creates a new poetic expression, “a new fictional truth.” Mahmud Maksud’s translation demonstrates the fact that in the process of translation and interpretation there are points of contact between two cultures that are not interchangeable. This indicates such a problem as the translatability of the untranslatable and the representation of the national characteristics of the original work.Creating a “new fictional truth” is a rather complicated matter. At the same time, it is precisely the “new fictional truth” that makes the work “dioecious,” that is, belonging to two national literatures.