Special Features of Nominations of Wainamoinen's Singing in Translations of the Finnish Epos Kalevala into Russian and English

The article presents a comparative linguistic analysis of nominations of Wainamoinen's singing in the Finnish epos Kalevala. It aims to identify the national specifics of the semantics of linguistic units related to the sphere of singing in this poetic work and to improve the methods and techniques of the contrasting description of languages and the meta-language description of the units' semantics. The research is conducted on three translations of the epos: (1) performed by L. Belsky into Russian, (2) performed by W. Kirby into British English, (3) performed by J.M. Crawford who translated the epos from German interlinear translation into American English. To perform the contrastive analysis of the above mentioned translations, the following methods were used: metasemantic description, componential analysis of the vocabulary, contextual analysis. All registered nominations were divided into three groups: words, word-combinations and sentences. A semantic classification of the nominations characterizing Wainamoinen's singing includes five groups: (1) time of singing, (2) power of singing, (3) emotional power, (4) comparative characteristics, (5) magic power. In the distinguished semantic groups, a number of isomorphic and allomorphic features were revealed and described. Ten characteristics are common for the three translations of the epos: (1) Wainamoinen produces musical sounds / songs with his voice: (2) for a long time, (3) loudly, (4) quietly (when performing acts of magic), (5) pleasantly, (6) cheerfully, (7) his singing distinguishes him among others, (8) his singing is similar to sounds of songbirds, (9) his singing is similar to sounds of wind musical instruments, (10) his singing influences the surrounding world. Different characteristics registered in the three translations include the following: (a) in Belsky's translation: without interrupting, with pleasure, with interest, composes better songs than others, sings like a typical hero of Russian folklore who is physically strong, courageous and intelligent; (b) in self-nominations in Kirby's translation: achieves small results in singing; (c) in self-nominations in Crawford's translation: has more abilities / experience / knowledge for singing, sings more pleasantly (more beautifully) in the Northland, his singing is of little value. A number of characteristics are common in the translations by Kirby and Crawford: Wainamoinen's singing is permanent, kind, careful; by Belsky and Crawford: Wainamoinen's singing evokes surprise / admiration, sings badly. Thus, the research showed a number of similarities and differences in Wainamoinen's characteristics in Russian, British and American translations, which contributes to constructing different images of the same referent in three cultures. The conducted comparative analysis adds to a deeper understanding of the culture in which the epos Kalevala was created, the peculiarities of world perception by representatives of the Karelian-Finnish ethnos and the reflection of this world in the language of translation.

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