Analysis of the characteristics and condition of folk songs of the north of Shaanxi province and their translations into Russian

Yan Yun'ya Postgraduate student, RIAMP Department, RUDN 117198, Russia, Moscow, Miklukho-Maklaya street, 6, of. Peoples' Friendship University of Russia yunya626ya@163.com Other publications by this author

The linguistic worldview, as an important part of linguistic culture, is a specific refinement of the worldview in language, and it is usually believed that this term was proposed by the German scientist V.F. Humboldt. In his opinion, language is one of those phenomena that stimulate human spiritual power to constant activity ^{[3, p. 52]}. and as an "intermediate world" between thinking and reality, he formulates a special national worldview. The postulates of the scientist, of course, formed the basis for the study of the theory of the linguistic picture of the world.

At the same time, other Western scientists also drew attention to this study, for example, M. Heidegger, H.Steithal, L.Wittgenstein, E.Sepir, B.L.Whorf, J.L.Weisgerber, etc.

The linguistic picture of the world as an urgent area of research in the theory of linguoculturology has been attracting more and more attention from scientists in recent years. Based on the theory of the linguistic picture of the world, a person can understand language and culture more deeply, and a translator can identify differences and characteristics of national cultures in different regions. The theory of the linguistic worldview is closely linked to translation activities, and thus it contributes to the analysis of specific linguistic realities in translation activities, in particular Chinese-Russian.

We know that as the main means of intercultural communication, translation is necessary for the interaction of different national cultures. Understanding and recognition of cultural phenomena of different nationalities is important, of course, it promotes respect and tolerance between different peoples.

In recent years, as part of the "Chinese Culture Going Abroad" initiative, folk songs of the north of Shaanxi Province as one of the types of traditional Chinese culture have been popularized abroad. Therefore, the translation of folk songs of the north of Shaanxi province from Chinese into foreign languages is extremely important for the dissemination of Chinese culture and the rapprochement of the souls of different peoples. Russian Russian translation of folk songs from the north of Shaanxi Province is one of the important means to give the Russian world the opportunity to get acquainted with the Chinese regional culture of the north of Shaanxi Province.

As you know, linguistic reality occupies an important place in linguistics and translation studies. The term "linguistic reality" has been widespread in linguistics since the early 1950s, when realities as "carriers of color, specific, visible elements of national identity" were discussed in connection with translation problems ^{[6, p. 5]}. The term "reality" was discussed only in the early 50s and mainly in the field of translation studies. The scientist V.M.Rossels identifies some of its features and considers reality as a translation category ^{[4, p. 169]}. In the same period, another researcher G.V.Chernov believed that reality could correspond to the concept of "non-equivalent vocabulary" ^{[7, p. 223]}. In this regard, the scientist A.E.Suprun considered realities as a name for "exotic" vocabulary ^{[5, p. 231]}. As time passed, Russian researchers S. Vlakhov and S. Florin drew attention to the use of this term. In their opinion, the reality is not only associated with non-equivalent vocabulary or exotic vocabulary, but also with numerous terms-hyponyms (localism, household word, alienism) and hyperonyms (exoticism, barbarism, ethnocultural vocabulary, ethnolexems) ^{[2, pp. 49-60]}. According to the famous Russian professor L.S.Barkhudarov, realities are words denoting objects, concepts and situations that do not exist in the practical experience of people speaking another language ^{[1, p. 95]}.

If we are talking about the object of this study, then it is folk songs. Folk songs are a form of folklore, an artistic and musical genre in which poetic text and melody are combined with each other in unity and serve to convey information and express the emotions of the people. The folk songs of the north of Shaanxi Province represent an important branch of Chinese folk songs and express the peculiarities of the northern regional culture of this region.

China has a vast territory and throughout its long history, different regions have developed their own types of culture, including the folk songs of the north of Shaanxi Province, which are one of the important parts of its culture.

The folk songs of the north of Shaanxi Province are an expression of the true emotions of its inhabitants, their customs and values. They are rightfully an important asset of the Chinese people.

The "North of Shaanxi Province", as the name implies, is its northern part with the cities of Yan'an and Yulin.

As you know, folk song is the simplest form of art that dates back to the working life of residents, in particular the north of Shaanxi Province.

The folk songs of the north of Shaanxi Province are reliable evidence of the social history of this region, which is located on the Loess Plateau, in the east next to the Yellow River and in the north next to Inner Mongolia. It was the special geographical location that greatly influenced the formation of a flourishing culture in those places, including finding its unique artistic expression in folk songs.

According to Chinese researcher Wang Xiaojue, the north of Shaanxi Province is located in a zone where cultures have mixed between agriculture and nomads ^{[10, p. 256]}. It is this geographical location that creates a special way of life in this territory and the unique spirit of its inhabitants.

Due to the harsh natural conditions, for thousands of years, the lives of local people have been poor and difficult, so most of the folk songs of the north of Shaanxi Province reflect the suffering of the people. The life of the people was hard, so for them folk songs became a kind of tool for expressing thoughts and conveying emotions. It was thanks to folk songs that it was much easier for them to survive suffering and find happiness in life.

Since ancient times, continuous wars have been waged in this area, so the environmental situation has worsened. But being in such a difficult environment, the residents of the north of Shaanxi province, not afraid of difficulties, used qualities such as hard work and courage.

In the process of developing and spreading folk songs of the north of Shaanxi Province, Zou Xi Kou plays an important role and has great cultural significance. Zou Xi Kou, we can understand as the path that people follow in Sikou. It represented one of the "five most famous population migrations in modern Chinese history." It also affected the development of folk songs, their musicality, images and themes.

It is worth noting that at the beginning of the 20th century, folk songs of the north of Shaanxi province faded somewhat, but received a new development in the 1930s — 1940s, and then many new works were published that reflect the life of the people, for example, "Sanshilipu Village", "Nanniwan"》）, etc.

With the development of a new era, the folk songs of the north of Shaanxi province attract more and more people's attention, they are not only sung, but also explored. There are even scientific conferences dedicated to folk songs of the north of Shaanxi Province. It can be said that over time, the folk songs of this region will play a more important role in the modern cultural life of people.

Chinese culture has a long history, created by a common social experience. Folk songs, as an important component of culture, play an important role in folk life. They not only reflect the history and culture of the present, but also the past and the future.

Since the beginning of the XXI century, folk songs of the north of Shaanxi province have begun to attract more and more attention of scientists, for example, their analysis has been carried out in terms of evaluating music and melody, problems of cultural heritage and their preservation have been discussed, but conducting research on their translation and dissemination abroad is still not enough.

In 2008, the situation changed a little, because this year the folk songs of the north of Shaanxi Province were included in the list of "Chinese Intangible Cultural Heritage". Then in 2009, the book "Voice From The Northwest" was published, which is dedicated to translating folk songs from the north of Shaanxi Province into English. Its author is a well-known scientist, translator Wang Hong-yin. This book is divided into 10 parts, including 105 songs and their English translations. More and more scientists are paying attention to translations of folk songs from the north of Shaanxi Province and relevant research on their translation.

It is worth noting that in 2009 and 2012, the Xi'an Conservatory twice hosted the "All-China Scientific Conference on the Translation of Folk Songs of the North of Shaanxi Province", which greatly contributed to the development and dissemination of translations of folk songs of the north of Shaanxi Province, as well as attracted more people to participate in their translation and research.

As the folk songs of the north of Shaanxi Province spread, they were translated into other languages. Although some folk songs of the north of Shaanxi Province have been translated into French, Italian and other languages, but according to statistics, translations of folk songs of the north of Shaanxi Province were published only in English and Russian.

If we are talking about translations of folk songs of the north of Shaanxi province into English, it should be noted the work of the scientist and translators Wang Hunin "Voice From The Northwest" (《西北北), because so far this book is the largest and most systematic edition of the translation of folk songs of the north of Shaanxi Province. At the same time, scholar Wen Shilong translated more than 70 songs. Jiao Yuele, Gou Bin and other researchers have also tried to translate the folk songs of the north of Shaanxi Province into English, but unfortunately their translations have not yet been published.

Russian Russian translation of the folk songs of the north of Shaanxi Province, it is necessary to name the book "Selected Folk Songs of the North of Shaanxi Province" in Chinese and Russian.

This work was carried out by a joint team consisting of professors of the Faculty of Russian Meng Xia and Natalia Tsareva and musician Liu Xinxin in 2016. The book is small in content, it includes ten classic folk songs of the north of Shaanxi province with comments and notes. Russian Russian translation Although this book contains only ten translations of classical folk songs of the north of Shaanxi province into Russian, they opened the beginning of the translation of folk songs of the north of Shaanxi province into Russian, identified the best translation creative option and provided an opportunity for the Russian reader to get acquainted with folk songs of the north of Shaanxi province, to learn the traditions and culture of the area.

Still, it must be admitted that so far, compared with the translation of folk songs from the north of Shaanxi province into English, the number of translations of folk songs from the north of Shaanxi province into Russian is quite small. And this situation has to some extent created difficulties in collecting ready-made translations for research. However, as a result of our discussion with the authors of this collection, it became clear that the transfer of linguistic realities in folk songs is one of the most difficult moments in translation due to the divergence of Chinese and Russian cultures and the limitation of the bars of the melody itself.

Russian Russian translations of ten classical songs have caused us to reflect on the correspondence of Chinese and Russian linguistic realities in terms of coordinating their cultural content, taking into account the influence of the linguistic factor on the choice of translation strategy and optimal translation technique.

Translating folk songs into foreign languages is not an easy task. Translating folk songs from the north of Shaanxi Province is even more difficult. As you know, linguistic realities as an equivalent vocabulary are a very difficult task for translators. If they want to successfully translate the linguistic realities in the folk songs of the north of Shaanxi Province, then they first need to form a special national linguistic picture of the world that reflects the local peculiarities of the culture of the north of Shaanxi Province.

In this article, by analyzing the translation of linguistic realities in folk songs of the north of Shaanxi province from Chinese into Russian, we will consider their translation principles in order to provide useful research results for translators who intend to translate folk songs of the north of Shaanxi Province into foreign languages.

Firstly, fidelity, that is, it is necessary to correctly and accurately convey the linguistic realities in the folk songs of the north of Shaanxi province and clearly express the meaning of the original text. This is also the most basic principle for translation. It is the observance of the principle of fidelity that can accurately convey information to readers, and improve the task of translating linguistic realities in folk songs. And this principle has often been applied to translate linguistic realities in folk songs, especially to translate linguistic realities in folk songs by place name and name. Let's look at the following lines from the translation of the work "Nanniwan":

Secondly, naturalness, that is, the expression must be natural. If it is impossible to change the melody and limit the bars during the translation process, it is necessary to choose the most appropriate word not only in meaning, but also in naturalness, so that the translated song can be sung and listened to pleasantly.

Below we will look at an example from the translated work "White Wine" ：

Thirdly, poetry and melodiousness, folk songs of the north of Shaanxi province are important and unique elements of Chinese culture, and so of course the translation of linguistic realities in folk songs of the north of Shaanxi province is also important as the art of the people, therefore poetry and melodiousness play an important role. Let's look at a fragment from the translated text of the song "Lan-hua-hua" ：

There are four phrases in the original, similar to the Russian chastushka. The translators, while preserving the national linguistic picture of the world about marrying a girl, first of all, chose a ditty in order to preserve the corresponding poetry and melodiousness of folk folklore. Translators use the expressions “in January, February, March, wedding” with the rhyme “e”, so that it is beautifully read, sung and heard.

We agree with the opinion of the translators of the Shenbei folk songs Meng Xia, Natalia Tsareva and Liu Xinxin, the most important purpose of translating a song is to sing. If it is simply not enough to convey the information contained in the linguistic realities in the folk songs of the north of Shaanxi Province, this is why the most important thing for translating folk songs of the north of Shaanxi Province is singing. This is how it can be understood from this example that translators pay a lot of attention to solving this issue in order to successfully carry out translation activities, and they apply such translation strategies.

Thus, we can identify the basic principles for translating linguistic realities in folk songs of the north of Shaanxi province based on the analysis of selected translated folk songs of the north of Shaanxi province from Chinese to Russian, and of course translators not only need to comply with the above principles, but more importantly, they need to understand the national linguistic picture of the world in order to adequately improve the translation task, namely In this way, translators can successfully convey the content of linguistic realities in folk songs of the north of Shaanxi province.