Zoonymic Elements of Similes and Methods of Their Literary Translation

The article aims to compare multilingual texts, original and translated (in Russian and Ossetian), to identify the most optimal methods of literary translation of zoomorphic elements, to reveal the similarities and inconsistencies in zoonyms' functioning in the languages involved in the translation. The study concludes that the associative fields of zoonyms in similes in the given languages overlap. If the semantic field of the image coincides in both languages, the translator finds an identical zoonym and mechanically reproduces it in the translation. Calquing of the image in the translated text is the prevailing transformation used to translate a zoonym in a simile. In the texts of Russian and Ossetian literature under analysis, similes with images of a snake, a cat, a wolf, a dog, a worm, a calf, a pig, a sheep, a toad, a frog, a deer, a crocodile, a fly, a camel, a mosquito, a bug, a bear, a fish, a bee, a tur, a horse (mare), a donkey (ass), a lamb, a mouse, an owl are translated literarily. The image of birds (the generic term) is the same in both texts (original and translated). Different species of birds could be replaced in translation, for example, a gyrfalcon by a hawk, an eagle by a kite, a crane by a sparrow, an eagle by an ostrich. A partial equivalence in translating zoonyms is observed in selecting the semantic counterpart in the language of translation. To reproduce the meaning of a set phrase, the translators used a similar image. The replacement of the image in a simile or in a comparative construction does not always provide an adequate translation of its semantics. Sometimes the image introduced to replace the original in the culture of the language of translation has opposite associations. One of the transformations used to translate similes with the zoonymic component is omission of a set comparative structure as a whole or translation of its meaning only. Ignoring the image is justifiable if the national and cultural identity is expressed most clearly in the translated set units with zoonyms, and representatives of the other culture could thus misunderstand the image, and, ultimately, the general meaning. To make the text rich and expressive, to charge it with a certain stylistic effect, the translators sometimes intentionally introduce similes and comparative structures with zoonymic components into the translated text. The translators also use their own original stylistic means (similes or comparative structures), expressing the national and cultural features of the target audience, which provides an adequate understanding of relevant passages in the new environment.

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