MASARYK UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF EDUCATION Department of English Language and Literature
Emma Donoghue: Room – Translation and Analysis
Bachelor‘s Thesis
Brno 2012
Author: Mgr. Marcela Chmelinová
Supervisor: Mgr. Martin Němec
Declaration I declare that I wrote the thesis by myself and that I used only the sources listed in the bibliography.
Prohlášení Prohlašuji, ţe jsem diplomovou práci zpracovala samostatně a pouţila jen prameny uvedené v seznamu literatury.
V Brně, dne 19. dubna 2012
Mgr. Marcela Chmelinová
1
Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to Mgr. Martin Němec for his valuable advice, kind help and guidance that he provided as my supervisor.
2
Table of content INTRODUCTION ...................................................................................................................... 4 1. ABOUT THE BOOK ...................................................................................................... 6 1.1 Source of inspiration ....................................................................................................... 6 1.2 Plot summary................................................................................................................... 6 1.3 Acceptance of the novel .................................................................................................. 7 1.4 Language and style .......................................................................................................... 7 1.5 About the author .............................................................................................................. 7 2. PRACTICAL PART: Translation ................................................................................... 9 3. THEORETICAL PART ................................................................................................ 45 3.1 Translation art or craft? ................................................................................................. 45 3.2 Translation as a term ..................................................................................................... 45 3.3 Reading, understanding and interpreting language beyond the linguistic signs ........... 46 3.4 Style ............................................................................................................................... 46 3.5 Text versus discourse .................................................................................................... 47 3.6 Problem of measuring style ........................................................................................... 47 3.7 Pragmatic and semantic dimensions of style................................................................. 48 3.7.1 Pragmatics as a linguistic discipline................................................................... 49 3.8 Literary versus non-literary style .................................................................................. 50 4. ANALYSIS ................................................................................................................... 51 4.1 Characteristic of the style .............................................................................................. 51 4.2 Foregrounding ............................................................................................................... 52 4.2.1 Personification of nouns ..................................................................................... 53 4.2.2 Marked personal pronouns ................................................................................. 53 4.2.3 Intentional orthographic and grammatical errors ............................................... 55 4.2.4 Marked collocations ........................................................................................... 58 4.3 Expressiveness of the language ..................................................................................... 60 4.3.1 Interjections ........................................................................................................ 61 4.3.2 Dimunitives ........................................................................................................ 63 4.3.3 Colloquial language............................................................................................ 64 4.4 Figurative language ....................................................................................................... 65 4.4.1 Alliteration ......................................................................................................... 67 4.4.2 Rhymes ............................................................................................................... 67 4.5 Linking and cohesion .................................................................................................... 67 4.6 Lexical choices .............................................................................................................. 69 4.6.1 Proper nouns ....................................................................................................... 69 4.6.2 Titles of songs, stories or games ........................................................................ 71 CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................ 74 Resumé ..................................................................................................................................... 76 List of references ...................................................................................................................... 77
3
INTRODUCTION This bachelor thesis is centered around Emma Donoghues‘ novel Room. Particular attention is given to the issue of style and stylistic deviations accountable for its uniqueness and originality. First, my aim is to provide a translation of selected parts of the novel, which as far as possible reflects the stylistic features of the original text. Second, based on the theory and presented on individual examples from the practical part, the thesis aims to outline and analyze the most significant stylistic markers of the excerpted text. There are several reasons for choosing translation analysis as a topic for my bachelor‘s thesis. The translation of style, particularly of stylistically foregrounded features, is not sufficiently covered by the theory. My aim is to explore possible ways to transform stylistically original, unusual features into a different language system, which seems not an easy task with respect to the different specifics of the Czech and the English language. My research aims to find out and make conclusions as to whether style can objectively be analyzed or whether it is detectable only subjectively. The second reason for my dealing with translation as a subject of my thesis is a personal one. Having studied interpreting of the German language, I wanted to see, whether I am able to cope with a translation from a different language, and, how much the written reproduction of a text differs from the oral interpretation. Further, I wanted to get acquainted with the translation theories, which I was confronted with only marginally during my previous studies. Another reason for my choice was the novel itself. It is not only because I was touched by the story of little Jack. I was also literally overwhelmed by the style. Dealing with the issue of style I will look into the different levels and layers of the English language and explore the ways of its transferability into Czech. Finally, exploring the ways of stylistic conditioning in both languages will shape my own writing style in Czech as well as in English, and also change the way of looking at a text. The thesis is divided into three main parts. The first part is concerned with the book, introducing the plot, the author, the source of inspiration as well as the language and style of the book. The second part provides the practical translation of two selected parts of the novel. The original texts along with the translation are imbedded in the corpus, which is subject to the analysis. The third part deals with the theory. It first discusses the issue of style in general, its interpretation and translation with particular regard to the pragmatic aspect and stylistic deviations. It is followed by an analysis, in which individual choices are explained and
4
justified, based on the theoretical background. The translation of some features is discussed in comparison with the official translation by Veronika Volhejnová to show possible ways of translation and to better demonstrate the problematic issues.
5
1. ABOUT THE BOOK 1.1
Source of inspiration Room is a novel written by an Irish-Canadian author Emma Donoghue. It is a story
about a five-year old boy with the name Jack being held captive with his mother in a small room. The idea for the story was triggered by the ―Fritzl case‖ in Austria, where Josef Fritzl was discovered to have kept his daughter in cellar for 24 years. The author‘s intention was, however, not to focus on the aspects of the crime or sexual abuse. She rather wanted to show a child‘s view of the situation and deal with more universal things, such as childhood, motherly love and the power of the relationship between the parent and their child. It is a startling story about a mother who unconditionally loves her child and tries to shield it from the cruel reality. (Donoghue ―Emma Donoghue – Room‖) 1.2
Plot summary The story starts on Jack‘s fifth birthday. Jack is the only narrator of the story so we get
to see the room through his eyes. For Jack, the room is the only real world. It consists of four walls, one wardrobe he sleeps in, a sink, a drawer, a bed, a television, a rug, a shelf with a couple of books and a rocker. Ma has been kidnapped during her college studies on the street seven years ago. After her son is born, she mobilizes all her strengths to offer Jack good life with as much structure and variety as possible. She creates an incredibly structured plan of their everyday routine so that Jack can feel happy and safe in the room. All Jack knows about their captor, Old Nick, is that he comes at night, brings groceries, sleeps with Ma and ―disappears‖ the trash. He actually never sees him completely, only through the door in the wardrobe where he is supposed to sleep when Old Nick visits Ma. Though Ma does a lot for Jack, she knows it soon won‘t be enough. Having learned about Old Nick‘s unemployment, she starts to worry about their lives and makes up an escape plan that requires Jack to be very brave. They start to rehearse for his escape and, at the same time, Ma slowly reveals to Jack the true about the life behind the walls, which he cannot understand. According to her plan, Jack is supposed to pretend being death and escape while his body is being taken off to the woods by Old Nick. The plan works out. Jack jumps off the truck and manages to alarm the Police. Short after the Police find Ma, they are both taken to a mental clinic where they receive medical and mental treatment. Finally being free, Ma and Jack, they both have 6
difficult time to cope with the reality surrounding them and Ma realizes how unprepared they both are for the life outside of the room. The world has changed and so has Ma. Jack does not feel comfortable finding the world too big with too many people and things that are real and wants to go back to room. For his family it is difficult to accept Jack as a ―side product‖ of a rape committed on their daughter. Ma has to face a very strong attention of the media. After a very emotional TV interview, Ma takes overdoses of pills and nearly dies. Until she recovers, Jack is staying with his grandmother, which is very difficult for him since he has not spent a day in his life without his Ma so far. At the same time, spending some time alone with his grandma helps him to adapt to the life outside Room. After Ma‘s recovery, she takes Jack to Room to say goodbye to all things he loved. They move to an Independent living residence where they want to start new life. 1.3
Acceptance of the novel Because of its original style, Jack‘s voice and language as well as addressing many
universal issues of the modern society, the book became an international bestseller as soon as it was published in August 2010, sold over a million copies and was translated into over 30 different languages. The Czech translation was provided 2011 by Veronika Volhejnová. It won numerous national and international prices and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2010 as an international bestseller ( ―Emma Donoghue‖) 1.4
Language and style To put it in Donoghue‘s words, the style of the novel is almost ‗deceptively easy‘.
However, there is a lot of craftsmanship and extensive research behind it. Donoghue studied numerous cases of kidnapping, chases of children born through a rape as well as about autistic children. Her intention was to come up with a style of child‘s narrative with a touch of sophisticated vocabulary to reflect Jack‘s above-average education. He narrates in a voice which has a flavor of a 5-year-old, but a coherence of an older person, keeping the clumsy way of patching words together. (Donoghue ―Emma Donoghue – Room‖) 1.5
About the author Emma Donoghue was born in Dublin, Ireland, as the youngest of eight children in
1969. Her father is the academic literary critic Denis Donoghue. She attended Catholic convent schools in Dublin and spent a year in New York at the age of ten. She studied English and French at the University College in Dublin and received her PhD in English from the 7
University of Cambridge, dealing with the concept of friendship between men and women in 18th-century English fiction. She is a full-time writer since the age of 23. After commuting between Ireland, England and Canada, she finally settled in London, Ontario in Canada where she has been living since 1998 with her husband and their two children. (Donoghue, ―About Emma Donoghue‖) Emma Donoghue is a writer of many genres, however she is known best for her contemporary and historical fiction. Her novels Stirfry, Hood and Landing Donoghue are all in some way connected with her hometown Dublin. Some other bestselling novels include Room, Slammerkin, The Sealed Letter or Life Mask. (Donoghue, ―About Emma Donoghue‖) Apart from being a famous novel writer, Donoghue is also a keen short story writer. Her stories have been published in major British newspapers and magazines, such as in Granta, the New Statesman or the Sunday Express as well as numerous journals and anthologies. Touchy Subjects is a set of 19 short stories about social taboos published in 2006. Worth mentioning are also collections The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits or Kissing the Witch. (Donoghue, ―About Emma Donoghue”) Not to forget, Emma Donoghue writes literary history, and plays for stage and radio. She is currently working on a play about Maeve Brennan at the New Yorker in the 1950s as well as preparing a novel about a murder in San Francisco set in 1876. (Donoghue, ―About Emma Donoghue‖)
8
2. PRACTICAL PART: TRANSLATION
Chapter 1: Presents
Kapitola 1: Dárky
Today I‘m five. I was four last night going to Dnes je mi pět. Včera večer, kdyţ jsem šel sleep in Wardrobe, but when I wake up in spát do Skříně, mi byly čtyři, pak jsem se ale Bed in the dark I‘m changed to five, vzbudil v Posteli, kdyţ ještě byla tma, a abrakadabra. Before that I was three, then abrakadabra, najednou mám pět. Předtím mi two, then one, then zero. „Was I minus byly tři, pak dva, pak jeden a potom nula. numbers?―
„Měl jsem i mínus roků?―
„Hmm?― Ma does a big stretch.
„Hmm?― Máma se pořádně protáhne.
Up in Heaven. Was I minus one, minus two, Nahoře v Nebi. Bylo mi mínus jeden, mínus minus three - ?―
dva, mínus tři - ?
„Nah, the numbers didn‘t start till you „Né, začali jsme to počítat, aţ kdyţ ses snesl zoomed down.―
na Zem.―
„Through Skylight. You were all sad till I „Světlíkem. Byla jsi moc smutná, neţ jsem happened in your tummy.―
se ti stal v bříšku.―
„You said it.― Ma leans out of Bed to switch „Přesně tak.― Máma se natáhne z postele na on Lamp, he makes everything light up Lampu, zapne ji a ona šup a všude je světlo! whoosh. I shut my eyes just in time, then open one a Jen tak tak stihnu zavřít oči, pak jedno crack, then both.
pootevřu, potom obě.
I cried till I didn‘t have any tears left,‖ she „Plakala jsem, aţ jsem vyplakala všechny tells me. ―I just lay here counting the slzy―, řekne Máma. „Jen jsem tu leţela a seconds.‖
počítala vteřiny―.
How many seconds?‖ I ask her.
„Kolik vteřin? Zeptám se jí.
―Millions and millions of them.‖
„Milióny a milióny.―
―No, but how many exactly?‖
„No jó, ale kolik přesně?―
9
―I lost count‖, says Ma.
„Přestala jsem je počítat―, řekne máma.
―Then you wished and wished on your egg „Tak sis hrozně moc přála vajíčko, aţ ti till you got fat.‖
narostlo břicho.―
She grins. ―I could feel you kicking.
Máma se usměje. „Cítila jsem, jak kopeš.―
„What was I kicking?―
„Kam jsem kopal?―
―Me, of course.‖
„No mě přece―.
―I always laugh at that bit.‖
„Tohle mě vţdycky rozesměje.―
―From the inside, boom boom.‖ Ma lifts her „Zevnitř. Buch, buch.― Máma si potahuje sleep T-shirt and makes her tummy jump. ―I tričko na spaní a dělá, ţe jí skáče břicho. thought, Jack’s on his way. First thing in the „Řekla jsem si, Jack uţ je na cestě. A hned morning, you slid out onto the rug with your ráno jsi s vykulenýma očima vyklouzl na eyes wide open. ―
koberec.―
I look down at Rug with her red and brown Podívám se dolů na Koberec, má na sobě and black all zigging around each other. červené a hnědé a černé klikyháky. There‘s the stain I spilled by mistake getting Je na něm skvrna, co jsem rozlil, protoţe born.
jsem nedal pozor, kdyţ jsem se naroďoval.
―You cutted the cord and I was free‖, I tell „Tys ustřihala šňůru a já se pustil.―, říkám Ma. ―Then I turned into a boy.‖
Mámě. „A pak byl ze mě kluk.―
―Actually, you were a boy already.‖ She gets „Kluk jsi byl i předtím.― Máma vstane out of Bed and goes to Thermostat to hot the z Postela a jde k Teplometovi, aby udělal air.
teplo.
I don‘t think he came last night after nine, the Myslím, ţe včera večer po deváté nepřišel. air‘s always different if he came. I don‘t ask Vzduch je totiţ vţdycky jinačí, kdyţ přišel. because she doesn‘t like saying about him.
Nezeptám se, protoţe Máma o něm nerada
―Tell me, Mr. Five, would you like your mluví. „Povězte mi, pane Pětiletý, přejete si present now or after breakfast?‖
dárek hned nebo aţ po snídani?―
―What is it, what is it?‖
„Co je to, co je to?―
―I know you‘re excited,‖ she says, ―but „Vím, ţe se nemůţeš dočkat,― řekne, „ale remember not to nibble your finger, germs neokusuj si prosím nehty, baktérie číhají could sneak in the hole.‖
všude kolem.―
10
―To sick me like when I was three with „Aby mě napadly, jako kdyţ mi byly tři a throw-up and diarrhea?‖
zvracel jsem a měl průjem?―
―Even worse than that,‖ says Ma, ―germs „Mnohem horší,― řekne máma. „Na baktérie could make you die.‖
můţeš umřít.―
―And go back to Heaven early?‖
„A jít moc brzy zpátky do Nebe?―
―You‘re still biting it.‖ She pulls my hand „Zase si je koušeš.― Odstrčí mi ruku. away. ―Sorry.‖ I sit on the bad hand. ―Call „Promiň.― Strčím si tu zlobivou ruku pod me Mr. Five again.‖
zadek. „Říkej mi zase pane Pětiletý.―
―So, Mr. Five,‖ she says, ―now or later?‖
„Takţe, pane Pětiletý―, řekne. „Teď nebo potom?―
I jump onto Rocker to look at Watch, he says Skočím na Houpacího křesla, abych uviděl 07:14. I can skateboard on the Rocker hodiny. Ukazují 07:14. Na Křeslovi umím without holding on to her, then I whee back skejbordovat bez drţení, pak hupnu zpátky onto Duvet and I‘m snowboarding instead. na Peřinu a snowborduju. ―When are presents meant to open?‖
„Kdy se mají otvírat dárky?―
―Either way would be fun. Will I choose for „Vţdycky you?‖ asks Ma.
se
ti
to
bude
líbit.
Mám
rozhodnout za tebe?― zeptá se Máma.
―Now I´m five, I have to choose.‖ My „Musím to umět sám, kdyţ uţ je mi pět.― finger‘s in my mouth again, I put it in my Zase si cucám prst. Dám si ho pod paţi a armpit and lock shut. ―I choose – now.‖
pevně ho sevřu. „Chci ho – hned.―
She pulls a something out from under her Máma strčí ruku pod svůj polštář a něco pillow, I think it was hiding all night vytáhne, myslím, ţe se to tam neviditelně invisibly. It´s a tube of ruled paper, with the schovávalo
celou
noc.
Je
to
kousek
purple ribbon all around from the thousand smotaného papíru ovázaného rudou stuhou z chocolates we got the time Christmas čokoládek, co jsme jich dostali aspoň tisíc, happened. ―Open it up,‖ she tells me. kdyţ se staly Vánoce. „Rozbal ho―, řekne ―Gently.‖
máma. „Opatrně―.
I figure out to do off the knot, I make the Vyřeším, jak rozdělat uzel a zplacatím papír. paper flat, it‘s a drawing, just pencil, no Je to obrázek namalovaný jen tuţkou, colors. I don‘t know what it‘s about, then I nebarevný. Nevím, co je na něm, tak ho
11
turn it. ―Me!‖ Like in Mirror but more, my otočím. „To jsem já!― Jako v Zrcadlovi, jen head and arm and shoulder in my sleep T- je mě víc. Moje hlava a ruka a rameno ve shirt. ―Why are the eyes of the me shut?‖
spacím tričku. „Proč má ten já zavřený oči?―
―You were asleep,‖ says Ma.
„Spal jsi―, řekne Máma.
―How you did a picture asleep?‖
„Tys mě malovala, kdyţ jsi spala?―
―No, I was awake. Yesterday morning and „Ne, byla jsem vzhůru. Včera ráno a the day before and the day before that, I put předevčírem a den předtím jsem si vzala the lamp on and drew you.‖ She stops lampičku a malovala tě.― Přestane se smát. smiling. ―What‘s up, Jack? You don‘t like „Copak, Jacku? Nelíbí se ti?― it?‖ ―Not – when you‘re on at the same time I‘m „Ne kdyţ jsi vzhůru a já spím.― off.‖ ―Well I couldn‘t draw you while you were „Přece jsem tě nemohla malovat, kdyţ jsi byl awake, or it wouldn‘t be a surprise, would it? vzhůru, to by potom nebylo překvapení! Ma waits. ―I thought you‘d like a surprise.‖
Máma čeká. „Myslela jsem, ţe máš rád
―I prefer a surprise and me knowing.‖
překvapení.― Radši je mám, kdyţ o nich
She kind of laughs.
vím.― Máma se trochu zasměje.
I get on Rocker to take a pin from Kit on Vylezu na Křesla a vezmu si špendlík ze Shelf, minus one means now there‘ll be zero šitíčka, co je na Polici. To je mínus jeden a to left of the five. There used to be six but one znamená, ţe z pěti co máme, nezůstane disappeared.
ţádný. Kdysi jich bylo šest, ale jeden se ztratil.
One is holding up Great Masterpieces of Na jednom visí za Křeslem Mistrovské dílo Western Art No. 3: The Virgin and Child západního
umění
č.
3:
Panna
Maria
with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist behind s Dítětem a sv. Annou a sv. Janem Křtitelem. Rocker, and one is holding up Great Na druhém je vedle Vany Mistrovské dílo Masterpieces
of
Western
Art
No
8. západního umění č. 8: Imprese: Východ
Impression: Sunrise beside Bath, and one is slunce.
Dalším
je
připíchnutá
modrá
holding up the blue octopus, and one the chobotnice a jeden bláznivý obrázek koně, co crazy horse picture called Great Masterpiece se jmenuje Mistrovské dílo západního umění
12
of Western Art No. 11: Guernica.
č. 11: Guernica.
The masterpieces came with the oatmeal but Mistrovská díla jsme dostali v ovesných I did the octopus, that‘s my best of March, vločkách, ale chobotnici jsem namaloval he‘s going a bit curly from the steamy air sám, v březnu je to můj nejlepší obrázek, jen over Bath.
se trochu kudrnatí kvůli páře z Vany.
I pin Ma‘s surprise drawing on the very Obrázek od Mámy pověsím nad Postela na middle cork tile over Bed.
úplně prostřední korkový čtverec.
She shakes her head. ―Not there.‖
Máma zavrtí hlavou. „Tam ne―.
She doesn‘t want Old Nick to see. ―Maybe in Nechce, aby ho viděl Rohatý. „Co třeba Wardrobe, on the back?‖ I ask.
dozadu do Skříně?― zeptám se.
―Good idea.‖
„Dobrý nápad.―
Wardrobe is wood, so I have to push the pin Skříň je dřevo, takţe musím špendlík hodně an extra lot. I shut her silly doors, they zmáčknout. Zavřu jí hloupé dveře, pořád always squeak, even after we put corn oil on vrţou, i kdyţ jsme jí na panty dali kukuřičný the hinges. I look through the slats but it‘s olej. Nakouknu do škvír, ale vidím jen tmu. too dark. I open her a bit to peek, the secret Trošku ji pootevřu, abych viděl, tajemná drawing is white except the little lines of kresba je bílá, aţ na pár tenkých šedých čar. gray. Ma‘s blue dress is hanging over a bit of Máminy modré šaty visí přes moje spící oko, my sleeping eye, I mean the eye in the myslím to oko na obrázku, ale šaty picture but the dress for real in Wardrobe.
doopravdy ve Skříni.
I can smell Ma beside me, I‘ve got the best Ucítím Mámu vedle sebe. Mám ten nejlepší nose in the family. ―Oh, I forgetted to have nos v rodině. „Jejda, dnes ráno jsem si vůbec some when I woke up.‖ ―That‘s OK. Maybe nedal, úplně jsem na to zapomenul.― „To we could skip it once in a while, now you‘re nevadí―. Teď kdyţ je ti pět, tak bychom to five?‖
moţná mohli trochu omezit, co?―
―No way Jose.‖
„Tudle nudle.―
So she lies down on the white of Duvet and A tak si lehneme si na bílou peřinu a pořádně me too and I have lots.
si dám.
13
***
***
I count one hundred cereal and waterfall the Odpočítám
sto
obilných
lupínků
a
milk that‘s nearly the same white as the vodopádím na ně mlíko, co je skoro tak bílé bowls, no splashing, we thank Baby Jesus. I jako misky a ani nenacáknu. Poděkujeme choose Meltedy Spoon with the white all Jezulátku. Vyberu si Rozplizlou Lţičku, co blobby on his handle when he leaned on the se jednou neopatrně opřela o hrnec vařících pan of boiling pasta by accident. Ma doesn‘t špaget a zkroutilo se jí to bílé, za co se drţí. like Meltedy Spoon but he‘s my favorite Mámě se Rozplizlá lţička nelíbí, ale já ji because he‘s not the same.
mám nejvíc rád, protoţe není jako ostatní.
I stroke Table‘s scratches to make them
Pohladím Stola tam, kde má škrábance, aby
better, she‘s a circle all white except gray in ho nebolely. Je kulatý a celý bílý, ale má the scratches from chopping foods.
šedé rýhy, jak se na něm krájelo jídlo.
While we‘re eating we play Hum because Při jídle hrajem Broukačku, protoţe při tom that
doesn‘t
need
mouths.
I
guess nepotřebujeme pusu. Uhádnu „Makarenu― a
―Macarena‖ and ―She‘ll Be Coming ‗Round „Chodím po Brodwaji― a „Vozíčku, ke mně the Mountain‖ and ―Swing Low, Sweet leť―, co ale mělo být „Bouřlivé počasí―. Mám Chariot‖
but
that‘s
actually
―Stormy dva body a za kaţdý dostanu pusu.
Weather.‖ So my score is two, I get two kisses. I hum ―Row, Row, Row your Boat,‖ ma Zabroukám „Pec nám spadla― a máma to guesses
that
right
away.
Then
I
do hned uhádne. Pak přidám „Tubthumping―, to
―Tubthumping,‖ she makes a face and says, se zašklebí a řekne:―Brrr, tu znám, ta je o ―Argh, I know it, it‘s the one about getting člověku, co pořád dostává rány a snaţí se knocked down and getting up again, what‘s it vstávat, jak se to jmenuje?― Nakonec si called?‖In the very end she remembers right. vzpomene. Do třetice zkusím „Can‘t Get For my third turn I do ―Can‘t get You out of You out of My Head‖, tu Máma neví. ―Ta je My Head,‖ Ma has no idea. ―You‘ve chosen těţká… Tu znáš z televize?‖ such a tricky one… Did you hear it on TV?
―Ne, z tebe.‖ Vybafnu refrén, ale zdá se jí
―No, on you.‖ I burst out singing the chorus, hloupá. Ma says she‘s a dumbo.
14
―Numbskull.‖ I give her her two kisses.
―Truhlíku‖. Vlepím jí dvě pusy.
I move my chair to Sink to wash up, with Přisunu si ţidli k Umyvadlovi a jdu mýt bowls I have to do gently but spoons I can nádobí. S miskami se musí opatrně, ale se cling clang clong. I stick out my tongue in lţícemi můţu cink, cink, cink. Vypláznu Mirror. Ma‘s behind me, I can see my face jazyk na Zrcadla. Máma stojí za mnou. stuck over hers like a mask we made when Vidím svůj obličej nalepený na její jako Halloween happened. ―I wish the drawing maska, co jsme vyráběli, kdyţ se stal was better,‖ she says, ―but at least it shows Halloween. „Škoda, ţe se mi ten obrázek víc what you‘re like.‖
nepodařil,― řekne Máma. Ale aspoň jsi na něm takový, jak doopravdy vypadáš.―
―What am I like?‖
„Jak vypadám?―
She taps Mirror where‘s my forehead, her Zaťuká prstem na Zrcadla, tam, kde mám finger leaves a circle. ―The dead spit of me.‖
čelo a po jejím prstu tam zůstane krouţek.
―Why I‘m your dead spit?‖ The circle‘s „Jako můj otisk.― Krouţek mizí. „Proč jsem disappearing. ―It just means you look like jako tvůj otisk?― „ To znamená, ţe vypadáš me. I guess because you‘re made of me, like jako já, jako otisknutá já. Máš moje hnědé my spit is. Same brown eyes, same big oči, stejná velká ústa, stejně špičatou mouth, same pointy chin…‖
bradu…―
I‘m staring at us at the same time and the us Koukám na nás a my v Zrcadlovi na nás in Mirror are staring back. ―Not same nose.‖
koukaj zpátky. „Nos nemám stejný.―
―Well, you‘ve got a kid nose right now.‖
„Zatím máš dětský nos.―
I hold it ―Will it fall off and an adult nose Šáhnu si na něj. Upadne mi a naroste grow?‖
dospělácký?―
―No, no, it‘ll just get bigger. Same brown „To ne, jen bude větší. Stejné hnědé vlasy –― hair – ― ―But mine goes all the way down to my „Ale já je mám aţ semhle po pás a ty jenom middle and yours just goes on your po ramena.― shoulders.‖ ―That‘s
true,‖
says
Ma,
reaching
for „To máš pravdu―, řekne Máma a natáhne se
15
Toothpaste. All your cells are twice as alive pro pastu na zuby. „Všechny buňky ve tvém as mine.‖
těle jsou dvakrát ţivější neţ ty moje.―
I didn‘t know things could be just half alive. To jsem nevěděl, ţe něco můţe být ţivé jen I look again in Mirror. Our sleep T-shirts are napůl. Znova kouknu na Zrcadla. Máme jiné different as well and our underwear, hers has trička na spaní a taky trenýrky. Máma na no bears.
nich nemá medvídky.
When she spits the second time it‘s my go Kdyţ si Máma podruhé odplivne, je řada na with Tooth-brush, I scrub each my teeth all mně, vezmu Kartáčka a vyčistím si kaţdý the way around. Ma‘s spit in Sink doesn‘t zub, místečko vedle místečka. Udělám look a bit like me, mine doesn‘t either. I prstem otisk na wash them away and make a vampire smile.
Zrcadlovi, ale vůbec
nevypadá jako já, ani jako Máma. Spláchnu plivance v umyvadle a zazubím se jako upír.
―Argh‖. Ma covers her eyes. "Your teeth are „Aua―. Máma si zakryje oči. „Málem jsem so clean, they're dazzling me." Her ones are oslepla.― Máma má zuby dost zkaţené, pretty rotted because she forgetted to brush protoţe si je zapomenula čistit. Mrzí ji to a them, she's sorry and she doesn't forget uţ nezapomene, ale stejně jsou zkaţené. anymore but they're still rotted. I flat the chairs and put them beside Door Splasknu ţidle a dám je za Dveře naproti against Clothes Horse. He always grumbles Sušáka. Vţdycky bručí, ţe nemá místo, ale and says there's no room but there's plenty if kdyţ se postaví rovně, má ho dost. Taky se he stands up really straight. I can fold up flat umím splasknout, ale ne tak úplně, protoţe too but not quite as flat because of my jsem ţivý a z toho mám svaly. Dveře jsou muscles, from being alive. Door's made of z kouzelného třpytivého kovu, co udělají píp shiny magic metal, he goes beep beep after píp vţdycky po deváté, to je, kdyţ uţ mám nine when I'm meant to be switched off in být usnutý ve Skříňi. Wardrobe. God's yellow face isn't coming in today, Ma „Ţlutá Boţí tvář dnes nepřijde,― Prý se k nám says he's having trouble squeezing through nedostane kvůli sněhu, říká Máma. the snow.
„Jakému sněhu?―
16
"What snow?"
„Podívej―, řekne Máma a míří prstem
"See," she says, pointing up.
nahoru.
There's a little bit of light at Skylight's top, Nahoře na Světlíku je vidět trocha světla, the rest of her is all dark. TV snow's white zbytek je tmavý. Sníh v televizi je bílý, ale but the real isn't, that's weird. "Why it doesn't ten opravdivý ne, to je divný. „Proč na nás fall on us?"
nepadá?―
"Because it's on the outside."
„Protoţe je venku.―
"In Outer Space? I wish it was inside so I can „Ve Vesmíru?― Chtěl bych ho mít tady play with it."
uvnitř, abych si s ním mohl hrát.―
"Ah, but then it would melt, because it's nice „No jo, ale tady by roztál, protoţe je tu hezky and warm in here." She starts humming, I teploučko.― Začne si pobrukovat a já hned guess right away it's "Let It Snow." I sing the poznám, ţe je to „Zima, zima tu je―. Já second
verse.
Then
I
do
"Winter zazpívám
Wonderland" and Ma joins in higher.
druhou
sloku.
Pak
zkusím
„Rolničky― a Máma se ke mně přidá, ale výš.
We have thousands of things to do every Kaţdé ráno máme velkou práci. Do Květiny morning, like give Plant a cup of water in dáme hrnek vody v Umyvadlovi, to aby se Sink for no spilling, then put her back on her nerozlila, a dáme ji zpátky na Komodu, kde saucer on Dresser. Plant used to live on má svou misku. Květina dřív bydlela na Table but God's face burned a leaf of her off. Stolovi, ale Boţí tvář jí spálila jeden list. She has nine left, they're the wide of my hand Ještě jich má devět, jsou široké jako moje with furriness all over, like Ma says dogs are. ruka a jak říká Máma, celé chlupaté jako psi. But dogs are only TV. I don't like nine. I find Ale ti jsou jenom v Televizi. Devět se mi a tiny leaf coming, that counts as ten.
nelíbí. Objevil jsem jeden nový lísteček, takţe jich je zase deset.
Spider's real. I‘ve seen her two times. I look Pavouk je opravdický. Viděl jsem ho for her now but there's only a web between dvakrát. Teď ho nemůţu najít, je tu jen Table's leg and her flat. Table balances good, pavučina mezi Stolovou nohou a jeho that's pretty tricky, when I go on one leg I domečkem. Stůl umí balancovat, ustát na can do it for ages but then I always fall over.
jedné noze vůbec není lehké, já to vydrţím strašně
dlouho,
ale
nakonec
vţdycky
17
přepadnu. I don't tell Ma about Spider. She brushes Mámě o Pavoukovi neřeknu, protoţe ona webs away, she says they're dirty but they pavučiny zametá. Říká, ţe jsou špinavé, mně look like extra-thin silver to me. Ma likes the ale připadají spíš jako stříbrné nitky. Mámě animals that run around eating each other on se líbí zvířata na divoké planetě, co se the wildlife planet, but not real ones. When I navzájem ţerou, ale ty opravdické ne. Kdyţ was four I was watching ants walking up mi byly čtyři, pozoroval jsem mravence, jak Stove and she ran and splatted them all so lezou na Sporáka a Máma přilítla a všechny they wouldn't eat our food. One minute they je zaplácla, aby nám nesnědli jídlo. Nejdřív were alive and the next minute they were byli ţiví a pak z nich najednou bylo smetí. dirt. I cried so my eyes nearly melted off. Tak jsem plakal, ţe jsem si málem vybrečel Also another time there was a thing in the oči. Jindy v noci přišlo takové to bzzzzz, night nnnnng nnnnng nnnnng biting me and bzzzzz, bzzzzz a pokousalo mě a Máma to Ma banged him against Door Wall below připlácla na Dveřovou stěnu pod Policí. Byl Shelf, he was a mosquito. The mark is still to komár. I kdyţ to seškrábala, na korku je there on the cork even though she scrubbed, pořád vidět otisk. Byla tam moje krev, co mi it was my blood the mosquito was stealing, ji komár ukradnul jako mrňavý upír. To bylo like a teeny vampire. That's the only time my jedinkrát, kdy ze mě vytekla krev. blood ever came out of me. Ma takes her pill from the silver pack that Máma si vezme pilulku ze stříbrného has twenty-eight little spaceships and I take a balíčku, ve kterém je dvacet osm malých vitamin from the bottle with the boy doing a vesmírných lodí a já si dám vitamín handstand and she takes one from the big z lahvičky s obrázkem kluka, co dělá stojku, bottle with a picture of a woman doing a Máma si vezme jeden z velké lahvičky Tennis. Vitamins are medicine for not getting s obrázkem paní, co hraje tenis. Vitamíny sick and going back to Heaven yet.
jsou léky, abychom neonemocněli a nemuseli ještě do Nebe.
I never want to go, I don't like dying but Ma Já se tam nechci vrátit nikdy, nelíbí se mi says it might be OK when we're a hundred umřít, ale Máma říká, ţe aţ budeme mít sto, and tired of playing. Also she takes a killer. tak nám to nebude vadit, protoţe uţ si
18
Sometimes she takes two, never more than nebudeme chtít hrát. A taky si vezme prášek two, because some things are good for us but od bolesti. Někdy bere dva, ale nikdy ne víc, too much is suddenly bad.
protoţe málo je dobré, ale moc můţe být zlé.
"Is it Bad Tooth?" I ask. He's on the top near „Je to ten Špatný zub?― zeptám se. Je nahoře the back of her mouth, he's the worst.
v puse, skoro aţ úplně vzadu, to ten
Ma nods.
nejhroznější. Máma přikývne.
"Why you don't take two killers all the bits of „Proč si nebereš dva prášky pořád dokola? every day?" She makes a face. "Then I'd be hooked."
Zašklebí se. „Byla bych závislá.―
"What's —?"
„Co bys byla - ?―
"Like stuck on a hook, because I'd need them „Jako kdybych visela na háku a nemohla all the time. Actually I might need more and dolů, dokud bych nedostala další a další. A more."
vlastně bych jich potřebovala čím dál víc.―
"What's wrong with needing?"
„A co je na tom?―
"It's hard to explain."
„To se těţko vysvětluje.―
Ma knows everything except the things she Máma ví všechno, kromě věcí, které si moc doesn't remember right, or sometimes she nepamatuje, jindy zase říká, ţe mi něco says I'm too young for her to explain a thing.
nemůţe vysvětlit, protoţe jsem ještě moc malý.
"My teeth feel a bit better if I stop thinking „Uţ mě tolik nebolí, kdyţ na ně nemyslím,― about them," she tells me.
řekne mi Máma.
"How come?"
„Jak to?―
"It's called mind over matter. If we don't „Protoţe mysl vládne hmotě. Kdyţ na něco mind, it doesn't matter."
nemyslíš, tak ti to nevadí.―
When a bit of me hurts, I always mind. Ma's Kdyţ na mě něco bolí, tak na to myslím rubbing my shoulder but my shoulder's not pořád. Máma mně masíruje záda, i kdyţ mě hurting, I like it anyway.
nebolí. Ale i tak to mám rád.
I still don't tell her about the web. It's weird Ještě pořád jsem jí neříkal o pavučině. Je to to have something that's mine-not-Ma's. zvláštní mít něco, co je moje a ne Mámino. Everything else is both of ours. I guess my Všechno ostatní je nás obou. Moje tělo je asi
19
body is mine and the ideas that happen in my moje a taky to, co si myslím v hlavě. Moje head. But my cells are made out of her cells buňky se ale vyrobily z jejích, takţe jsem so I'm kind of hers. Also when I tell her what vlastně tak trochu i její. I'm thinking and she tells me what she's A kdyţ jí říkám, co si myslím a ona mně taky thinking, our each ideas jump into our other's řekne, co si myslí, tak ty naše myšlenky head, like coloring blue crayon on top of přeskakují z jedné hlavy do druhé, jako kdyţ yellow that makes green.
modrou pastelkou maluju přes ţlutou a je z toho zelená.
At 08:30 I press the button on TV and try V 08:30 zmáčknu tlačítko na Televizi a between the three. I find Dora the Explorer, zkusím všechny tři. Narazím na Doru yippee. Ma moves Bunny around real slow to Průzkumnici, hurááááá! Máma popostrkuje better the picture with his ears and head. One Králíka úplně pomalu, aby ušima a hlavou day when I was four TV died and I cried, but vylepšoval obraz. Jednou, kdyţ mi byly čtyři, in the night Old Nick brung a magic tak Televize umřela a já plakal, ale Rohatý converter box to make TV back to life. The v noci
přinosil
kouzelnou
krabičku
a
other channels after the three. The other Televize zase oţila. Další kanály po těch channels after the three are totally fuzzy so třech jsou úplně rozmazané, tak se na ně we don‘t watch them because of hurting our nedíváme, aby nás nebolely oči. Jen kdyţ eyes, only if there‘s music we put Blanket dávají hudbu, tak přes Televizi přehodíme over and just listen through the gray of her deku a jen tak posloucháme a trsáme. and shake our booties. Today I put my fingers on Dora‘s head for a Dneska poloţím Doře ruce na hlavu jako hug and tell her about my superpowers now bych ji objímal a řeknu jí, ţe uţ mi bylo pět a I‘m five, she smiles. She has the most huge umím dělat mega-věci. Usměje se. Dora má hair that‘s like a really brown helmet with obrovitánské vlasy, vypadají jako hnědá pointy bits cutted out, it‘s as big as the rest of helma s vystřihnutými špičkami, co jsou her. I sit back on Bed in Ma‘s lap to watch, I stejně velké jako její ostatní tělo. Sednu si na wriggle till I‘m not on her pointy bones. She Postela, Mámě na klín a vrtím se tak dlouho, doesn‘t have many soft bits but they‘re super dokud nepřestanu cítit její špičaté kosti. soft.
Máma je docela tvrdá, ale tadyhle to má super měkké.
20
Dora says bits that aren‘t in real language, Dora někdy nemluví opravdicky, nějaký věci they‘re Spanish, like lo hicimos. She always říká španělsky, jako lo hicimos. Vţdycky wears Backpack who‘s more inside than out, nosí Ruksak, co je uvnitř větší neţ venku a with everything Dora needs like ladders and v něm má všechno, co potřebuje - ţebříky, space suits, for her dancing and playing skafandra, věci na tancování, na fotbal a soccer and flute and having adventures with flétnu a taky na dobrodruţství se svým Boots her best friend monkey.
nejlepším kamarádem opičkou Botíkem.
Dora always says she‘s going to need my Dora vţdycky říká, ţe mě bude potřebovat, help, like can I find a magic thing, she waits abych
jí
pomohl,
třeba
najít
nějakou
for me to say, ―Yeah.‖ I shout out, ―Behind kouzelnou věc, počká, aţ řeknu ―Jo.‖ the palm tree, ― and the blue arrow clicks Zakřičím „Za palmou!― a modrá šipka ukáţe right behind the palm tree, she says, ―Thank těsně za palmu a Dora řekne: Díky.― Nikdo you. Every TV person else doesn‘t listen. jiný v televizi neposlouchá. Mapa vţdycky The Map shows three places every time, we ukáţe tři stanoviště, kam se s Dorou a have to go with Dora and Boots, holding Botíkem máme vydat. Vyrazíme, drţím je za their hands, I join in all the songs especially ruce a zpívám s nimi všechny písničky, with somersaults or high-fives or the Silly hlavně ty kotrmelcové nebo tleskací nebo co Chicken Dance.
na ně tancujeme Kačata.
We have to watch out for that sneaky Swiper, Musíme si dávat pozor na lstivého lišáka we shout, ―Swiper, no swiping,‖ three times Skrýšu,
třikrát
zavoláme
„Skrýšo,
so he gets all mad and says, ―Oh man!‖ and neskrádej!― a on se rozzlobí a řekne „No runs away. One time Swiper made a remote- tohle!― a utíká pryč. Jednou Skrýša vyrobil controlled robot butterfly, but it went wrong, robotového motýla na dálkové ovládání, ale it swiped his mask and gloves instead, that nějak to popletl a motýl mu ukradnul masku was hilarious. Sometimes we catch the stars a rukavice. To bylo fakt legrační. Někdy and put them in Backpack‘s pocket, I‘d chytáváme hvězdy a dáváme je Ruksakovi do choose the Noisy Star that wakes up anything kapsy. Já bych si vybral Sirénu, která and the Switchy Star that can transform to all všechno shapes.
vzbudí
a
Měňavku,
co
umí
přeměňovat na všechny tvary.
21
On the other planets it‘s mostly persons that Na ostatních planetách ţijou lidi, co se jich hundreds can fit into the screen, except often na obrazovku vleze tisíc, jen někdy se jeden one gets all big and near.
přiblíţí, hrozně vyroste a zabere celou obrazovku.
They have clothes instead of skin, their faces Místo kůţe mají šaty, mají růţové nebo ţluté are pink or yellow or brown or patchy or nebo hnědé nebo chlupaté obličeje, strašně hairy, with very red mouths and big eyes červenou pusu a velké oči s černým okrajem. with black edges. They laugh and shout a lot.
Horzně se smějou a křičí.
I‘d love to watch TV all the time, but it rots Nejradši bych se na Televizi díval pořád, ale our brains. Before I came down from Heaven zmizuje z ní mozek. Kdyţ jsem byl ještě v Ma left it on all day long and got turned into Nebi, Máma ji měla puštěnou celý den a byla a zombie that‘s like a ghost but walks thump z ní mátoha, to je něco jako duch, co ale dělá thump. So now she always switches off after dupy dup. Takţe teď se podíváme na jeden one show, then the cells multiply again in the pořad a vypneme ji, buňky se nám přes den day and we can watch another show after rozmnoţí a večer se můţeme dívat dál, dinner and grow more brains in our sleep.
protoţe ve spánku nám mozek zase naroste.
―Just one more, because it‘s my birthday?
„Ještě
Please!‖
narozeniny!― „Prosím!―
jeden
poslední,
kdyţ
mám
ty
Ma opens her mouth, then shuts it. Then she Máma otevře pusu a hned ji zase zavře. Pak says, ―Why not?‖ She mutes the commercials
řekne: „Proč ne―? Kdyţ jdou reklamy, tak
because they mush our brains even faster so
vypne zvuk, protoţe reklama nám drtí
they‘d drip out our ears.
mozek ještě rychleji, tak ţe by nám mohl kapat z uší.
I watch the toys, there/s an excellent truck Sleduju hračky, je tam suprovní náklaďák a and a trampoline and Bionicles. Two boys
trampolína a bajonikli. Dva kluci drţí v ruce
are fighting with Transformers in their hands
transforméry a bojují s nimi, ale jen tak
but they‘re friendly not like bad guys.
hezky, ne zle.
Then the show comes, it‘s SpongeBob Pak začíná další pořad, je to Spongebob SquarePants. I run over to touch him and
v kalhotách. Utíkám k televizi, abych se ho
22
Patrick the starfish, but not Squidward, he‘s
dotknul a taky hvězdice Patrika. Sépie ale
creepy. It‘s a spooky story about a giant
ne, té se bojím. Je to strašidelný příběh o
pencil, I watch through Ma‘s fingers that are
obrovské tuţce, dívám se na něj skrz
all twice longer than mine.
Máminy prsty, co jsou dvakrát tak dlouhé jako ty moje.
Nothing makes Ma scared. Except Old Nick Máma se ničeho nebojí. Snad jen Rohatého. maybe. Mostly she calls him just him, I
Většinou mu říká jen on. Ani jsem nevěděl,
didn‘t even know the name for him till I saw
jak se jmenuje, dokud jsem neviděl kreslený
a cartoon about a guy that comes in the night
příběh o takovém chlapíkovi, co chodil
called Old Nick. I call the real one that
v noci a jmenoval se Rohatý. Tomu
because he comes in the night, but he doesn‘t
opravdickému říkám taky tak, protoţe chodí
look like the TV guy with a beard and horns
v noci, ale ten nevypadá jako ten z Televize,
and stuff. I asked Ma once is he old, and she
nemá bradku, ani rohy a tak. Jednou jsem se
said he‘s nearly double her which is pretty
Mámy ptal, kolik má roků a ona řekla, ţe má
old.
skoro dvakrát tolik co ona, a to je dost.
She gets up to switch TV off as soon as it‘s Máma vstane a vypne Televizi hned, jak the credits. My pee´s yellow from the
začnou titulky. Od vitamínů mám ţluté
vitamins. I sit to poo, I tell it :Buy-buy, off to
čuránky. Sednu si a kakám. Kdyţ bobky
the sea.‖
splachuju, řeknu jim: „Šup do moře, pá-pá.―
After I flush I watch the tank filling up going Spláchnu a dívám se, jak se nádobka zase bubble gurgle wurble. Then I scrub my hands
naplňuje glu, glu, glu. Pak si drhnu ruce, aţ
till it feels like my skin‘s going to come off,
mám pocit, ţe si sedřu i kůţi a tak poznám,
that‘s how to know I‘ve washed enough.
ţe uţ jsou dost umytý.
―There‘s a web under Table,‖ I say, I didn‘t „Pod Stolem je pavučina,― povím a ani jsem know I was going to. ―Its‘ of Spider, she‘s
se nechystal to říct. „Je od Pavouka a ten je
real. I‘ve seen her two times.
opravdický. Uţ dvakrát jsem ho viděl.
Ma smiles but not really.
Máma se usměje, ale ne úplně.
―Will you not brush it away, please? Because „Ţe ji nezameteš, prosím!― On tam teď stejně she isn‘t even there even, but she might come
ani není, ale co kdyţ se vrátí.―
23
back.‖ Ma‘s down on her knees looking under Máma klečí a kouká pod Stůl. Nemůţu jí Table. I can‘t see her face till she pushes her
uvidět obličej, aţ si zastrčí vlasy za ucho.
hair behind her ear. ―Tell you what, I‘ll leave „Tak dobře, nechám ji tam do příštího it till we clean, OK?‖ That‘s Tuesday, that‘s three days. ―OK.‖
úklidu, domluveno?― To je v úterý, takţe za tři dny. „Tak jo.―
―You know what?‖ She stands up. ―We‘ve „Víš ty co?― Musíme udělat značku, teď got to mark how tall you are, now you‘re
kdyţ je ti pět, ať vidíme, jak jsi vyrostl.―
five.‖ I jump way in the air.
Vyskočím radostí.
Usually I‘m not allowed draw on any bits of V Pokoji
většinou
nesmím
po
ničem
Room or furnitures. When I was two I
malovat, ani po nábytkovi. Kdyţ mi byly
scribbled on the leg of Bed, her one near
dva, počmáral jsem Postelovi nohu, tu co má
Wardrobe, so whenever we‘re cleaning Ma
blízko Skříně. Vţdycky, kdyţ uklízíme,
taps the scribble and says, ―Look, we have to
Máma poklepe na ten čmáranec a řekne:
live with that forever.‖ But my birthday tall
„Podívej,
is different, it‘s tiny numbers beside Door, a
navţdycky.― Můj narozeninový výšák je ale
black 4, and a black 3 underneath, and a red
jiný, jsou to mrňavá čísla vedle Dveří, černá
2 that was the color our old Pen was till he
4 a pod ní černá 3 a červená 2, to byla barva
ran out, and at the bottom a red I.
našeho pera neţ vyschlo, a pak úplně dole
teď tady
s tím musíme
ţít
červená 1. ―Stand up straight,‖ says Ma. Pen tickles the „Postav se rovně,― řekne Máma. Pero mě top of my head.
zašimrá na hlavě.
When I step away there‘s a black 5 a little bit Kdyţ kousek poodejdu, tak malinko nad 4 je over the 4. I love five the best of every
černá 5. Pětku mám ze všech čísel nejvíc
number, I have five fingers each hand and
rád. Na kaţdé ruce mám pět prstů a to samé
the same of toes and so does Ma, we‘re our
na nohách, stejně jako Máma. Jsme naše
dead spits. Nine is my worst favorite number.
otisky. Devítku mám ze všech čísel nejhůř rád.
24
―What‘s my tall?‖
„Jak jsem velký?―
―Your height. Well, I don‘t know exactly,‖ „Vysoký. Vlastně to ani přesně nevím,― she says. ―Maybe we could ask for a
řekne Máma. Moţná bychom mohli chtít
measuring tape sometime, for Sunday treat.‖
metr jako Nedělní odměnu.―
I thought measuring tapes were just TV. Myslel jsem, ţe metry jsou jen v televizi. ―Nah, let‘s ask for chocolates.‖ I put my „Ne ne, budeme chtít bonbony.― Poloţím prst finger on the 4 and stand with my face
na 4 a stoupnu si čelem k ní, prstem se
against it, my finger‘s on my hair. ―I didn‘t
dotýkám
get taller much this time.‖
nenarostl.―
vlasů.
―That‘s normal.‖
„To je normální.―
―What‘s normal?‖
„Co je normální?―
„Tentokrát
jsem
moc
―It‘s – ― Ma chews her mouth. ―It means it‘s „To znamená – „ Máma si kouše rty. „Ţe je OK. No hay problema.‖
to v pořádku. No hay problema.
―Look how big my muscles, though.‖ I „Ale koukni na moje svaly.― Skáču na bounce on bed, I‘m Jack the Giant Killer in
Postelovi
a
jsem
Jack,
his seven-league boots.
v Sedmimílových botách.
―Vast,‖ says Ma.
„Velké,― řekne Máma.
―Gigantic.‖
„Obrovské.―
―Massive.‖
„Pořádné.―
―Huge.‖
„Obrovitánské.―
―Enormous,‖ says Ma.
„Gigantické.― Řekne Máma.
zabiják
obrů
―Hugeormous.‖ That‘s word sandwich when „Megantické.― To je slovní sendvič, dvě we squish two together. ―Good one.‖
slova připlácnutá k sobě. „Ten byl dobrý.―
―You know what?‖ I tell her. ―When I‘m ten „Něco ti povím, Mami. Aţ mi bude deset, tak I‘ll be growed up.‖ ―Oh yeah?‖
budu vyrostlý. „Opravdu?―
―I‘ll get bigger and bigger and bigger till I „Budu větší a větší, aţ ze mě bude člověk.― turn into a human.‖ ―Actually, you‘re human already,‖ says Ma. „Člověk jsi uţ teď.―, řekne Máma. ―Human‘s what we both are.‖
„My oba jsme lidi.―
25
I thought the word for us was real. The Myslel jsem to jiné slovo, to doopravdické. persons in TV are made just of colors. ―Did you mean a woman, with a w?‖
Lidi v televizi jsou jen z barev. „Ty myslíš ţena s ţ?―
―Yeah,‖ I say, ―a woman with a boy in an „No,― řeknu. „Budu ţena, a budu mít vajíčko egg in my tummy and he‘ll be a real one too.
v bříšku, bude to kluk a taky bude
Or I‘m going to grow to a giant, but a nice
opravdický. Anebo vyrostu v obra, takového
one, up to here.‖ I jump to touch Bed Wall
hodného, a budu aţ semhle.― Vyskočím a
way high, nearly where Roof starts slanting
sáhnu na Postelovu stěnu, skoro aţ kde
up.
začíná střecha.
―Sounds great,‖ says Ma.
„Prima.―, řekne Máma.
Her face is gone flat, that means I said a Obličej jí tak nějak zvadne a to znamená, ţe wrong thing but I don‘t know which.
jsem řekl něco špatně, ale nevím co.
―I‘ll burst through Skylight into Outer Space Proletím Světlíkem do Vesmíru a vystřelím and go boing boing between each the
beng beng z planety na planetu,― řeknu jí.
planets,‖ I tell her. I‘ll visit Dora and
Navštívím Doru a Spongeboba a všechny
SpongeBob and all my friends, I‘l have a dog
moje kamarády. A budu mít psíka a dám mu
called Lucky.‖
jméno Lupík.―
Ma‘s put a smile on. She‘s tidying Pen back Máma se usměje. Uklizuje Pera zpátky na on Shelf. I ask her, ―How old are you going
Polici. Zeptám se, „Kolik budeš mít roků na
to be on your birthday?‖
narozeniny?―
―Twenty-seven.‖
„Dvacet sedm.―
―Wow.‖
„Týjo.―
I don‘t think that cheered her up.
Asi ji to nepotěšilo.
While bath is running, Ma gets Labyrinth and Zatímco se napouští vana, Máma podá ze Forth down from on top of Wardrobe. We‘ve
Sříňě Labyrinta a Pevnost. Labyrinta jsme
been making Labyrinth since I was two,
začali dělat, kdyţ mi byli dva roky. Slepili
she‘s all toilet roll insides taped together in
jsme rolky toaleťáků a udělali tunely a ty
tunnels that twist lots of ways. Bouncy Ball
zakroutili na moc stran. Míček Hopsík se
loves to get lost in Labyrinth and hide, I have
v nich rád ztrácí a schovává, vţdycky ho
to call out to him and shake her and turn her
musím volat, a neţ se vykutálí, tak
26
sideways and upside down before he rolls
Labyrinta musím zatřepat a obrátit. Do
out, whew. Then I send other things into
Labyrinta posílám i jiné věci, třeba burák a
Labyrinth like a peanut and a broken bit of
trochu ulomené modré pastelky nebo malou
Blue Crayon and a short spaghetti not
špagetku,
cooked, They chase each other in the tunnels
v chodbičkách, plíţí se a pak udělají baf.
and sneak up and shout Boo, I can‘t see them
Nemůţu je uvidět, ale můţu je slyšet přes
but I listen against the cardboard and I can
papír a umím uhádnout, kde zrovna jsou.
figure out where they are. Toothbrush wants
Kartáček si to chce taky zkusit, ale nejde to.
a turn but I tell him sorry, he‘s too long. He
Řeknu mu: „Promiň, kámo, jsi moc dlouhý.―
jumps in Fort instead to guard a tower. Fort‘s
Místo toho naskočí do Pevnosti jako stráţce
made of cans and vitamin bottles, we build
věţe. Pevnost je z plechovek a lahviček od
him bigger every time we have an empty.
vitamínů, vţdycky ji přistavujeme, kdyţ
neuvařenou.
Honí
se
máme nějaké prázdné. Fort can see all ways, he squirts out boiling Pevnost vidí na všechny strany, vystřikuje oil at the enemies, they don‘t know about his
vařící olej na nepřátele, vůbec netuší, ţe má
secret knife/slits, ha ha. I‘d like to bring him
tajné škvíry od noţe, ha, ha. Chtěl bych si ji
into Bath to be an island but Ma says the
vzít do Vany a hrát si jako ţe je ostrov, ale
water would make his tape unsticky.
Máma říká, ţe lepicí páska by ve vodě uţ nelepila.
We undo our ponytails and let our hair swim. Rozpustíme si vlasy a necháme je plout. I lie on Ma not even talking, I like the bang
Leţím na Mámě a nic neříkám. Rád
of her heart. When she breathes we go up and
poslouchám, jak jí tluče srdce. Kdyţ dýchá,
down a little bit. Penis floats.
tak se zvedáme a zase trochu klesáme. Penis se vznáší.
Because of my birthday I get to choose what Protoţe mám narozeniny, můţu pro oba we wear both. Ma‘s live in the higher drawer
vybrat oblečení. Mámino bydlí v horním
of Dresser and mine in the lower. I choose
šuplíku v Komodě a moje ve spodním. Pro
her favorite blue jeans with the red stitches
Mámu
that she only puts on for special occasions
s červenými švy, co si neoblíká kaţdý den,
because they‘re getting strings at the knees.
protoţe jim na kolenou trčí nitě. Já si chci
vyberu
její
oblíbené
dţíny
27
For me I choose my yellow hoody, I‘m
obléct ţlutou mikinu s kapucí. S Komodou
careful of the drawer but the right edge still
musím
comes out and Ma has to bang it back in. We
vţdycky vypadává a Máma ji musí nasadit
pull down on my hoody together and it
zpátky. Oba taháme za mikinu, aţ mám
chews my face but then pop it‘s on.
obličej celý zmačkaný, ale nakonec šup a
opatrně,
protoţe
pravá
strana
vklouznu do ní. ―What if I cut it just a little in the middle of „Co the V?‖ says Ma.
kdybych
ji
ve
výstřihu
malinko
nastříhla?― řekne Máma.
―No way Jose.‖
„Tudle nudle.―
For Phys Ed we leave our socks off because Na Tělocvik si nedáváme ponoţky, protoţe bare feet are grippier. Today I choose Track
bez nich nohy tolik neklouţou. Dneska chci
first, we lift Table upside down onto Bed and
jako první dělat Trasu. Zvedneme Stůl a
Rocker on her with Rug over the both.
převrácený ho dáme na Postela a na něj
Track goes around Bed from Wardrobe to
Křesla a přes oba hodíme Koberec. Trasa je
Lamp, the shape on Floor is a black C. ―Hey,
od Skříně k Lampě kolem Postela, na
look, I can do a there-and-back in sixteen
Podlaze to udělá černé C. „Hele, podívej,
steps.‖
zvládnu to tam a zpátky na šestnáct kroků.―
―Wow. When you were four it was eighteen „Týjo. Kdyţ ti byly čtyři, tak to bylo na steps, wasn‘t it?‖ says Ma. ―How many
osmnáct, viď?― řekne Máma. „A co myslíš,
there-and-backs do you think you can run
kolikrát to dnes zvládneš otočit?―
today?‖ ―Five.‖
„Pětkrát.―
―What about five times five?‖ That would be „A co takhle pětkrát pět?― To by bylo tvoje your favorite squared.‖
nejmilejší číslo na druhou.―
We times it on our fingers, I get twenty-six Spočítáváme to na prstech, mně vyjde dvacet but Ma says twenty-five so I do it again and
šest, ale Mámě dvacet pět, tak ještě jednou a
get twenty-five too. She counts me on
taky mi vyjde dvacet pět. Spočítává mě na
Watch.
hodinkách.
―Twelve,‖
she
shouts
out.
„Dvanáct,―
―Seventeen. You‘re doing great.‖
„Sedmnáct. Super.―
I‘m breathing whoo whoo whoo.
Dýchám ufff ufff ufff.
vykřikne.
28
―Faster – ―
Rychleji - .―
I go even fasterer like Superman flying.
Utíkám
ještě
víc
rychle
jako
létající
Superman. When it‘s Ma‘s turn to run, I have to write Kdyţ je na řadě Máma, neţ vyběhne, musím down on the College Ruled Pad the number
do linkovaného sešitu zapsat číslo, kdyţ
at the start and the number when she‘s
startuje a kdyţ doběhne. Pak je od sebe
finished, then we take them apart to see how
odpočítáme a víme, jak rychle uběhla. Dnes
fast she went. Today hers is nine seconds
má číslo o devět vteřin větší neţ já, to
bigger than mine, that means I winned, so I
znamená, ţe jsem vyhrál a tak skáču radostí
jump up and down and blow raspberries.
a dělám kyš, kyš, hanba! „Pojďme závodit
―Let‘s do a race at the same time.‖
oba najednou!―
―Sounds like fun, doesn‘t it,‖ she says, ―but „To by mohla být legrace―, ale vzpomeň si remember once we tried it and I banged my
na minulý závod, jak jsem ramenem vrazila
shoulder on the dresser?‖
do Komody.―
Sometimes when I forget things, Ma tells me Kdyţ si někdy nemůţu vzpomenout, Máma and I remember them after that.
mi to řekne a pak uţ to vím.
We take down all the furnitures from Bed Sundáme z Postela všecky nábytky, dáme and put Rug back where she was to cover
Koberca tam kde byl, abychom zakryli
Track so Old Nick won‘t see the dirty C.
Dráhu a Rohatý neuviděl to zašpiněné C.
Ma chooses Trampoline, it‘s just me that Máma si vybere Trampolínu, ale na Posteli bounces on Bed because Ma might break her.
skáču jenom já, protoţe Máma by ji mohla
She does the commentary: ―A daring midair
polámat. Máma hlásí: „Tento mladičký
twist from the young U.S. champion…‖
šampión ze Spojených států předvede velmi troufalou otočku ve vzduchu…―
My next pick is Simon Says, then Ma says to Jako další chci hrát Simon říká a plnit put our socks back on for Corpse, that‘s lying
rozkazy, tak Máma řekne, ať si zase dáme
like starfish with floppy toenails, floppy
ponoţky, ţe budeme dělat Mrtvolu. To se
belly button, floppy tongue, floppy brain
leţí
se
svěšenýma
nohama,
pupíkem,
29
even. Ma gets an itch behind her knee and
jazykem a taky mozkem jako leklá hvězdice.
moves, I win again.
Mámu to zasvědí pod kolenem, pohne se a já zase vyhraju.
It‘s 12:13, so it can be lunch. My favorite bit Je 12:13, takţe můţeme obědvat. Z motlitby of the prayer is the daily bread. I‘m the boss
mám nejradši to o tom chlebu vezdejším. Já
of play but Ma‘s the boss of meals, like she
rozhoduju, s čím si budeme hrát a Máma
doesn‘t let us have cereal for breakfast and
zase, co budeme jíst, jakoţe třeba nedovolí,
lunch and dinner in case we‘d get sick and
aby byly obilné lupínky na snídani, na oběd
anyway that would use it up too fast.
i na večeři, protoţe by nám bylo špatně a rychle by se snědly.
When I was zero and one, Ma u used to chop Kdyţ mi bylo nula a jeden, tak mi Máma and chew up my food for me, but then I got
krájela a ţvýkala jídlo, ale teď kdyţ uţ mám
all my twenty teeth and I can gnash up
všech dvacet zubů, umím všechno pokousat.
anything. This lunch is tuna on crackers, my
Dnes máme k obědu krekry s tuňákem a já
job is to roll back the lid of the can because
mám za úkol oddělat víčko na plechovce,
Ma‘s wrist can‘t manage it.
protoţe Máma má slabé zápěstí a nejde jí to.
I‘m a bit jiggly so Ma says let‘s play Začínám se vrtět a tak Máma řekne, ať si Orchestra, where we run around seeing what
jdeme zahrát Orchestra. To chodíme po
noises we can bang out of things.
pokoji, ťukáme na věci a zkoušíme, jaký
I drum on Table and Ma goes knock knock on
zvuk dokáţeme vyrobit. Já bubnuju do Stola
the legs of bed, then floomf floomf on the
a Máma dělá ťuky, ťuk na Postelovi nohy a
pillows, I use a fork and spoon on Door ding
pak žuch do polštářů. Vezmu lţičku a
ding and our toes go bam on Stove, but my
zkusím cingylink na Dveře a s Mámou buch
favorite is stomping on the pedal of Trash
nohama o Sporák. Ale úplně nejvíc rád dupu
because that pops his lid open with a bing.
Košovi na pedál, protoţe víko vyskočí a udělá břink.
My best instrument is Twang that‘s cereal Můj nejlepší nástroj je Struna, to je krabice box I collaged with all the different colored
od obilných lupínků, kterou jsem polepil
legs and shoes and coats and heads from the
různobarevnýma
nohama
a
botama
a
30
old catalog, then I stretched three rubber
kabátama a hlavama ze starého kataloga a
bands across his middle. Old Nick doesn‘t
přes prostředek jí natáhl tři gumičky.
bring catalogs anymore for us to pick our
Oblečení si uţ sami nevybíráme, protoţe
own clothes, Ma says he‘s getting meaner.
Rohatý přestal nosit katalogy, Máma říká, ţe je čím dál víc lakomý.
I climb on Rocker to get the books from Vylezu na Křesla a vezmu kníţky z Police a Shelf and I make a ten-story skyscraper on
postavím na Kobercovi desetipatrového
Rug. ―Ten stories,‖ says Ma and laughs, that
mrakodrapa. „Desetipříběhová věţ―, řekne
wasn‘t very funny.
Máma a zasměje se. Mně to moc legrační nepřipadlo.
We used to have nine books but only four Dřív jsme měli devět knih, ale jenom čtyři with pictures inside-
měly uvnitř obrázky.
My Big Book of Nursery Rhymes
Moje velká kniha říkadel
Dylan the Digger
Kopáč Dylan
The Runaway Bunny
Zajíček na útěku
Pop-Up Airport
Skládací letiště
Also five with picture only on the front –
A pět dalších s obrázkem jenom vepředu –
The Shack
Chatrč
Twilight
Stmívání
The Guardian
Strážce
Bittersweet Love
Hořkosladká láska
The da Vinci Code
Šifra mistra Leonarda
Ma hardly ever reads the no-picture ones Ty bez obrázků čte Máma jen kdyţ je nejhůř. except if she‘s desperate. When I was four
Kdyţ mi byly čtyři, chtěli jsme jako nedělní
we asked for one more with pictures for
odměnu ještě jednu obrázkovou a dostali
Sundaytreat and Alice in Wonderland came,
Alenku v říši divů. Líbí se mi, ale má hrozně
I like her but she‘s got too many words and
moc slov a spousta z nich je stará.
31
lots of them are old. Today I choose Dylan the Digger, he‘s hear Dneska si vyberu Kopáče Dylana, je úplně the bottom so he does a demolition on the
naspodu, takţe báááác a zboří celého
skyscraper crashhhhhh.
mrakodrapa.
―Dylan again.‖ Ma makes a face, then she „Zase Dylana.― Máma protáhne obličej a pak puts on her biggest voice:
spustí tím nejsilnějším hlasem.
―Heeeeeeeeee‘s Dylan, the sturdy digger!
„Taaaaaaaaak jako Dylan, statný kopáč,
The loads he shovels get bigger and bigger.
neumí hloubit ţádný krumpáč.
Watch his long arm delve into the earth,
Kdyţ on do hlíny ruce ponoří,
No excavator so loves to munch dirt.
s přehledem kaţdé rypadlo pokoří.
This mega-hoe rolls and pivots round the Ať v noci či ve dne, site,
před ním i za ním jen hromady země.―
Scooping and grading by day and night.‖ There‘s a cat in the second picture, in the Na druhém obrázku je kočka, na třetím jak third it‘s on the pile of rocks. Rocks are sedí na hromadě kamení, co jsou těţké jako stones, that means heavy like ceramic that keramika, co z ní je Vana a Umyvadlo a Bath and Sink and Toilet are of, but not so záchod, ale nejsou tak hladné. Kočky a smooth. Cats and rocks are only TV. In the kameny jsou jen v Televizi. Na pátém fifth picture the cat falls down, but cats have obrázku kočka spadla na zem, ale kočky mají nine lives, not like me and Ma with just one devět ţivotů, ne jako my s Mámou jen jeden. each. Ma nearly always chooses The Runaway Máma skoro vţdycky vybere Zajíčka na Bunny because of how the mother bunny útěku, protoţe zaječí máma nakonec chytí catches the baby bunny in the end and says, malého zajíčka a řekne: „Dej si mrkvičku.― ―Have a carrot.‖ Bunnies are TV but carrots Zajíčci jsou v Televizi, ale mrkvičky jsou are real, I like their loudness. My favorite doopravdické. Líbí se mi, ţe dělají zvuky. picture is the baby bunny turned into a rock Můj nejmilejší obrázek je jak malý zajíček on the mountain and the mother bunny has to zkamení na vrcholku kopce a zaječí maminka climb up up up to find him.
musí vylézt aţ úúúplně nahoru, aby ho našla.
32
Mountains are too big to be real, I saw one in Hory nemůţou být opravdické, protoţe jsou TV that has a woman hanging on it by ropes. moc velké. Jednu jsem viděl v Televizi, Women aren‘t real like Ma is, and girls and visela na ní ţena na provazech. Ţeny nejsou boys not either. Men aren‘t real except Old doopravdy jako Máma, a holky a kluci taky Nick, and I‘m not actually sure if he‘s real ne. Ani muţi doopravdicky nejsou, kromě for real. Maybe half? He brings groceries and Rohatého, ale vlastně ani nevím, jestli je Sundaytreat and disappears the trash, but doopravdy opravdický. Moţná napůl? Nosí he‘s not human like us. He only happens in jídlo
a
nedělní
překvapení
a
zmizuje
the night, like bats. Maybe Door makes him odpadky, ale není člověk jako my. Stane se up with a beep beep and the air changes. I vţdycky jenom v noci, jako netopýři. Moţná think Ma doesn‘t like to talk about him in je to těmi dveřmi, kdyţ udělají píp píp, tak se case he gets realer.
objeví a změní vzduch. Myslím, ţe Máma o něm nechce mluvit, aby nebyl víc doopravdy.
I wriggle around on her lap now to look at Zavrtím se Mámě na klíně, abych se podíval my favorite painting of Baby Jesus playing na svůj nejmilejší obrázek Jeţíška, jak si with John the Baptist that‘s his friend and big hraje s Janem Křtitelem, co je jeho kamarád cousin at the same time. Mary‘s there too, a taky starší bratranec. Marie je tam taky, she‘s cuddled in her Ma‘s lap that‘s Baby sedí u maminky na klíně, to je Jeţíškova Jesus‘s Grandma, like Dora‘s abuela. It‘s babička, jako abuela je Dořina babička. Je to weird picture with no colors and some of the takový divný obrázek, není barevný a někde hands and feet aren‘t there, Ma says it‘s not chybí ruce a nohy. Máma říká, ţe není finished. What started Baby Jesus growing in hotový. To, ţe Marii v bříšku začal růst Mary‘s tummy was an angel zoomed down, Jeţíšek, udělal anděl, co se snesl z nebe na like a ghost but a really cool one with Zem jako duch, ale takový suprovní, s peřím. feathers. Mary was all surprised, she said, Marie byla celá překvapená, řekla „Jak se to ―How can this be?‖ and then, ―OK let it be.‖ jen mohlo stát?― a pak řekla „No tak jo.― A When Baby Jesus popped out of her vagina kdyţ jí Jeţíšek vyklouzl z vaginy, dala ho do on Christmas she put him in a manger but not jesliček, ale ne aby ho krávy ţvýkaly, jen aby for the cows to chew, only warm him up with na něj funěly a hřály ho, protoţe byl their blowing because he was magic.
kouzelný.
33
Ma switches Lamp off now and we lie down, Máma zhasne Lampu a lehneme si. Nejdřív first we say the shepherd prayer about green řeknem modlitbu o pastýři a zelených pastures, I think they‘re like Duvet but fluffy pastvinách, myslím, ţe jsou jako peřina, ale and green instead of white and flat. (The cup chlupaté a zelené, ne tak bíle a placaté. (Ten overflowing must make an awful mess.) I kalich naplněný po okraj musí strašně have some now, the right because the left nacákat.) Teď si dám, z pravého, protoţe hasn‘t much in it. When I was three I still levé uţ je skoro prázdné. Kdyţ mi byly tři, had lots anytime, but since I was four I‘m so mohl jsem si dát, kdy jsem chtěl, ale co mám busy doing stuff I only have some a few čtyři, mám tolik práce, ţe si vzpomenu times in the day and the night. I wish I could párkrát za den a párkrát v noci. Škoda, ţe si talk and have some at the same time but I nemůţu dát a přitom mluvit, ale mám jen only have one mouth.
jednu pusu.
I nearly switch off but not actually. I think Skoro usnu, ale ne úplně. Myslím, ţe Máma Ma does because of her breath.
uţ spí, protoţe tak oddechuje.
***
***
After nap ma says she‘s figured out that we Po spaní Máma vymyslela, ţe si o metr don‘t need to ask for a measuring tape, we nebudeme říkat, a vyrobíme si ho sami. can make a ruler ourselves. We recycle the Uděláme ho z krabice obilných lupínků, co je cereal box from Ancient Egyptian Pyramid, teď Starobylá Egyptská Pyramida. Máma Ma shows me to cut a strip that‘s as big as řekne, abych ustřihl prouţek dlouhý jako její her foot, that‘s why it‘s called a foot, then noha, to je proč se tomu říká stopa, a udělá she puts twelve little lines. I measure her na ní dvanáct čárek. Změřím jí nos, má ho nose that‘s two inches long. My nose is one dva palce dlouhý. Můj nos má jeden palec a inch and a quarter, I write it down. Ma makes čtvrt, zapíšu si to. Máma vezme Metřík a Ruler flip slo-mo somersaults up Door Wall pomalu s ním kotrmelcuje po Dveřové stěně, where my talls are, she says I‘m three feet aţ tam, kde jsou moje výšáky. Říká, ţe three inches.
měřím tři stopy a tři palce.
―Hey,‖ I say, ―let‘s measure Room.‖
„Víš co,― řeknu, „pojďme změřit Pokoj.―
―What, all of it?‖
„Coţe, úplně celý?―
―Do we have something else to do?‖
„Musíme dělat něco jiného?―
She looks at me strange. ―I guess not.‖
Divně se na mě podívá. „Ani ne.―
34
I write down all the numbers, like the tall of Zapíšu si všechna čísla jako třeba, ţe Door Wall to the line where Roof starts vysokost Dveřové stěny aţ po čáru, kde equals six feet seven inches. ―Guess what, ‖I začíná střecha, je šest stop sedm palců. tell Ma, ―every cork tile is nearly a bit bigger „Podívej,― řeknu Mámě, kaţdý korkový than Ruler.‖
čtverec je trošku větší neţ Metřík.―
―Doh,‖ she says, slapping her head, ―I guess „Jejda―, řekne, a plácne si na čelo, „ty they‘re a foot square, I must have made the čtverce mají určitě jednu stopu. Asi jsem ruler a little too short. Let‘s just count the Metřík udělala o něco kratší. Pojďme radši tiles, then, that‘s easier.‖
spočítat čtverce, to bude jednodušší.
I start counting the tall of Bed Wall, but Ma Začnu spočítávat vysokost Postelové stěny, says all the walls are the same. Another rule ale Máma řekne, ţe všecky stěny jsou stejné. is, the wide of the walls is the same as the Další pravidlo je, ţe širokost stěn je jako wide of Floor, I count eleven feet going both širokost Podlahy. Na obě strany napočítám ways, that means Floor is a square. Table is a jedenáct, to znamená, ţe Podlaha je čtverec. circle so I‘m confused, but Ma measures her Stůl je kruh a to mě plete, protoţe Máma ho across the middle where she‘s the very měří uprostřed, kde je úplně nejvíc široký a widest, that‘s three feet nine inches. My chair to je tři stopy devět palců. Moje Ţidle je is three feet two inches tall and Ma‘s is the vysoká tři stopy a Mámina úplně stejně a to exact same, that‘s one less than me. Then je o stoupu míň neţ já. Mámu to pak přestane Ma‘s a bit sick of measuring so we stop.
bavit, tak toho necháme.
I color behind the numbers all different with Vezmu všech pět pastelek, co máme a our five crayons that are blue, orange, green, vybarvím
čísla
kolem
dokola
modrou,
red, brown, when I‘m all done the page looks oranţovou, zelenou, červenou, hnědou. Kdyţ like Rug but crazier, Ma says why don‘t I use to it as my place mat for dinner.
mám
hotové,
stránka
vypadá
jako
Koberec, ale ještě mnohem strakatější. Máma řekne, ţe to teď můţe být moje prostírání.
I choose spaghetti tonight, there‘s a fresh Na večeři si vyberu špagety, a taky máme broccoli as well that I don‘t choose, it‘s just čerstvou brokolici, kterou jsem si nevybral, good for us. I chop the broccoli into pieces ta je jenom zdravá. Zubatým noţem krájím
35
with Zigzag Knife, sometimes I swallow brokolici na kousky, občas nějaký slupnu, some when Ma‘s not looking and she says, kdyţ se Máma nedívá a ona řekne:―No tohle, ―Oh, no, where‘s that big bit gone?‖ but she kam se nám ten kousek zatoulal?―, ale isn‘t really mad because raw things make us doopravdy se nezlobí, protoţe ze syrových extra alive.
věcí jsme víc ţivý.
Ma does the hotting up on the two rings of Máma nastartuje dvě kola na Sporákovi, aţ Stove that go red, I‘m not allowed touch the se mu začnou červenat, zakázala mi ho chytat knobs because it‘s Ma‘s job to make sure za knoflíky, protoţe má za úkol, nedovolit, there‘s never a fire like in TV. If the rings aby u nás byl oheň jako v Televizi. Kdyby se ever go against something like a dish towel třeba utěrka nebo naše oblečení dotkly těch or our clothes even, flames would run all kol, všude kolem by tryskaly oranţové ohně over with orange tongues and burn Room to a spálily by Pokoj na popel a my bysme ashes with us coughing and choking and kašlali a dusili se a křičeli, jak úplně hrozně screaming with the worst pain ever.
by to bolelo.
I don‘t like the smell of broccoli cooking, but Nemám rád brokolici, jak smrdí, kdyţ se it‘s not as bad as green beans. Vegetables are vaří, ale mnohem horší jsou zelené lusky. all real but ice cream is TV, I wish it was real Zelenina je opravdická, ale zmrzlina je jen too.
v Televizi, já bych chtěl, aby taky byla doopravdy.
―Is Plant a raw thing?‖
„Je Květina syrová?―.
―Well, yeah, but not the kind to eat.‖
„No, je, ale nedá se jíst.―
―Why she doesn‘t have flowers anymore?‖
„Proč uţ nekvete?―
Ma shrugs and stirs the spaghetti. ―She got Máma pokrčí rameny a zamíchá špagety. „Je tired.‖
unavená.―
―She should go to sleep.‖
„Měla by se vyspat.―
―She‘s still tired when she wakes up. Maybe „Bude unavená, i kdyţ se vyspí. Hlína, co ji the soil in her pot doesn‘t have enough food má v květináči, asi nemá dost potravy. left in. *** Chapter 2: Unlying
*** Kapitola : Odklamání
36
In the morning we‘re eating oatmeal and I Ráno snídáme ovesnou kaši a uvidím fleky. see marks. ―You‘re dirty on your neck.‖
„Máš něco na krku.―
Ma just drinks some water, the skin moves Máma se jen napije vody, kdyţ polkne, hýbe when she swallows.
se jí kůţe.
Actually that‘s not dirt, I don‘t think.
Myslím, ţe to není špína.
I have a bit of oatmeal but it‘s too hot, I spit Dám si trochu kaše, ale je moc horká, tak ji it back in Meltedy Spoon. I think Old Nick vyplivnu
zpátky
na
Rozplizlou
lţičku.
put those marks on her neck. I try saying but Myslím, ţe to na krku jí udělal Rohatý. nothing comes out. I try again.
Zkusím něco říct, ale nejde to. Zkusím to znovu.
―Sorry I made Jeep fall down in the night.‖
„Promiň, ţe jsem včera v noci shodil dţípa.―
I get off my chair, Ma lets me onto her lap. Slezu z ţidle, Máma mě pustí k sobě na klín. ―What were you trying to do?‖ she asks, her „Co jsi chtěl udělat?― zeptá se a ještě pořád voice is still hoarse.
chraptí.
―Show him.‖
„.Ukázat ho―
―What‘s that?‖
„Jak ukázat?―
―I was, I was, I was – ―
„Já jsem, já jsem, já jsem – ―
It‘s OK, Jack. Slow down.‖
„To je dobrý, Jacku, pomalu.―
―But Remote got snapped and you‘re all mad „Ale prasknul mi Ovladač a ty se na mě at me.‖
zlobíš.―
―Listen,‖ says Ma, ―I couldn‘t care less about „Poslouchej,― řekne Máma, tvůj dţíp je mi the jeep.‖
úplně ukradený.―
I blink at her. ―He was my present.‖
Mrknu na ni. „Byl to můj dárek.―
―What I‘m mad about‖ – her voice is getting „Zlobím se proto― – její hlas je větší a ještě bigger and scratchier – ―is that you woke him víc chraptí – „ţe jsi ho vzbudil.― up.‖ ―Jeep?‖
„Dţípa?―
―Old Nick.‖
„Rohatého.―
It makes me jump that she says him out loud.
Trhnu sebou, kdyţ řekne nahlas jeho jméno.
―You scared him.‖
„Polekal jsi ho.―
37
―He got scared at me?‖
„Lekl se mě?
―He didn‘t know it was you,‖ says Ma. ―He „On nevěděl, ţe jsi to byl ty.― řekne Máma. thought I was attacking him, dropping Myslel, ţe jsem mu chtěla ublíţit a hodila mu something heavy on his head.‖
něco těţkého na hlavu.―
I hold my mouth and my nose but the giggles Zacpu si pusu i nos, ale smích mi vyprskne. fizz out. ―It‘s not funny, it‘s the opposite of funny.‖
„To není k smíchu, spíš naopak.―
I see her neck again, the marks that he put on Znovu uvidím její krk a fleky, co jí udělal a her, I‘m all done giggling.
uţ se mi nechce smát ani trochu.
The oatmeal‘s still too hot so we go back to Kaše je pořád ještě horká, tak si zalezeme Bed for a cuddle.
zpátky do Postela a tulíme se.
This morning it‘s Dora, yippee. She‘s on a Dnes ráno je Dora, hurááá. Je na člunu, co boat that nearly crashes into a ship, we have málem narazí do loďi. Musíme mávat to wave our arms and shout, ―Watch out,‖ rukama a křičet: „Pozor!―, ale Máma to but Ma doesn‘t. Ships are just TV and so is nedělá. Lodě jsou jen v Televizi a moře taky, the sea except when our poos and letters ale jenom kdyţ tam doplujou naše hovínka a arrive. Or maybe they actually stop being dopisy.
Moţná
ale,
ţe
přestanou
být
real the minute they get there? Alice says if doopravdy hned, jak tam doplujou? Alenka she‘s in the sea she can go home by the říká, ţe kdyţ je v moři, tak nemůţe jet domů railway, that‘s old-fashioned for trains. po ţeleznici, tak se starodávně říká vlaku. Forests are TV and also jungles and deserts Lesy jsou taky v televizi, tak jako dţungle a and streets and skyscrapers and cars. pouště a ulice a mrakodrapy a auta. Zvířata Animals are TV except ants and Spider and jsou taky jen v Televizi, ale ne mravenci, Mouse, but he‘s gone back now. Germs are Pavouk a Myš. Ta se ale do ní teď vrátila. real, and blood. Boys are TV but they kind of Baktérie jsou doopravdy a krev. Kluci jsou look like me, the me in Mirror that isn‘t real jen v televizi, vypadají ale skoro jako já, ten either, just a picture. Sometimes I like to já v Zrcadlovi taky neexistuje doopravdy, je undo my ponytail and put all my hair over jen na obrázku. Někdy si rozpustím vlasy, and worm my tongue through, then stick my přehodím je přes obličej a vystrčím jazyk, face out to say boo.
pak vykouknu a udělám baf.
It‘s Wednesday so we wash hair, we make Je středa, tak si myjeme vlasy. Z Prostředka
38
turbans of bubbles out of Dish Soap. I look na nádobí si děláme bubliny a dáváme je na all around Ma‘s neck but not at it.
hlavu jako turbany. Dívám se všude kolem, jen ne na Mámin krk.
She does me a mustache, it‘s too tickly so I Udělá mí knírek, hrozně lechtá, tak si ho rub it off. ―What about a beard, then?‖ she utřu. „A co třeba bradka?― zeptá se. A dá mi says. She puts all bubbles on my chin for a všechny bubliny na bradu, jakoţe mám beard.
bradku.
―Ho ho ho. Is Santa a giant?‖
„Ho ho hó. Je Mikuláš obr?
―Ah, I guess he‘s pretty big,‖says Ma.
„No, myslím, ţe je dost velký, řekne Máma.―
I think he must be real because he brung us Myslím, ţe je doopravdy, protoţe nám the million chocolates in the box with the přinosil těch milion čokoládek v krabici purple ribbon.
s červenou mašlí.
―I‘m going to be Jack the Giant Giant Killer. „Já budu Jack, Obří zabiják obrů. I‘ll be a good giant, I‘ll find all the evil ones Budu hodný obr, najdu všecky zlé a usekám and knock their heads off smush splat.‖
jim hlavy, šmik fik.
We make drums different from filling up the Děláme bubny, kaţdý jiný, podle toho, jestli glass jars more or waterfalling some out. I do sklenic vodu přilijem nebo z nich trochu make
one
into
a
jumbomegatron odlijem. Z jedné udělám jumbo-megatron-
transformermarine with an antigravity blaster transformérponorku that‘s actually Wooden Spoon.
s antigravitační
střílečkou, co je ale ve skutečnosti Dřevěná
I twist around to look at the Impression: lţička. Otočím se, abych uviděl Imprese: Sunrise.
Východ slunce.
There‘s a black boat with two tiny persons Je tam černá loďka a v ní dva pidi-člověci, and God‘s yellow face above and blurry nad nimi Ţlutá boţí tvář a rozmazané orange light on the water and blue stuff that‘s oranţové světlo na vodě a taky něco other boats I think, it‘s hard to know because modrého, co mají být jiné loďky, nevím to, it‘s art.
jen si to myslím, nedá se to poznat, protoţe je to umění.
39
For Phys Ed Ma chooses Islands, that‘s I Na Tělocvik Máma vybere Ostrovy. To je, ţe stand on bed and Ma puts the pillows and já stojím na Postelovi a Máma dá polštáře a Rocker and chairs and Rug all folded up and Křesla a ţidle a smotaného Koberca na Table and Trash in surprising places. I have neobvyklá místa. Musím navštívit
kaţdý
to visit every island not twice. Rocker‘s the ostrov, ale ne dvakrát. Nejhorší je Křeslo, trickiest, she‘s always trying to catapult me pořád mě shazuje. Máma je Lochneská down. Ma swims around being the Loch příšera, co mi chce ukousnout nohu. Ness Monster trying to eat my feet. My go, I choose Pillowfight, but Ma says Teď je řada na mě a vyberu si Polštářovou actually the foam‘s starting to come out of bitku, ale Máma řekne, ţe se můj Polštář my pillow so better do Karate instead. We začíná rozpadat, ať radši udělám Karate. Jako always bow to respect our opponent. We go výraz úcty se soupeři pokaţdé ukloníme. A Huh and Hi-yah really fierce. One time I pak bojujeme ha, he-ja, dost drsňácky. chop too hard and hurt Ma‘s bad wrist but by Jednou jsem seknul moc a poranil Mámě to accident.
špatné zápěstí, ale ne schválně.
She‘s tired so she chooses Eye Stretch Máma je unavená a tak vybere Oční strečink. because that‘s lying down side by side on To leţíme vedle sebe na Kobercovi s rukama Rug with arms by sides so we both fit. We u sebe, abychom se vešli. Díváme se na věci look at far things like Skylight then near like do daleka, jako třeba na Světlík, a pak zase noses, we have to see between them quick do blízka, třeba na nosy a musíme očima quick.
skákat z jednoho na druhý šupito presto.
While Ma‘s hotting up lunch I zoom poor Zatímco Máma ohřívá oběd, vozím Dţípa po Jeep everywhere because he can‘t go on his pokoji, protoţe sám uţ to nezvládne. Ovladač own anymore. Remote pauses things, he věci zastavuje, třeba Mámu zmrazí jako freezes Ma like a robot. ―Now on,‖ I say.
robota. „Á jedem,― řeknu. Máma zase
She stirs the pot again, she says, ―Grub‘s zamíchá polévku a zavolá, „Můţem baštit.― up.‖Vegetable
soup,
bluhhhhh.
bubbles to make it funner.
I
blow Zeleninová polévka, blééééééé. Fouknu do ní, aţ zabublá, aby to bylo víc srandovní.
I‘m not tired for nap yet so I get some books Ještě nejsem unavený na spaní, tak si podám
40
down. Ma does the voice, ―Heeeeeeeeere‘s pár kníţek. Máma spustí, „Taaaaaaaaak jako Dylan!‖ Then she stops. ―I can‘t stand Dylan!―
A
pak
přestane.
„Nenávidím
Dylan.‖
Dylana.―
I stare at her. ―He‘s my friend.‖
Zírám na ni. „Je to můj kamarád.―
―Oh, Jack – I just can‘t stand the book, OK, I „Víš, Jacku – já nenávidím jen tu knihu, don‘t – it‘s not that I can‘t stand Dylan rozumíš? Není to…. neznamená to, ţe mi himself.‖
vadí přímo Dylan.―
―Why you can‘t stand Dylan the book?‖
„A proč nenávidíš Dylana knihu?―
―I‘ve read it too many times.‖
„Četla jsem ji příliš často.―
But when I want something I want it always, Já ale, kdyţ něco chci, tak to chci pořád, jako like chocolates, I never ate a chocolate to čokoládu, nikdy jí nebudu mít dost. many times. ―You could read it yourself,‖ she says.
„Mohl by sis ji číst sám,― řekne.
That‘s silly, I could read all them myself, To je hloupé, všechny bych si mohl přečíst even Alice with her old-fashioned words. ―I sám, i Alenku a její starodávná slova. „Mám prefer when you read them.‖
ale radši, kdyţ mi je čteš ty.―
Her eyes are all hard and shiny. Then she Úplně jí ztuhnou oči a lesknou se. Pak zase opens the book again. ―Heeeeeeeeere‘s knihu otevře. „Taaaaaaaaak jako Dylan!― Dylan!‖ Because she‘s cranky I let her do The Protoţe je nevrlá, nechám ji číst Zajíčka na Runaway Bunny, then some Alice. My best of útěku, pak trochu Alenky. Nejmilejší moje the song is ―Soup of the Evening,‖ I bet it‘s písnička je „Večerní polévka,― vsadím se, ţe not vegetable. Alice keeps being in a hall není zeleninová. Alenka bývá vţdycky v sále with lots of doors, one is teeny tiny, when se
spoustou
dveří,
jedny
jsou
úplně
she gets it open with the golden key there‘s a malinkaté, a kdyţ je otevře zlatým klíčem, je garden with bright flowers and cool fountains tam zahrada a v ní spousta barevných kytek a but she‘s always the wrong size. Then when chladivé fontány, ona ale pořád není správně she finally gets into the garden, it turns out velká. Kdyţ se pak konečně do té zahrady the roses are just painted not real and she has dostane, zjistí, ţe kytky nejsou doopravdy, to
play
hedgehogs.
croquet
with
flamingos
and ale jen namalované, a musí hrát kroket s plameňáky a jeţky.
41
We lie down on top of Duvet. I have lots. I Leţíme na Peřině a pořádně si dám. Myslím, think Mouse just might come back if we‘re ţe kdyţ budeme úplně potichu, Myš by se really quiet but he doesn‘t, Ma must have mohl vrátit, ale nepřijde. Máma určitě ucpala stuffed up every single hole. She‘s not mean, všechny díry. Není zlá, ale někdy dělá zlé but sometimes she does mean things.
věci.
When we get up we do Scream, I crash the Kdyţ vstaneme, hrajeme Kravál. Vezmu pan lids like cymbals. Scream goes on for poklice a třískám s nimi jako s činely. Kravál ages because every time I‘m starting to stop trvá strašně dlouho, protoţe vţdycky, kdyţ Ma screeches some more, her voice is nearly začnu končit, Máma ještě trochu ječí, aţ jí disappearing. The marks on her neck are like zmizuje hlas. Ty fleky na Mámině krku when I‘m painting with beet juice. I think the vypadají, jako kdyţ namaluju obrázek šťávou marks are Old Nick‘s fingerprints.
s řepy, myslím, ţe jsou od jeho prstů.
After, I play Telephone with toilet rolls, I Potom si hraju na Telefona s rolkama od like how the words boom when I talk through toaleťáku. Líbí se mi, jak slova duní, kdyţ je a fat one. Usually Ma does all the voices but říkám do té tlusté. Máma většinou dělá this afternoon she needs to lie down and všecky ty hlasy, ale dneska odpoledne si read. It‘s The Da Vinci Code with the eyes of potřebuje lehnout a číst. Je to Šifra mistra a woman peeking out, she looks like Baby Leonarda, co z ní hledí oči nějaké paní, co Jesus‘s Ma.
vypadá jako Jeţíškova Máma.
I call Boots and Patrick and Baby Jesus, I tell Zavolám Botíka a Patrika a Jeţíška a řeknu them all about my new powers now I‘m five. jim, co všecko jsem se naučil, kdyţ je mi teď ―I can be invisible,‖ I whisper at my phone, pět. „Umím být neviditelný,― pošeptám do ―I can turn my tongue inside out and go telefona. „Umím převracet jazyk a vystřelit blasting like a rocket into Outer Space.‖
jako raketa do Vesmíru.―
Ma‘s eyelids are shut, how can she be Máma má zavřené oči, jak přes ně můţe číst? reading through them?
Hraju Tlačítka, to stojím na ţidli u Dveří a
I play Keypad, that‘s I stand on my chair by Máma mi většinou říká čísla, dnes si je ale Door and usually Ma says the numbers but musím
vymýšlet
sám.
Honem,
honem
42
today I have to make them up. I press them mačkám tlačítka s čísly, ţádné chyby. Kdyţ on Keypad quick no mistakes. The numbers je mačkám, tak to nepípne a Dveře se don‘t make Door beep open but I like the neotevřou, ale líbí se mi, jak to cvakne, kdyţ little clicks when I push them.
je zmáčknu.
Dress-up is a quiet game. I put on the royal Převleky
jsou
tichá
hra.
Nasadím
si
crown that‘s some bits gold foil and some královskou korunu, to je kousek zlaté a bits silver foil and milk carton underneath. I kousek stříbrné fólie na krabici od mlíka. invent Ma a bracelet out of two socks of her Vymyslím pro Mámu náramek. Sváţu dvě tied together, one white one green.
její ponoţky dohromady, jednu bílou a jednu zelenou.
I get down Games Box from Shelf. I measure Z Police si podám Krabici her. Metříkem ji with Ruler, each domino is nearly one inch změřím, kaţdé domino měří skoro jeden and the checkers are a half. I make my palec a figurky půlku. Udělám si z prstů fingers into Saint Peter and Saint Paul, they svatého Petra a svatého Pavla, neţ jsou na bow to each other before and do flying after tahu, pokaţdé se ukloní a pak letí. each turn. Ma‘s eyes are open again. I bring her the Máma otevřela oči. Přinesu jí ponoţkový sock bracelet, she says it‘s beautiful, she puts náramek, řekne, ţe je krásný a hned si ho it on right away.
navlékne.
―Can we play Beggar My Neighbor?‖
„Můţeme si zahrát Válku?―
―Give me a second,‖ she says. She goes to „Počkej chvilku, řekne.― Jde k Umyvadlovi a Sink and washes her face, I don‘t know why opláchne si obličej. Nevím proč, nebyl because it wasn‘t dirty but maybe there were špinavý, ale moţná na něm měla baktérie. germs. I beggar her twice and she beggars me once, Oberu ji dvakrát a jednou ona mě. Hrozně I hate losing. Then Gin Rummy and Go Fish, nerad prohrávám. Potom hrajeme Ţolíky a I win mostly. Then we just play with the Prší, skoro vţdycky vyhraju. Pak si s kartami cards, dancing and fighting and stuff. Jack of jen tak hrajeme, tancujeme a lítáme a tak. Diamonds is my favorite and his friends the Nejvíc mám rád kárového kluka, co mu taky
43
other Jacks.
říkáme Jack, a pak taky všecky jeho kámoše Jacky.
―Look.‖ I point to Watch. ―05:01, we can „Podívej.―
Ukáţu
na
Hodiny.
„05:01,
have dinner.‖
můţeme večeřet.―
It‘s a hot dog each, yum.
Kaţdý máme jeden párek v rohlíku, mňam.
For TV I go in Rocker but Ma sits on Bed K televizi si vlezu do Křesla, Máma ale sedí with Kit, she‘s putting the hem back up on na Postelovi a spravuje si lem na šatech, co her brown dress with pink bits. We watch the jsou hnědé s takovým růţovým. Díváme se medical planet where doctors and nurses cut na lékařskou planetu, kde doktoři a sestry holes in persons to pull the germs out. The dělají do lidí díry a vytahují bacily. Ty lidi persons are asleep not dead. The doctors nejsou
mrtví,
jen
usnutí.
Doktoři
niť
don‘t bite the thread like Ma, they use super nepřekusujou jako Máma, pouţívají hrozně sharp daggers and after, they sew the persons ostré dýky a pak ty lidi sešijou jako up like Frankenstein.
Frankenstein.
When the commercials come on Ma asks me Kdyţ začne reklama, Máma chce, abych to go over and press mute. There‘s a man in a vypnul zvuk. Je tam pán se ţlutou helmou, yellow helmet drilling a hole in a street, he jak vrtá díru do silnice, dá si ruku na čelo a holds his forehead and makes a face. ―Is he zašklebí se. „Má bolení? Zeptám se. hurting?‖ I ask.
44
3. THEORETICAL PART The theoretical part first provides a definition of translation and narrows it down for the purpose of this thesis. Further, it particularly focuses on the issue of style and discusses the ways of its effective analysis, interpretation and reproduction. The issue of style and its significance for successful translation are discussed against the background of text and discourse analysis, with particular regard to the pragmatic aspect of translation. Finally, some general classification of the significant features of style will be outlined and consequently applied to the analysis of the corpus. 3.1
Translation art or craft? Yevgeny Yevtushenko compares translation to a woman. ―Translation is like a woman. If it is beautiful, it is not faithful. If it is faithful, it is most certainly not beautiful.‖ (qtd. in Nordquist, ―Translation‖) This metaphor raises the question whether translation is art or craft. This issue is highly disputable and some theorists argue that it should be viewed as a mixture of both.
3.2
Translation as a term Less poetically, however more precisely, translation by definition refers to the ―general
subject field, to a product or the process of translation between two different written languages involving the translator changing an original text in the source language into the text in the target language‖. (Munday 4) Newmark, as opposed to that, speaks not about text, but more about meanings, defining the act of translation as ―transferring the meaning of a stretch or a unit of language, the whole or a part of a text, from one language to another‖. (27) By this definition, however, he does not refer to all of the meanings found in the text, but only to the functionally relevant meaning. (Newmark 27) Being considered against the classification of the Russian linguist Roman Jacobson, the definitions above would fit into the second of his three categories – the ―interlingual‖ translation, referring to the proper translation, when the linguistic signs from one language are interpreted into another language. Another two categories are ―intraligual‖ translation, which operates within one and the same language, and ―intersemiotic‖ translation, by way of which
45
linguistic signs are interpreted by non-linguistic signs. (Munday 5) For the purpose of this thesis, however, only the first category is applicable and should be dealt with in further detail. 3.3
Reading, understanding and interpreting language beyond the linguistic signs Only a good reader can also be a good translator. Levý points out that translator has to
be able to understand the aesthetic value and mood of the source text, which usual reader does not have to be aware of. (53) He must be able to recognize and identify the specific linguistic features, accountable for the unique quality of the text. Only a careful and skilful reader will understand the portrayed reality, such as the relationships between the characters, the atmosphere of the setting and the intended effect on the reader and interpret them adequately. (Levý 53-54) The work of translation, however, is not done only by careful reading. Equally important in the process of translation is the correct interpretation of the source text. There are many things that can go wrong at this stage. Hrdlička points out that a misinterpretation of the text may cause translator to focus on a different target reader than intended by the author of the source text. (27) Whatever definition of interpretation may be taken into consideration, interpretation should always be an active and motivated approach to the text, aiming at the highest possible objectivity. (Hrdlička 29) The objective reality of the original text with all its specific features needs to be ‗transplanted‘ into a different language system. Whereas reading and interpreting do not necessarily require much creativity on the part of the translator, reproduction is an art. What translator needs most according to Levý, is to be a stylistically gifted writer. (67) 3.4
Style Before dealing with the issue of style and its reproduction, the meaning of style in
language should be clarified. For Leech and Short style ―consists in choices that are made from the repertoire of the language‖. (38) Verdonk, on the other hand, defines style as ―distinctive linguistic expression‖. (4) Thus, stylistics as a discipline is termed as‖ the analysis of distinctive expression in language and the description of its purpose and effect‖. (Verdonk 4) Following the definition, the analysis does not study every single word or phrase within the text. It rather focuses on patterns and structures that stand out. Such outstanding elements create a
46
psychological effect on the reader and are technically referred to as foregrounding. (Verdonk 6) Mišíková considers essential for the translation to pay attention to the characteristic features of the text at all levels, such as sentence patterns, lexical choices, means of visual and linguistic foregrounding, paragraphing and segmentation of the text, overall inlay of the page, the use of extra-linguistic means, etc. (38) As we operate between two language backgrounds, we need to be able to analyze writer‘s intention correctly. 3.5
Text versus discourse Mišíková considers style as central to the way of reading, analyzing and interpreting
texts. (38) The ways of understanding style determine the process of translation in many aspects. The author analyzes and interprets the style, transfers it into the target language and by doing so, he or she shapes the original text into his or her own style that will speak to the target reader. If done correctly, the same effect on the reader will be achieved. In order to identify the style correctly, a proper text and discourse analysis need to be carried out. Leech and Short, however, point out that linguistic analysis does not replace the reader‘s intuition, but ―it may prompt, direct, and shape it into an understanding‖. (5) Generally, text refers to written and discourse to spoken interaction. Notwithstanding numerous definitions of the text, two criteria always have to be fulfilled. A text always has to be ―cohesive and coherent independently of its content and context‖. (Mišíková 11- 13) As Discourse, as opposed to that, can be viewed more as ‗text in context‘. (Van Dijk qtd. in Mišíková 16) 3.6
Problem of measuring style It can be argued whether style is measurable or not. Style can be measured only in terms
of frequencies. To determine the distinctive features of the style in the corpus, the frequencies of these features have to be worked out against equivalent ‗normal‘ features of the given language. It is, however, difficult to determine the norm and for example to work out the average length of an English sentence. Leaving the problem of determining the norm aside, for measuring the style Leech and Short introduce the concepts of deviance and prominence; deviance is the difference between the normal frequency of a feature, and its frequency in the corpus, and prominence the linguistic highlighting. (48) These concepts are interrelated and cannot be separated from the
47
reader, whose role in the whole style-recognition process cannot be underestimated. Two different readers may interpret style in two different ways, based on their sensitivity, previous reading experience or attentiveness. (Leech and Short 48) According to Mukařovský, prominence should be rather viewed as ―the consistency and systematic character of foregrounding, not just the isolated occurrence of this or that prominent feature, which is the distinguishing mark of literary language.‖ (Leech and Short 50) In addition, Halliday further distinguishes prominence from literary ―relevance‖. The artistically motivated deviation, sometimes referred to as foregrounding, may be realized by quantity or by quality. The qualitative deviation is connected with the breach of some rule or convention of English, the quantitative on the other hand, refers to a deviance from the expected frequency. (Leech and Short 48) 3.7
Pragmatic and semantic dimensions of style By reconstructing the context of the intended message, two other disciplines come into
the play, namely pragmatics and semantics. Whereas semantics is the study of formal meanings of the text, pragmatics is concerned with the contextual meaning of the language in discourse. (Mišíková 57) Semantic realtions are very efficient means of lexical cohesion, such as synonymy, antonymy or hyponymy. Pragmatic relations can be established for example by highlighting particular lexical items. (Mišíková 53). Similarly to Mišíková, Verdonk also operates on the level of these two disciplines. He takes apart the text and the discourse in order to analyze their internal formal linguistic properties, such as sounds, vocabulary, grammar, as well as their external contextual factors. (Verdonk 19) These, however, are not being offered for a choice; these two aspects are complementary and should be integrated to the same extent in the source and in the target text. Verdonk lists some of the components to be considered when interpreting style in context. - The text type or genre - Topic, purpose, function - Immediate temporary and physical setting - Text‘s wider social cultural and historical setting - The
identities,
knowledge,
emotions,
abilities,
beliefs,
and
assumptions of the writer and reader - The association with other similar or related text type (19)
48
Pragmatics and its interconnection with linguistics and translation in particular is a very complex issue and therefore deserve to be discussed in further detail in the following section. 3.7.1 Pragmatics as a linguistic discipline Translation along with preceding discourse analysis is not only a part of linguistics; it draws from various other disciplines. The language as such cannot be isolated; it is an integral part of culture and society which need to be analyzed and interpreted ‗in-between the lines‘. The discourse may be analyzed, for example, under the aspects of psychology, semiotics or history. Cruse concludes that meanings are not finitely describable. (qtd. Mišíková 55) In trying to approximate meaning as closely as possible to the intended meaning as is necessary for the speaker‘s purposes he takes rather pragmatic approach. Pragmatics, being originally a discipline of economics, has in context of linguistic studies a slightly different meaning. It is the study of the relationship between linguistic forms and their users. Its best contribution is better understanding of speaker-intended meaning in a particular context. (Mišíková 69-71) Its significance is best visible when compared with linguistic disciplines such as syntax and semantics. Mišíková introduces the pragmatic model of meaning and cites Verdonk and Weber who say that such model investigates ―the meaning of language in relation to a context of use and users‖. ( 57) According to Verdonk and Weber, semantic, as opposed to that, concentrates on the ―meaning of the sentence as an abstract syntactic unit dissociated from a situational context‖, while ―pragmatics centers on the meaning of the utterance‖, which is the concrete realization of a sentence in a context of use. (qtd. in Mišíková 56) It analyses the meanings of communication in a particular situation, whereas the traditional semantic approach focuses merely on systematic relations between words, phrases, clauses and sentences. (Mišíková 56) In order to decode the text correctly, translators need to be more than familiar not only with the language, but also with the socio-cultural background of the source text. Reading it carefully, they are capable of inferring specific signals and can reconstruct the coherence of the text. (Mišíková 54) It is, however, disputable, whether it is possible to transfer all layers of the message to the target language. Sometimes, certain shades of the connotative meaning or language varieties, such as dialects or register may, but should not be disregarded in the target text. (Knittlová et al. 29) Quite often translators tend to modify the text according to their cultural and social experience. Consequently, there is a risk that a very important idea of the text may lose its prominence and will become only marginal. (Knittlová et al. 30)
49
3.8
Literary versus non-literary style Different styles can be attributed to different genres, which function and ‗communicate‘
in very different ways. In linguistics literary use of language is viewed against the background of more ‚ordinary‗ use of language. (Leech and Short 5) For the purpose of translation, it needs to be distinguished between literary and nonliterary style. Newmark points out that in literature, all statements are figurative, the connotations of words are likely to be more significant than their denotations, language idiolect, narrative allegory, and it all needs to be respected. Synonyms are to be considered not only in terms of the meaning, but also in terms of the sound. (28) This distinction is particularly relevant to the language of poetry, which is very specific and requires different reading because of its ambiguous meaning, its unconventional rules of grammar, peculiar structures, foregrounded patterns or indirect references to other texts. (Verdonk 11) It is selfenclosed, as opposed to non-literary discourse, which makes a connection with the context of our everyday social practice. Because of its ‗indefinite‘ and ‗unstable‘ characters and its detachment from the common social practices, new meanings are sure to be found by every reading. (Verdonk 21)
50
4. ANALYSIS The analysis aims to explain the individual choices from the practical part of the thesis. First, it tries to identify the style of the novel. Further, based on the theoretical part, it discusses, explains and justifies individual choices from the corpus. Because of the nonexclusivity of stylistic categories and/or levels offered by the theories I decided not to follow any particular scheme, but to discuss the outstanding stylistic markers according to their relevance in the whole text. 4.1
Characteristic of the style From the stylistic point of view, a translator, first of all, must be able to answer the
following questions: Who is the narrator? Who is the audience? Where and when does the story take place? From whose perspective is the story told? As Verdonk explains, in order to determine the style, it is not enough to understand the words as such, but we also need to understand their situational or pragmatic meaning. As far as the organization of the discourse is concerned, we need to understand the textual cues, technically termed as deictics, that direct the reader‘s attention to the speaker‘s or narrator‘s spatial and temporal situation. These can point to place, time or a person and mark the discourse structure clearly. (Mišíková 34) Original text Today I‘m five.
My translation Dnes je mi pět.
I was four last night going to sleep in Včera večer, kdyţ jsem šel spát do Skříně, Wardrobe, but when I wake up in Bed in the mi byly čtyři, pak ale jsem se vzbudil v dark I‘m changed to five, abrakadabra. Posteli, kdyţ ještě byla tma, a abrakadabra, najednou mám pět. Before that I was three, then two, then one, Předtím mi byly tři, pak dva, jeden a potom then zero. nula. Ma‘s behind me, ...
Máma stojí za mnou.
Taking all of the afore-mentioned questions into consideration, the style of the novel can be summarized as follows: The story is being narrated by the five-year-old Jack as of today, therefore the present tense is used for most of the time. The language and its 51
organization in text can be described as unusual and original and almost ‗deceptively easy‘ in terms of lexical density and sentence structures. Thus, the register of the novel could be summed up as informal, familiar, private and intimate. To determine and interpret the style, it is essential to bear in mind that all the situations are portrayed and experienced by the narrator who is only five years old and whose perspective of life is very narrow because he and his mother are locked up in a small room without having contact to the outside world. He is surrounded only by a couple of objects, which to him take on a personal character and are treated as human beings. Jacks language is easy and clumsy at times, however, there is an evidence of specific vocabulary, indicating his above-average education and, at the same time, his detachment from the outside world, which is giving him a flavor of originality and strangeness at the same time. Below discussed will be those features of language that in the given register appear as striking or unusual. Jacks language features many stylistic deviations, such as intentional grammatical errors, marked collocations and the high level of expressiveness through the frequent use of onomatopoeic expressions, colloquial language and figurative expressions, which should be discussed in more detail in the following sections. 4.2
Foregrounding According to Short, foregrounded features are the parts of the text which the author,
consciously or unconsciously, is signaling as crucial to our understanding of what he has written. (qtd. in Mišíková 58) According to this definition, foregrounded elements break the established and respected rules at any language level and native speakers recognize them easily as odd, stylistically marked and highly expressive. (Mišíková 58) Such outstanding stylistic features are by Mišíková also referred to as discoursal deviation, including among others beginning in the middle, metaphors (semantic deviations), neologism, functional conversion (lexical deviation), re-ordering of noun phrases, re-sequencing of phrases inside the normal
subject-verb-object-adverbial
order
in
poetry
(grammatical
deviation), playing with morphemes (morphological deviation), alliteration, assonance and rhyme (phonological deviation) or oddities in the written presentation of the text such as capital letters, spacing (graphological deviation). (59)
52
Short advises that translators have to be careful and make sure that ―their intuitions in analyzing and identifying deviation are reasonable and not personal‖. (qtd. in Mišíková 58) Leech and Short point out that there is no universal technique to decide what is more and what less significant. To help with the analysis, they offer a checklist of the four already mentioned linguistic and stylistic categories: lexical, grammatical, figures of speech, cohesion and context. (75) It should, however, be pointed out that these categories are not exclusive, but rather interconnected. 4.2.1
Personification of nouns
One of the foregrounded features that significantly mark the style of the novel is the personification of nouns by way of capitalization. Room, Wardrobe, Skylight, Door, Lamp, Bed, Rug, Thermostat, Rocker, Sink, Meltedy Spoon, Mirror, Shelf, Mouse etc. Personification is a figure of speech to give inanimate objects human traits and qualities. Here, however, the objects do not really act as real people. The foregrounding through capitalization is used only to point to the narrator‘s special and intimate relationship with the objects that are linguistically treated as proper names. This feature of style is enforced by referring to these objects as to personal animate nouns by ―he‖ or ―she‖. In Czech we can mark the style in the same way, maintaining the same effect on the reader as in English. Pokoj, Skříň, Světlík, Dveře, Lampa, Poslet, Koberec, Teplomet, Křeslo, Umyvadlo, Rozplizlá lţička, Zrcadlo, Police, Myš. The personification of some nouns can be considered a figure of speech as well as a graphological feature of the style. 4.2.2
Marked personal pronouns
A further significant stylistic feature of the novel is the use of marked personal pronouns ‗he‘, ‗his‘, ‗she‘, ‗her‘ in reference to impersonal, but ‗personalized‘ objects instead of the unmarked forms ‗it‘, ‗its‘ that would normally be expected in the text.
53
Original text
My translation
1
I can skateboard on the Rocker without holding on Na Křeslovi umím to her, ... skejbordovat bez držení, ...
2
Wardrobe is wood, so I have to push the pin an Skříň je dřevo, takţe musím extra lot. I shut her silly doors, ... špendlík hodně zmáčknout. Zavřu jí hloupé dveře...
3
Ma doesn‘t like Meltedy Spoon but he‘s my Mámě se Rozplizlá lžička favorite because he‘s not the same. nelíbí, ale já ji mám nejvíc rád, protoţe není jako ostatní.
4
I stroke Table’s scratches to make them better, Pohladím Stola tam, kde má she‘s a circle all white except gray in the scratches škrábance, aby ho nebolely. Je from chopping foods. kulatý a celý bílý, ale má šedé rýhy, jak se na něm krájelo jídlo.
5
―I couldn‘t care less about the jeep.‖... ―He was my „Poslouchej,― řekne Máma, present.‖ tvůj dţíp je mi úplně ukradený.― ... „Byl to můj dárek.―
6
She always wears Backpack who’s more inside than Vţdycky nosí Ruksak, co je out... uvnitř větší neţ venku...
7
I look down at Rug with her red and brown and Podívám se dolů na Koberec, black all zigging around each other. má na sobě červené a hnědé a černé klikyháky.
Whereas in English the use of personal pronouns ‗his‘ or ‗her‘ relating to an object is stylistically marked and accentuating narrator‘s personal attitude to it, in Czech it is not always possible to reconstruct the intended effect in the same way. The same effect in Czech can be achieved only partially, because the personal pronouns ‗jí‘ and ‗ji‘ as shown in Example 3 and 4 can in Czech refer also to inanimate objects or entities and is thus unmarked. As Knitlová et al. says, different languages have different potential to express reality and use very different linguistic devices. It is not always possible or necessary to transfer the signals on the same element or level of the language. (98) The choice of the linguistic elements depends on the understanding of the overall style of the discourse. Therefore, the narrator‘s intention expressed by marking personal pronouns as demonstrated above must in 54
Czech be achieved by different constructions or must be compensated on different elements and/ or on a different level of the language as demonstrated in the table below. Original text
My translation
8
She gets out of Bed and goes to Thermostat to hot Máma vstane z Postela a jde k the air. Teplometovi, aby udělal teplo.
9
I choose Meltedy Spoon with the white all blobby Vyberu si Rozplizlou lžičku, on his handle when he leaned on the pan of boiling co se jednou nepozorně opřela pasta by accident. o hrnec vařících špaget a zkroutilo se jí to bílé, za co se drţí.
10
...Ma goes knock knock on the legs of Bed...
11
Ma does the hotting up on the two rings of Stove Máma nastartuje dvě kola na that go red, I‘m not allowed touch the knobs Sporákovi, až se mu začnou červenat, zakázala mi ho chytat za knoflíky,...
...Máma ťuká ťuky, Postelovi na nohy...
ťuk
In Examples 8 and 9, the personification is achieved by the use of an action verb with the inanimate object. ―Teplomet‖ here acts as a person, not as a means. In Examples 10 and 11 the verb relates to the parts of the objects as to the parts of the body. In the unmarked case the sentence would read as ―kola u sporáku se začnou červenat‖. 4.2.3
Intentional orthographic and grammatical errors
Intentional errors significantly contribute to the overall style of the novel, therefore, it is essential for the style to find ways to transfer these errors into Czech adequately. As Knittlová et al. is pointing out, analysis and reconstruction of unconventional or ‗corrupted‘ language falls under the earlier described pragmatic aspect of translation. (96) When translating intentional errors, rather than sticking to the means of corrupting the language of the source text, translator should try to recreate the same aesthetic effect, maintain the same level of expressivity as well as a similar atmosphere in the target text by whatsoever means available in the target language. (Hrdlička 101) Though the occurrence of intentional orthographic and grammatical errors is rather rare in fiction, its stylistic significance should not be undervalued, since such errors can fulfill
55
several functions; they can be humorous, they can ridicule, give a special prominence or characterize. (Hrdlička 101) As we are dealing with two different language systems, we have to consider different possibilities for transferring the errors. Hrdlička suggests the following rules for reconstruction of intentional errors: 1. The error should achieve the same effect in the target language. 2. Similar frequency of errors should be maintained. 3. If possible, the same type of error should be preserved in the target text. If impossible, it should be replaced by any appropriate language irregularity. (102) The examples below show that some of the errors could be transferred to exactly the same elements in Czech: Original text
My translation
1
―You cutted the cord and I was free‖, I „Tys ustřihala šňůru a já se pustil.―, tell Ma. ―Then I turned into a boy.‖ říkám mámě. „A pak byl ze mě kluk.―
2
I don‘t think he came last night after nine, Myslím, ţe včera večer po deváté the air‘s always different if he came. nepřišel. Vzduch je totiţ vţdycky jinačí, kdyţ přišel.
3
―Why are the eyes of the me shut?‖
4
―Oh, I forgetted to have some when I „Jejda, dnes ráno jsem si vůbec nedal, woke up.‖ úplně jsem na to zapomenul.―
5
One day when I was four TV died and I cried, but in the night Old nick brung a magic converter box to make TV back to life.
6
Usually I‘m not allowed draw on any bits V pokoji většinou nesmím po ničem of Room or furnitures. malovat, ani po nábytkovi.
7
I go even fasterer like Superman flying
8
―You know what?‖ I tell her. ―When I‘m „Něco ti povím, Mami. Aţ mi bude deset, ten I‘ll be growed up.‖ budu vyrostlý.―
„Proč má ten já zavřený oči?―
Jednou, kdyţ mi byly čtyři, tak Televize umřela a já plakal, ale Rohatý v noci přinosil kouzelnou krabičku a Televize zase oţila.
Utíkám ještě víc rychle jako létající Superman.
56
9
Did you hear it on TV? ―No, on you.‖
Tu znáš z televize?‖ ―Ne, z tebe.‖
10
Another rule is, the wide of the walls is the same as the wide of Floor, I count eleven feet going both ways, that means Floor is a square.
Další pravidlo je, ţe širokost stěn je jako širokost Podlahy. Na obě strany napočítám jedenáct, to znamená, ţe Podlaha je čtverec.
11
I write down all the numbers, like the tall Začnu spočítávat vysokost Postelové of Door Wall to the line where Roof stěny, ale Máma řekne, ţe všecky stěny starts equals six feet seven inches. jsou stejné.
Most of these errors in English are based on overgeneralization1 and can easily be transferred to the Czech either in exactly the same way or by violating the Czech verbal aspect. As already mentioned, Hrdlička points out that translator should attempt to maintain the same type of the error if possible. (102) The grammatical errors in Examples 1, 8 and 4 in ―cutted‖, ―forgetted‖, ―growed‖ were formed by over-applying of the inflexion ―–ed‖ to indicate the regular past form instead of using the respective irregular past forms ―cut‖, ―forgot‖ and the past participle form ―grown‖. The corresponding Czech errors in ―ustřihala‖, ―přinosil‖ instead of ―ustříhla‖ and ―přinesl‖ were created by using the imperfective verbal aspect in perfective verbs, which means that prefixes of perfective verbs combine with suffixex of imperfective words ―nosil + přinesl = přinosil―.
The form ―zapomenul‖, as
opposed to that, was created by adding past ending ―-ul‖ for third person singular to a future perfective form ―zapomenu‖. In Example 9, the use of the preposition ―on‖ in a prepositional phrase ― on TV‖ was over-applied on an animate personal pronoun ―you‖ instead of using the prepositional phrase ―from you‖. In Czech the preposition ―z‖, which is used with inanimate objects, was applied on a personal pronoun ―you‖ resulting in the grammatically mismatching phrase ―z tebe‖. In Examples 10 and 11 the error is translated by making nouns from adjectives by adding the ending ―–ost‖ for deadjectival abstract nouns, such as ―velikost‖, rychlost‖ instead of using their correct forms ―výška‖, ―šířka‖. I have considered it appropriate and more natural in Czech to apply overgeneralization on some nouns. To comply with Hrdlička‘s requirement of consistency in the use of 1
Overgeneralization = over-applying of a certain grammatical rule
57
grammatical deformations, I violated those nouns which are reoccurring throughout the whole novel. Original text
My translation
12
I‘m staring at us at the same time and the us Koukám na nás a my v Zrcadlovi se in Mirror are staring back. zase dívají na nás.
13
When I was two I scribbled on the leg of Kdyţ mi byly dva, počmáral jsem Bed, her one near Wardrobe, so whenever Postelovi nohu, tu co má blízko we‘re cleaning Ma taps the scribble and Skříně. says, ―Look, we have to live with that forever.‖
In the above table, there is no one-to-one-correspondence in the translation of errors between the source and the target text, such violation, however, to some degree compensates for other stylistic markers, which cannot be easily transferred with the same degree of expressivity into Czech, such as the already mentioned marked personal pronouns. Though stylistically justifiable, the transfer of intentional errors to other elements or linguistic forms makes it difficult to comply with Hrdlička‘s requirement to keep similar frequency of errors, since different words occur in the text with different frequency. It is particularly difficult to keep the same frequency if we want to be consistent in applying the same kind of an error at the same time. Nevertheless, it is not always easy or possible to quantify the ‗corrupted‘ elements in the text as they are not restricted only to linguistic forms. In this context, Knittlová et al. also says that an issue with transferring style into another language is that a stylistic information cannot be assigned to a specific sign, it is rather attached to lexical and grammatical forms as a secondary information. (92) Even Hrdlička admits that this requirement can sometimes be sacrificed for the sake of good readability. (102) 4.2.4
Marked collocations
Collocations are words that co-occur in different environments. (Boussalia 7) In any language, there are always particular restrictions in the way of combining words like collocations2 or idioms3. (Baker 47) The restrictions in combination patterns are not always 2
Collocation is a familiar grouping of words, especially words that habitually appear together and thereby convey meaning by association. (―collocation‖)
58
obeyed, which can result in collocational mismatch. Each word has the so-called collocational range, which is the range of words that can possibly collocate with a lexical item. (Baker 49) Thus would ―stain‖ in Example 2 normally be expected to pattern with the verb ―make‖. The combination of ―stain‖ with the verb ―spill‖ is not usual, thus considered as marked, and, was used to create a certain effect. Such intentionally marked collocations are meant to challenge the expectations of the reader. (Baker 51) Baker further concludes that marked collocations in fiction ―can create unusual images, produce laughter and catch the reader‘s attention‖ (51). Each language has different word patterning, therefore, translators should be familiar with the full collocational range in both languages. What translators should also bear in mind is that collocation patterns must fit the given register, which, in the case of the novel, is informal, familiar and private. The markedness of the collocation depends on what is the norm in the given register (Baker 52). The collocation patterns, such as ―Halloween happens‖, ―I happened‖ or ―he disappears the trash‖ strike as ‗unusual‘ in whatsoever register, so that they should be considered marked. Moreover, the collocations should not only correspond with the register, they should also comply with the lexical capacity of a 5-year-old child. The patterns may sound ‗clumsy‘, should, however, not read as a bad translation. That is why I decided not to translate ―doing tennis‖ in Example 6 by ―dělá tenis‖. The reason for my choice is the insufficient markedness of the lexical combination, which means that the collocation reads strange, however not strange enough to be considered as marked. This ―loss‖ should be compensated on a different element of the text. All other examples below show stylistically marked collocations with a corresponding Czech lexical pattern, in which the stylistic markedness could be preserved by a literal translation. Example 8, in addition, could be seen as a compensation for the ―loss‖ in translation of Example 6. The constituent ―zmizuje‖ is marked in a twofold way: The perfective verb ―zmizet‖ is used imperfectively, and also transitively with an object ―zmizuje ―odpadky‖, which is normally not acceptable in Czech. Such violation is thus not only collocational, but also grammatical. Original text 1
My translation
You were all sad till I happened in your Byla jsi moc smutná, než jsem se ti tummy. stal v bříšku.
3
Idiom is a set expression of two or more words that means something other than the literal meaning of its individual words. (―idiom‖)
59
2
There‘s the stain I spilled by mistake Je na něm skvrna, co jsem rozlil, getting born. protoţe jsem nedal pozor, kdyţ jsem se naroďoval.
3
Ma‘s behind me, I can see my face stuck Máma stojí za mnou. Vidím svůj over hers like a mask we made when obličej nalepený na její jako maska, co jsme vyráběli, když se stal Halloween happened. Halloween.
4
I flat the chairs and put them beside Door Splasknu židle a dám je za dveře against Clothes Horse. naproti Sušáka.
5
Door's made of shiny magic metal, he goes Dveře jsou z kouzelného třpytivého beep beep after nine when I'm meant to be kovu, co udělají píp píp vţdycky po switched off in Wardrobe. deváté, to je, když už mám být usnutý ve Skříňi.
6
Ma takes her pill from the silver pack that has twenty-eight little spaceships and I take a vitamin from the bottle with the boy doing a handstand and she takes one from the big bottle with a picture of a woman doing Tennis.
7
What‘s my tall?‖ „Jak jsem velký?― ―Your height. Well, I don‘t know exactly,‖ „Vysoký. Vlastně to she says. nevím,― řekne Máma.
8
Máma si vezme pilulku ze stříbrného balíčku, ve kterém je dvacet osm malých vesmírných lodí a já si dám vitamín z lahvičky s obrázkem kluka, co dělá stojku, a Máma si vezme jeden z velké lahvičky s obrázkem paní, co hraje tenis. ani
přesně
He brings groceries and Sundaytreat and Nosí jídlo a nedělní překvapení a disappears the trash, but he‘s not human zmizuje odpadky, ale není člověk like us. He only happens in the night, like jako my. Stane se vţdycky jenom bats. v noci, jako netopýři. The choice, what is or what is not acceptable or usual, is the individual decision of every
translator, which is motivated by the conventions and/ or personal experience. 4.3
Expressiveness of the language Analyzing the style is not only looking ‗at‘ the text, but much more looking ‗through’ the
text to discover all stylistic features. (Leech and Short 3) Nevertheless, it is not an easy task if 60
we consider the specific connotations words can have in different languages. It is very difficult and sometimes even impossible to transfer the connotations from one language into another as connotations of meaning are closely connected with the emotional part of human‘s mind which can differ considerably in various language societies. (Knittlová et al. 61- 62) It can be distinguished between expressive and stylistic connotations. Expressiveness can be understood as the intensification of the conveyed information. Emotionality as an integral part of expressive connotation carries speaker‘s positive or negative attitudes towards the reality. In English, emotionality is analytically distributed over different constituents of the whole utterance and arises from the context. In Czech, as opposed to English, emotions can be expressed by means of inflections, on the lexical level through expressive words, such as interjections or diminutives. Expressiveness on the stylistic level is often reflected in the use of colloquial language, slang or vulgarism. (Knittlová et al. 63) 4.3.1
Interjections
Interjections are words expressing feelings and emotions. They relate to the other parts of the sentence and help understand the mood of the utterance. The Czech and English language are very different in the way of conveying expressivity by means of language. In English the expressivity is more contained in the lexical expressions, whereas in Czech expressivity is distributed over more linguistic elements or layers of the language. (Knittlová et al. 97) Original text
My translation
1
Ma leans out of Bed to switch on Lamp, he Máma se natáhne z postele na Lampu, makes everything light up whoosh. zapne ji a ona šup a všude je světlo!
2
―Argh, I know it, it‘s the one about getting ―Brrr, to znám, to je jak člověka srazí knocked down and getting up again, what‘s k zemi a on musí vstát, jak se to it called?‖ jmenuje?―
3
―Oh, I forgetted to have some when I woke „Jejda, dnes ráno jsem si vůbec nedal, up.‖ úplně jsem na to zapomenul.―
4
With bowls I have to do gently but spoons I S miskami se musí opatrně, ale se can cling clang clong. lţícemi můţu cingylingylink. .
5
Ma left it on all day long and got turned into Máma ji měla puštěnou celý den a a zombie that‘s like a ghost but walks thump stala se z ní mátoha, to je něco jako duch, co ale dělá dupy dup. thump.
61
6
After I flush I watch the tank filling up Spláchnu a dívám se, jak se nádobka going bubble gurgle wurble. zase naplňuje glu, glu, glu.
7
I drum on Table and Ma goes knock knock on the legs of bed, then floomf floomf on the pillows, I use a fork and spoon on Door ding ding and our toes go bam on Stove, but my favorite is stomping on the pedal of Trash because that pops his lid open with a bing.
8
I‘ll be a good giant, I‘ll find all the evil ones Budu hodný obr, najdu všecky zlé a and knock their heads off smush splat.‖ usekám jim hlavy, šmik fik.
9
―Wow.‖
10 11
...we have to see between them quick quick. ...a musíme očima skákat z jednoho na druhý šupito presto. “Oh, yeh?‖ Opravdu?
12
―Hey, look.‖
Já bubnuju do Stola a Máma ťuká ťuky, ťuk Postelovi na nohy a pak žuch do polštářů. Vezmu lţičku a zkusím cingylink na Dveře a s Mámou buch nohama o Sporák. Ale úplně nejvíc rád dupu Košovi na pedál, protoţe víko vyskočí a udělá břink.
„Týjo.―
„Hele, podívej.―
In my translations I mostly dealt with the primary interjections which are non-productive and have no meaning of their own. As Knittlová et al. concludes, primary interjections are in Czech often translated by means of contact4 (Examples 9 and 12) or modal particles5 (Examples 3 and 11). (70) The most frequent interjections that significantly mark the style of the novel can be attributed to the specific sounds or movements. There are considerably more interjections in English and they often do not have a corresponding Czech equivalent and should therefore be translated according to the conventions of the target language. In terms of style, it is better to analyze interjections according to their semantic use rather than their semantic meaning. Secondary interjections, as opposed to the primary interjections, may sometimes keep their original meaning or a part of it. I only identified Example 11 as a secondary interjection, though the Czech translation ―šupito presto‖ is not purely Czech. It is a compound, comprising the primary interjection ―šup‖, denoting fast movement, combined with the Italian word ―presto‖, meaning ―quick‖. 4 5
Kontaktové prostředky (Knittlová et al., 70) Modální částice (Knittlová et al., 70)
62
It can be concluded that in terms of quantity, the primary interjections are a prominent feature of the style. Its prominence is enforced by the graphical highlighting in the text through italics. Besides the highlighting, I also attempted to stay faithful to the phonic and formal aspect of the interjections as much as possible. I attempted to maintain the double (Example 6) or sometimes even triple reduplication (Example 5). In some of the examples above it may seem more natural and appropriate in Czech to replace the interjections by the sound symbolic verbs, such as ‖ţuchnout‖, ―břinkne‖ etc. However, considering the whole style and the child‘s voice in the narrative, I have preferred to maintain the use of interjections because of its prominence and graphic highlighting, as it underlines the whole style of the narrative and enhances its explicitness and expressiveness. 4.3.2
Dimunitives
Quite frequently do English neutral words correspond with stylistically marked Czech equivalents. (Knittlová et al. 62) They carry emotional information and their use largely depends on translator‘s subjective evaluation of the context. As Knittlová et al. further concludes, the translation of expressiveness and emotionality is very much intuition-driven. (96) Original text
My translation
1
Meltedy Spoon
Rozplizlá lžička
2
...her finger leaves a circle.
... a po jejím prstu tam zůstane kroužek.
3
...my job is to roll back the lid of the can.
... a já mám za úkol oddělat víčko na plechovce
4
...I join in all the songs.
...zpívám s nimi všechny písničky.
5
Bunnies are TV but carrots are real.
Zajíčci jsou jen v Televizi, ale mrkvičky jsou doopravdické.
6
...I‘l have a dog called Lucky.
...budu mít psíka a dám mu jméno Lupík.
They chase each other in the tunnels, ...
Honí se v chodbičkách,...
63
4.3.3
Colloquial language
As already stated, stylistic markers are not related only to particular lexical elements, but can be found on many levels and in various layers of the language. On a stylistic level, expressiveness can be generated for example by the use of colloquial language, slang or vulgarism. For my translation, I decided to use expressive Colloquial Czech, which is typical for the spoken interaction. As the story is narrated by a five-year-old child, the style should reflect features that are typical for spoken discourse. Original text
My translation
1
...then I whee back onto Duvet and I‘m Na Křeslovi umím skejbordovat bez snowboarding instead. drţení, pak hupnu zpátky na Peřinu a snowborduju.
2
My finger‘s in my mouth again
Zase si cucám prst.
3
I give her her two kisses.
Vlepím jí dvě pusy.
4
―But mine goes all the way down to my “Ale já je mám aţ semhle po pás...― middle...‖
5
They laugh and shout a lot.
6
"Ah, but then it would melt, because it's nice „No jo, ale tady by roztál, protoţe je tu and warm in here." hezky teploučko.―
7
―Grub‘s up.‖
„Můţem baštit.―
8
I don‘t like the smell of broccoli cooking...
Nemám rád brokolici, jak smrdí, kdyţ se vaří...
9
only if there‘s music we put Blanket over Jen kdyţ dávají hudbu, tak přes and just listen through the gray of her and televizi přehodíme deku a jen shake our booties. posloucháme a trsáme.
10
... my job is to roll back the lid of the can.
Horzně se smějou a křičí.
... a já mám za úkol oddělat víčko na plechovce.
64
4.4
Figurative language Figurative language is used to describe one thing in terms of another. The reader has to
understand and identify the connection between the two objects. As the analysis focuses mainly on the style and its pragmatic aspect, I am not going to discuss the individual categories of figurative language. My aim is rather to demonstrate possible transitions of an image and/or situation evoked by language. The associations differ from language to language, from culture to culture. Since there are always more ways to express similar situation by way of language, I decide to also include the official translation to better demonstrate the different ways of dealing with translation of figurative language and analogy. Original text
My translation
Volhejnová’s translation
1
Ma‘s behind me, I can see my face stuck over hers like a mask we made when Halloween happened.
Máma stojí za mnou. Vidím svůj obličej nalepený na její jako maska, co jsme vyráběli, kdyţ se stal Halloween.
Mami stojí za mnou. Vidím svůj obličej připlácnutý přes její, jako tu masku, co jsme udělali, kdyţ se stal Halloween.
2
She taps Mirror where‘s my forehead, her finger leaves a circle. ―The dead spit of me.‖ ―Why I‘m your dead spit?‖ The circle‘s disappearing. ―It just means you look like me. I guess because you‘re made of me, like my spit is. Same brown eyes, same big mouth, same pointy chin…‖
Zaťuká prstem na Zrcadla, tam, kde mám čelo a po jejím prstu tam zůstane krouţek. „Jako můj otisk.― Krouţek mizí. „Proč jsem jako tvůj otisk?― „ To znamená, ţe vypadáš jako já, jako otisknutá já. Máš moje hnědé oči, stejná velká ústa, stejně špičatou bradu…―
Zaťuká na Zrcadla, tam kde mám čelo. Po jejím prstu tam zůstane kolečko. „Celá já.― „Já přece nejsem ty.― Kolečko mizí. „To znamená, ţe jsi mi hodně podobný. Ţe máš všechno jako já. Stejně hnědé oči, stejně velká pusa, stejně špičatá brada...―
3
When she spits the second time it‘s my go with Toothbrush, I scrub each my teeth all the way around. Ma’s spit in Sink doesn‘t look a bit like me, mine doesn‘t either. I wash them away and make a vampire smile.
Kdyţ si Máma podruhé odplivne, je řada na mě. Vezmu Kartáčka a vyčistím si kaţdý zub, místečko vedle místečka. Udělám prstem otisk na Zrcadlovi, ale vůbec nevypadá jako já, ani jako
Kdyţ podruhé vyplivne, dostanu Kartáček já. Vyčistím si kaţdý zub kolem dokola. To, co Mami vyplivla do Umyvadla, vůbec není celá já, a to moje taky ne. Spláchnu to a zazubím se 65
4
5
Máma. Spláchnu plivance v umyvadle a zazubím se jako upír. ...I have five fingers each ... na kaţdé ruce mám pět hand and the same of toes and prstů a to samé na nohách, so does Ma, we’re our dead stejně jako Máma. Jsme spits. naše otisky. "Why you don't take two killers all the bits of every day?" She makes a face. "Then I'd be hooked." "What's —?" "Like stuck on a hook, because I'd need them all the time. Actually I might need more and more."
jako upír.
... mám pět prstů na kaţdé ruce a taky na nohách a Mami taky, jsme celá já.
„Proč si nebereš dva „Proč si nevezmeš dva prášky pořád dokola?― prášky mockrát za den?― Zašklebí se. „Byla bych závislá.― „Co bys byla - ?― „Jako kdybych visela na háku a nemohla dolů, dokud bych nedostala další a další. A vlastně bych jich potřebovala čím dál víc.―
„To bych pak byla závislá,― zašklebí se. „Co znamená - ?― „Jako kdybych visela třeba na háčku, protoţe bych je potřebovala pořád. Vlastně bych jich moţná potřebovala víc a víc.―
The first sentence of the above table is an example of a very straight-forward simile that can easily be transferred into Czech by maintaining the same image. Examples 2, 3 and 4 however, required more modification, since in Czech the semantic similarity to ―dead spit‖ cannot be reconstructed in the same way. Knittlová et al. suggests adaptation6, which means that an image or situation of the source language with no equivalent in the target language has to be replaced by an image or different situation with the same semantic meaning (19). I decided to use an image of fingerprint from the previous sentence to connote the meaning of resemblance. Later in the text, as displayed in Example 3, I had to bridge from „otisk― to ―spit‖ in its literal sense. As a Czech reader will not connote ―spit‖ with ‗similarity‘ or ‗resemblance‘ in any way, I decided to add a new sentence ―Udělám prstem otisk...‖ to make a connection to the afore-used analogy. Viewed against the theory of Vazques-Ayora, this textual extension can be termed as ‗amplification‘7. (Knittlová et al. 20) In Example 5, Volhejnová and I use the same analogy for establishing the meaning of being ―hooked‖. Whereas in English the metaphoric meaning is created by the denotation of 6 7
Adaptace – nahrazení situace jinou situací se stejným semantickým obsahem Amplifikace – rozšíření textu. Klasifikace dle amerického teoretika Vázquez-Ayory (Knittlová et al., 20)
66
the object ―hook‖, in Czech the meaning is created by a verb ―viset‖. In English, the formal lexical resemblance between the adjective ―hooked‖ and the correspondent noun ―hook‖ is more obvious. As opposed to that, the connection between the adjective ―závislá‖ and the verb ―viset‖ in Czech is less transparent and requires more mental work on the part of the reader. Therefore, I decided to add a little more information to make the image of ‗being stuck on a hook‘ clearer, which, again, can be viewed as an example of ‗amplification‘. (Knittlová et al. 20) 4.4.1
Alliteration
In some cases we need to consider more than just the lexical or semantic meanings of individual words. The phonic aspect is particularly important in translation of alliteration or rhymes. Original text 1
... ―Swiper, no swiping,‖.
4.4.2
My translation ...„Skrýšo, neskrádej,―...
Rhymes Original text
My translation
1
No way, Jose.
Tudle nudle.
2
―Heeeeeeeeee‘s Dylan, the sturdy digger! The loads he shovels get bigger and bigger. Watch his long arm delve into the earth, No excavator so loves to munch dirt. This mega-hoe rolls and pivots round the site, Scooping and grading by day and night.‖
„Taaaaaaaaak jako Dylan, statný kopáč, neumí hloubit ţádný krumpáč. Kdyţ on do hlíny ruce ponoří, s přehledem kaţdé rypadlo pokoří. Ať v noci či ve dne, před ním i za ním jen hromady země.―
4.5
Linking and cohesion Cohesion is the formal linkage by way of cohesive devices, such as references,
connectors, ellipsis or substitution. In translation, translators mostly try to adhere to the syntactic structures of the target language. Different languages have different lexical,
67
grammatical and also syntactic structures. The Czech language tends to be careful about the usage of anaphoric or cataphoric references. Whereas in Czech it is considered unnatural to repeat the same lexical unit in an unchanged form if not intended by the author, English is less sensitive to such repetition. Therefore it is crucial to analyze and understand the intention of the author before making a decision as to the organization and cohesion of the text. (Knittlová et al. 35) Despite the ‗clumsy‘ cohesion of the source text and for the sake of better readability I decided not to repeat the lexical units, such as the adverbial ―then‖ more than twice in a row, but used a synonymous expression instead. I did not make this decision to make a ‗stylistic improvement‘, but rather wanted to avoid the text being read as a bad translation. Proper Czech would also require an ellipsis of the adverbial to avoid the repetition. This, however, would make the style more ‗mature‘, which certainly was not intended by the author. Original text
My translation
1
Before that I was three, then two, then one, Předtím mi byly tři, pak dva, pak then zero. „Was I minus numbers?― jeden a potom nula. „Měl jsem i mínus roků?―
2
I shut my eyes just in time, then open one a Jen tak tak stihnu zavřít oči, pak jedno crack, then both. pootevřu, potom obě.
In Czech it is natural to omit personal pronouns as they are indicated by inflections. Original text 3
―Doh,‖ she says, slapping her head,
My translation „Jejda―, řekne, a plácne si na čelo
In the below Examples 4 and 5, I decided not to break the long complex sentences down into shorter units or transfer them into more explicit compound sentences to make the text more readable or more sophisticated as would normally be expected in proper Czech. The Czech translation would normally require an ellipsis of the first two conjunctions. Here, however, the repetition should indicate the stream of Jack‘s thoughts as they come into his mind so that it should be assumed that its use is purposeful. As Levý points out, translators often tend to interrupt the artistic tension between the idea and the corresponding expression 68
and ‗intellectualize‗ the text in their translations by formally expressing the syntactic relations. (148) The range of conjunctions and linking words in the original text is limited to ―and‖, ―but‖, ―if‖, ―when‖, ―so‖, making it a very obvious feature of the style. This limitation along with the repetitive use of coordinating conjunctions ―and‖ and ―or‖ should be recognized as author‘s intention and should therefore be reflected in the translation. Levý points out that thoughts linked by coordination create a fresh and natural effect. (148) Similar effect can in Czech be created by using words like ―totiţ― in Example 6. Such words do not have a real meaning and, they can only mark the meaning subjectively and balance the rhythm of a sentence, making it more fluent and lively. They should not be avoided only because they are not contained in the original text. (Levý 151) Original text
My translation
4
My best instrument is Twang that‘s cereal box I collaged with all the different colored legs and shoes and coats and heads from the old catalog, then I stretched three rubber bands across his middle.
Můj nejlepší nástroj je Struna, to je krabice od obilných lupínků, kterou jsem polepil různobarevnýma nohama a botama a kabátama a hlavama ze starého kataloga a přes prostředek jí natáhl tři gumičky.
5
...I join in all the songs especially with ...zpívám s nimi všechny písničky, somersaults or high-fives or the Silly hlavně ty kotrmelcové nebo tleskací Chicken Dance. nebo co na ně tancujeme Kačata.
6
... the air‘s always different if he came.
4.6
Vzduch je totiž vţdycky jinačí, kdyţ přišel.
Lexical choices As I have spent a considerable amount of time on the translation of proper nouns, invented
words or titles of games or songs, they should not be left unmentioned in my thesis. The excerpted expressions will be discussed against the official translation. 4.6.1
Proper nouns
In my translation I had to find equivalents for a couple of names, some of them used in a different context as one would usually expect. 69
Original text
My translation
Volhejnová’s translation
1
Old Nick
Rohatý
Čert
2
Noisy Star
Siréna
Křiklavá hvězda
3
Switchy Star
Měňavka
Měnivá hvězda
4
Twang
Struna
Břink
5
Dress-up
Převleky
Převlíkačka
6
Scream
Kravál
Řev
7
Key-pad
Tlačítka
Číselník
The most difficult was to find the name for the crucial figure of the story, the Old Nick. There are several synonyms in Czech like ―Čert‖, ―Lucifer‖, ―Pekelník‖ to choose from. Compared with Volhejnová‘s translation of ―Old Nick‖ as ―Čert‖, my choice to use ―Rohatý‖ was determined by the semantic of its use, rather than its denotation. ‗Old Nick‘ is not used in English with the same frequency as ‗čert‘ in Czech. Formal differences are obvious in Example 2 and Example 3. English as an analytic language is more explicit and a noun is usually modified by a separate word, whereas in synthetic languages like Czech, the modifier and the modified noun are merged in one word. Though the two-word-expressions are usually more explicit, it is more natural to translate them as one word in Czech because of the synthetic nature of the language. In translation of the names in Examples 4 and 7 different semantic components of the meaning were chosen. Whereas the translation of ―Key-pad‖ as ―Tlačítka‖ prioritizes the semantic component of ‗pressing buttons‘, Volhejnová works with the component of ‗numbers‘. Also, in the translation of ―Twang‖ different semantic components were used to reconstruct the noun in Czech. Volhejnová based her translation on the consequence of the source expression, which is the sound produced by the object twang. My version, as opposed to that, is based on the object itself. According to Knittlová et al.‘s classification these
70
examples would fall under the category of partial equivalents in which different perspectives were transferred into the same objective reality. (60) In Example 6 Volhejnová used full equivalent, whereas my translation is a partial equivalent created by applying a higher level of abstraction, by Knittlová et al. referred to as generalization. (59) 4.6.2
Titles of songs, stories or games
Other examples of analogy found the lexical level include titles of songs or games, which either do not have a corresponding equivalent in Czech or to which the Czech reader can hardly relate because of his cultural background or experience. Original text
My translation
Volhejnová’s translation
1
I hum “Row, Row, Row Zkusím „Pec nám spadla― a Zabroukám „Hlava, your Boat,‖ Ma guesses that Máma to hned uhodne. ramena, kolena, right away. palce―, to Mami uhodne hned.
2
Then I do ―Tubthumping,‖ she makes a face and says, ―Argh, I know it, it‘s the one about getting knocked down and getting up again, what‘s it called?‖
3
For my third turn I do ―Can’t Do třetice zkusím „Can’t get Jako třetí pokus dám get You out of My Head,‖ You out of My Head‖ a „Vítr― a Mami vůbec Ma has no idea. Máma neví. neví.
4
... I join in all the songs especially with somersaults or high-fives or the Silly Chicken Dance.
5
―Look how big my muscles, „Ale koukni na moje svaly.― „Ale koukni, jaké mám though.‖ I bounce on bed, I‘m Skáču na Postelovi a jsem svaly.― Poskakuju na Jack the Giant Killer in his Jack, zabiják obrů Posteli, jsem Obr seven-league boots. v Sedmimílových botách. Jack v
Pak přidám Tubthumping―, zašklebí se a řekne:― Brrr, to znám, to je o člověku, co pořád dostává rány a snaţí se vstávat, jak se to jmenuje?―
... zpívám s nimi všechny písničky, hlavně ty kotrmelcové nebo tleskací nebo ty, co na ně tancujeme Kačata.
Pak zkusím „Tubthumping―, Mami se zašklebí a řekne: „Grr, to znám, je to tom, jak člověka srazí k zemi, ale musí se zase zvednout, jak se to jmenuje?―
...zpívám s nimi všechny písničky, zvlášť ty s kotrmelci nebo s tleskáním nebo s Ptačím tancem.
71
...
...
Sedmimílových botách. ...
―I‘m going to be Jack the „Já budu Jack, Obří zabiják „Já budu obr Jack, Giant Giant Killer obrů. Zabiják obrů. 6
My next pick is Simon Says, Jako další chci hrát Simon Já si pak vyberu Otce ... říká a plnit rozkazy, ... Abrháma, ....
7
Jack of Diamonds is my Nejvíc rád mám kárového Nejradši mám favorite and his friends the kluka, co mu taky říkáme kárového kluka, taky other Jacks. Jack, a taky všechny jeho se mu říká Jack, a má kámoše, ty ostatní Jacky. ještě další kamarády kluky nebo Jacky.
8
―Can we play Beggar My „Můţeme si zahrát Válku?― „Můţeme si zahrát Neighbor?‖ ... Then Gin ... Pak hrajeme Žolíky a Prší, Obíračku?― ... Pak Rummy and Go Fish, I win skoro vţdycky vyhraju. hrajeme Rummy a mostly. Prší, většinou vyhraju.
It is not always possible to find an exact equivalent for titles of songs or games in Czech because of the different cultural experience between the English and the Czech reader. Therefore, it is necessary to find an expression with similar connotation in the target language, so that the reader can make the same connection as the reader of the original text. Example 1 shows two different ways to translate the title ―Row, row, row your boat‖ I replaced the English title by a Czech, notoriously known nursery rhyme and song ―Pec nám spadla.‖ In my translation the connotation ‗familiar to every child‘ is dominant, whereas Volhejnová‘s version is dominated by the connotation of ‗bodily movement‘. In the context of the situation both songs are quite known so that the effect on the reader would be very similar. I cannot see the point in Volhejnová‘s decision to translate the title in Example 3, since most Czech readers will be familiar with the English title if interested in popular music as it is often played on the radio. I am not going to comment on all examples listed in the above table in detail as some of them are meant to only show different versions of translation, not necessarily better or worse. Significant, however, is the difference between my and Volhejnová‘s translation in Example 5. Volhejnová‘s version has a different meaning. ―Jack, the Giant Killer‖, is a 72
character of a story, in which a boy called Jack kills a nasty giant. This information is not contained in Volhejnová‘s translation. As further shown in Example 5, her misinterpretation of the original information in the first part made it impossible to translate it correctly later in the text. The translation of ―Jack the Giant Giant Killer‖ as ―obr Jack, zabiják obrů‖, lets the reader think of more than one giant, which is not true of the story that it is referring to. As to Example 6 and Example 7, I decided to include additional information to help the Czech reader to cope with the portrayed reality, which in translation theory is sometimes referred to as ‗explicitation‘8. (Knittlová et al. 20) Though the title ―Simon říká― is available and established in Czech, it is likely to be more familiar to younger generations. Therefore, I decided to add a brief explanation concerning the content of the game to address any kind of the reader. The same applies to Example 7. Dealing with the names of card games in Example 8, I decided to use names of notoriously known Czech card games, the principle and rules of which are very similar to the rules of the games referred to in the source text, so that the Czech reader can easily relate to them based on his or her knowledge and/or his or her experience.
8
Explicitace – přidání vysvětlující informace podle amerického teoretika Vazqueze-Ayory (Knittlová et al. 20)
73
CONCLUSION To conclude the thesis I must say that I really enjoyed working on both, the practical as and the theoretical part. Originally, my intention was to analyze the lexical aspects of the language, but after the completion of the practical part, I saw that analysis of style would offer more and more interesting issues to discuss. The work on this thesis revealed me insight into the stylistic field, which raises an indefinite number of questions as far as translation is considered that cannot all be dealt with within the scope of a bachelor‘s thesis. The translation of the selected chapters of the novel took longer than I had expected. With all the theoretical background in mind, I had to re-read and modify it several times. In a position of a translator I realized how difficult it was to comply with the requirement of faithfulness and good readability of a text at the same time. In the practical part, I tried as far as possible to respect all of the theoretical aspects outlined in the theoretical part. I dare say I was successful in transferring the style in terms of quality. However, I cannot objectively say to what degree I was successful in keeping the quantity/ frequency of the outstanding stylistic features of the source text. In translation of grammatical errors I preferred to be consistent, rather than to stick to the number of errors in the source text. In this respect, my thesis proves the difficulty of measuring style in terms of quantity. It would be more interesting but more time-demanding to analyze the style of the whole novel to see the re-occurrence of specific items, and whether the choices from the corpus would be applicable also in the context of the whole novel. The main concern about style and the translation of style is connected with the question whether and how it is possible to objectively analyze style or whether it is interpreted rather subjectively. My translation and analysis show that style can objectively be analyzed by looking into the different levels and layers of the text, exploring individual items of vocabulary, grammar or syntax. The personification of nouns, marked personal pronouns, collocational mismatch, intentional grammatical errors, colloquial expressions along with strong expressiveness of the language were discovered to be most significantly accountable for the original style of the novel. Without any difficulty we can analyze style on a lexical level. The lexical style markers can easily be identified and translated, such as proper nouns, invented words, titles or rhymes. The same stylistic effect can in Czech be achieved correspondingly. More difficult, however, is to translate and/ or analyze stylistic phenomena,
74
which the Czech language does not allow to re-create on the corresponding items of the target text. Such stylistic phenomena have to be compensated on a different item of the target text, such as personalization of personal pronouns or figures of speech. Style is not detectable only on individual elements of the discourse, but is attached and distributed along the layers and levels of the language and this is what makes style difficult to ‗tackle‘ and quantify. Here is it where pragmatics is required along with a good portion of intuition. The presented examples from the corpus show that it is possible to transfer style in different ways. My and Volhejnová‘s translation each reflect our own writing styles. They demonstrate two different ways of coping with translation of original style. Some of our choices are very similar, some, however, vary significantly. The differences are of subjective character, based on the interpretation, reading experience and personal writing style. This is where I see Levý‘s words confirmed that translator must first of all be a good writer. Translation of style, being a considerable issue in the translation theories, is still not sufficiently explored and covered by the theories. From this point of view, this thesis shows different ways of dealing with individual choices in translation of language deviations, intentional grammatical errors and prominent features, and could serve as a base for further research and findings.
75
Resumé This bachelor‘s thesis deals with Emma Donoghue‘s novel Room. It particularly focuses on the issue of style and its transferability into another language. It is divided into three main parts. The first part is centered around the book: it introduces the author, the plot as well as the language and style. The second part provides the practical translation of two selected chapters of the book. The third part of the thesis provides the theoretical background for the analysis of the translation, discussing particularly the notion of style in general, stylistic analysis with focus on the pragmatic issue of translation, as well as on translation of stylistically foregrounded elements. Finally, it closes with an analysis of the most relevant stylistic features of the novel, giving reasons for translation choices made in the practical part and relating them to the theory.
Resumé Tato bakalářská práce se zakládá na knize Pokoj autorky Emmy Donnoghue. Zaměřuje se na otázku stylu a jeho převodu do jiného jazyka. Práce je rozdělena do tří hlavních částí. První část pojednává o knize jako takové, představuje autorku, obsah, ale také jazyk a stylistické rysy vybraného díla. Druhá, praktická část, prezentuje vlastní překlad vybraných dvou kapitol. Třetí, teoretická část, rozebírá otázku stylu, jeho analýzu s přihlédnutím k pragmatickému aspektu překladu. Dále rozebírá problematiku převodu charakteristických stylových rysů a jazykových deformací, která je pak na základě konkrétních příkladů dále rozvinuta v analýze překladu, jeţ je poslední tematickou částí této práce.
76
List of references Printed Sources Baker, Mona. In Other Words. London: Routledge, 1992. Print Donoghue, Emma. Room. London: Picador, 2010. Print. Donoghue, Emma. Pokoj. Trans. Veronika Volhejnová. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2011. Print. Hrdlička, Milan. Literární překlad a komunikace. Praha: ISV, 2003. Print. Knittlová, Dagmar et al. Překlad a překládání. Olomouc: Univerzita Palackého, 2010. Print. Leech, Geoffrey N, and Mick Short. Style in Fiction: A Linguistic Introduction to English Fictional Prose. London: Longman, 1981. Print. Levý, Jiří. Umění překladu. 1963. Praha: Ivo Ţelezný, 1998. Print. Mišíková, Gabriela. Analysing Translation as Text and Discourse. Praha: JTP, 2007. Print. Munday, Jeremy. Introducing Translation Studies. 2001. New York: Routledge, 2005. Print. Newmark, Peter. About Translation. 1991. Frankfurt Lodge: Multilingual Matters Ltd, 2001. Print Verdonk, Peter. Stylistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002. Print. Internet Sources Boussalia, Selma. ―Students‗ Difficulties in English – Arabic – Translation of Collocations―. Constantine- Mentouri University, 2010. PDF file. Donoghue, Emma. Interview by Nicky Barranger. ―Emma Donoghue – Room―. Theinterviewonline.co.uk. n.p., ,n.d. Web. 03 March 2012. Donoghue, Emma. ―Room―. Emmadonoghue.com. Emma Donnoghue, Ltd., 2010. Web. 03 March 2012. Donoghue, Emma. ―About Emma Donoghue ―. Emmadonoghue.com. Emma Donnoghue, Ltd., 2010. Web. 03 March 2012.
77
Nordquist, Richard. ―Translation―. About.com - Grammar & Composition. The New York Times Company, 2012. Web. 12 March 2012 . ―Emma Donoghue‖. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 27 Dec 2011. Web. 03 March 2012.
78
