Geser. The Вuryat heroic epic. Ye. Khundaeva

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СКАЧАТЬ great diligence. The epic says that the worth of man is in his doings, the worth of woman is in her sewing. Good attitude to one’s work and duties was inseparable from the Buryats since childhood. Life itself prompted them to be hardworking people, or else they would not survive. The Buryats wanted their children to be modest enough and restrained. They taught them not to shout out, not to cry out his/her mind when not asked to, not to talk too quickly as if saying a tongue-twister, not to laugh too loudly showing the teeth. They taught the young people to be restrained.

      The Buryats were always ready to give a rebuff to the enemy, to fight him if the necessity arose. But despite their being quite ready to rebuff if necessary. The Mongolian tribes as well as the other people in the world strived to peace and quiet life without any battles, without shedding blood. They took up their swords only when there was a need to safeguard the motherland and strengthen the status of the kin.

      They were ecologically-minded, loved their native place and took care of it. This is evidenced by the following episode. The epic narrates of Loir Khara Lobsogoldoi, Geser’s enemy. He was taken as the embodiment of such prime element as water. Having defeated Lobsogoldoi Geser tells not to kill him for otherwise the vegetation would not grow without water. One can understand that he did that because he was devoted to his motherland, he was anxious that the Nature should flourish.

      The epic gives much material for discussing the traditions of the Buryat people. Besides the traditions mentioned above there is much material on suit before the marriage. There were the tournaments, trials, seeing off and meeting a bride. There also were the various methods for killing a sheep for donation. There were some prescriptions for organizing the feasts, games, dancing in circle, for holding the tayilgans (a religious ceremony, festival) and the rituals like purifying, telling the fortune, smudging, offerings, invocation, etc.

      All the habits, customs and traditions of the Buryat people are generous, benevolent. They disapprove of the unworthy deeds. The Buryat people are careful and scrupulous about the children, loving towards their native land and nature.

      Naturally there is no marked development of the images in the epic. Most often the characters are either positive or negative. Our attention is focused now on the main character. The whole narration is concentrated around the main personage, i.e. Geser.

      Having analyzed the situation Geser usually takes up the most complicated problems to solve, he is sufficiently confident of himself. Geser respects the elder people, obeys the decisions of the council of the Tengris, he is tolerant of some of their mistakes and weakness. In spite of his divine origin Geser is humane, he does not like the idea of being singled out, rather he would live the way the other people do, though he never forgets about his true designation.

      Geser is a magician possessing the supersensitive abilities but he never boasts of it. The people like and respect Geser. He is industrious, possesses good skills for practical life, he is above all a good warrior. Geser is kind and open- handed, he is just and follows his principles. He can also control the atmospheric phenomena.

      Geser is one of the sons of Khormusta tengri, residing in the Heaven, the highest sphere of the Universe. When there came the time of trouble and misfortune upon the Earth Geser was designed to descend to the Middle sphere (the Earth) to struggle against the evil and complete his mission of salvation of the people. He was born on the Earth an ugly (некрасивый) child, this is accounted for by the necessity for him to survive, it was kind of protection against the evil forces, the spirits and the like. When he was a child one of his names was Bukhe-Beligte (strong and gifted). Since childhood he was noted for his unusual gifts. He committed good deeds, displaying the magic abilities which helped him in doing good things. When he grows up he turns into a strong, well-built, handsome bator.

      The three cosmic spheres are in his power. His origin is in the Sky, among the divinities. He lives on the Earth. He goes down to the Water kingdom, he establishes the ties with its Lord having married his daughter. Geser performs his deeds for the sake of the people, for their well-being and happiness.

      A brief summary of the translating methods

      The first translation to the English language of one of the Buryat variants of the heroic epic of “Geser” entitled “Abai Geser the Mighty” has been completed by Ye. Khundaeva. The lack of the full coincidence between the two languages and cultures made it hard to give an exact and accurate translation of all the passages of the epic.

      In the Buryat language the nouns are too often substituted for by the pronouns. One can note a reverse order of the words in Buryat in contrast to English. Most peculiar are the paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations, phonoaesthetical words as well as the hyponymic relations, the frequent use of the various kinds of the particles, etc. However there are some similar features that are lacking in the other languages. Here one could mention the grammar expression of completeness (Perfect) or incompleteness (Non-Perfect or Progressive) of the action which are typical of the two languages: Buryat and English.

      The Buryat language is noted for by the following features: the omission of the main parts of the sentence: the subject, the predicate and the object that are quite explicit and it is easy to restore them. One can note a reverse order of the words in Buryat in contrast to English. Most peculiar are the paradigmatic and syntagmatic relations, the phonoaesthetical words as well as the hyponymic relations, the frequent use of the various kinds of the particles, etc. Let us dwell on some of the methods used when translating the Buryat heroic epic “Geser” to the English language.

      1. Lexical transformations

      1.1. Transliteration

      Transliteration is most often used, for example, when reproducing the proper names.

      Малзан Гурмэн – Malzan Gurmen

      Дашин Шөөхөр – Dashin Shokhor

      Зарлиг Саган – Zarlig Sagan

      Санхан Гоохон – Sankhan Gookhon

      1.2. Loan translation

      Бээжиин (мγр 3563) – печь (строка 3566) – stove (line 3564)

      Yйлэнсүй (мγр 3705) – улица (строка 3705) – street (line 3705)

      Мэшээг (мγр 3503) – мешков (строка 3504) – sack (line 3506)

      2. The semantic transformations

      2.1. Concretization and generalization

      Орой дээрэм харыто (мγр 447) – Сверху меня опекайте (cтрока 447) – From heavens take care of me (line 448). Орой дээрэм (from above) might be translated as “from the heavens” using the semantical concretization that shows that the actions are undertaken as if by the will of the heavenly divinities.

      Басагам (мγр 4226) – сынок (cтрока 4226) – sonny (line 4226). In the old times the boys were sometimes called “girls” lest they might be taken away by the evil spirits who wanted to harm the people. The spirits wanted to deprive the people of the sons for the boys were taken to be the successors of the kin or clan and bread-winners.

      There are the lexical correspondences, such as the СКАЧАТЬ