Implicatures of poetic text: translation methods

Abstract

Consistent patterns of conveying implicatures in translating poetic texts are described on material of Mascha Kaléko’s and Robert Gernhardt’s miniatures translated by Genrikh Yeyger. The main feature of implicature is that it is enclosed in utterance intentionally by the speaker. Creating a poetic text, the author has two kinds of intentions – 1) referential intention which is connected with reference – correlation of words and states of affairs in the outside world, and 2) aesthetic intention – author’s positive emotional-appraisive attitude to the verbal form being created. Implicatures in poetry reflect both referential and aesthetic intentions. They simultaneously refer to states of affairs in the outside world (the reference itself) and to words (self-reference). That is why their reproduction in translation is twice as important – for recreating text content as well as reflecting author’s individual style. Each implicature belongs to one of two communication levels distinguished in literary text: a) vertical – communication between author and reader; b) horizontal – communication between characters of a text. The two ways of conveying implicatures of original text are determined: keeping and losing implicature. In the first case there are three possible options: 1) translator manages to convey an implicature by using the same means as in the original; 2) the original utterance containing an implicature can slightly differ grammatically from the translated equivalent; 3) translator has to use other suitable language means to reproduce an impicature;. In the second case there are three options: 1) explication of an implicature; 2) substitution with another implicature; 3) complete loss.