Difficulties in translating Russian particles into Persian

Abstract

Оne of the most difficult problems when translating literary texts from Russian into Persian is to understand the meaning of Russian particles and find suitable equivalents. Particles are important elements of the text that concretize, separate and strengthen any words according to the author’s choice. The abundance of particles in Russian and the important role of particles in the expression of emotional-expressive shades of sentences on the one hand, and their small number and limited use in the Persian language on the other, creates serious problems in understanding their meaning, especially in translation. The concept of particles relates to different terms in the Persian language that do not adequately cover Russian particles, which determines the relevance of the work. In most cases, the Persians refer to Russian particles as untranslatable parts of speech that do not have a special, significant function. In this paper, the particle systems of the Russian and Persian languages are described by means of a comparative method and then a number of translations of some examples from Russian fiction into Persian are analyzed in order to identify difficulties faced by Iranian students and translators in understanding the meaning and translation of Russian particles. The authors show that the main difficulties faced by Iranian translators are the incorrect differentiation of particles from homonymic constructions, incorrect definition of a clear meaning of particles in a sentence, the inability to find a suitable translation equivalent or the inability to find a suitable equivalent in accordance with the semantics and style in the Persian language and reinterpretation of the meaning of particles.

References

Chernyshova A.Y., Ziaei R. (2015) Vyrazhenie jemocij v russkom i persidskom jazykah (na materiale rechevyh aktov pobuzhdenij) = Expressing emotions in the Russian and Persian languages (based on causative speech acts) Filologija i kul’tura. No. 3 (41), pp. 162–168 (In Russian).

Kolesnikova S.M. (2020) Russkie chasticy: semantika, grammatika, funkcii = The Russian particles: semantics, grammar, functions. Monograph. 4th ed. Moscow: Flinta. 112 p. (In Russian).

Kuprina N.V. (2016) Problemy izuchenija semantiko-pragmaticheskih svojstv chastic russkogo jazyka = The problems of studying semantic and pragmatic characteristics of Russian particles, mezhdunarodnyj nauchnyj zhurnal «simvol nauki». No. 8, pp. 97–99 (In Russian).

Majidi F. (2013) Rassmotrenie russkih chastic “nu”, “zhe”, “chto”, “kak” i osobennosti ih perevoda na persidskij jazyk = The review of the Russian particles: “nu”, “zhe”, “chto”, “kak” and characteristics of their translation into Persian: dissertation of a cand. philol. Tehran (In Persian).

Nikolaeva, T.M. Ot zvuka k tekstu = From sound to text. M.: Jazyki russkoj kul’tury. 2000. 680 p. (In Russian).

Ovchinnikovy I.K. Russko-persidskij slovar’ = Russian-Persian Dictionary. Edited by I.K. Ovchinnikovy. Tegeran: Dzhavedan herad. 1996.

Rubinchik Ju.A. (2001) Grammatika sovremennogo persidskogo literaturnogo jazyka = The grammar of the modern Persian literary language. Moscow: Izdatel’skaja gruppa “Vostochnaja literature” RAN. 600 p. (In Russian).

Shafayi A. (1363) The Scientifi c Basics of Persian Grammar. Tehran: Novin. 654 p. (In Persian).

Starodumnaya E.A. (2002) Chasticy russkogo jazyka (raznoaspektnoe opisanie) = The particles of the Russian language (multi-aspect description). 

Vlalivostok. Izd-vo Dal’nevost. un-ta. 292 p. (In Russian).

Vinogradov V.V. (1947) Russkij jazyk (Grammaticheskoe uchenie o slove) = Russian language (grammatical teaching about the word). Moscow: Gos. ucheb.-ped. izd-vo. 783 p. (In Russian).

Voskanjan G.A. (1996) Russko-persidskij slovar’ = Russian-P ersian Dictionary. Edited by G.A. Tegeran. Farhange moaser (In Persian).

Zahraee S.H. (1393) Th e educational grammar of the Russian language. Tehran: Samt. 508 p. (In Persian).