Rendering personifications in the 19th century French translations of Mikhail Lermontov’s novel “A Hero of Our Time”

Metaphor is often viewed as a controversial research problem and is, undoubtedly, one of the greatest challenges in translation. As a type of metaphor, personification is a common literary device and the way of understanding and representing reality. In this paper, the author tries to provide a descriptive study of the translators’ choices used for rendering the personifications in the translations of Mikhail Lermontov's novel “A Hero of Our Time”. The current scrutiny is based on five French translations made during the 19th century by A. A. Stolypin (1843), J. - M. Chopin (1853), E. Scheffter (1855), X. Marmier (1856), and A. de Villamarie (1884). Comparative semantic and functional approach constitutes the framework for the study and aims at describing and analyzing the translators’ choices. The typology of metaphor translation strategies suggested by R. Van den Broek completes the methodological basis. The back translation serves for a more explicit illustration of the acquired data. Our analysis shows that in most cases translators convey personification rather successfully. However, the translators’ choices and resulting interpretations are likely to vary markedly. Along with that, the rendering personifications by a non-metaphorical expression are another quite well marked mode of translation, whilst the rephrasing by similes is of infrequent occurrence and is the least exploited one. The analysis of translations which are made at the periods close in time to the creation of the original is of undoubtedly scientific interest, because it conduces to better understanding of individual translator’s decisions in relation to a historical and social context and offers interesting prospects for ulterior retrospective comparative study. The author intends to continue a more in-depth consideration of this problem in further researches.

1. Vinogradov, V. S. Vvedenie v perevodovedenie (obshchie i leksicheskie voprosy). [Introduction to translation studies (general and lexical issues)], Moscow, Moscow: Publishing House of the Institute of General and Secondary Education of RAE, 2001, 224 p.

2. Dahl, V.I. Sbornik poslovits, pogovorok, recheniy, prisloviy, chistogovorok, pribautok, zagadok, poveriy i proch [Proverbs of the Russian people: a collection of proverbs, sayings, utterances, priests, rhetoric, jokes, riddles, etc.], Moscow Univ. Press, 1862, 685 p.

3. Lermontov, M.Yu. Sochineniya: V 6 t. [Collected works in 6 volumes], Academy of Sciences of the USSR. Institute of Rus. literature (Pushkin house), t. 6. Prose. Letters. 1957, 900 p.

4. Ozhegov S. I., Shvedova N. Yu. Tolkovy slovar' russkogo iazyka : 80 000 slov i frazeologicheskikh vyrazheniy [Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language contains 80,000 words and phraseological expressions]. M.: А TEMP, 2006. 944 p.

5. Baker, M. Corpus Linguistics and Translation Studies: Implications and Applications, in M. Baker, G. Francis, E. Tognini-Bonelli (eds.), Text and Technology, John Benjamins, Amsterdam and Philadelphia, The Netherlands and US, 1993, pp. 233-250.

6. Baker, M. Towards a methodology for investigating the style of literary translator. Target, 2000, vol. 12, pp. 241-266. https://doi.org/10.1075/target.12.2.04bak.

7. Bardin, É. Dictionnaire de l'armée de terre, ou Recherches historiques sur l'art et les usages militaires des anciens et des modernes. En 17 parties. Partie 4. [Dictionary of the Army, or Historical research on the art and military uses of the ancients and the moderns. In 17 parts. Part 4]. Paris : J. Correard, 1843, 331 p.

8. Chaubard, L., Éléments de géologie mis à la portée de tout le monde, et offrant la concordance des faits géologiques avec les faits historiques, tels qu'ils se trouvent dans la Bible …, [Elements of geology made accessible to everyone] Paris : L'auteur, 1838, 680 p.

9. Choix de nouvelles russes de Lermontof, Pouchkine, von Wiesen, etc. [Bela, or A hero of our time. Circassian Novel. Selection of Russian short stories by Lermontof, Pouchkine, von Wiesen etc. Translated by J-N. Chopin], 1853, Paris: Reinwald, 1-202.

10. Davidson, D. What metaphors mean. Critical inquiry, 1978, no 5 (1), pp. 31-47.

11. Dictionnaire de l'Académie française, VIe édition. [Dictionary of the French Academy 6th edition], t. 2, Paris: Firmin-Didot, 1835, 961 р.

12. Dictionnaire des expressions et locutions : Collection Les Usuels du Robert, [Dictionary of expressions and phrases : Collection Les Usuels du Robert], 2003. 1086 p.

13. Ertel, V.A. Frantsuzsko-russkiy slovar', izvlechenny iz noveishikh istochnikov [French-Russian dictionary, extracted from the latest sources], t. 2, Saint Petersburg, At the bookseller G. Schmitzdorf, 1842, 476 p.

14. Gogol, N. Le Manteau d'un pauvre homme. Trad. de Xavier Marmier [A Poor Man's Overcoat. Translated by X. Marmier]. L’ami de la maison : revue hebdomadaire illustrée, 1856, 1-25 Jan.

15. Hermans, T. Translation in Systems: Descriptive and System-oriented Approaches Explained, St. Jerome Publishing, 1999, 195 p.

16. Hugo, V. Œuvres complètes, t. 2. [Complete Works, t. 2], 1837. Bruxelles. 680 p.

17. Lakoff, G. M., Jonson M. Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1980, 242 p.

18. Leeman, D. My poor Denise, if you only knew what is happening to me! The case of a singular “emotional” using. Revue de linguistique et de didactique des langues, 2005, vol. 32, pp. 167-181, https://doi.org/10.4000/lidil.112.

19. Meyers, Ch. L’influence de la conceptualisation métaphorique sur les choix traductionnels. L’exemple de l’astrophysique et des trous noirs. [The influence of metaphorical conceptualization on translational choices. The example of astrophysics and black holes]. ASp. la revue du GERAS, 2014. Vol. 66, pp. 83-101.

20. Newmark, P. A textbook of translation, Prentice Hall, New York, 1988, 304p.

21. Petchorine, ou Un héros d’aujourd’hui. Scènes de la vie russe dans le Caucase. Trad. de E. Scheffter [Pechorine, or A Hero of Today. Scenes of Russian life in the Caucasus. Translated by E. Scheffter]. Le Mousquetaire. Journal de Alexandre Dumas. Paris, 1855, 23 janv. 18 févr.

22. Saldanha, G. Style in, and of, translation. In S. Berman, & C. Porter (Eds.), A Companion to Translation Studies, Blackwell-Wiley, Chichester, 2014, pp. 95-106.

23. Sand G. Œuvres, [Works] Vol. 1. Lélia. Bruxelles, 1842. 518 p.

24. Schäffner, C. Metaphor and translation: some implications of a cognitive approach. Journal of Pragmatics, 2004, vol. 36, pp. 1253-1269.

25. Solovyeva, E. A. Animalisticheskie sravneniia v perevodakh XIX veka romana M. Yu. Lermontova «Geroi nashego vremeni» na frantsuzskiy iazyk [Animal similes in the nineteenth–century French translations of Mikhail Lermontov's novel “A hero of our time”]. Bulletin of the Moscow Region State University. Series: Linguistics, 2022, no. 1, р. 124–135. DOI: 10.18384/2310–712X–2022–1–124–135.

26. Solovyeva, E.A. Peredacha nekotorykh voennykh realiy vo frantsuzskikh perevodakh XIX v. romana M.Yu. Lermontova «Geroy nashego vremeni» [Rendering Some Military Realities in the 19th Century French Translations of Mikhail Lermontov’s Novel “A Hero of Our Time”] New Philological Bulletin, 2021, no 4 (59), pp. 296–310. DOI: 10.54770/20729316–2021-4-296.

27. Soulié, F. Les Forgerons. [The Blacksmiths]. 1841. Bruxelles. 131 p.

28. Stanford, J. A. Responding to Literature. 4th ed., New York: McGraw Hill, 2003, 1204 p.

29. Szulmajster-Celnikier, A. Représentations et imaginaires parisiens : réanalyse, métaphore, figement analytique. [Parisian representations and imaginaries: reanalysis, metaphor, analytical freezing]. Linguistics, 46 (1), 2010, 121-152.

30. TLFi [Treasure of the French Language], available at: http://www.atilf.fr/tlfi (Accessed 8 January 2022).

31. Toury, G. Descriptive translation studies and beyond, J. Benjamins, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 2012, 350 p.

32. Un héros de notre temps. Au bord de la Néva. Contes russes. [A Hero of our Time. On the banks of the Neva. Russian tales. Translated by X. Marmier]. Paris: Lévy, 1856, p. 5-208.

33. Un héros de notre temps. Récits. Béla. Maxime Maximitch. Taman. La Princesse Marie. Le Fataliste. Le Démon, poème oriental. Trad. de A. de Villamarie [A Hero of Our time. Stories. Bela. Maxim Maximitch. Taman. Princess Mary. The Fatalist. The Demon, oriental poem. Translated by A. de Villamarie], Paris : Librairie parisienne E. Giraud, 1884 [Paris : P. V. Stock, 1904], XII, 355 p.

34. Un héros du siècle ou Les Russes dans le Caucase. Trad. de A.A. Stolipine. [A Hero of the Century or The Russians in the Caucasus. Translated by A. Stolypine], 1843. La Démocratie pacifique, Paris, Sept. 29 – Nov. 4.

35. Van den Broeck, R. The Limits of Translatability Exemplified by Metaphor Translation. Poetics Today, 1981, 2 (49), 73-78.