Balys Sruoga’s “Dievu miškas” Translations into Spanish: Means of Expression

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Balys Sruoga’s “Dievu miškas” Translations into Spanish: Means of Expression

Journal Title: Kalbu studijos / Studies about Languages - Year 2010, Vol 16, Issue 1

Abstract

Balys Sruoga’s “Dievu miškas” (“The Forest of the Gods”) is the only Lithuanian literary work twice translated into Spanish; the author of the first translation (1986) is J. Dijokas, and the most recent translation (2008) was carried out by A. Galvosaitė and B. Serigós. This is an interesting fact, taking into account that very few Lithuanian works have seen the light in that language. Besides, it allows comparing both translated texts. This article analyzes the means of expressions used in the first 22 chapters of both translations and focuses particularly on the translators’ search for appropriate and expressive words, the translation of idioms or specially expressive phrases, and the translation of diminutives, which are much more widely used in Lithuanian than Spanish and are particularly liked by the Lithuanian author as a way of showing irony, compassion and other emotions. In Lithuanian the same diminutive suffix can have different meanings so it is particularly important for translators to take into account the whole lexical context. According to the author of this article, having analyzed the different means of expression used by the translators, it is possible to conclude that the first translator paid more attention to the style of the original text a nd therefore searched more intensely for the proper stylistic devices; the second translators made a clear effort to render the content of the original, but they more often translated words or expressions without taking the whole context into account, or else used more neutral expressions. That is why, even though in both texts there is a number of inevitable -and evitable- losses, the text translated in 1986 can be considered closer to the original.

Authors and Affiliations

Carmen Caro Dugo

Keywords

EP ID EP108281
DOI -
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