Articles

Object. To uncover strategies of cultural and ideological reinterpretation. This research paper examines the multifaceted cultural journey of Brandon Thomas's seminal Victorian farce "Charley's Aunt" (1892) into Russian-language literary, theatrical, and cinematic traditions, tracing its adaptations from pre-revolutionary Russia to the late Soviet era. By analyzing the play's transformation across ideological, aesthetic, and socio-political contexts, the study illuminates the mechanisms of cultural translation and the role of adaptation as a tool for negotiating foreign narratives within localized frameworks. Central to the investigation is the Soviet-era film adaptation Zdrávstvuíte, ia vásha tió tia! (Hello, I'm Your Aunt!, 1975), directed by Viktor Titov, which serves as a case study for exploring the interplay between socialist cultural policy, artistic innovation, and the subversive potential of comedy under censorship. 

Methods. Consists of comparative textual analysis and archival research. Findings. Checking effectiveness of methods of cultural adaptation in translation. 

Conclusions. The enduring success and comedic potency of this work stem from its flexible structure, built upon universal archetypes (cross-dressing, social mimicry, absurd predicament), which proved exceptionally adaptable for cultural transplantation. The Russian interpretations, from 19th-century translations to Soviet cinematic versions, demonstrate not mere linguistic translation but a process of deep cultural transposition. The central mechanism of this adaptation has been the replacement of Victorian social codes with relevant local realities: English student traditions and class conventions were substituted by Soviet-era bureaucratic and domestic absurdities, recognizable social types, and linguistic clichés. In the literary sphere (translation by I.I. Rubinshtein), this manifested in the Russification of daily life and speech patterns, aligning the characters with familiar types from the Russian comedic tradition. In cinema, particularly in the film "Tyotya Charleya" ("Charley's Aunt", 1975), the adaptation reached its peak: the plot's framework was preserved but filled with purely Soviet grotesquery, satire on scarcity, petty-bourgeois attitudes, and careerism, realized through the visual and acting styles of Soviet eccentric comedy. Thus, the history of the Russian reception of Charley's Aunt vividly illustrates the dynamics of intercultural comedy. Its lasting resonance is ensured not by literal fidelity to the original but by the adapters' ability to find precise cultural equivalents for the source's comic mechanics. Having passed through the filters of Russian and Soviet sensibilities, Thomas's play became part of the national comedic canon, proving its timeless appeal and the universal adaptability of its farcical core.

This article examines the cognitive difficulties involved in translating Russian medical terms, including clinical terminology, into Chinese. The focus is placed not only on formal differences between the two languages but also on errors in interpreting term meanings, incomplete recognition of word-formation structures, misinterpretation of terminologized everyday words, abbreviations, and metaphorical models. The aim of the study is to identify the main types of cognitive difficulties arising in the translation of Russian medical terms into Chinese and to describe the mechanisms for overcoming them. 

The methodological framework combines cognitive and contrastive analysis with elements of translation studies and linguocultural analysis. The material includes Russian medical terms and stable terminological collocations used in scientific, educational, and clinical practice, as well as their Chinese equivalents. The paper examines four key groups of difficulties: interpretation of the word-formation structure of terms, terminologization of everyday words, translation of clinical abbreviations and diagnostic designations, and reconstruction of metaphorical models in the target language. 

The analysis shows that most translation errors are caused not by the absence of dictionary equivalents as such, but by a disruption in the relationship between the form of a term, its conceptual structure, and its professional context of use. It is demonstrated that an adequate translation of Russian medical terminology into Chinese requires not a literal reproduction of linguistic form but a conceptual reconstruction of meaning in accordance with the norms of Chinese medical nomination. The findings may be used in the training of medical translators, in the compilation of bilingual terminological dictionaries, and in further studies of Russian–Chinese professional communication.

The present study aims to compare approaches to translating puns in the TV show Young Sheldon when translation is performed by: 1) a professional translator; 2) students of the Translation in Professional Communication programme; 3) artificial intelligence systems. Since sitcom humour relies on cognitive ambiguity, character-specific speech patterns, and culturally embedded references, the accurate translation of puns becomes a pertinent test for assessing the potential of current AI systems. The main methods used in the research include contextual, translational, linguostylistic, and pragmatic analysis. 

The results show that all groups of translators employ a similar set of techniques: pun retention, pun omission, and humour recreation. This research provides evidence that ChatGPT and DeepSeek are more efficient at conveying the comic effect when translating puns than the voice assistant Alisa. In addition, each neural network exhibits distinctive features of an "individual translation style." Artificial intelligence systems such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek demonstrate a certain capacity to identify and translate puns based on polysemy, generally choosing techniques similar to those of professional translators. DeepSeek more frequently relies on a broad context and explains its translation choices, whereas ChatGPT and Alisa do not take the pun's environment into account and, consequently, are unable to preserve a consistently constructed character image with specific communicative traits during translation; Alisa refuses to translate puns on religious topics and tends toward a literal rendering of meaning. 

As for student translations, they tend to recreate puns, and the statistical pattern of translation techniques they use is different. Moreover, in the proposed variants, there is a shift in the pun's theme, which can negatively affect the text's integrity but at the same time indicates the linguistic creativity of the learners. 

The problem of asymmetry in the presuppositional knowledge of the recipients of the original and translated media texts remains unresolved in the translations offered by artificial intelligence, while anthropogenic translation aims to compensate for it. 

The findings further reveal that, despite significant progress, AI systems still fail to reproduce the pragmatic depth and cultural presuppositions inherent in polysemy-based puns. The findings highlight the need for further development of humour-sensitive algorithms and point to the pedagogical value of AI translations in translator training.

The subject of the current article is the specifics of the Russian translation of Macbeth’s monologue “To-morrow, and to-morrow, and tomorrow” from the final act of Macbeth by William Shakespeare. The article presents a translation of the piece into Russian, based on a motif analysis of the monologue and a versification analysis of the first three lines. The structural understanding of motif suggested by B.M. Gasparov and I.A. Paperno is used: the motifs are elements that represent different aspects of the general theme of the text. The findings: 1) the monologue is a structure of motifs corresponding with the theme of the vanity of (dramatic) art, which is a reference to the fine art vanitas genre. The subtheme of dramatic art is represented by the motifs of declamation (the first line), stage performance, acting, and the playwright’s work. The subtheme of vanity is presented by the motifs related to the allegorical image of Chronos/Saturn: mortality, madness, and limping (the last one refers to the medieval images of Saturn and emerges on a rhythmic level in the first line); 2) the monologue is a metatext about this particular recited text, actor, playwright, and this particular performance; 3) the versification analysis shows that the first three lines (especially the last syllable of recorded time) refer to the Greek and Latin metrics, which smallest unit was a short syllable called χρόνος πρῶτος (“the first time”) or mora; 4) the associations of the term mora include the Latin mors, mortis and the Greek μοῖρα, which was the name of the three goddesses of fate; 5) Shakespeare’s choice of the particular word to-morrow has rhythmic and phonic reasons, while the meaning of the word is synonymic for to-day; 6) the rhythm of the first line is necessary to be reproduced in Russian to support the original structure of the monologue and the reference to the image of the limping Saturn/passing Time. The offered translation of the monologue is accompanied by a commentary and analysis of previous translations. The translation of the two lines about Lady Macbeth’s death is also provided.

Political terminology represents a system of symbols, knowledge, and values that carry the political culture and ideological orientations of a state. According to the theory of trans-knowledge, translation is a process of “crossing borders” of knowledge. Therefore, the translation of political terminology becomes particularly important. Chinese political terminology, rooted in the longstanding Chinese culture and history, poses a significant challenge for those who lack the Chinese cultural context. Consequently, translation becomes a process that allows the manifestation of implicit knowledge underlying Chinese political terminology. Chinese political terminology, containing conceptual frameworks, is extensive and rich in content. The rich political philosophy of China is a particularly important aspect in the transmission of knowledge during translation. This study employs a corpus-based research method to create a corpus of Chinese political terminology with concepts in English, Chinese, and Russian, aiming to analyze the differences and similarities in knowledge transmission in English and Russian translations and draw conclusions about the framework structure of translating political terminology considering knowledge explication. Finally, a comparative analysis is conducted on the translations of “holistic approach to national security” into English and Russian to examine the structure. The results of this research can be applied to develop a methodology for translating political discourse in intercultural communication, be used in the training of professional translators, and serve as theoretical and empirical material for optimizing machine translation systems based on large language models.