The sin of the translator: On words and mental images in translation
Keywords:
archetypal image, archetype, inner word form, interpretation in translation, mental image, word.
Abstract
This paper explores the interface between the conscious and unconscious minds in translation and focuses on the inner word form that it considers to be the linchpin in this interface. This paper assumes that words pertain via their inner forms directly to archetypal images and via these images indirectly to archetypes, which underpins image-driven interpretations of individual words in translation.
This paper discusses Ukrainian гріх commonly translated as English a sin and shows that this translatability does not imply an interpretability as the words via their inner forms relate to two distinct archetypal images - of fire and of movement, respectively, - that uniquely transcend the cultures to the core and capture a different, culture-specific knowledge of SIN. Pictorially, these are different SINs, owing to which гріх means something different to a speaker of Ukrainian than a sin does to a speaker of English. Yet, ingredients and associations drawn into the archetypal images show that THE SHADOW, ANIMA, THE SELF, and TRANSFORMATIONS are the archetypes that jointly endow to speakers the same foreknowledge of SIN as mediated from within the collective unconscious. This way the inner word forms via their connection to archetypal images extend back beyond the conscious into the unconscious mind.
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References
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Vakhovska, O. (2021). Subjectivity in metaphor translation: A case for Russian translation of English metaphors of depressive emotions. Cognition, communication, discourse, 23, 99-117. http://doi.org/10.26565/2218-2926-2021-23-07
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Vakhovska, O. (2022b). Must the pot of seven holes be a translation theorist’s riddle? KELM Knowledge, Education, Law, Management, 4(48), (in publication). To appear at http://kelmczasopisma.com/home
Vakhovska, O., & Isaienko, O. (2021). Language, culture, and image-driven interpretations in translation: A case for the university translation classroom in Ukraine. Amazonia Investiga, 10(47), 240-249. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2021.47.11.25
Weber, S. (2005). A touch of translation: On Walter Benjamin’s ‘Task of the translator.’ In Bermann, S., & Wood, M. (Eds.), Nation, language, and the ethics of translation, 65-79. Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400826681.65
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Lexicographic sources
Berneker, E. (1908-1913). A Slavic etymological dictionary [Slavisches etymologisches Wörterbuch]. Heidelberg: Carl Winter's University Bookstore. [in German]
Brugmann, K. (1892). Indo-European research: Journal of Indo-European linguistics and ancient studies [Indogermanische Forschungen: Zeitschrift für indogermanische Sprach- und Altertumskunde]. Strassburg: Karl J. Trubner, The Publisher. [in German]
Levitsky, V. (2010). An etymological dictionary of the Germanic languages: In 3 volumes. Vinnytsia: Nova Knyga. [in Russian] Recovered from http://www.library.univ.kiev.ua/ukr/elcat/new/detail.php3?doc_id=1472060
Makovsky, M. (1992). A linguistic genetics: Issues of the word’s ontogenesis in the Indo-European languages. Moscow: Nauka. [in Russian] Recovered from https://djvu.online/file/9lsF48S8oOGwI
Makovsky, M. (1996). A comparative dictionary of mythological symbolism in the Indo-European languages: An image of the world and the worlds of images. Moscow: The VLADOS Humanitarian Publishing Center. [in Russian]
Makovsky, M. (2000). A historic and etymological dictionary of the Modern English language: The word in the mirror of human culture. Moscow: The Dialogue Publishing House. [in Russian]
Makovsky, M. (2012). The phenomenon of TABU in the traditions and in the language of Indo-Europeans: The nature, forms, and development. Moscow: The LIBROKOM Book House. [in Russian]
Melnichuk, O. (Ed.). (1982-2006). An etymological dictionary of the Ukrainian language: In 7 volumes. Kyiv: Naukova dumka. [in Ukrainian] Recovered from http://resource.history.org.ua/item/0007831
Miklosich, F. (1886). An etymological dictionary of the Slavic languages [Etymologisches Wörterbuch der slavischen Sprachen]. Wien: Wilhelm Braumüller, The Publisher. [in German]
Onions, C. (Ed.). (1966). The Oxford dictionary of English etymology. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Preobrazhensky, A. (1959). An etymological dictionary of the Russian language. Moscow: The State Publishing House of Foreign and National Dictionaries. [in Russian]
Benjamin, W. (2000[1923]). The task of the translator. In L. Venuti (Ed.), The translation studies reader, 15-25. London & New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429280641
Bradshaw, S., & Storm, L. (2013). Archetypes, symbols and the apprehension of meaning. International Journal of Jungian Studies, 5(2), 154-176. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/19409052.2012.685662
El-Shamy, H., & Schrempp, G. (2005). Union of opposites, or Coniunctio Oppositorum, various motifs. In J. Garry & H. El-Shamy (Eds.), Archetypes and motifs in folklore and literature: A handbook, 481-489. New York: M.E. Sharpe, Inc. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315097121
Florensky, P. (1914). The Pillar and the assertion of the Truth: An experience of the Orthodox theodicy in twelve letters. M.: Put’. [in Russian, pre-reform orthography] Recovered from https://viewer.rusneb.ru/ru/000199_000009_004201077?page=1&rotate=0&theme=white
Goodwyn, E. (2012). The neurobiology of the gods: How brain physiology shapes the recurrent imagery of myth and dreams. London & New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203141526
Haule, J. (2010). Jung in the 21st century, vol. 1. Evolution and Archetype. London & New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203833612
Hanba, O., Liashuk, R., Ivashkova, T., Balendr, A., & Olytskyi, O. (2022). The archaic law. Mononorms and archaic relations of the primitive communal society. Amazonia Investiga, 11(52), 37-48. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2022.52.04.4
Jung, C. (1921). Psychological types. In Collected works of C.G. Jung, volume 6. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Jung, C. (1936). The concept of the collective unconscious. In Collected works of C.G. Jung, volume 9i. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Jung, C. (1947). On the nature of the psyche. In Collected works of C.G. Jung, volume 8. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.
Jung, C. (1960). Good and evil in analytical psychology. Journal of analytical psychology, 5, 91-100. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1465-5922.1960.00091.x
Jung, C. (1970). Mind and Earth. In R.F.C. Hull (Ed.), Collected works of C.G. Jung, volume 10. Princeton: Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400850976.29
Jung, C. (1971). The portable Jung. J. Campbell (Ed.). Penguin Books.
Jung, C. (1981). Archetypes and the collective unconscious. In G. Adler & R.F.C. Hull (Eds.), Collected works of C.G. Jung, volume 9, part 1. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
Jusuk, F., & Vakhovska, O. (2021). Image-driven interpretations in professional communicative mediation: Bringing translation and psychotherapy together. Science and Education a New Dimension. Humanities and Social Sciences, 48(261), 63-67. https://doi.org/10.31174/SEND-HS2021-261IX48-11
Krishtal, O. (2020). To the singing of birds: A private journey to myself. Oleg Krishtal: Independently published.
Potebnya, A.A. (1892). Thought and language. Kharkiv: Adolf Darre’s Typography. [in Russian, pre-reform orthography] Recovered from https://archive.org/details/libgen_00702348/page/n11/mode/1up?view=theater
Vakhovska, O. (2011). Linguistic manifestation of SIN in the English discourse of the 14th-21st centuries (PhD thesis in Cognitive Linguistics). Kharkiv: V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, Ukraine. [In Russian] Recovered from https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OLTgpJQC3Pv_-o6Wt36Pv-SP9voDQQaY/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=115064855619366908284&rtpof=true&sd=true
Vakhovska, O. (2021). Subjectivity in metaphor translation: A case for Russian translation of English metaphors of depressive emotions. Cognition, communication, discourse, 23, 99-117. http://doi.org/10.26565/2218-2926-2021-23-07
Vakhovska, O. (2022a). Imperatives of today and translation: From a translation theory to the university translation classroom. In Babelyuk O. (Ed.), Innovative pathway for the development of modern philological sciences in Ukraine and EU countries. Scientific monograph. Volume 1, 242-267. Częstochowa: Polonia University in Częstochowa. [In Ukrainian] https://doi.org/10.30525/978-9934-26-196-1-10
Vakhovska, O. (2022b). Must the pot of seven holes be a translation theorist’s riddle? KELM Knowledge, Education, Law, Management, 4(48), (in publication). To appear at http://kelmczasopisma.com/home
Vakhovska, O., & Isaienko, O. (2021). Language, culture, and image-driven interpretations in translation: A case for the university translation classroom in Ukraine. Amazonia Investiga, 10(47), 240-249. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2021.47.11.25
Weber, S. (2005). A touch of translation: On Walter Benjamin’s ‘Task of the translator.’ In Bermann, S., & Wood, M. (Eds.), Nation, language, and the ethics of translation, 65-79. Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400826681.65
Wierzbicka, A. (1996). Semantics: Primes and universals. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press.
Lexicographic sources
Berneker, E. (1908-1913). A Slavic etymological dictionary [Slavisches etymologisches Wörterbuch]. Heidelberg: Carl Winter's University Bookstore. [in German]
Brugmann, K. (1892). Indo-European research: Journal of Indo-European linguistics and ancient studies [Indogermanische Forschungen: Zeitschrift für indogermanische Sprach- und Altertumskunde]. Strassburg: Karl J. Trubner, The Publisher. [in German]
Levitsky, V. (2010). An etymological dictionary of the Germanic languages: In 3 volumes. Vinnytsia: Nova Knyga. [in Russian] Recovered from http://www.library.univ.kiev.ua/ukr/elcat/new/detail.php3?doc_id=1472060
Makovsky, M. (1992). A linguistic genetics: Issues of the word’s ontogenesis in the Indo-European languages. Moscow: Nauka. [in Russian] Recovered from https://djvu.online/file/9lsF48S8oOGwI
Makovsky, M. (1996). A comparative dictionary of mythological symbolism in the Indo-European languages: An image of the world and the worlds of images. Moscow: The VLADOS Humanitarian Publishing Center. [in Russian]
Makovsky, M. (2000). A historic and etymological dictionary of the Modern English language: The word in the mirror of human culture. Moscow: The Dialogue Publishing House. [in Russian]
Makovsky, M. (2012). The phenomenon of TABU in the traditions and in the language of Indo-Europeans: The nature, forms, and development. Moscow: The LIBROKOM Book House. [in Russian]
Melnichuk, O. (Ed.). (1982-2006). An etymological dictionary of the Ukrainian language: In 7 volumes. Kyiv: Naukova dumka. [in Ukrainian] Recovered from http://resource.history.org.ua/item/0007831
Miklosich, F. (1886). An etymological dictionary of the Slavic languages [Etymologisches Wörterbuch der slavischen Sprachen]. Wien: Wilhelm Braumüller, The Publisher. [in German]
Onions, C. (Ed.). (1966). The Oxford dictionary of English etymology. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Preobrazhensky, A. (1959). An etymological dictionary of the Russian language. Moscow: The State Publishing House of Foreign and National Dictionaries. [in Russian]
Published
2022-08-30
How to Cite
Vakhovska, O. (2022). The sin of the translator: On words and mental images in translation. Amazonia Investiga, 11(54), 178-188. https://doi.org/10.34069/AI/2022.54.06.17
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