Philological sciences/ 6. Actual problems of translation.
Dautova G.R., Utemgaliyeva N.A.
Êàçàõñêèé íàöèîíàëüíûé óíèâåðñèòåò èìåíè àëü-Ôàðàáè,
Êàçàõñòàí
The history of writing and
translation of Abai’s poem “Iskander”
The image of
Iskander that was created by Abai absolutely differs from Iskander who was
rhapsodized by Firdausi, Nizami, Amir Hosrau, Jami, Navoiy, etc. Oriental
classics glorified Iskander entirely and presented him as a protector of
people, but Abai describes him as a robber who made a lot of people cry
bitterly and conquered them. According to the words of some researchers, the plot of
the poem “Iskander” firstly was taken from Talmud by Frenchman Adelbert von
Chamisso who was a well-known man-of-letters of the German romance. V.A.
Joukovski translated it from Chamisso in 1844 [1]. The act of killing by
Alexander the Great was depicted here. Abai was astonished by this plot too.
There is a difference in Abai’s plot. He added in his poem Iskander’s name, his
father, the place where he lived and his empire, and his adviser Aristotle.
First of all Àbai asks his reader about Iskander whether he
knows something about him and then commences to inform his reader of him. It
may be Abai’s method with a purpose to pay the attention and desire of his readers and
listeners to the narrative in his poem. It is known that there were more
listeners than readers in Àbai’s era. That is why he chose his protagonist’s name
Iskander as it is heard by the ears and said by the mouth many times than
Alexander which is not expected by listeners. After having turned people’s
attention to his hero’s name, poet writes about Iskander’s living in Macedonia,
being a son of Tsar Philip, and his being greedy.
If we speak about poem’s
translation, poem “Iskander” was translated into Russian for the first time by
a famous Russian poet E. Vinokurov and then by A. Globa. It was translated into
English through A. Globa’s version by Olga Schatz and into French from original
by a well-known poet G. Mukanov.
There is mainly said a lot about lust (great enthusiasm for
something), egoism, boasting in Abai’s works. Lust and boasting create such terrible
things like endless violence, deception, place-hunting, greed for livestock,
cruelty, heartlessness, and bloodlines. Àbai said if a man gets rid of his lust malady inside
him, it is easy to change. Translator E.
Vinokurov moved away from the original and gave a way to free translation
trying to keep the rhymes. When we read À. Globa’s translation, she translates
«ìàқòàíáà» as «õâàñòîâñòâî», and the word íәïñ³ңä³ was not translated,
i.e. this word was omitted. It proves that our translators did not understand main
notions which are basic words. In two translations the author could not convey
his ideas exactly to Russian readers and debased the artistic quality of the
original.
Therefore, we are convinced that the narrative basis of the
poem “Iskander” is a fable in Talmud which is a record of ancient times. The
plot of Òalmud’s fable
through West Europe reached Russian literature and then Abai. Àbai used Joukovski’s poem,
Talmud, and historical works connected with Macedonia and Iskander as creative
ones.
According to
the words of Professor S. Kaskabasov there are several fables about Iskander in
the chapter which is called Aggadah of the book ‘Talmud’. One of those fables
completely corresponds to the motive of ‘Iskander’. They are Iskander’s coming
across a spring, the change of smell and savour of dried fish which was put
into water and so on. []
If
we compare it with the works of Oriental poets who wrote about Iskander, we can
notice the real image of Iskander in this poem of Abai. He was
depicted as a vain, cruel, and greedy person as in real life. There are facts
about Alexander’s discontent with his father’s rule and activities while his
father was alive and how he used to aspire to rule in historical data.
While
studying Àbai’s poem “Iskander” we can come to a following conclusion: it was
defined that it is necessary to be studied in different aspects as a result of comparative
analytical research. The quantity of rhyme, rhythm, and stanza in the original should be kept
in translation; the influence of translation on the original literature is defined;
methods of translation are described.
To sum up, it
is of great cultural and social importance of translating Abai’s poem
“Iskander” into
Russian, English, and French. That is why we believe that translators will work hard in
this sphere. When we think only about the content and meaning, we can notice
that the original content is sometimes distorted badly and sometimes it
undergoes great changes in translation. These changes and distortion may cause
misunderstanding about Abai’s poetic talent in people’s mind and in the science
of Abai studies. That is why the way of critically thinking about translation
that is not worth Abai’s poetic wisdom is of great social and scientific
importance. After having translated the literary work into another language,
this translation and its artistic quality and social service must not be
evaluated beyond the original.
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