Proverbs and idioms from the comedy “Woe from Wit” by Alexander Griboyedov (as compared to Slovak and English translations)

Abstract

The article is devoted to the adaptation of proverbs and idioms of Russian origin in the Slovak and English versions of the comedy “Woe from Wit” by Alexander Griboyedov. The purpose of the study is the comparison of the Russian text to its translations into foreign languages alongside the stylistic characteristics of paremiological and phraseological units. The source material is the original Russian text “Gore ot uma”, published in 1987 by Publishing house “Sovetskii pisatel”, and its translations made in 1986 and 2017 in Slovak and English, respectively. The research methods include comparative and descriptive text analysis, as well as stylistic commentary and functional analysis. The article demonstrates that the translators most often convey the semantics of proverbs and idioms through descriptive and word-forword translation. This affects the aphorism and expressiveness of the expressions. However, it is worth noting that the translators tried to maintain the rhythmic organization of the text, despite the fact that such translation methods as equivalent or partial correspondence are not used. The study also reveals the one-time use of a “pseudo-proverb” translation in the English version. The theoretical basis of the article is inspired by the works of orientalist G. L. Permyakov, who was the first to introduce the concept of “paremiological minimum” into the scientific lexicon, and philologist A. V. Fedorov, who laid the foundations for the theory of literary translation in the USSR.

Keywords:

Griboyedov, proverb, saying, translation, Slovak language, English language