Lexical Means of (Re)Creating of the Sound Effects in the Original and Translation: A Case Study Based on the Novel by J.-M. G. Le Clézio Ritournelle De La Faim

Abstract

Discussion of the translation process is complex and fraught with pitfalls, especially when it concerns the notions of translation equivalence and adequacy. This issue is of crucial importance concerning the translation of literary works. This article is dedicated to the study of the fundamental problem which translators of all times and all countries encounter, that is, to convey the creative idea of the author of the original work without perverting it, to preserve, throughout the translation process, all the semantic and stylistic nuances which form its content. This is the question around which our research problem revolves. We study here the approaches chosen by the Ukrainian translator Yarema Kravets, in order to recreate in his translation, the sound image that J. M. G. Le Clézio succeeded in creating in his novel Ritournelle de la faim. In order to render this research more usable, we have adopted the following methodological approach, founded on these two axes: the collection of lexical units from the source text which serve to create the sound image; and the comparative analysis of the original text with its translation, of the novel by J. M. G. Le Clézio, Ritournelle de la faim, with the goal of recreating the sound of the source text by identifying its means of transmission. The anticipated result of the given study, which is dedicated to the recreation of the sound effects in the translation of the J. M. G. Le Clézio’s novel Ritournelle de la faim, will be either to confirm or refute our primary hypothesis: that the translation proposed by Y. Kravets respects the spirit and the letter of the source text.