Instytut Badań Literackich Polskiej Akademii Nauk

(About ‘scorpiobears’ in the Russian translations from Polish verse “Księgi Metamorphoseon" (1638))

Year of publication: 2018
Page range: 15 (55-69)
Keywords: Ovid's Metamorphoses, translations from Polish in the epoch of Peter the Great, translation techniques, Polish borrowings
Author: Екатерина А. Матвеенко (Moscow State University)
 

Abstract

In the beginning of the 18th century, an Old-polish translation of the Ovid’s “Księgi Metamorphoseon, to jest, Przemian, od Publiusa Owidyusza Nasona wierszami opisane", first translated and published by Walerian Otwinowski in 1638, was translated into Russian. There are two Russian translations of Otwinowski’s work. They differ in the linguistic features and the translation style. Both translations include some cases of the use of the uncommon in the Russian language phrases like niedźwiedź ‘a bear’ and niedźwiadek ‘a scorpio’. This paper analyses the issue of translating these phrases as well as the reasons for such translations.

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