1 University of Amsterdam, 2016
MA in Linguistics: Translation Studies Student Number: 11105615
Kamil Kiedos
Supervisor: dr. Eric Metz (UvA)
Polish Translations of A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess
as Evidence for the Applicability of Rewriting Theory and
Retranslation Hypothesis
Final Thesis - MA in Linguistics: Translation Studies
Amsterdam, 30th June 2016
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Table of Contents:
1. Introduction………...3
2. Theoretical Framework……….4
2.1. Ideology and Rewriting………4
2.1.1. Ideology in Translation Studies……….4
2.1.2. Rewriting………...5
2.2. Retranslation………..5
2.2.1. Definition and Motives………....5
2.2.2. Retranslation Hypothesis………...6
3. Literary and Historical Background………..7
3.1. The Original Book……….7
3.2. Two Polish Translations………...8
3.2.1. Translation Criticism Perspective………..8
3.2.2. The First Version………..8
3.2.3. The Second Version……… …9
4. Text Analysis - Ideological Aspects……….10
4.1. Traces of Rewriting………..10
4.2. Miscellaneous Traces of Ideology……….12
4.3. Summary, Conclusion and Research Continuation………12
5. Research Method………...14
5.1. Introduction………14
5.2. The First Survey (Survey I)...14
5.3. The Second Survey (Survey II)...17
5.4. The Polonised-Estonian Version (‘Wersja E’)...19
5.4.1. The Choice of the Estonian Language………..19
5.4.2. The Methods of ‘Polonising’ the Estonian Words………....20
6. Results………22
6.1. Survey I………....22
6.1.1. Introduction……….22
6.1.2. General Questions………....22
6.1.3. Nadsat Input Analysis………...23
6.2. Survey II………...26
6.2.1. Introduction………...26
6.2.2. General Questions………...26
6.2.3. Nadsat Input Analysis………....27
6.3. Comparison………..29
7. Discussion and Conclusion………..31
7.1. Rewriting………..31
7.2. Retranslation………...31
7.3. Final Conclusion……….32
8. Appendix………..33
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1. Introduction
Translation Studies have been historically placed by scholars between Linguistics and Literary Studies. This work, however, will deal with academic theories and hypotheses that are to prove that translation is not merely a prescriptive act of retaining the balance between the source and target text. Translation is not a craft requiring a great deal of imagination either. It is an academic discipline that calls for its own autonomy. The scopes that translation is connected to ranges from literature, languages, sociology, psychology and many others. All the aforementioned subjects are usually intertwined with translation, but only to a certain extent, which distinguishes it and makes it even more special.
This work, however, is not an attempt to prove that Translation Studies should be treated as a separate academic field, as I have already taken that for granted. Instead of that, I would like to present particular ideas in the field of translation that demonstrate the solid complexity of the discipline. Therefore, I would like to present two translations and two ideas that seem to be invariably entangled with each other. The translations are two different version of the same book, namely A Clockwork Orange, written by the Scottish author Anthony Burgess, translated twice by the Polish writer Robert Stiller. The first idea whose applicability I will try to prove by these translations is, proposed by the Belgian scholar André Lefevere, rewriting theory, which refers to a great number of ideological aspects and thoughts. The second idea is, proposed by the French theorist Antoine Berman, retranslation hypothesis, which mainly deals with the question of whether translations can age; and whether there are other motives for retranslation.
Thus, the two Polish translations of Anthony Burgess’ novel will serve as evidence for validity of the rewriting theory, namely: is the rewriting theory applicable to the Polish translations of A Clockwork Orange? (the first research question and purpose of this work) and the second main aspect will deal with with the question: can a translation age and if so, what is the motivation for its doing so? (the second research question and purpose of this work).
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2. Theoretical Framework
2.1. Ideology and Rewriting
2.1.1. Ideology in Translation Studies
André Lefevere, the Belgian translation theorist, described the relationship between ideology and Translation Studies as “the conceptual grid that consists of opinions and attitudes deemed acceptable in a certain society at a certain time and through which readers and translators approach texts“ (Lefevere, 1992: 16). In other words, the political and economic circumstances in which a translator finds him- or herself are the main factors that impact their worldviews and beliefs. In the act of rendering, these worldviews and beliefs may distort or manipulate the text in such a way that the final outcome, namely translation, does not reflect the original work (Hermans, 1985).
Traditionally, religious and ethnocentric ideology operated as a strategy in translation. Thus, the translator was in power to direct the rendering in such a way that it would be well-received by the target culture (Fawcett & Munday: 2009: 138). It has been proven that some sacred texts underwent manipulations and alterations in the process of rendering due to translators’ ideological convictions (Elliot & Boer, 2012; Metzger, 1968: 78; Metzger, 1977: 349). Also, some translators of political texts were more susceptible to alter particular works, e.g. to control opinions, incite hatred or enlist supporters of a political movement (Billiani, 2009: 28-31). Indeed, ideology has always been affecting translations in many other genres in the field of literature, subtitles and even dubbing or voice-over (Jeczeń, 2006; Franco, Matamala & Orero, 2010).
Ideology in the field of translation is connected to various aspects, including shifts, strategies, ethics or culture, which are usually intertwined (Fawcett & Munday, 1998: 138). Translation shifts refers to all the changes that were applied in the text by the translator. Namely, such techniques and methods that may ideologically alter a point of view or a thought of the reader (Vinay & Darbelnet, 1995). Some translation strategies, especially semantic ones, are strictly related to meaning alterations, hence the risk that the translator deliberately manipulated the text and it will be differently received by the target language audience (Owji, 2013). Thus, the matter of ethics is concerned in this area. Some translators intentionally distort, augment or compress the text according to their own views and outlooks (Bermann & Wood, 2005; Inghilleri & Maier, 1998: 100-104; Penrod, 1996: 39-54). This leads to the aspect of culture from which ideology derives (Hatim & Mason, 1997; Faiq, 2004: 61-72).
2.1.2. Rewriting
One of the main theories that is invariably placed within the scope of ideology in translation is rewriting. The same Belgian academic, André Lefevere (1945-1996) theorised translation initially as ‘refraction’, and went on to re-coin the term as ‘rewriting’ in his later works (Asimakoulas, 2009: 241-245). According to the rewriting theory, the target text will never entirely reflect the source text as the translator is invariably biased by the ideological constraints that are valid in his or her country. As a result, translators introduce changes to their rendered work. The changes are caused by adaptation of the target text not only to the target language, but also to the target culture (Lefevere, 1992).
The phenomenon of rewriting is influenced by two factors: aforementioned ideology and
three-faceted patronage. The first facet consists of political, traditional and artistic aspects that belong to a given culture. The second represents superiors, i.e. such institutions or people who are in power to administrate literature - reading, writing, criticism and translation (Lefevere & Bassnett, 1997). There are a number of examples regarding who or what can play the role of patronage - publishers, the media, political party, social class, or individuals of a high social status etc. As mentioned above, patronage is three-faceted. The ideological5
component is its first aspect and it serves as a condition of choice and development in terms of form and subject matter. The second aspect is the economic component which is the relationship between the patronage and writers or re-writers (translators) regarding financial matters (commission, payment and so on). The third and final aspect, status component, is connected with renown or prestige that the patronage can achieve by ‘patronising’ penmen (Hermans, 2004). Conclusively, rewriting is inundated with particular factors that lead to the manipulation of a text.
To sum up, according to rewriting theory, translation should not be regarded as a proper representation of a given literary work. It might well serve as such, but only partially and in a very partisan, tendentious way. The target text will encounter constraints that affect the literary system within it and from outside it as well (ideology and patronage). Additionally, language itself will manipulate or distort the translation as it leads to shifts and is rich in cultural constraints (Asimakoulas, 1998: 241). The ideological input that can be found in translation is pervasive to such an extent that the target text becomes a literary work that fluctuates between the reflection of the source text and the almost original, still ‘re-written’ work.
2.2. Retranslation
2.2.1. Definition and Motives
The term refers to the action of translating a particular literary work or subtitles, that have been previously translated, again into the same language (Gürçağlar, 2009: 233). In Translation Studies, retranslation concerns only the action of re-rendering a text, anew or altering the first one, but from the original source text. However, the term is often used as a synonym of ‘relay translation’ where the source text had already been translated from another language (Gambier, 1994: 413). In respect to this work, only the former definition is applicable.
According to Du-Nour (1995: 327), retranslations are closely related to the evolution of spoken languages, that undergo changes and alterations on all linguistic and stylistic levels. Therefore, a translation may be re-rendered in order to replace its out-of-date previous version. This aspect of retranslation is very common amongst sacred text and canonical literature. Hence, the multitude of translations of The Bible that occurred in many languages belonging to the Judeo-Christian tradition (Greenslade, 1995; Eskhult, 2012: 167-187). Also dramatic texts are frequently retranslated as a great number of famous theatrical works were written many years ago and in the passing of time, the language of their translations became obsolete (Brownlie, 2006: 146).
Besides the occurrence of linguistic and stylistic evolution, the motives of retranslation may also be found on the field of Translation Criticism (Franek, 2011: 64-78). The most common example of such a motive is an improvement of the previous version(s) of a given work. For instance, the Polish rendition of Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings has been so far published as three different translated versions (1963, 1997, 2001). The first translation was decided to be replaced because of its ‘relay’ translation origin. The quality of the next one was, however, highly denounced which prompted the novel to be re-rendered one more time (Gumkowski, 2005: 7).
Moreover, retranslation may be initiated or executed by the author, or a translator, who intends to present a certain literary work differently than it was in the previous translation, e.g. a new interpretation, the ‘right’ interpretation or a creative response to a rendered text (Vanderschelden, 2000: 5-18). An appropriate instance of such a case are self-translations, and retranslations by the same token is the Czech novel Žert (Eng. The Joke). The author, Milan Kundera, decided to retranslate the French version of the novel by himself because of the huge dissatisfaction with the quality of its rendering (Margala, 2010: 30-42).
Some literary texts may also be retranslated because of translator’s unawareness of the previous translation. This case is fairly frequent in children’s literature, where publishers due
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to the lack of mutual coordination and communication release two different translations of the same book. Both versions are thus considered retranslation and initial translation at the same time (Venuti, 2003: 25).
2.2.2. Retranslation Hypothesis
Retranslation, its norms, aspects and motives have been frequently analysed in Translation Studies, especially in the 1990s. At the beginning of the decade particular scholars discussed the issue of re-rendering the same text(s), however, one of them deserves special mention. Antoine Berman, the French translation scholar, formulated a hypothesis in which translations are always ‘incomplete’ or ‘imperfect’ and only the act of subsequent retranslations of the same literary work, or any other piece of text containing written language may lead to a closer completion. Thus, the source text may reach its proper reflection in the target text only through constant attempts of translating it (Berman, 1990: 1). According to Berman (1990), Gambier (1994), Bensimon (1990) and other translation scholars, the first rendition is invariably doomed from the start to be a failure as all its changes are motivated by cultural constraints. The first rendition serves the purpose of higher readability, hence very often it suppresses the original meaning of a given text. Many expansions, changes or omissions are applied which distort the original ‘message’ of the source text. Therefore, solely a new approach to a ‘once-translated’ work may lead to its final fulfillment.
Translation can also age. This additionally calls for continuous re-rendering texts and forms the other main aspect of retranslation hypothesis (Berman, 1990: 1-2). Languages have been always affected by change phonetically (Labov, 1994) which has its outcome in morphology, semantics and syntax (Bloomfield, 1933; Blank, 1999: 61-90; Grzega, 2004). The final results affects the written language and by the same token translation (Hanna, 2006). Antoine Berman, in the same issue of translation journal Palimpsestes suggested that the original work would never age as it is the ‘beginning’ and ‘core’ of a written text, whereas translation would as an imperfect reflection of it (1990: 1-2).
However, many other academics negated the conjecture in Berman’s ideas. They ascribed the need for retranslation to political reasons, e.g. ideology in translation (Fawcett & Munday, 1998: 137-141); sociological reasons, e.g. discrediting previous translators by showing their mistakes and inadequacies in a new translation (Hanna, 2006); or economic reasons, e.g. a book is as famous as its new, ‘refreshed’ translation could bring substantial financial profits (Dale, 2016: 321-325). Finally, in addition to the ideas formulated in Berman’s hypothesis, some scholars found the human aspect of a translator as a motive for retranslation, i.e. personal appreciation of a literary work (Venuti, 2003: 29-30) or self-awareness of great knowledge of a particular language and culture, hence the need to re-render a text in a ‘better’ way (Toury, 1982: 23).
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3. Literary and Historical Background
3.1. The Original Book
A Clockwork Orange, owing to the film adaptation made by Stanley Kubrick in 1972, is now a well-known story. Nonetheless, in this work I will not pay attention to the film, but focus on Anthony Burgess’ novel, written in 1962. The novel tells the story of the depraved teenager Alex who lives in an alternative and futuristic, dystopian England. Alex is the leader of four youths belonging to a subculture that commits acts of extreme violence towards society. Rape and theft, criminal battery, assault and robbery merely for fun seem to be bread-and-butter activities for Alex and his friends. These crimes are usually left unpunished. In respect to this work, the most relevant aspect is the way the main character speaks. His own slang, Nadsat, is a fictional argot based on the English language, but combined with a significant Russian input in terms of vocabulary. A large number of frequently used anglicised Russian words very often precludes the reader from comprehending the content. It seems that a bilingual reader who speaks both Russian and English would not have any problems with understanding the slang, but even the ability to speak both languages does not entirely help.
Anthony Burgess (1917-1993), the Scottish author of the novel, was a polyglot and linguist. As he was deemed to have great facility for languages and the ability to be a subtle but incisive political commentator, he utilised his knowledge of Russian to create the youth argot used in his novel (Biswell, 2006). The name Nadsat originates from the Russian suffix –надцать (– nadsat), which is semantically the English equivalent of the suffix ‘–teen’ (relating to teenagers). The book was written in the 1960s, when the world was still divided by the Iron Curtain, hence the choice of the Russian language as the core of the slang had certain ideological motives (Burgess, 1985).
The Soviet Union or the Second World in general, as the counter-power to the Western World, was supposed to be perceived as the defeater who slowly but surely takes over the world (Sakwa, 1998). The author intended to present the world, or more precisely, a part of the Western World, turning into a rotten hotbed of depravity and mayhem. A world where ultra-violence is raging. A world which resembles the Communist regime, where even the language marks a change for the worse, which is especially common amongst the most dangerous, sinister and anti-heroic teenagers like Alex (Stiller, 1999: 195-199).
The book contains many ideological aspects. One of them is denouncing the political system in the dystopian England presented by Burgess. The system at first does not seem to chase after felons. Teenagers tend to take advantage of this by committing crime as pastime. Yet the second part of the story diverges from that idea. The rigid system takes its toll in the end. Alex gets his severe punishment. That shows the second ideological aspect of the book – the rehabilitation of Alex, akin to the religious terms known as penance, remorse or contrition. The boy spends fourteen years in prison where he reads the Bible and undergoes unbearable aversion therapy. He experiences a lot of physical and mental pain as a means of redemption, so common in the Christian belief. The third ideological aspect of the book is its last chapter. In the finale of the story – Alex comes back to his bad ways, relishes evil and inflicts pain – all American publishers imposed censorship on the ending so it has been omitted. Burgess wanted to express in the last part of the book, his pessimistic worldview that human beings are immoral by nature. Hence, the publishers in the USA refused to print the whole novel with concern that their readers would never favour Alex eventually falling by the wayside (Burgess, 1985: 30).
As mentioned above, the argot that Alex and his droogs (Eng. friends) use, is a linguistic experiment with an English base and a large dose of anglicised Russian words. Chelloveck means ‘person’, goloss is the equivalent of English ‘voice’, litso is ‘face’ and moloko means ‘milk’ to name a few examples. The complete vocabulary of Nadsat contains two hundred and forty four words. All of them are adjusted to the English grammatical rules, for instance the verb viddy (Eng. ‘to see’) emerges as viddied or viddies, another verb peet (Eng. ‘to drink’) can be seen as peeting, or the noun cancer (Eng. ‘cigarette’) pluralised as cancers.
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Some words have an opposite meaning to their connotations. Horrorshow means ‘well’ or ‘good’, rot stands for ‘mouth’ and brat is the equivalent of ‘brother’ in English. That broaches the problem of translatability of such words into other languages, aiming to preserve the same effect in semantics.
3.2. Two Polish Translations
3.2.1. Translation Criticism Perspective
A Clockwork Orange is one of the very few books whose translations are almost always mentioned by Polish reviewers. Both Polish versions of the book received acclaim as masterpieces of translation. The critics acknowledged Robert Stiller's linguistic skills as “he was able to confuse the reader just as Anthony Burgess was” (Gazeta Wyborcza: Książki, 2006). A Polish portal Booklips.pl also mentioned that the book was an exquisite translation: “A legendary book. Moreover: what a translation! Anthony Burgess created a special language for this novel. The translation by Robert Stiller is not only a 'daring show' of his great linguistic creativity. It is something terrifyingly real: there is a chance that Poles will speak this language one day” (2009 on Nakręcana Pomarańcza, ‘Wersja A’).
In fact, regarding Translation Criticism, negative opinions about the translations of A Clockwork Orange made by Robert Stiller are almost non-existent. As long as the translation per se was mentioned together with the general literary review of the book, both the critics and the readers highly praise the Polish translations. Nevertheless, the reviewers did not always involve the matter of novel's translations, probably due to the lack of space or the reviewers' lack of interest in the field. All in all, Anthony Burgess' famous novel has never been neglected by the Polish critics in terms of literary criticism. To conclude, the case of A Clockwork Orange as based on Nadsat, the artificial slang used by the main character of the book, is the primary mark of recognition that the book has. One could call the argot the main reason that triggered the popularity of the novel. The slang is simply the 'trademark' of the book. Translating Nadsat has proven to be a toilsome task requiring linguistic facilities, and hence it was worth mentioning in the reviews as an interesting 'titbit'.
3.2.2. The First Version
Robert Stiller, the multilingual Polish translator, translated A Clockwork Orange twice. The first version was created in the 1970s and remained relatively faithful to the original one in terms of Nadsat. The slang was thus based on Polish for the target language, but the core remained Russian as in the original book. All in all, Stiller created a hybrid of Polish with a substantial input of Russian. The book was entitled Mechaniczna Pomarańcza (Eng. mechanical orange).
Due to the strict censorship in the People’s Republic of Poland, the book was published only after the fall of Communism in the 1990s. The novel could have been a very apt remark and commentary on the prevailing situation in Poland in the 1970s, nevertheless, the authorities found too many ideological aspects of the book which made its publication impossible (Siedlecka, 2009).
Stiller used his first translation of A Clockwork Orange as a reflection of linguistic changes that were gradually occurring in Polish. After the Second World War until The Polish Round Table Agreement in 1989, principally administrative terms from Russian and many colloquial expressions were adopting into the official language (Duda, 2001: 71-83). However, the beginning of Capitalism in Poland moved all the aspects of political, economic and social life westwards, where English was the global language (Davis, 2001). As a result, Stiller decided to re-translate the book anew.
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Twenty years after translating A Clockwork Orange as
Mechaniczna Pomarańcza, Robert Stiller created the second version of the novel Nakręcana Pomarańcza (Eng. wind-up orange). In the early 1990s both works could finally be published and available to readers. Therefore, the first work was retroactively titled ‘Wersja R’ (Eng. version; R – for rosyjska, Eng. Russian) and the second one ‘Wersja A’ (A – for angielska, Eng. English).The Soviet Union imploded, weakened and ceased to have influence on many Central and Eastern European countries. At the same time, globalisation and enhanced consumption propelled by advertisements of Western products marked a new direction in the history of Poland. Together with a substantial increase in high technologies and other aspects of Capitalism, Polish started yielding to the phenomenon that had happened before to many other languages – linguistic Anglicisation, also called Americanisation (Duda, 2001: 71-83). Stiller was very aware of that process and applied it to his second translation, where Nadsat is highly influenced by English words.
In the second translation of the book, Robert Stiller diverted the ideological aspect of his work by criticising the ongoing trend. The second translation was inundated with English words and phrases with the Polonised spelling. The number of Nadsat words in ‘Wersja A’ was more than two times greater than the previous version and the original book. The content is comprehensible only to speakers of both English and Polish, and even still, some words are difficult to deduce.
Moreover, the translator included many other language changes occurring in Polish, against which he admitted to use (Stiller, 1999: 195-199). Thus, there is a large number of Polish words ending with the suffix –ing e.g. paling (Pol. palić – to smoke), leżing (Pol. leżeć – to lie), bieging (Pol. biegać – to run), wrzeszczing (Pol. wrzeszczeć – to scream). Also, the suffix –tion was frequently applied, but with Polish spelling, for example kolekszyn (Pol. kolekcja – ‘collection’), motywejszyn (Pol. motywacja – ‘motivation’), rylejszyn (Pol. relacja – ‘relation’).
In the original Nadsat, it was just vocabulary that underwent a change in a word-for-word way. Stiller, however, wanted to draw attention to the oncoming language changes, such as endings –ing and –tion (or Polonised –szyn), which are today part of the colloquial speech in the Polish language. Conclusively, ‘Wersja A’ was a much more conscious translation.
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4. Text Analysis - Ideological Aspects
4.1. Traces of Rewriting
In search of the features that are applicable to Lefevere's rewriting theory, I have selected certain fragments of the original book and its translations in order to demonstrate where the traces of rewriting can be found. The first passage is a part of the original novel. The second text is my own translation of the same passage. The latter was, however, supposed to be as faithful to the original version as possible. It is not a literary translation, but all the optional shifts that could be applied were omitted. The third and fourth text represent ‘Wersja R’ and ‘Wersja A’ respectively. Each text contains exactly the same passage, which is an accurate and universal example of how the slang is used for the whole book. The words in bold are Nadsat entities.
The original text:
Our pockets were full of deng, so there was no real need from the point of view of crasting any more pretty polly to tolchock some old veck in an alley and viddy him swim in his blood while we counted the takings and divided by four, nor to do the ultra-violent on some shivering starry greyhaired ptitsa in a shop and go smecking off with the till's guts.
Polish translation without Nadsat input:
Nasze kieszenie były pełne pieniędzy, więc nie było wprawdzie potrzeby z punktu widzenia kradzieży więcej kasy, żeby pobić jakiegoś starego człowieka w alejce i ogądać go jak pływa we własnej krwi kiedy my liczyliśmy zarobek i podzeliliśmy na czworo, nie żeby robić ultra-przemoc na jakiejś starej siwowłosej kobiecie w sklepie i wyjść śmiejąc się z wnętrznościami kasy.
‘Wersja R’:
W karmanach mieliśmy spore dziengi, więc jeśli chodzi o zachwat szmalcu, to nie było potrzeby flekować żadnego dziada w ciemnej uliczce i patrzeć, jak on się maże we krwi, kiedy my liczymy urobek i dzielimy na czterech, ani też robić ultra kuku jakiejś starej siwej babuli w sklepie, a potem się udalać z rechotem i z bebechami tej kasy.
‘Wersja A’:
W poketach mieliśmy nieliche many, toteż jeśli chodzi o grabing forsy, nie było tak ryjli potrzeby flekować żadnego dziada w ciemnej uliczce i łypać, jak on się maże we krwi, kiedy my liczymy urobek i dzielimy na czterech, ani też machać super kuku jakiejś starej siwej babuli w szopie, a potem się ulatniać z rechotem i z bebechami wyprutymi z kasy.
The first significant observation of rewriting traces in the above fragments of A Clockwork Orange, is the number of Nadsat words used by Burgess in comparison to Stiller’s translations. The original book’s fragment consists of nine Nadsat words, as pretty polly (Eng. ‘money’) represents one compound noun. The slang has been limited to only three words in ‘Wersja R’ and six in ‘Wersja A’. There is only one word in both translations that has been invariably used in the same colloquial way as in the original novel (‘money’ - deng, dziengi, many). ‘Wersja A’ shares one more word that is an entity of Nadsat in both the source and the target text (‘stealing’ - crasting, grabing).
The other Nadsat words, that occurred in the original, have been replaced by either standard Polish words, or quite well-known Polish slang words. For instance, Burgess decided to present ‘old’ as a Nadsat word, but in both Polish translations Stiller used the standard stary (above: Feminine, Dative case). Also, veck was replaced in both versions by ‘dziad’, which is a pejorative, but still standard Polish word.
In the Russian-based translation all the other Nadsat words have been replaced by Polish slang words, or just those that have a colloquial tone (zachwat, szmalec, flekować, urobek,
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bebechy). Moreover, there was one word taken from Russian, that in the original remained standard English (‘pockets’ - karmany, above Locative case). The same word was also turned into slang in the English-based translation (‘pockets’ - pokety, above Locative case), together with four others that were originally represented using standard English (‘really’- ryjli, ’to do’ - machać, ‘shop’ - szop).
Therefore, by analysing the usage of Nadsat in each version qualitatively, the Polish translations were written in such a way that Nadsat, in fact an artificial argot created by Burgess, was a real slang. Robert Stiller translated the book by making the language as colloquial as possible, and combing standard words with those that can be perceived as ‘semi-neologisms’. For instance zachwat (Eng. stealing) does not officially belong in the Polish vocabulary system, but its meaning can be easily deduced by Polish speakers (the origin is Pol. ‘chwycić’ - Eng. ‘to grab’, ‘to catch’). A similar strategy of creating ‘semi-neologisms’ has been applied in the English-based version as well, łypać (Eng. ‘to hit’, ‘to beat’) is not part of standard Polish, but the context in which the word has been used and its phonetic association with onomatopoeic ‘łyp, łyp, łyp’ (imitation of beating, hitting or hacking) that is known to Polish speakers (Bańko, 2012) make the word comprehensible and sound familiar.
The conclusion of the above presented analysis of translating particular Nadsat words is that the Polish translator of A Clockwork Orange must have been very aware that he was writing for a certain audience. He realised that by translating the book in the way it was written, the language of the novel would have been too complex. Excessive complexity of the novel would have risked a bad reception by readers, whereas the original writer did not consider this aspect, as the book was supposed to be a linguistic experiment (Burgess, 1985: 29). Stiller, however, according to his own ideological constraints and/or the patronage; the publishers who wanted the translation to sell well, decided on rendering the novel in a fairly different way. The proves that rewriting theory is in this case very applicable, as the translator almost wrote the book anew and did not follow the patterns of the source text. Thus, the translation has been manipulated (Lefevere, 1992: 59-73).
Another facet that testifies the validity of rewriting theory in respect to Stiller’s translations is making them as comprehensible, especially in the Russian-based version, as possible. Polish readers could in all likelihood deduce words unknown to them by the context, associations and connotations, whereas the readers of the original A Clockwork Orange could not (as long as they did not speak Russian). This fact uncovers the ideological motives hidden behind the Polish translations. Robert Stiller re-wrote the book according to his own literary taste, diverting from Burgess’ vision of the book.
Finally, the ideological constraints and motives of the translator can be revealed by analysing translation shifts and strategies applied by him in both Polish versions of Anthony Burgess’ novel. Some fragments of the book could have been translated into Polish almost verbatim, and that would not have made them sound awkward or ‘clumsy’. Contrary to that, they would sound as natural as in the source language. Nevertheless, the Polish translator re-phrased many sentences, even though it was not necessary from the language aesthetics point of view. An instance of such a shift is in the fragment of A Clockwork Orange where: our pockets were full of deng (literary: nasze kieszenie były pełne pieniędzy) was translated as:
‘Wersja R’ - w karmanach mieliśmy spore dziengi in (the) pockets we-had sizeable money[Pl.] ‘Wersja A’ - w poketach mieliśmy nieliche many
in (the) pockets we-had not-bad money.
The shift was not obligatory and despite that Stiller decided to introduce some alterations. The translator must have been confident that the shift would provide better aesthetic effects. Such certainty of the translator was culturally motivated, as he operated within a literary
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environment known to him and towards certain audience which was his own nation and the culture with which he was very well acquainted.
In order to present more ideological aspects and translation shifts, there will be one more fragment of the book presented, together with its translations in the same order (first the original fragment of the book, then my translation, followed by ‘Wersja R’ and finally ‘Wersja A’).
4.2. Miscellaneous Traces of Ideology
There are certain facets of the two Polish versions of Anthony Burgess’ novel that demonstrate various ideological aspects of Robert Stiller’s translations. These aspects are, however, less direct than those which are clear-cut examples proving rewriting theory accurate.
In comparison to the source text, the first translation is richer in the number of Nadsat words. There are two hundred and forty four Nadsat words in the original book and as many as five hundred and twenty seven in the Russian-based translation. The second translation was even more inundated with Nadsat words. The translator included in the English-based version more than six hundred.
By scrutinising the vocabulary, one notices that these are scarcely the same words. This proves that Stiller used the argot to show the reader how influential Russian became. The word wsio (Eng. everything, all) was never used in the source text, whereas in the target text it is more ubiquitous. It was a very apt shift, as during the communistic era ‘wsio’ was used notoriously as a colloquialism (Głowiński, 2009: 59-81).
Moreover, the word rozz in Burgess’ slang means ‘police’ and its Polish equivalent stands as poli mili cyjniaki. It is one of the examples where Nadsat is proven to be a linguistic experiment for the original author and an ideological game for the translator. The Russian word rasporyazhenie (Eng. command) could have been created as rozz by association. Stiller’s poli mili cyjniaki connotes ‘militia’ (military police) which everyone feared during the communistic regime. Also, words like pobieda (Eng. victory), ukaz (Eng. decree) or gospod (Eng. lord) are present only in the target text. These words are well-known to Polish readers due to the communist propaganda, which proves the translated Nadsat is much more infused with ideology. Besides, some words of the slang in the ST were unnecessary to translate into the target text as Polish and Russian share some similar vocabulary (maslo/masło – Eng. butter, minoota/minuta – Eng. minute, okno – Eng. window).
As mentioned in the previous part of this work, the last chapter has never been published in the US. Ideologically, the publishers there could not allow the unhappy ending to be brought out into the open for commercial reasons. Nevertheless, some British publishers enabled other countries to become acquainted with the whole story, because the book was translated on the basis of its European copy. Hence, both Polish versions contain the pessimistic finale with Alex as a person refusing rehabilitation. I would like to add that some publishers from other countries, Vietnam for instance, used the last chapter to ridicule and denounce the Western World as a rotten place unable to acknowledge mistakes and be apologetic about atrocities of the past (Karlin, Khuê & Vũ, 1995).
4.3. Summary, Conclusion and Research Continuation
To sum up, there have been many interpretations of the book and techniques of translating Nadsat, but the main conclusion is that they always implicated various ways of imposing their own ideological attitudes, cross-cultural communication, worldview and perspective. The proposed theory by Lefevere of rewriting is not only applicable to the two Polish translations of A Clockwork Orange, but also a textbook example of Lefevere’s theory. The above presented examples have demonstrated that the ideological constraints of the translator diverted him into basically creating a new book. Both the shifts and the way the novel has been translated testify that some translators, similarly to Robert Stiller, overly
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accommodate the source text into the target text, culture and language which makes the translation lose the initial, ‘primeval’ effect that was intended by the original author.
As I have proven the accuracy of rewriting theory in respect to the Polish translation of A Clockwork Orange, I would like to further my research towards another translation theory that might be found applicable to them. As mentioned in the previous chapters of this work, the other main aspect will concern the retranslation hypothesis. Before proceeding to it, I would like to make a brief introduction that may clarify the choices, details and continuation of this study. Therefore, in search of a solution for preserving the original effect of Anthony Burgess’ book, I would like to find an alternative way of regaining the original effect of Nadsat.
However, the original effect of Nadsat that was perceived by the reader, namely, whether the slang could be easily understood, found logical or illogical, and if its meaning could be deduced by simple reading, is still to be ‘measured’. Thus, the next part of this research will consist of the method which can ‘measure’ the aforementioned aspects. There will be two surveys conducted as it is one of the easiest ways to investigate people’s opinions regarding written texts (Adèr, Mellenbergh & Hand, 2008).
Retranslation, together with its various facets and hypotheses, constitutes the second part of this work. Apart from attempting to prove the retranslation hypothesis right or wrong, I will introduce an alternative way of translating Nadsat that may call for another Polish
retranslation (‘re-retranslation’) of A Clockwork Orange. Finally, I will determine how
rewriting, ideology and retranslation all altogether intertwined and connected with respect to the Polish translations of Anthony Burgess’ famous book.
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5. Research Method
5.1. Introduction
I have conducted two surveys. The first one was addressed to, in a broad sense,
speakers of English. The second survey was addressed to Polish-language speakers. The purpose of the first survey was to establish the understandability of Nadsat in the original book written by Anthony Burgess. Thus, the survey concerned a simple matter – general perception of the intricate slang created by the author. Generally speaking, the aspect of translation was not included in the first survey, however, the study served to prove the difficulties that translators might have encountered when rendering the novel. The other purpose of Survey I was to illustrate the perception and understanding of Nadsat, so that the original argot could be successively compared to the results of the second survey.
As mentioned before, the second survey was focused on Polish speakers. Contrary to the first survey, the second entirely concerned the 'translated' aspect of the book. The Polish-language speaking participants' responses served as the answer to the question whether the translations made by Robert Stiller caused the same effect on the readers as the original A Clockwork Orange did.
Each survey consisted of two parts in terms of their questionnaires. The first part was to determine three aspects. The opening question – knowledge of the book, following two questions – social aspects and the rest concerned various language skills. The second part of each survey contained a set of question about the Nadsat input in the book itself. A more concrete outlook of each survey will be presented below.
5.2. The First Survey (Survey I)
Investigating perception of Nadsat is, by all means, an example of linguistic research. Therefore, I am going to comply with methodology that is appropriate for such a study. Linguistic usage tends to be fairly homogenous in comparison to other aspects of social studies (Sankoff, 1974: 22-23), hence the number of thirty respondents was deemed sufficient for the first survey. The first page of the questionnaire consisted of the following questions:
I. Have you ever read 'A Clockwork Orange' by Anthony Burgess? (Question 1) A. YES, I know the book very well.
B. YES, but a long time ago/I don't remember it very well. C. NO, but I know of the book.
D. NO.
Knowledge of the book undoubtedly helps in understanding its content. The respondents were supposed to specify how acquainted with the book they were. For instance, a
respondent who chose the answer ‘A’ could not be taken into account as his or her
understanding of Nadsat was, in all likelihood, very high. The answers ‘B’, ‘C’ and ‘D’ imply neutrality of perception, thus those participants who chose them would not distort the final results.
II. What is the gender you identify with? (Question 2)
Gender has been proven in many studies to affect various aspects of social behaviours and the whole multitude of other factors in particular studies. By the same token, the respondents were asked to specify their genders in order to investigate whether it does influence the perception of the slang.
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Similar to gender, age might have been one of the factors that caused differences in perception and understanding, created by Burgess’ slang. The respondents were to fill the answer in a blank textbox.
The second set of three questions in the first part of the survey served to prove whether particular language skills affect understanding the Nadsat slang. As the slang is a modified version of certain Russian words, a participant who speaks Russian, as a native speaker or as an L2 speaker etc., would not have had difficulties when reading the book. Moreover, e.g. speakers of Polish or Serbian, which are typologically related to Russian, and furthermore speakers of languages that have been historically influenced by it on the lexical level (Lithuanian, Georgian), have been deemed to comprehend the slang more easily. That accentuates the importance of all the other questions included in the first part of the survey.
IV. What is your native language? (Question 4)
As mentioned before, the fill-in textbox in Question 4 draws attention to the relevance of linguistic typology and geopolitical influences. Nevertheless, all the responses were taken into account despite the native language of a participant, as Nadsat is not a real variant of Russian but a linguistic invention based on it. As a result, the knowledge of any related language does not guarantee understanding the argot entirely or properly. Hence, only those respondents who admitted to speak a high level of Russian were removed.
The next question was to evaluate the respondents' fluency in English. A Clockwork Orange was originally written in this language and because of that, only the participants who evinced a high level of English could provide factual data. Question 5 was presented as below:
V. What is your level of English?
A. 0 – (in case someone else is reading the survey to you) you know none or very few words B. 1 – you know some words or phrases, but you are not able to lead a conversation
C. 2 – you are able to lead a conversation, but you might have difficulties or limited vocabulary
D. 3 – you are able to read, speak or write with minor difficulties E. 4 – you are fluent in English on all levels
F. 5 – native speaker (this is your first language)
The inclusion of Answers A and B were necessary as the survey was openly available on the internet. The survey was not directly addressed to people whose level of English was fluent, and because of that the level 'zero' together with slightly more advanced level 'one' were involved in the gradation. A broad and meticulous scale serves to minimise the margin of error in the study (Langenbach, 2006: 12). However, the responses of those who chose Answers A, B and C could not have been analysed in the final conclusion. The reason for this lies in the fact that only Answers D, E and F testify fluency in English, thus the
perception and understanding of Nadsat was accurate.
In the last question of the first part of the first survey, Please type all the other languages that you speak. (Question 6), the respondents were to specify their language skills besides the native language and English. The scale of gradation was the same as in Question 5 with the exception of Answer A, which was pointless to include, and Answer F, that had been already asked in Question 4. A response was to be filled in in a blank textbox, e.g. German – 2, French – 3. Analogically to Question 4, some language skills could, for instance, increase the level of understanding the slang. Due to that, possible multilingualism of the respondents had to be analysed as well.
The second set of questions concerned the Nadsat slang itself. Particular passages that contained a significant input of the argot were presented to the respondents. They were supposed to indicate the level of their personal understanding of a given passage. There were four fragments of the book that were taken into account (Question 7, 8, 9 and 10). The
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scale ranging from 0 – not understanding at all, to 9 – understanding everything.
Deliberately, there was no exactly neutral point on the scale, so that the respondents could classify their perception as 'positive' or 'negative'. The points from 0 to 4 placed them on the level of minor understanding (negative). The point from 5 to 9 placed the respondents on the scale of major understanding (positive). The passages were following:
Question 7:
He was creeching out loud and waving his rookers and making real horrorshow with the slovos,
only the odd blurp blurp coming from his keeshkas, like something was orbiting within,
or like some very rude interrupting sort of a moodge making a shoom, so that this old veck kept sort of threatening it with his fists […]
Question 8:
Then we slooshied the sirens
and knew the millicents were coming
with pooshkas pushing out of the police-auto-windows at the ready. That weepy little devotchka had told them,
no doubt, there being a box for calling the rozzes not too far behind the Muni Power Plant.
"Get you soon, fear not," I called,
"stinking billygoat. I'll have your yarbles off lovely." Question 9:
Our pockets were full of deng,
so there was no real need from the point of view of crasting any more pretty polly
to tolchock some old veck in an alley and viddy him swim in his blood while we counted the takings and divided by four,
nor to do the ultra-violent
on some shivering starry greyhaired ptitsa in a shop and go smecking off with the till's guts.
Question 10:
I opened the door of 10-8 with my own little klootch, and inside our malenky quarters all was quiet, the pee and em both being in sleepland,
and mum had laid out on the table on malenky bit of supper, a couple of lomticks of tinned sponge-meat
with a shive or so of kleb and butter, a glass of the old cold moloko.
Hohoho, the old moloko, with no knives or synthemesc or drencrom in it.
The main criterium in the selection of above adduced passages was a significant input of Nadsat in a given piece of text. All the samples were taken from a different part of the book. There was no context provided, but the fragments formed a concrete and logical
consistency. Every line contained at least one Nadsat word, so that the respondents could notice the slang as much as possible.
In the next section of questions (from 11 to 25), the respondents were supposed to determine how logical they found particular Nadsat words. On a scale from 0 (very illogical) to 9 (very logical), the section consisted of fifteen varied words. I have chosen in part words that could have been associated with some English ones (e.g. horrorshow, rot, rabbit,
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cancer), and partly those that could not have been associated with English (zoobies,
chepooka, sloochat, molodoy, nadmenny, veshch, dva). Some of them, however, i.e. rooker, deng, sinny and sammy were neutral regarding linguistic associations. The diversity of the selected words in terms of phonetic or connotational resemblance was essential as the vocabulary of Nadsat is extremely multifarious as well.
The last three questions (from 26 to 28) consisted of a short passage from the book, with two Nadsat words in each of them displayed in capital letters. The distinguished words were supposed to be deciphered by the respondents. Each question was accompanied by four answers. The participants could choose only one pair of words that they logically found correct. The fragments were presented as follows:
Question 26:
„But when he'd OOKADEETED and I was making this very strong pot of chai, I grinned to myself over this veshch that P. R. Deltoid and his DROOGS worried about.”
What do OOKADEETED and DROOGS mean? A. SIGHED and FAMILY
B. COME and PEOPLE C. LEFT and FRIENDS
D. REALISED and COLLEAGUES Question 27:
„All this was GLOOPY and made me SMECK, but it was like nice to go on knowing one was making the news all the time, oh my brothers.”
What do GLOOPY and SMECK mean? A. DISGUSTING and SICK
B. TERRIFYING and WORRIED C. BORING and SLEEP
D. STUPID and LAUGH Question 28:
„I'd CHEESTED up my LITSO and rookers a bit and done dressing (my day platties were like studentwear: the old blue pantalonies with sweater with A for Alex).”
What do CHEESTED and LITSO mean? A. WASHED and HAIR
B. CLEANED and FACE C. DUSTED and COAT D. TIDIED and WARDROBE
All the questions involved in the second part of the first survey served to demonstrate how the respondents perceived the slang. Therefore, A – the section of Questions 7-10 was intended to show the level of comprehension of the book by reading the given text. B – the section of Questions 11-25 aimed at the argot's 'logicality' and was related to human abilities of deduction. The readers could infer the meaning of particular Nadsat words, whereas other words were for some people impossible to decode. Finally, C – the section of Questions 26-28 was a combination of the two previous ones. It merged 'logicality' of a given text
(deducing the answer) and understanding the passage that contained a significant Nadsat input.
5.3. The Second Survey (Survey II)
The second survey entirely embraces the issue of translation which is the main core of this work. Thus, I am going to investigate whether the Polish renderings of A Clockwork Orange cause the same effects on readers as the original book. After having gathered the data from the first survey, the responses can be compared with those from the second survey. The questions involved in the second investigation will be relatively similar to the first
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one in the first part. The second part will aim at the same idea – the assessment of
perception and 'logicality' found in the Polish translations of Nadsat, but in a different form. The first part of the investigation consisted of seven questions. Questions 1, 2 and 3 were exactly the same as in the first survey – Have you ever read 'A Clockwork Orange' by Anthony Burgess?, What is the gender you identify with? and What is your age? The purpose of those enquiries has been mentioned and explained before.
As the whole survey was meant to be taken only by Polish-language speakers, Question 4 was supposed to determine if a participant was a Polish native speaker – by typing the letter N (Pol. ‘natywny’), or the letter O (Pol. obcy – ‘foreign’) – if they learnt it. Alternatively, the respondents could explain they bilinguality by typing N + the other native language (e.g. N + German). The Polish language is not as common to be spoken by foreigners as, for
instance, English or French, thus additional evaluation of the language level was not necessary to involve like in the first survey (Question 5). In fact, the whole set of enquiries was written in Polish which ensured that only respondents with a very good command of Polish would take part in the study.
Question 5 and Question 6 regarded the level of English and Russian respectively. The first language, English, is a vital means of understanding Nakręcana Pomarańcza (Wersja A), whereas the second one, Russian, is the base of Nadsat in Mechaniczna Pomarańcza (Wersja R). Hence, querying about the level was essential in order to take into account all aspects that contributed to a particular respondent's perception of Nadsat. The scales were identical as in Question 5 (Survey I):
A. 0 – (in case someone else is reading the survey to you) you know none or very few words B. 1 – you know some words or phrases, but you are not able to lead a conversation
C. 2 – you are able to lead a conversation, but you might have difficulties or limited vocabulary
D. 3 – you are able to read, speak or write with minor difficulties
E. 4 – you are fluent in English (or in Question 6 – Russian) on all levels F. 5 – native speaker (this is your first language)
Finally, the first part of Survey II was closed by Question 7 – Do you speak any other language(s) apart from Polish, English and/or Russian? If so, name the language and your level in it/them on a scale from 1 to 5. The scale was taken from the previous question. The main reason why this enquiry was also included in the survey was to establish whether the participant spoke Estonian. In fact, that would be a concrete aid in understanding the alternative third version of the book.
The second part of Survey II consisted of twenty three questions. Similar to Survey I, all of them included fragments of the book, in this case fragments of its Polish translations and created by me an alternative version where Nadsat is based on Polonised-Estonian. The self-generated last version will be called 'Wersja E' (Pol. estońska – Estonian).
Questions 8 to 16 were to assess participants’ level of understanding of a given passage from the book. The scale was the same as in the previous survey – from 0 (nothing) to 9 (everything), where there is no exact neutral point on the scale (see above). Three different fragments of the original book were presented to the respondents in three versions (two fragments taken from the translations, one invented). All in all, there were nine snippets of the novel in Survey II and they can be seen in the last section of this work - Appendix (Chapter 8).
The same fragment of text was not presented directly one after another in every version. The random order of placing the fragments served to make the respondents think that they were dealing with a different snippet of the book in each question. The selected passages illustrate a typical example of how Nadsat looked in the Polish translations.
Question 17 to 29 dealt with the issue of 'logicality' in Nadsat, found in the Polish
translations and in the alternative version. Analogically to Question 11 to 25 in Survey I, on a scale from 0 (very illogical) to 9 (very logical), the participants graded the level of thirteen various words. Five words were taken from Wersja A: abitow (Eng. a bit of), horybły (Eng. horrible), stryt (Eng. street), eczywment (Eng. achievment), rajfel (Eng. rifle). Also five words were taken from Wersja R: sostojanny (Rus. состояние – sostoyaniye; Eng. civil), nieożydno
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(Rus. неожиданно – neozhidanno; Eng. unexpectedly), głaz (Rus. глаз – glaz; Eng. eye), prakażywać się (Rus. прохаживаться – prokhazhivat'sya; Eng. to stroll), abratno (Rus. oбратно – obratno; Eng. conversely). Finally, there were three Estonian words intertwined with the English and Russian ones: watamywać (Est. vaatama – to look), racha (Est. raha – money), tusti (Est. tõesti – really).
The survey was closed by Question 30 in which there was the same passage of A
Clockwork Orange presented in ‘Wersja R’, ‘A’ and ‘E’ respectively. The respondents were to determine which version was the 'easiest' one to understand, followed by the 'more difficult' and the 'most difficult' at the end, e.g. 1. ‘Wersja A’, 2. ‘Wersja E’, 3. ‘Wersja R’.
A. Łypały na nas kogu ajeg i już mi się prawie zachciało rakimnąć (normalnie kącikiem ust), żeby tegemnąć we trzech natuke seksu, a bidnego starego Jołopa spławić, bo do tego ostmąć mu pisaf pół litra białego, tyle że z syntemeskiem i szlus, ale to by było nie fer. Bo Jołop był wyjątkowo nieatrakcyjny no i taki, jak się nazywał, ale w walce to był brudas i po prostu horror szoł.
B. Łypały na nas ołdy tajm i już mi się prawie zachciało spiknąć (normalnie kącikiem ust), żeby machnąć we trzech abitow seksu, a bidnego starego Jołopa spławić, bo do tego y'naf zafundować mu pół litra białego, tyle że z syntemeskiem i fertyk, ale to by było nie fer. Bo Jołop był wyjątkowo nieatrakcyjny no i taki, jak się nazywał, ale w walce to był brudas i po prostu horror szoł.
C. Krugom łypały na nas i już mi się prawie zachciało bałaknąć (normalnie kącikiem ust), żeby zrobić we trzech nie mnożko seksu, a bidnego starego Jołopa spławic, bo do tego wystarczy kupić mu pół litra białego, tyle że z syntemeskiem i szlus, ale to by było nie fer. Bo Jołop był wyjątkowo nieatrakcyjny no i taki, jak się nazywał, ale w walce to był brudas i po prostu horror szoł.
5.4. The Polonised-Estonian Version (Wersja E) 5.4.1. The Choice of the Estonian Language
There were certain reasons why I have chosen Estonian as the alternative, third base-language of Nadsat. Before I name them, I would like to emphasise that the base-language was not the only option that could have been employed in my rendering. However, the
geographical nearness of Estonia, which is situated in North-East Europe and the status of Estonian – the official language in the aforementioned country, simplified the selection from many other languages.
As English and Russian both belong to the major European languages of literature and in translation (Venuti, 2011: 182; Lindqvist, 2016: 174-187), the alternative for them is not supposed to be a major language as well. Estonian, a minor language, is spoken by fewer than a million people (Kilgi, 2012). Hence, selecting Estonian words as the base of Nadsat was very apt to assure that newly invented vocabulary would be unfamiliar to the readers. Moreover, as the second survey was addressed to Polish-language speakers, there was a great likelihood that the respondents have never learnt this language. In fact, Estonian is taught as an optional course for postgraduate students at some universities in Poland, nevertheless knowledge of the language amongst Poles is uncommon.
Another reason why Estonian has been chosen is its origin. English, Russian and Polish share the same Indo-European core, whereas Estonian is part of the Uralic language family. Owing to that, the language serves the purpose of being as unfamiliar and obscure as possible to the Polish-language speakers.
When ‘Polonising’ the Estonian words I applied the same methods as Robert Stiller. The general aim was to make such spelling and pronunciation that would perplex the reader about their authenticity. Some words required a great deal of alternation in order to make them sound for Polish speakers as native as possible. The fragments that were presented to
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the respondents in Survey II were mostly based on Robert Stiller's Wersja A, as that version was richer in Nadsat in comparison to Wersja R.
5.4.2. The Methods of ‘Polonising’ the Estonian Words
The choice of Estonian as the third base-language for Nadsat was part of my research methodology in order to find an alternative, new translation of A Clockwork Orange into Polish. Therefore, I will include the methods of adjusting some Estonian vocabulary into the Polish language, in this section of my work. The way I made the Estonian words sound and look more familiar to the Polish readers and what the motives behind that were, will be presented below:
1. surny (Est. suur – ‘big’), by adding the Polish masculine adjectival suffix ‘-y’ and deleting the long vowel ‘uu’ as long vowels never occur in Polish.
2. armastować (Est. armastama – ‘to be fond of’), by adding a common Polish verbal suffix -ować and deleting the Estonian -ama as it sounds unfamiliar to the Polish reader.
3. tałupug (Est. talupoeg – ‘peasant’), by the phonetic velarisation of the letter ‘l’ into ‘ł’ as it is a common phenomenon of familiarisation foreign words into Polish and simplifying the Estonian diphthong ‘oe’ into a cardinal vowel ‘u’ that is the closest sound of it in Polish. 4. mujdugno (Est. muidugi – ‘of course’), by palatalisation of the Estonian diphthong ‘ui’ into a vowel-consonant cluster ‘uj’ as the vowel change ‘i’ into the consonant ‘j’ is another common phenomenon in Polish regarding foreign words. Furthermore, the final suffix ‘-no’ has been added to the word as it is an adverbial ending suffix in Polish, instead of the Estonian final ‘i’.
5. lips (Est. lips – ‘bow tie’), here the word could remain the same as it sounds natural in Polish as well.
6. tanaw (Est. tänav – ‘street’), only the way of spelling has been changed as ‘ä’ and ‘v’ never occur in Polish, but the pronunciation remained the same.
7. taskuratyk (Est. taskurätik – ‘handkerchief’), similarly to the word above,‘ä’ has been replaced by ‘a’. Moreover, as the consonant-vowel cluster ‘ti’ sounds fairly foreign to the Polish reader it has been changed into ‘ty’ which is a very common pair of sounds in Polish.
8. hommik (Est. hommik – ‘morning’), the word could be preserved as the original one as gemination (‘mm’) occurs in Polish and is pronounced as two separate consonants . 9. tajelikultno (Est. täielikult – ‘entirely’), similarly to mujdugno, the final suffix ‘-no’ has been added to the word as it is an adverbial suffix in Polish, also ‘ä’ has been replaced by ‘a’ and ‘i’ palatalised as ‘j’.
10. wal (Est. valu – ‘ache’), ‘v’ has been replaced by ‘w’ due to the non-existence of the former letter in Polish. Also, the final vowel ‘u’ has been deleted as Polish words never end with it.
11. nagemnąć (Est. nägema – ‘to see’), after the replacement of ‘ä’ and deletion of the final Estonian verbal ‘-a’ – the remaining ‘nagem’ could be treated as a stem to which the Polish verbal suffix ‘-nąć’ has been added.
12. wang (Est. vang – ‘prisoner’), replacement of ‘v’ for ‘w’.
13. tusti (Est. tõesti – ‘really’), replacement of the diphthong ‘õe’ for the cardinal vowel ‘u’. 14. natuke (Est. natuke – ‘little bit’), the words remained the same as both spelling and pronunciation were natural to Polish.
15. taska (Est. tasku – ‘pocket’), similarly to valu the final ‘u’ has been deleted and replaced by ‘a’ as, both semantically and phonetically, taska can be associated with ‘tasza’ (diminutive ‘taszka’) which means ‘bag’ in Silesian dialects of Polish (Komusella, 2013).
16. palju (Est. palju – ‘a lot’), the word remained the same as in Estonian due to its natural tone in Polish as well.
17. racha (Est. raha – ‘money’), as the consonant ‘h’ between vowels is fairly uncommon in Polish, the letter has been replaced by ‘ch’ which gives the same phonetic sound and more
21 familiar way of spelling.
18. warastamina (Est. varastamine – ‘stealing’), replacement of ‘v’ for ‘w’ as in previous examples, and replacement of the final ‘-e’ for ‘-a’ so that the noun sounds more familiar to the Polish reader (for instance, almost all the Polish feminine nouns end with the vowel ‘a’).
19. watamywać (Est. vaatama – ‘to watch’), replacement of ‘v’ for ‘w’, shortening of the long vowel ‘aa’ for a short one ‘a’ and assimilating the ending to Polish grammatical rules by the suffix ‘-ywać’.
20. tegemnąć (Est. tegema – ‘to do’), analogical case to ‘nägema’ altered as nagemnąć, the Polish verbal suffix ‘-nąć’ has been added to the Estonian stem.
21. kałplus (Est. kauplus – ‘shop’), the consonant ‘ł’ occurs very often in Polish as a slide sound especially in combinations ‘a’ plus ‘u’, hence both spelling and pronunciation can be found more familiar.
22. kogu ajeg (Est. kogu aeg – ‘all the time’), the first part of the phrase sounds familiar enough to the Polish reader, so only the second part has been altered. Diphthongs, however, as mentioned before are foreign to Polish, therefore the slide consonant ‘j’ has been added between ‘a’ and ‘e’.
23. rakimnąć (Est. rääkima – ‘to speak’), as in other examples of altering Estonian verbs to the Polish ones, the verbal suffix ‘-nąć’ has been added to the stem ‘rääkim’ where the long vowel ‘ää’ is replaced by the cardinal vowel ‘a’.
24. ostmąć (Est. ostma – ‘to buy’), here the verbal suffix has been reduced to ‘-ąć’ to avoid a cluster of too many adhering consonants.
25. pisaf (Est. piisav – ‘enough’), reduction of the long vowel ‘ii’ to a short one ‘i’ and
replacement of the final consonant ‘v’ for ‘f’. As the consonant occurred in the final position it seemed more natural to replace it by the voiceless ‘f’ instead of the voiced ‘w’ as in the previous examples that were presented above.
