The Proper Names in Beatrix Potter’s Books in Macedonian

Research work presented at the International Conference in Linguistics - Skopje, 13−14 November 2019, Institute of Macedonian Language “Krste Misirkov” - Skopje. (in print)

 

Research work presented at the International Conference in Linguistics - Skopje, 13−14 November 2019, Institute of Macedonian Language “Krste Misirkov” - Skopje. (in print)

Author: Biljana Nikovska

SUMMARY

The Proper Names in Beatrix Potter’s Books in Macedonian is a research paper that deals with the strategies used for the translation of four Beatrix Potter’s books into Macedonian – The Tale of Tom Kitten, The Tale of Two Bad Mice, The Tale of Peter Rabbit and The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, translated by Katerina Trajanovska, edited by Dejan Vasilevski and published by Libi, Ars Lamina – publikacii, Skopje. We analyze how adequately the chosen strategies аre used, how consistently they are used, and we suggest new solutions.

Even though we see an attempt for the original message to be transmitted to the reader with different linguistic and cultural background in a way that preserves the aesthetic and other impact factors (cultural and social differences), and although we see some character names very successfully adopted in the Macedonian version of these books, there is still a bittersweet taste that lingers during the reading and remains after the reading, mostly, because of the noticeable lack of consistency (in a way that in the same contexts, the translator chooses to use different translation strategies without any clear argument why this change is made).

Our conclusion is that the translator is free to choose (and should use) different translation strategies to make it possible for the reader to understand the original message. However, this freedom of choice shouldn’t mean an absence of principles because a child’s “chaos” (that one seen as chaos from the adult’s point of view) is not an absence of principles and discipline, especially not an absence of the consistency principle, which is inevitably present in that “chaos”.

Key words: proper names, Beatrix Potter, children’s literature, sociocultural aspects, translation strategies.

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