Takamura Kotaro’s poem: culturally oriented translation strategy

Abstract

Japanese poetry: culturally oriented translation strategy prescribes basic linguistic and stylistic parameters of translation with implementation of domestication and foreignization principles. The article deals with comparative analysis of Japanese symbolist-poet Takamura Kotaro (1883–1956)'s poem Russian and English translations, which allows to highlight the primary translation techniques in translation process. The foreign text is adapted taking contrastive linguistic demand and ethnical, or cultural information aimed at influencing readers into consideration. It is revealed that distinguishing different degrees of domestication allows for an extended translation. The Eurocentrism phenomenon is singled out. This phenomenon arises from the cultural incompatibility of East and West and deals with the objective world of Japanese civilization and philosophical esthetic concepts, i.e., ethnical, or cultural contents of the original text. The translation adequacy depends on the implicative component parts and extra linguistic factors. The authors suggest basing the search for optimal decisions on duality of translation strategies.