The Role of Mediating Text in Adapting Indirect Literary Translation

Abstract

Translatology of modern Kazakhstan has actualized the problem of translation of Kazakh literature into world languages. The active process of literary translation has increased the interest of foreign readers in the national culture, creativity, and identity of the Kazakh people. It set a new vector for the research of Kazakh scholars in translation studies. However, owing to the lack of professional translators, direct translation from Kazakh into English has always been problematic, so Kazakh writers’ works were translated indirectly from Russian into foreign languages. The article presents the problem of defining “indirect translation” by Western, Russian, and Kazakh linguists. Authors consider ways of adapting the direct and indirect translations by comparing them with the source text of A. Nurpeisov's novel “Songy Paryz”. The paper aims to reveal the ways of implementing linguocultural, pragmatic aspects of the original text and strategies for transferring art and pictorial means of the Kazakh language in direct and indirect translations. Experts in linguistics, translation studies, cognitive science, linguocultural studies, and literary criticism will be interested in the research results.