SIMILES AS MEANS OF REPRESENTING THE AUTHOR’S WORLDVIEW AND THEIR RENDERING IN LITERARY TRANSLATION (in Ukrainian translations of contemporary English poetry)

Abstract

Introduction. Today, simile as a stylistic device attracts the attention of scholars in translation studies, since similes convey the figurative information of the source text and, consequently, their adequate rendering contributes to the creation of an adequate translation of the whole poetic work taking into account its imagery as a key to understanding the author’s worldview. The translator should strive to preserve the image of the source text in translation by using the means of expressiveness which is one of the most complex problems in the theory of translation from English into Ukrainian.
Purpose. The purpose of the article is to highlight the peculiarities of similes as a means of representing the author’s worldview and to determine the specificity of their rendering in Ukrainian translations of modern English poetry.
Methods. The methodology of the research includes the use of methods of analysis and synthesis for determining the theoretical background of the study; contextual analysis for the selection of illustrative material; lexical, stylistic, and pragmatic analysis as a means of determining the imagery of simile and its transferred meaning in the poem; as well as the methods
of translation analysis in determining the specifics of rendering similes in translation.
Results. Simile is a linguistic and stylistic means at the same time; it is a complex system of multifaceted means of expression: morphological, syntactic, lexical, and word-forming, representing the author’s vision of reality through the correlation of objects and phenomena. Figurative comparison (simile), unlike logic one, captures one of the most distinctive features of an object or phenomenon, sometimes unexpected, and makes it the main one ignoring all others. In the works of modern English poets, similes are unexpected, “fresh”, i.e. the authors strive
to create new ways to embody their worldview. Rendering such similes is extremely important for understanding the author’s worldview, so the most significant transformations occur in the sphere of lexical units’ meanings and are represented by differentiation and modulation, as well as addition,
omission, and total rearrangement.
Conclusions. The research reveals that, most often, similes in contemporary English poetry are rendered in Ukrainian translations by using transformations that modify their semantic content. This conclusion confirms that the semantics is the basis for rendering similes in translation.