WAYS OF TRANSLATING PUNS FROM ENGLISH INTO CHINESE

Abstract

Artistic translation is an integral part of spiritual culture. The method of translation is crucial for the future life of an artistic work in a new language and cultural environment. Linguistic literature describes a number of means of translating word plays. Some scientists made attempts to systematize them, as, for example, O. Bilous, O. Yemets, O. Oguy and others did. The main ones are wordplay → wordplay, wordplay → not wordplay; word play → a similar rhetorical device; word play → lack of translation; not a pun → a pun; no wordplay → wordplay; editorial technique. The purpose of the article is to analyze the play of words, which requires appropriate preparation and knowledge of the main types of translation methods from English to Chinese. Unlike the translation of an ordinary text, in which its content (including images, connotations, background, author's style) must be poured into a new language form, during the translation of a pun, the original form itself - phonetic and/or graphic - is subject to reinterpretation. In the case of impossibility of using even one of the core elements of a foreign language pun, the reception of the translation language can be created on a completely changed semantic basis. The article examines various variants of translations of the word game from the works of Lewis Carroll and J. Rowling about Harry Potter from English to Chinese. The translation of puns is traditionally a serious translation problem. The situation is especially complicated when translating from English to Chinese, because, firstly, these languages are different at all linguistic levels, and secondly, in Chinese translation studies there has been a relatively recent transition from striving for exact, almost verbatim translation, to theoretical skopos. And it is precisely the translation of the play of words by different translators over time that is an illustration of actual processes in the theory and practice of translations of works of art into the Chinese language.