ანთროპონიმები „ვეფხისტყაოსნის“ ინგლისურ თარგმანებში (ზოგი ყრუ ფშვინვიერი ბგერის შემცველი სახელების მაგალითზე)

Abstract

Translations of the epic poem “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin” by the outstanding Georgian poet of the 12th century Shota Rustaveli are of great interest from diverse viewpoints. The given paper analyzes certain issues related to the anthroponyms mentioned in the poem and their English correlates. There are six translations of the poem in English, namely, the translations by Marjory Wardrop, Venera Urushadze, Katharine Vivian, Robert Stevenson and Lyn Coffin. Out of these translations, the closest to the poem is the version of Marjory Wardrop, although this translation is not poetic. The translations by V. Urushadze and L. Coffin are poetic, and those by K. Vivian and R. Stevenson are prosaic. Besides, there is a prosaic English translation of the contents of “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin” retold by Avtandil Arabuli. This translation is made by Geoffrey Gosby. The English translations of the anthroponyms from “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin” raise numerous interesting issues. The given paper focuses on one aspect, namely, the transfer of certain Georgian sounds used in proper names. It is well known that in Georgian the trinary sets of voiceless consonants form two groups: voiceless aspirated consonants and voiceless ejectives. The phonetic difference between these consonants is graphically reflected during their transfer into another language. This difference is vividly reflected in the international phonetic alphabet (IPA), namely: Voiceless aspirated Voiceless ejectives GEO IPA GEO IPA ფ /p(h)/ პ /p’/ თ /t(h)/ ტ /t’/ ც /ts⁽ʰ⁾/ წ /ts’/ ჩ /t∫(h)/ ჭ /t∫’/ ქ /k⁽ʰ⁾/ კ /k’ / ყ /q’/ The paper focuses on the anthroponyms containing these consonants with regard to their representation in the English translations of “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin”. Naturally, a translator is not obliged to stick to phonetical rules and preserve the original sounds of the words when transferring the names of literary characters into his/her native language. However, in this regard, we should note that some of the translators of “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin” have tried to transfer certain anthroponyms using certain methods that would help preserve their original sound to a certain extent. It should be underlined that these translators have used different means to express only voiceless aspirated sounds and not for voiceless ejectives which are specific for Georgian1; however, the “rules” of representation of voiceless aspirated sounds (by means of graphic markers) are not always preserved in the translations. Thus, we have focused on the anthroponyms containing voiceless aspirated consonants. The table below represents interesting anthroponyms taken from the above-mentioned translations. Aanalysis of these names is given below1:2 M. Wardrop V. Urushadze K. Vivian R. Stevenson L. Coffin G. Gosby Avt’handil Avtandil Avtandil Avtandil Avtandil Avtandil Asmat’h Asmat Asmat Asmat Asmat Asmat Dilarget’h Dilarget Dilarget Dilarget Dilarget T’hamara Tamar Thamar Tamar Tamar T’hinat’hin Tinatin Tinatin Tinatin Tinatin Tinatin T’hmogveli Tmogveli Tmogveli Tmogveli Tmogveli Rust’haveli Rustaveli Rustaveli / Rust’veli2 Rustaveli Rustaveli Rustaveli P’harsadan Parsadan Pharsadan Parsadan Parsadan Parsadan P’hatman Khat’hun / P’hatman Patman Khatun / Patman Phatman Khatun / Phatman Fatima Khatun / Fatima Patman Khatun / Patman Patman P’hridoni Pridon Phridon / Nuradin-Phridon Pridon / Nuradin Pridon Pridon Nuradin Pridon Shavt’heli Shavteli Shavteli Shavteli Shavteli The Table proves that V. Urushadze, R. Stevenson, L. Coffin and G. Gosby do not use any special markers for the voiceless aspirated sounds found in the anthroponyms of “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin”. The same characters are used to reflect voiceless ejectives. This means that the translators have made no attempts whatsoever to reflect the differences between the sounds. However, in some translations, the proper names from “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin” are represented differently. In particular, M. Wardrop represents voiceless aspirated sounds თ and ფ by adding apostrophe and h to the corresponding English sounds: თ – t’h and ფ – p’h. The examples are: Avt’handil, P’harsadan etc (See the Table above). In this way, the translator differentiates voiceless aspirated consonants. However, she does not apply this “rule” to other aspirated consonants. For instance, the consonant ქ is represented as k, without apostrophe and h. For instance, მელიქ სურხავი – Melik Surkhavi1. The grapheme k is also used in the word ქაჯი: Kadji. In this regard, mention should also be made of K. Vivian’s translation. This version is peculiar from the viewpoint of representation of the Georgian consonant თ. This consonant is represented by means of th only in the propoer name თამარ - Thamar; other anthroponyms containing the sound თ are represented by means of t (See the Table above). It should also be noted that another voiceless aspirated sound ფ is always represented by means of Ph in names like: ფარსადანი - Pharsadan, ფრიდონი - Phridon, ფატმანი - Phatman (See the Table above). As we have noted, R. Stevenson’s translation does not make a difference between voiceless aspirated and voiceless ejective sounds. However, this translation is special in the way that, instead of Phatman and Phatman Khatun, given in the original text of the poem and all the other translations, R. Stevenson mentions Fatima and Fatima Khatun (See the Table above). Thus, the analyzed material proves that translators M. Wardrop and K. Vivian tried to illustrate the difference between Georgian voiceless aspirated and voiceless ejective sounds when translating certain anthroponyms from “The Knight in the Panther’s Skin”. In this way, they tried to preserve certain closeness with the original forms. Yet, their “rules” are not systematic i.e. they are not used to the full extent. V. Urushadze, R. Stevenson, L. Coffin and G. Gosby do not make the above-noted distinction; hence, in their translations, the above-mentioned sounds are not represented differently.