Geser. The Вuryat heroic epic

A brief summary of the translating methods

The first translation to the English language of one of the Buryat variants of the heroic epic of “Geser” entitled “Abai Geser the Mighty” has been completed by Ye. Khundaeva. The lack of the full coincidence between the two languages and cultures made it hard to give an exact and accurate translation of all the passages of the epic.

In the Buryat language the nouns are too often substituted for by the pronouns. One can note a reverse order of the words in Buryat in contrast to English. Most peculiar are the paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations, phonoaesthetical words as well as the hyponymic relations, the frequent use of the various kinds of the particles, etc. However there are some similar features that are lacking in the other languages. Here one could mention the grammar expression of completeness (Perfect) or incompleteness (Non-Perfect or Progressive) of the action which are typical of the two languages: Buryat and English.

The Buryat language is noted for by the following features: the omission of the main parts of the sentence: the subject, the predicate and the object that are quite explicit and it is easy to restore them. One can note a reverse order of the words in Buryat in contrast to English. Most peculiar are the paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations, the phonoaesthetical words as well as the hyponymic relations, the frequent use of the various kinds of the particles, etc. Let us dwell on some of the methods used when translating the Buryat heroic epic “Geser” to the English language.

1. Lexical transformations

1.1. Transliteration

Transliteration is most often used, for example, when reproducing the proper names.

Малзан Гурмэн – Malzan Gurmen

Дашин Шөөхөр – Dashin Shokhor

Зарлиг Саган – Zarlig Sagan

Санхан Гоохон – Sankhan Gookhon

1.2. Loan translation

Бээжиин (мγр 3563) – печь (строка 3566) – stove (line 3564)

Yйлэнсүй (мγр 3705) – улица (строка 3705) – street (line 3705)

Мэшээг (мγр 3503) – мешков (строка 3504) – sack (line 3506)

2. The semantic transformations

2.1. Concretization and generalization

Орой дээрэм харыто (мγр 447) – Сверху меня опекайте (cтрока 447) – From heavens take care of me (line 448). Орой дээрэм (from above) might be translated as “from the heavens” using the semantical concretization that shows that the actions are undertaken as if by the will of the heavenly divinities.

Басагам (мγр 4226) – сынок (cтрока 4226) – sonny (line 4226). In the old times the boys were sometimes called “girls” lest they might be taken away by the evil spirits who wanted to harm the people. The spirits wanted to deprive the people of the sons for the boys were taken to be the successors of the kin or clan and bread-winners.

There are the lexical correspondences, such as the interlingual hyponymy and hyperonymy. These are the terms to designate the generic or specific relations. The word possessing a generic meaning can be taken as a hyperonym whereas the word possessing a specific meaning might be taken as a hyponym. For example, the word hараана (lily) is a hyponym in relation to the word seseg (flower) which is a hyperonym in relation to such words as badma seseg (lotus), urgy seseg (snowdrop). Jemes (berry) is a hyperonym of the word алирhан (bilberry), moihon (bird cherry). When translating one can replace a hyponym with a hyperonym if need be and vice versa.

In the English language most spread are the generic features represented by the words of the broad undifferentiated meaning. Compare the English and Russian sentences: Old birds are not to be caught with chaff. – Старого воробья на мякине не проведешь. Here we see that a broader notion bird is substituted for by a more concrete notion воробей (sparrow). In many languages such words as внук, внучка, внуки in Russian; grandson, granddaughter, grandchildren in English denote the offsprings both on the mother’s and father’s side whereas in Buryat the designations of such relatives on the part of the mother differ from those of the father. Thus they are as follows: zee – grandson, granddaughter (on the mother’s side); asha – grandson, granddaughter (on the father’s side).

2.2. Modulation

The method of modulation presents kind of the semantical development or integrated transformation. Мэдээн сайндаа мэдэбэ, yхаан сайндаа ойлгобо (мγр 119—120) – Ясным разумом понял, oстрым умом распознал (cтроки 119—120). – Perceived it in his quick mind and felt it very well (line 121—122).

The hero got the situation owing to his insight, he possesses the extrasensory abilities.

2.3. The lexical and semantic correspondencies

Абай Гэсэр хγбγγн (мγр 3116) – Абай Гэсэр Могучий (строка 3116) – Abai Geser the Mighty (line 3116). As it has been noted above the word хγбγγн possesses many meanings, among them “bogatyr” (mighty).

Abai is translated as “father, dear, honourable”. This is the most respectable form of addressing. The word хүбүүн has many meanings: son, boy, lad, guy, young man, brave spirit, daring fellow, very strong, leader, etc. Thus the word хүбүүн could be translated as mighty.

Халуу нугудаа (мγр 3341) – на родные луга (строка 3341) – Into my native meadows (line 3341) Халу has the meaning “hot”, but in this very case it could be understood as “native, one’s own”.

3. The lexical and grammar transformations

3.1. Breaking a sentence into a few parts

Далан долон таhалгай Үбдэгөө hайгаар ла Түльхэжэ инеэжэ, Үhүгыеө hайгаар ла Үдьхэлэжэ хаажа ла, Нэгэ дүнгөөр хаажа, Саа биедэн сараагүйеэр Ороо гэхэ юмэ лэ (мγр 5606—5614) – [Гэсэр] ударом сильного колена [Двери] открывает, Ударом сильной пятки [Те двери] захлопывает – Открывает лишь одним ударом, захлопывает лишь одним ударом, так вошел он в самую дальнюю из семидесяти семи комнат (строки 5606 – 5614) – [Geser] with the push of his strong knee opened [the doors], with the kick of his strong heel he closed [those doors]. He opened with only one push, he closed with only one kick. This way he entered the farthest of the seventy seven rooms (lines 5606 – 5614).

The original sentence is quite long, so it is broken into the three sentences. Breaking a sentence into a few ones is not just obligatory in all the cases but it is quite indispensible if the necessity arises.

3.2. Uniting the sentences

Уряаhаан саазгай ерээд лэ Унталгай мяхай абаадажа байбай ла. – Энэ саган түрэ лэ <…>. Зугаалажа байтагай! Гэжэ Үрөөр хэлэжэ ябалдана бэлэй лэ (5748 – 5761) – Прилетала с юга сорока На ночь мясо к себе уносила. “Пусть эта светлая свадьба <…> так же гуляeт, пируeт. Пьют архи и курят табак!” – [Вот такой] юрол сказав, она улетела (5748 – 5761) – A magpie flew in from the south and took home the meat saying: “May this fair marriage party <…> feast and enjoy themselves, let them drink arkhi and smoke tobacco”, thus having wished she flew away (5748 – 5761). This is an example of uniting a few sentences.

To achieve the equivalence one might make use of some transformations like substitutions, such as the lexical and grammar substitutions, transliteration, addition of the lacking parts of speech, most often of the subject, predicate, object, as well as the change of the order of words, concretization and compensation. Sometimes of great use might be such transformations as the antonymical substitution, the syntactical likening and the other translating techniques.

The Geseriade as part of the world culture

The epic as a part of culture is the expression of the national way of thinking. It may help tell the nationality of an individual. Besides, the communicative function of folklore enables the exchange of the achievements among the certain human communities and individuals. This function also provides for the possibility of the communication in the sphere of folklore in the form of the dialogues. The communicative function makes it possible to create the international cultural fund. The interaction of the Tibetan, Mongolian, Buryat and the other cultures made it possible to create different variants of the heroic epic of Geser. One of the functions of culture is associated with the social and individual factor, that is with the differentiation of the social, national and other communities of the peoples, on the one hand and their integration on the other. The cultures are not isolated from each other and they are of no great significance if taken alone, just all by themselves. Each culture carries in itself the energy of the neighbouring and other cultures. In this context the idea that it is very difficult to understand and cognise the other, “аlien” cultures is not relevent at present. The idea of each culture being of a perculiar nature, of the contribution of each nation to the culture of the whole mankind is obviously quite clear but it does not contradict the idea of a certain coherence of all the cultures. The words “harmony” and “understanding” should become the key notions of the contemporary world view. The people belonging to different cultures should treat each other with the greatest understanding possible. It is very important to recognize the priority of the spiritual entities in the whole life of the contemporary man, the ecological imperative and nature-corelating tendencies. The globalization brought the world civilizations and cultures closer to each other, the world has become more cohesive and coherent. In the context of the theory of the cultural pluralism the culture is taken to be the linking element among nations. Therefore understanding and respect towards the cultural values and traditions of the peoples is not going to be the fact of being educated but rather the precondition of the mutual understanding and the harmonious development. One cannot say with the great confidence that there is a more civilized culture or a less civilized, a backward culture. At present we witness the two types of the development: the traditional and the innovational. In the period when the might of the state was determined by the technical and economical as well as the military and political factors, the superiority proved to be with the advanced technogenic civilization. However the end of the XX century revealed, on the one hand, the negative consequences of the technological expansion of the civilization that brought the mankind to the global crises and, on the other hand, it revealed the spiritual advantages of the traditional type of development in some cases. Now the contacts among the different communities are becoming wider, the direct communication is becoming more diversified. Now we witness the growth of the planetary unification though we still recognize the necessity of knowing one’s own “roots”. We witness the interest of many people in their own origin. The man who is not aware of his forefathers and the cultural traditions feels as if he were a black sheep, he feels a loser in some circumstances. Chingis Aitmatov, a well-known Kirgiz writer, gives the following historical fact that in the ancient times the people recognized the importance of the kinship ties. The ancient Kirgiz people had a custom, which is as follows. When they captured a man from some other tribe they did their best to make him forget his past. They tied his head very tight so that the hair began to grow inside. As a result the man forgot everything, in his brain there were the processes that turned him into an obedient slave. They are known as the mankurts, the people who do not know their origin, roots, ancestors, traditions and rituals. But the fact is that each man would like to share the other people the knowledge of his own culture, to speak about it, to exchange the cultural experience. Each culture has the right to exist. Many people are of the opinion that in the XXI century there might be a certain opposition of the civilizations and cultures. They think that the motivation for the conflicts will be the culture rather than the ideology or economy. The differences among the civilizations are quite evident, i.e. the different histories, languages, traditions, beliefs and religions. But that should not be the cause for the armed opposition.

Quite a number of the non-technogenic civilizations turn to their genuine “roots” which is likely to give the world a traditional colouring. The epical culture of the Buryat people shows all the stages of the man’s development. The Buryat epic gives a wide panorama of the origin of the Universe showing the significance of the basic elements of the macrocosm, i.e. the chaos, the world ocean, the prime elements, the threesome universe that come the first when treating the problems of the anthropogenesis.

The Buryat epic has made a good contribution to the interpretation of the problems of the origin of the Universe and the Man. It made it clear that the Man is a microcosm, that the whole might of the Universe is concentrated in the Man. This might be taken as an indispensible human and cultural significance of the Buryat epic. The Buryat epic enters the modern picture of the world, now in the epoch of globalization, with a clear-cut, the epically expressive paradigm concerning the origin of the Universe, the Earth, the Man, the paradigm of the relations of the people with the forces of Nature that provide for the proper physical and spiritual existence, the joint efforts of the corporative forces in the Universe's functioning (synergetics), the connection of the whole with a part and of a part with the whole, the selection of the way for the further development which is closely connected with the bifurcation processes, the stochastic phenomena, the dissipative structures and attractors. This all shows the contribution of the Buryat epic in the cultural heritage and its significant symbolic nature. The Buryat epic shows the historical stage of the development of the mankind in the ancient and medieval period, the period of the so called cosmogenic civilization which was based on the use of the tools and manual technology and was largely dependent on the natural forces in the time, when the cosmic forces determined the sense of life and dictated its laws.

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