On translation strategies of the epic texts

Abstract

The paper deals with translation strategies of the epic texts in the case of the Sakha epic “Nurgun Botur the Swift” translation into English. Due to the variety of research works on the Sakha-Russian translation issues this paper focuses on the review of olonkho translations into other languages of the world. The framework theory includes the review of studies on translation strategies in Russia and abroad. As global translation strategies Lawrence Venuti’s ‘domestication’ and ‘foreignisation’ are considered. The idea of “a golden mean strategy” is introduced. The paper views lexical translation challenges. Local strategies to overcome lexical challenges in the epic translation, as transliteration/transcription, calque, partial calque, and, explication occur to be the most applicable in the translation of the epic texts. Practical significance lies in the possibility of using the materials of this study by translators-practitioners in the translation of epic texts, in the courses on “Theory and practice of translation”, “Literary translation” as well as in assessing the quality of translations.

Keywords

• translation
• epic
• olonkho
• translation strategies
• domestication
• foreignization
• a golden mean strategy
• global and local strategies