How the cultural specificity is taken into account

Many people think that translation is easy. Just open the document and translate the text with a dictionary. In fact, the translation is a kind of mini-study: before you begin work, you need to familiarize yourself with the subject of translation. This stage is especially important if the translator is completely unfamiliar with the topic or has insufficient knowledge for accurate translation. In addition, the translator often requires the skills of creative processing of the text. For example, recently the Norwegian PR-agency Say addressed me with a similar task.


')
In Say: we received an order from an electricity supplier to localize an advertising campaign for the Russian market, and they asked me to translate into Russian and culturally adapt the advertising message. The original text was as follows:

Driving shipping and energy into new frontiers?

Certainly.

Technology from ABB has been opened up to the far north. ABI drives for commercial use in the Arctic areas. Close partnership between ABB and bold shipping and energy companies will continue to create economic opportunities. It has been proven that it has been over and over again. www. abb.com

It was necessary to insert a typical Russian phrase, expression, proverb into the heading of the text: “It’s a bit different. That’s not any foreigner or foreign company would ever possess. ”

When I first read the text, I thought that the keyword in the title was “frontiers”. In English, the frontier is the border, the development zone, the meeting point of wildness and civilization. Frontier is a significant concept in American culture associated with the exploration of the Wild West. It is believed that the idea of ​​a frontier, expansion to the west, influenced the mentality of the Americans. Intuitively, I realized that you need to pick up a similar Russian concept, which would also be associated with the development of new territories. However, I needed more information.

To begin with, I decided to familiarize myself with the subject of the translation itself, namely: with the propellers of Azirod. To this end, visited the website of the manufacturer www. abb.com / mrine, where he learned that the propeller type Azirop is a rotary gondola suspended under the stern with a propeller propeller.



Thus, ships equipped with Azipod, can rotate 360 ​​degrees in almost one place, which allows you to extract the maximum torque and full thrust in any direction. In addition, equipping ships with such a propulsion unit makes it possible to use the principle of “double action” - in conditions of independent ice-free navigation, ships are able to cross the Arctic ice about one and a half meters thick.

I also learned that the Finns installed these propulsion units for icebreaker-class ships built for the Norilsk Nickel fleet. Their use makes it possible to abandon expensive ice-breaking support and opens up new opportunities for the development of hydrocarbon deposits on the Arctic shelf. “The topic of Arctic exploration is one of the ways to tie the translation to our agenda, especially since it echoes the concept of a frontier,” I thought.

It really helped to get into the topic and adapt the title to watch the ABB video on YouTube.com. As they say, it's better to see once than hear a hundred times.



When I saw an Arctic vessel that was slowly creeping onto the ice and smashing it with a crash, I immediately had an idea - I must use Pushkin’s words about Peter I, who “opened a window to Europe” with the foundation of St. Petersburg. This phrase is often used when we talk about discoveries, innovations and the development of new trade and communication routes. The use of these movers is a revolutionary innovation that will enable the development of Arctic deposits. In addition, at the semantic level, the verb "cut" is associated with icebreakers.

Therefore, the translation into Russian has turned out this:

Hack a window to the Arctic for oil and gas projects?

We will help.

ABB technology opens up new trade routes in the High North. Azirod electric propulsion unit allows commercial ships to cross the Arctic ice without icebreaker escort. This gives oil and gas companies new opportunities for the development of Arctic deposits. In addition, the cooperation of ABB with advanced transport and energy companies opens up new perspectives in the development of the Northern Sea Route. In the harsh sailing conditions, the ABB propulsion complex confirms its reliability and power again and again. www. abb.com

Compared to the original, the title in Russian turned out to be more “tied” to our culture and agenda thanks to the typically Russian metaphor of “cutting a window” and the mention of shipping and oil and gas projects in the Arctic. The English version sounds more neutral.

As can be seen from the translation, some fragments of the text are not a literal translation, but rather a creative reworking of the original while preserving the idea of ​​the source text.