COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE MEANS OF COMIC EFFECT CREATION AND THEIR TRANSLATION ON THE EXAMPLE OF “CABBAGES AND KINGS” BY O. HENRY

Abstract

The article presents the results of a comparative analysis according to the author’s evaluation system of two Ukrainian-language translations of comic episodes performed by V. Mysyk and M. Ryabova, of the vaudeville novel by the famous American writer O. Henry “Cabbages and Kings” between themselves and with the original to determine the most accurate translation transformations for the best possible transmission of the features of O. Henry’s style and the figures of speech and other rhetorical devices as a method of creating his characteristic humor, irony, and satire on the socio-political phenomena described in the novel. The research revealed the most used language devices in “Cabbages and Kings” (metaphor, simile, personification, pun, and others). It characterized the features of O. Henry’s style (“Chatting Effect” and the use of foreign words). After evaluating 124 episodes and their translations in terms of the comic effect preservation for the Ukrainian reader, it was established that V. Mysyk created a more impressive and precise version than M. Ryabova did, thanks to apt contextual substitutions and efforts to reproduce the most complex comic moments of the novel without using ellipsis and thanks to the reinterpretation of the original meaning in the form of other linguistic means. Therefore, the principles of highquality translation are the preservation of figures of speech that have the most significant semantic load in a text fragment, attention to the expediency of using omissions without proper compensation during translation, and the appropriateness of choosing specific contextual substitutions. The article emphasizes a unique phenomenon in the work of O. Henry, the vaudeville novel “Cabbages and Kings” intending to spread knowledge about this work among the Ukrainian-speaking reader and the applied value of the article expressed in the created evaluation system for artistic texts and their translations for the creation of improved translations in the future, not only regarding the work of O. Henry but also other writers.