Language creativity and the estrangement of language: not friends, neither enemies of the translator

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of the special place of language creation and the estrangement of language in literary and professional translation. The research methodology is determined by the search for a balance between the approach to the internal form in Oleksadr Potebnia’s school and to the external form in literary formalism. To make translation a solid foundation for education, it must be correct. The reliability of translation should be based on adequate translation practices, which are determined by following the correct principles of handling the language of translation. Hermeneutics focuses on the language of the original text, revealing its hidden meanings and alternative interpretations. Instead, professional translation also takes into account the creative potential of the language of translation. If in previous times the translator was a servant of the author of the original, then in the age of postmodern and intertextuality the translation sometimes turns into a kind of quest for the reader, and even an experienced consumer of translation does not always manage to unravel the translation idea and reproduce the author's original text intention. All this raises the question of the admissibility of language searches – language creation, estrangement of language, etc. – in translation. The translator inevitably appears as another author, which must, however, be minimally tangible to the reader. Only as an exception, the merit of a good translator is language creation, but where it is really needed: the translator have to be a language creator – at least not worse than the author of the original text. Often the translator acts as a co-creator of the native language – because it is through him that foreign words, artistic images, new language themes and language forms usually come into the language. This is especially evident in the translation of poetic works. Renaissance and Baroque give classic examples of active work of translators as creators of the language. In Ukrainian history, such features were generously endowed with the Ukrainian avant-garde of the early twentieth century.