Specific features in the translation of science fiction (as exemplified by the Italian translation of A. and B. Strugatskii’s short story “Forgotten Experiment”)

Vigna-Taglianti Yakopo ORCID: 0000-0001-8449-544X Senior Lecturer; Department of Foreign and Russian Languages; Russian State Agrarian University - K. A. Timiryazev Agricultural Academy 49 Timiryazevskaya str., Moscow, 127434, Russia jacopo.vignataglianti@gmail.com Other publications by this author

Introduction

Science fiction (hereinafter SF) is one of the most popular genres of so–called mass literature. Until recently, it occupied a peripheral place in the cultural polysystem and, therefore, was considered as a secondary artistic genre. However, in recent decades, the number of scientific papers devoted to fiction in general and SF in particular has become more and more, including in the field of linguistics and translation studies. The modern world classics include works by such famous authors as Ray Bradbury, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, Frank Herbert, Philip K. Dick, and among the Russian (Soviet) authors should be mentioned the works of E.I. Zamyatin, A.N. Tolstoy, A.R. Belyaev, I.A. Efremov, A.N. and B.N.. Strugatsky.

According to D. Suvin's well–known definition, SF is "a literary genre, the necessary conditions of which are the presence and interaction of alienation and cognition processes, and the main formal tool is an imaginative structure alternative to the author's empirical environment, and <...> which is distinguished by the dominant narrative of the fictional "novum" (novelty, innovation), confirmed by cognitive logic" [1 p. 7-8]. It is this "novum", through which the author tries to combine fantasy and science, that plays a key role not only in narrative terms, but also in linguistic terms: SF texts are filled with author's neologisms used to describe new technologies, new alien realities, geographical names, fictional languages, cultures, worldviews ^[2-6].

In the field of linguistics and translation studies, scientific works devoted to SF relate mainly to the following areas: representation of the translation process and the role of the translator as an element of the worldview in SF works ^[7-10]; general linguistic aspects of SF translation [2-3, 11-14]; analysis of translation difficulties, such as translation of realities and unrealities, neologisms and occasionalisms, scientific and pseudoscientific terminology [5-6, 15-32]; the role of translated SF in the cultural polysystem of different countries ^[33-38]; features of multimedia translation of TV series and films of the SF genre ^[39-42].

The purpose and objectives of the study

The purpose of the study is to identify the features of the translation of SF works, emerging difficulties and ways to overcome them using the example of the Italian translation of the story "The Forgotten Experiment" by A.N. and B.N. Strugatsky. In accordance with the purpose, the following research tasks are highlighted:

1. Review of the scientific literature devoted to the general aspects and individual features of the translation of SF;

2. Analysis of the original and translated text;

3. Identification and classification of difficulties encountered in translation;

4. Analysis of translation techniques and strategies used by the translator to overcome these difficulties.

5. Assessment of the adequacy of the translation, taking into account the genre features of SF.

Relevance and novelty of the research

The peculiarities of SF translation occupy a special place in the promising areas of modern translation studies. However, the topic of most studies is translation from English or into English in combination with different languages, and the Russian–Italian language pair remains "terra incognita" with the exception of the article by D. Colombo ^[43]. The choice of the Strugatsky brothers' work as the object of this study is not accidental: among Russian (Soviet) science fiction writers, they were and still are most popular with Italian readers. From 1960 to the present day, 32 translations of their works have been published in Italy, including 4 translations of the story "It's Hard to be God" and 6 translations of the story "Picnic on the Roadside". It should be noted that this interest resumed in the middle of the last decade and is still growing, as shown in Figure 1.

Fig. 1 – Translations of the works of A.N. and B.N. Strugatsky, published in Italy from 1960 to the present day

Based on the presented data, the translation of the works of the Strugatsky brothers into Italian can be considered an urgent topic of research.

Materials and methods of research

The research material was the story by A.N. and B.N. Strugatsky "The Forgotten Experiment", first published in the collection "Six Matches" in 1960, and its translation into Italian, which was included in the collection "14 stories of Russian science fiction" (14 racconti di Fantascienza russa), published in 1961. ^[44-45]. The choice of this story is not accidental: given the aforementioned interest of Italian readers in their works, it is this translation, as the first Strugatsky work published in Italy, that is of particular interest both from a translation and historical point of view.

The following methods were used in the course of the study: contextual analysis of scientific, quasi-scientific and cultural elements of the original text to better understand the authors' worldview, against which the plot of the story develops; comparative analysis of the original and the translated text to identify difficulties encountered in translating this work; analysis of translation techniques and strategies used by the translator to overcome previously identified difficulties. These methods made it possible not only to identify and systematize the features of the translation of SF as a whole, but also to assess the adequacy of the studied translation in the end.

The practical significance of the work

The research materials can be used in universities of the humanities or linguistic fields in the study of such academic disciplines as theory and practice of translation, ethics of translation, literary translation, practice of literary text translation, translation studies.

Features of SF translation

As mentioned above, SF is characterized by the presence of the so–called novum - an attempt to combine the fantastic with the scientific. His presence, accordingly, is reflected in the translation of works related to this genre: in the translation of SF, there are features not only of artistic, but also of scientific and technical translation. The first group includes such nuances as the transfer of the author's literary style and idiolect, the presence of words and expressions from different speech registers, the use of expressive vocabulary, etc. The second group includes the presence of a systematic terminology consisting of a variety of words and phrases, including the author's neologisms. At the same time, as in scientific texts, the authors of SF avoid using synonyms in order for the reader to have a sense of the "scientific" nature of the text.

Based on the results of a review of the literature on the translation of SF, the following features were identified that represent translation difficulties:

· Scientific terminology ^{[2, 4, 6, 17, 28]};

· neologisms and occasionalisms ^{[5, 14, 17-18, 21, 23-25, 30, 32]};

· Cultural elements, realities and unrealities (quasi-realies, pseudo-realies) [2-3, 6, 15, 17, 20, 22, 26-27, 31];

· scientific and philosophical concepts ^{[3, 6, 21]};

· author's style [3-4, 6, 17];

· other aspects: hyperbole ^[29], non-equivalent vocabulary ^[28], humorous elements ^[16], etc.

With the exception of the last point, all the features are present in the story being studied.

The text contains a large number of scientific terms related to different fields of knowledge. Some, such as weeds, forest, taiga, decay, hollow, ruin, (earthen) rampart are used in describing the landscape against which the plot develops. Others describe architectural elements (barrier, grilles, fence, cottage, ditch, porch, motorway), flora (pines, nettles, cones, burdock, aspen, bushes, grass) and fauna (owl, grasshopper, mosquito, wild boar, elk). There are also terms from biology and medicine (novocaine, sporamine, adhesive, protein, altitude sickness). Many terms are used to describe the Testudo tank and its individual elements: armor, high protection tank, headlights, (side) hatch, instruments, remote control and control levers, loudspeaker, microphone, infrared projector, searchlight, periscope, periscope frame, switches, engine, etc. A very important role from a narrative point of view is played by the terms with which the Strugatsky brothers create the scientific background of the fictional world in which the described events take place: from the location of the most "forgotten experiment", designated by the terms epicenter, zone or that side, to various phenomena that occurred as a result of the initial explosion of the time engine, such as flashes, blue mist and needles.

The latter group of terms includes most of the neologisms coined by the authors in this story: time engine, meson generator, non-quantum protomaterial, tau mechanics or mechanics of physical time, tau electrodynamics, telemechanical laboratory, energy sinks, as well as the verbs to quantize and quantize. Other neologisms include words and expressions such as cyberintelligence (or cyber), autocambers, turbolift, interplanetary, INCM (Institute of Non-Classical Mechanics).

Some of the above–mentioned words can be interpreted as unrealities – for example, turbolift, blue fog, epicenter, zone, that side - because they describe "non-existent realities associated with a fictional environment, the effect of which is to define and establish a fictional cultural, geographical and historical setting" ^[15]. Words such as cigarette and comrade can be attributed to the realities describing the elements of Soviet life.

As R.E. Telpov notes ^[46], in Soviet times, the works of the Strugatsky brothers were criticized due to the presence of rude, colloquial and colloquial language means (not only in journalistic publications, for example, in Komsomolskaya Pravda dated 12/26/1964 and in the 8th issue of the literary magazine Zvezda in 1961, but also in scientific ^[47]). It is this aspect of the author's style that stands out most in the story under study: it contains various expressive interjections, such as the devil, the devil, the bastard, nonsense, my God (with a variant spelling of my God); stable expressions like Filkin's letter and we flew in; words grumpy, mumbling; many verbs classified as colloquial or colloquial – to mutter, to bark, to fidget, to sniff, to frown, to be sick, to mumble, to puff, to bark, to hear, to catch oneself, to coward, to chuckle, to be naughty. The remaining features of the idiolect of the science fiction brothers, such as the use of scientific terms, the use of neologisms and occasionalisms, have already been discussed in the previous paragraphs.

Translation analysis

The story "L'esperimento dimenticato" was included in the collection "14 stories of Russian science fiction" (14 racconti di Fantascienza russa), published in 1961 by Feltrinelli publishing house on the initiative of journalist and writer J.M. Berger (better known in the West under the French pseudonym Jacques Bergier). The translation is direct (unlike other early translations of Strugatsky's works, which were translated from English). Russian Russian translator – Raisa Naldi (Raisa Grigorievna Olkenitskaya-Naldi, St. Petersburg, 1886 - Rome, 1978), a famous poet and writer from the Russian diaspora, according to M.P. Pagani, "one of the main translators from Russian in Italian literature of the twentieth century" [48 p. 192]. During her long career, spanning decades from the 1920s to the 1970s, R. Naldi translated the works of M.P. Artsybashev, A.A. Blok, M.M. Zoshchenko, N.N. Evreinov, D.S. Merezhkovsky, N.M. Minsky, K.G. Paustovsky, F.K. Sologub, L.N. Tolstoy, I.S. Turgenev, A.P. Chekhov, as well as poems by A.A. Akhmatova, A. Bely, A.A. Blok, I.A. Bunin, Z.N. Gippius, N.S. Gumilev, S.A. Yesenin, V.I. Ivanov, O.E. Mandelstam, V.V. Mayakovsky, N.K. Roerich, V.S. Solovyova, F.K. Sologuba, M.I. Tsvetaeva, etc. (in the "Anthology of Russian Poets of the twentieth century", published in Milan in 1924) ^[48].

The first – and most noticeable – difference between the original and the translation is that the original story is divided into 5 parts, while the translation is a single whole. In addition, a comparative analysis showed that when translating the story, a translation technique was repeatedly used to omit not only individual words and phrases, but also entire sentences: the original consists of 748 sentences, while the translation has only 700. Consequently, there is a reduction in the text material in the amount of 48 sentences, which is 6.42% of the total volume. Among the missing sentences, the majority are short lines of dialogue (for example, – No, – said Polesov [44 p. 94]; – That's right, – said the biologist. [44 p. 96]; – Good morning, Pyotr Vladimirovich, – said the Golden Eagle [44 p. 100], etc.), a description of background actions (for example, the side hatch of the tank gently fell off [44 p. 96]; Ivan Ivanovich opened one eye [44 p. 97]; Ivan Ivanovich opened the second eye [44 p. 97], etc.). Some moments of the story are greatly reduced in translation compared to the original: for example, the farewell of the Testudo crew to the biologist Kruglis consists in the original of 8 replicas + 1 descriptive sentence, and in translation – of only 3 replicas [44 p. 102; 45 p. 122]. Very problematic from a narrative point of view is the omission of 6 whole sentences along with several terms and phrases in the fifth part of the story, when scientists Ivan Ivanovich and Berkut try to explain to the driver Peter Vladimirovich Polesov the physical principles underlying the functioning of the time engine – the very experiment mentioned in the title [44 p. 115-118; 45 p. 134-135]. Omission of these elements leads to simplification and distortion of the scientific concept, against which the fictional world in which the story takes place is created. Thus, one of the previously highlighted features of science fiction prose is partially lost in the Italian translation.

Among the features of SF that may cause translation difficulties, the presence of scientific (and quasi-scientific) terminology plays a special role. As you know, one of the fundamental principles of any terminological system is the absence (or at least the undesirability) of synonymy and ambiguity. In other words, even if the word has different meanings, in a particular context the term is used exclusively in one of them. It follows from this that in translation, each term should correspond exclusively to one equivalent (selected among all possible ones), which is used throughout the text to comply with the principle of unambiguity and create the effect of "scientific" of the text itself. However, in the Italian version of the story, different translation variants may correspond to the same word and phrase. For example, the word barrier in the first part is translated as passaggio a livello (2 times), sbarra (1 time), sbarra del passaggio a livello (5 times) [45 p. 115, 117-118, 122]; the Italian word sbarra, of course, is the translation equivalent of the Russian term barrier, but still it is unclear where the term passaggio a livello – railway crossing came from, since there is no mention of a railway in the text. Another example is the phrases tank of supreme protection and supreme protection, used several times in the text to describe "Testudo". The first expression was translated as carro armato di alta potenza ("high-power armored car"), tank di massima sicurezza ("tank of the highest security"), supertank ("supertank") and tank supercorazzato ("super armored tank") [45 c. 117, 120, 125, 133], and the second – as super-difesa ("super protection"), superprotezione ("super protection") and supercorazza ("super armor") [45 p. 125], and also as triplo schermo protettivo ("triple protective shield"), the expression triple skin of the highest protection was translated [45 p. 125-126]. Another example of translating the same term in different ways: the word remote, including in combination control panel, was translated as quadro (di comando) and tavolo (di comando) [45 p. 123, 128]. Russian Russian As an experienced translator of fiction from Russian into Italian, R. Naldi, of course, knew that frequent repetition of words is not welcome in literary Italian (and in Russian too). However, in scientific works, repetitions, on the contrary, help to fix the terminological system, and this characteristic is also characteristic of SF. Accordingly, in the translation of the story, another element is lost among the previously identified features of SF.

As for the author's neologisms (which are also an important part of the terminological system), most of them were translated verbatim, i.e. using calculus, as shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Translation of author's neologisms in ^[45].

It is important to note that when transmitting the neologism cyber intelligence, the translator chose the transliteration method from the Russian language when interpreting the prefixed term element cyber, which led to the translation of the "slang" abbreviation cyber according to the same principle. Of course, in the 1960s this term element was not as widespread as it has become today, but still the Italian Accademia della Crusca (the most authoritative institution on linguistics in Italy) attributes the first appearance of the word cibernetica as a calculus from English cybernetics to 1950 (see https://accademiadellacrusca.it/it/consulenza/cyber/1417 ) [44 c. 96, 100-101, 104-105, 107-109, 118; 45 c. 117-118, 124-125, 127-128, 135].

An interesting choice on the part of the translator is to translate the expressions tau mechanics and tau electrodynamics as meccanica causale and elettrodinamica causale, respectively. The use of the Greek letter tau (τ) to denote the sciences underlying the operation of the time engine is due to the fact that this letter can denote in physics, mathematics and other fields of science phenomena such as proper time, time variable, time constant, relaxation time, radio signal transit time and other time-related quantities. Therefore, the detailed name of tau mechanics is given in the original as the mechanics of physical time. However, in the translation under study, these fields of science – at least in the terminological aspect – are focused not on time, but on cause-and–effect relations: the full name of the first science can be literally translated as "mechanics of relations between causes and effects", and the abbreviated name of both disciplines as "causal mechanics" and "causal electrodynamics" [44 pp. 115-118; 45 pp. 134-136].

Another neologism, the translation of which is questionable, is the word turbolift, which resembles in its internal structure such common words as airplane and helicopter. In this case, the translator decided to replace the neologism and the unreality indicated by it with more familiar elements: elicottero ("helicopter") and aviogetto ("jet plane"). Such a translation solution can not only mislead the reader, who will think that we are talking about different types of transport, but also leads to the loss of a fantastic element, replacing it with other elements from our daily life [44 p. 105, 111, 114; 45 p. 125, 130, 133].

As for the realities, in the text such words as cigarette and comrade can be attributed to the Soviet reality. To translate the second of them, the text uses the dictionary equivalent of compagno (in the 1960s, also widely used in Italy by members of the local Communist Party) [44 c. 95, 97, 100, 101, 104, 106, 111, 113, 119; 45 c. 117, 118, 121, 122, 124, 126, 130, 132, 136]. The word cigarette is always translated as sigaretta, because the Italian reader is most likely not familiar with this specific Russian and Soviet tobacco product. The use of cultural substitution is acceptable in this case, but other translation options (for example, transliteration in combination with explication, descriptive translation or footnote) would allow us to preserve a certain "Soviet flavor", which can be considered characteristic of most of the works of the Strugatsky brothers [44 p. 94-95; 45 p. 116].

Interestingly, other cultural elements are sometimes adapted to Italian everyday life: for example, in the original text, the Golden Eagle drank two glasses of strong tea for breakfast, and in translation – due bicchieri di latte freddo ("two glasses of cold milk"), which in any case may seem strange to Italian readers [44 p. 100; 45 p. 121].

The translation of the previously highlighted colloquial-colloquial expressions and verbs is presented in Table 2.

Table 2. Translation of colloquial and colloquial expressions in ^[45].

The linguistic analysis of the above examples shows that:

· most (11 out of 23) colloquial and colloquial expressions were translated with words and phrases related to the standard literary Italian language (standardization technique): grumpy – (in modo) bisbetico, sniff – ansare, hear – sentire, sicken – ammalarsi, mutter – borbottare, filkin's letter – (qualcosa di) incomprensibile, coward – (essere) impaurito, mumble – un molle;

· in three cases, a generalization technique was used: grunted – fece, caught himself – disse, heard – s?;

· three expressions are conveyed by descriptive translation: we got caught – abbiamo avuto una lavata di capo, barked – ripet é con voce insolitamente bassa, frowned – aggrotte le sopracciglia;

· three expressions are omitted: heard on 95 s., mumbled on 107 s. and fidgeted on 108 s.;

· in two cases, the translator chose the compensation method and decided to convey a shade of rudeness of colloquial expressions by using verbs describing the voice of animals: grunt – grugnire ("grunt"), bark – gracchiare ("croak");

· only one verb has been translated using its functional equivalent: to coward – avere fifa (a noun marked in explanatory dictionaries as fam. "familiar", scherz. "funny", colloq. "colloquial").

The results of the analysis of translation techniques used in the translation of colloquial and colloquial expressions are shown in Figure 2.

Fig. 2 – Translation techniques used in the translation of colloquial and colloquial expressions in ^[45].

Resorting mostly to the techniques of standardization, generalization, and descriptive translation, the translator does not convey all the subtleties of the Strugatsky brothers' literary style.

Summing up, we can say that the translation by R. Naldi:

1) too often uses the technique of omission, thereby disrupting the process of creating the author's picture of the world in which the characters live and the events described in the story itself take place;

2) resorting to synonymy in the translation of scientific and author's terms, does not comply with the principle of terminological uniformity, which is a characteristic of science fiction texts;

3) in most cases, it conveys the author's neologisms by calculus; however, in some cases, too "free" or inaccurate translation of neologisms again violates the creation of a picture of the world, distorting its fundamental principles (tau-mechanics – meccanica causale) or eliminating elements of fiction (turbolet – elicottero / aviogetto);

4) does not correspond to the author's style, since most of the linguistic means inherent in colloquialisms and/or colloquial speech have been translated into words or phrases of the standard literary Italian language.

Therefore, despite the merits of R. Naldi in the field of artistic and poetic translation, it is impossible to consider the translation of the story "The Forgotten Experiment" by A.N. and B.N. Strugatsky as an adequate translation of a science fiction text.

Conclusion

Due to the dual nature of SF, i.e. its attempt to combine the scientific with the fantastic, the translation of SF is characterized by some features that must be taken into account when translating. On the one hand, the translator must convey the "scientific nature" of the text, which manifests itself in its systematic, uniform terminological system, which includes the author's neologisms, occasionalisms, pseudo-terms, realities and unrealities. A very important role in terms of narrative is played by the picture of the world, against which the plot of the work develops and which includes not only scientific and fantastic elements, but also possible scientific and philosophical paradigms and concepts. On the other hand, since SF is a separate genre of fiction, the translator is also called upon to convey more literary elements, such as the author's style, the expressive means used by him, and the subtleties of his speech.

The analysis proved that even an experienced translator of fiction and poetry, such as Raisa Naldi, does not always manage to create an adequate translation of a science fiction text precisely because of ignorance or omission of the above-mentioned features of this genre.

The prospects for further research include an analysis of other translations of the works of A.N. and B.N. Strugatsky into Italian both in a synchronic and diachronic context, as well as an analysis of translations of the works of other science fiction authors in different language combinations.