Trans Type EN 5
Chapter 5: Analysis of translation strategies and methods for political essays --- A Case Study of Annual Summary of the Russian Government's Work of 2019
政论语体翻译策略与翻译技巧—以《2019年俄罗斯政府工作报告》为例
毛优 Mao You，Hunan Normal University, China
Abstract
According to the Russian Constitution, every spring the Prime Minister of Russia is required to present to the State Duma an annual summary of the government's work, including a description of what Russia has accomplished in the past year in different areas , the challenges encountered, and the government's plans and goals set for the new year. The annual summary of the Russian government's work is one of the ways to know the development and future plans of Russia and the important document for studying Russia.This type of text belongs to the category of political essays. Therefore, it is important to master the translation strategies and methods of political essays.This paper takes the "Annual Work Summary of the Russian Government in 2019" as a study case, and the author uses the existing translation theories and methods as a guide to work on the translation, and summarizes some of his own experiences in the translation process, hoping that this paper can be helpful for the same type of translation research work.
Key Words
Russia;Translation strategies and methods;Political essay;The Annual Summary of government's work
摘要
按照俄罗斯宪法规定，每年春天，俄罗斯国家总理需要向国家杜马作年度政府工作报告，报告内容为俄罗斯过去一年在各个领域政府工作的完成情况、遇到的挑战以及新一年政府的工作计划与目标。俄罗斯政府工作报告是了解俄罗斯发展动态和未来规划的途径之一，是研究俄罗斯的重要文献。这种类型的文本属于政论语体的范畴。因此，掌握政论语体文章的翻译策略和方法非常重要。本文以《2019年俄罗斯政府年度工作总结》为研究语料，作者以现有的翻译理论和方法为指导进行翻译工作，并总结了自己在翻译过程中的一些经验，希望本文能对同类型翻译研究工作有所帮助。
关键词
俄罗斯；翻译策略与翻译方法；政论文；政府工作总结
Title
Analysis of translation strategies and methods for political essays --- A Case Study of Annual Summary of the Russian Government's Work of 2019
Introduction
The form of annual summary of the Russian government's work started in the Soviet period. Since the formation of the Soviet Union, at each congress of the High Council the head of the government would make a summary, which contained information about the situation of the accomplishment of government work and the problems encountered in various areas during the past year, as well as the plans and goals of the government for the new year. Such government summary has continued to the present day in Russia.
The report on the work of the Russian government is not only the routine work of the prime minister, but also one of the ways for Russians and the whole world to understand the development and future of Russia. Thus, the annual government report can be described as an important document for the study of Russia.
The government report belongs to the political essay style. In recent years, the political essay in Russian has been studied in increasing numbers. This mainly includes the following aspects: ①the features of this style; ②stylistics; ③translation strategies from Russian to foreign languages.
Nowadays, quite a few native and foreign researchers are working on the research of this topic. For example, in the thesis " The Pronunciation Features of the political style of speech" the author tells about the heterogeneity of literary language and one of the forms of its existence - the political style of speech and features of the organization of its phonetic varieties; And the article "Structural, semantic and functional features of references in the political style of Russian language" was devoted to the characteristics of speech in publicist articles; also the book "Political style: new features", and a textbook for students "Social-political style of speech" and so on. Meanwhile, the results of Chinese researchers should be noted. For example, Wang Yingying, a graduate student of Heilongjiang University, wrote a paper in which the author summarized the features and ways of translation of phrases and expressions used in political essays. In addition, the textbook "Course of Translation from Russian to Chinese" edited by Cai Yi. In it, many example sentences come from the political essays. (Veshchikova 1994:67)(Cai Yi 2009:23)
The following research methods are used in writing this paper: 1. Gather theoretical materials related to the selected topics; 2. Use relevant books on translation theories and underline specific sentences in the source text that use a particular translation theory; 3. Discover problems, solve problems, and generalize translation experiences.
The paradigm in this paper -- “The Annual Summary of the Russian Government's Work of 2019”.
The object of the paper -- the features of the political essays, translation theories and methods used during the translation of the source text and the experience gained during the translation.
Overview of Annual Summary of the Government's Work
There are three types of government reports:State of the Union address, political speeches, and the report of the government on its performance. The first two began in the United States and the last in the Soviet Union. Since the formation of the Soviet Union, at each congress of the Soviet High Council, the head of the government would make a report that contained information about the situation of the government's work performance and the problems encountered in various areas over the past year, as well as the government's plans and goals for the new year. Such government reports continue to this day in Russia. Such a report on work of the government was learned in our country and has been used since 1954.
Definition of Annual Work Summary by Government
According to the Russian constitution, every spring, the Russian Prime Minister must submit to the State Duma a report on the work of the government in order to detail the performance of various work in the past year, the goals for further development in various areas, as well as the opportunities and challenges faced in the areas like economy, politics, diplomacy, population, education, and so on. The report on the work of the Russian government for the year, as a rule, consists of three parts:
① Overview of the main work of the government of the past year： It is necessary to summarize the main work of the government for the previous year, achievements in various areas and the realization of major goals, and then to detail each specific achievement of the work.
② Work tasks for this year： Draw up the government's work plan in detail for this year and the main goals. At first, explain the main ideas and main tasks of the government's work this year, then divide the work into several categories and explain in detail the measures the government needs to take.
③ The government's own planning: Explain the construction plan for the government.
The features of political essays（Take Chinese government reports for example）
1．At discourse level
①Repeated references to the same things
a. 2010 GWR:积极 45;大力31;全面30;着力16;切实17;有效9;充分8 发展 146，建设87，加强67 促进42
b. 2009 vs 2010: 增强 19-18;加大23-56;加快44-56
②Unnecessary modifiers
a.更加周密地做好应对各种风险和挑战的准备。 Make even more thorough preparations to deal with risks and challenges of all kinds.
b.无比优越 incomparable superiority
c.就事关当今世界、事关双边关系的一些全局性和长期性重大问题深入交换意见. (we)have been engaged in in-depth exchange of views with them on important overarching and long-term issues concerning the world situation and bilateral relations.
d.我们几代、十几代甚至几十代人想的一件事，要做的一件事，是我们100年、1000年也不会动摇的一个方针。 This is what we must focus on and achieve-not just this generation but for generations to come. This is the policy that will not change in 100 years or 1,000 years.
2.At sentence level
①Long sentences
经过三十多年的改革开放，我们从“以阶级斗争为纲”到以经济建设为中心，全面推进社会主义现代化事业;从搞计划经济到推进各方面改革，建立起社会主义市场经济体制;从封闭状态和片面强调自力更生，到实行对外开放、发展国际合作；从以意识形态划线到主张各种社会制度和发展模式和谐生存，全方位发展对外关系，中国的变化可谓天翻地覆。
More than 30 years of reform and opening up has brought about earth-shaking changes in the country: from "taking class struggle as the key principle" to focusing on economic development and building socialist modernization on all fronts, from planned economy to socialist market economy through reform across the board, from a closed society and over emphasis on self-reliance to opening up and international cooperation, from emphasis on ideology in external relations to advocating harmonious co-existence of various social systems and development models and developing external relations in an all-round way.
②Subjectless sentences
如果我们不能很好地处理同外部世界的关系，新世纪头20年由国际形势总体和平，大国关系相对平稳和新科技革命迅猛发展提供的发展机遇就可能丧失。
lf we fail to manage well our relations with the rest of the world, we might miss the development opportunities provided by the overall peace in the world relative stability in relations between major countries and fast progress in new science and technology revolution in the first 20 years of the new century.
③Parallel structure
a.总之，中国人穷日子过得太久了，最大的战略意图就是使自己的日子一天比一天、一年比一年过得好些，希望地球上的人们日子也一天比一天、一年比一年过得好些除此别无他图。
In a word, the Chinese people have suffered long enough from poverty. Our greatest and only strategic intention is to live a better life, where every day is better than the previous one. We wish the same for all the people in the world.
b.买的放心，吃的放心，用的放心。
Buy food and drugs with confidence and consume them with satisfaction
3.At word level
①Unnecessary words
a.经济增速陡然下滑
The pace of our economic growth suddenly slowed down
b.进一步落实好扶残助残的各项政策
Further implement policies for assisting and supporting them
c.注重共同利益、发展共同利益、维护共同利益
We value, develop and protect common interests
②Terms with national characteristics
a.小康社会
well -off/ well-to-do/affluent/comfortable
b.加快全面建设小康社会进程
Pick up the pace of building a moderatly prosperous society in all respects
c.要使中国人民能过上小康社会的生活
To enable the Chinese people to live a comfortable life A society of initial prosperity
d.以求同存
seeking common ground while shelving differences
e.坚持奉行互利共赢的开放战略
we follow the win-win strategy of opening up
③Figurative expressions
a.metaphorical expression
龙头企业—pacesetting enterprise
法宝—key
b.metonymical expression 转喻
米袋子—grain supply
各国唯有同舟共济而不是同舟共“挤”，同舟共渡而不是同舟共“斗”，才有出路。
Countries should consider themselves passengers in the same boat and cross the river peacefully together instead of fighting one another and trying to push one another off the boat.
Source text introduction
On July 22, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin made a speech in the State Duma reporting on the work of the government for 2019.Among the main topics of the speech of the head of the Cabinet of Ministers were the fight against coronavirus infection, support and development of healthcare, education, labor market and housing construction, support of business and backbone enterprises, ensuring macroeconomic and financial stability. Mishustin called the main goal of the government to improve the quality of life of every person in the country. The Prime Minister stressed that the updated Constitution of the Russian Federation increases the responsibility of all branches of power. According to the head of the government, the Russian economy could make a breakthrough, but this was prevented by the pandemic and oil prices.
Strategies and methods used in the translation process
The first requirement for translating works of political style is to faithfully and accurately express the political and ideological content of the original, so that the translation has the same influential function as the original. In this chapter, based on the aforementioned theories and strategies, the author analyzed several translation options using examples from the report.
At Lexical level
Addition
Except for some words with the same meaning, most of the words in the Russian and Chinese languages are not identical in terms of meaning, grammatical function, rhetorical features and usage habits. Due to this situation, when translating, in order to express the meaning of the original text exactly, it is often necessary to add some words and phrases, or even sentences, which are latent in the original text. This is a very common translation technique. The addition of words must be based on the premise of faithfulness to the original text, and the addition of words is never the same as adding meaning. The addition of words is often used in the following cases: (Cai Yi 2009:158)
①If you don't add the word, it doesn't fit the Chinese collocation convention, or the meaning is not clear, or even causes ambiguity; if you don't add the word, the meaning is not clear. For example，Пушкин переведен на многие языки мира. There are two translations of this phrase, the first one is “普希金已经译成了世界上许多种文字”，the second is“普希金的作品已经译成了世界上许多种文字”. In terms of Chinese expression habits, although it can be said that he is reading Pushkin and he is translating Pushkin, at this time Pushkin refers to Pushkin's works. But it cannot be said that Pushkin was translated into a foreign language. Therefore, the first translation violates the expression habits of Chinese. The second translation adds words, but accurately expresses the original text.
②Without adding words, the translation is barely understandable, but adding words can make the translation clearer and more fluent. For example，Критерием мощи армии является её моральный дух. There are also two translations of this phrase, the first one is “军队威力的尺度是士气”，the second is“衡量军队威力的尺度是士气”. Obviously, the second translation is better.
③Without adding words, it would violate logic from the perspective of the translation, and we don’t know what it means. For example，Книга «Остров Сахалин» относится к общественной деятельности Чехова. If we translate this sentence into "《库页岛》一书属于契柯夫的社会活动"，There will be logically unreasonable problems, which makes people feel inexplicable. Why does a book become a social activity? And if we translate this sentence into“《库页岛》一书的写作属于契柯夫的社会活动”，it will be clear at a glance.
To sum the above up, the addition of words is one of the common methods used in the process of Russian-Chinese translation. This method is also frequently used in the process of translating the Work Summary of the Russian Government for the year 2019.
1) Коронавирус сильно изменил рынок труда.
a) 冠状病毒极大地改变了劳动市场。
b) 受新冠疫情影响，我国就业市场发生了极大变化。
2) Россия, ещё раз повторю, сделала это едва ли не первой в мире, чтобы защитить наших людей и выиграть время на подготовку системы здравоохранения к приёму заболевших.
а) 我再一次重申，为了保护我们的人民，为了赢得更多时间来做好卫生体系接收病人的准备工作，俄罗斯几乎是世界上第一个采取这些举措的。
b) 我再一次重申，为了保护我们的人民，为了赢得更多时间来做好卫生体系接收病人的准备工作，俄罗斯几乎是世界上第一个采取这些举措的国家。
3) По мере расширения кризисных явлений также обратили особое внимание на розничную торговлю непродовольственными товарами, сферу культуры и на средства массовой информации.
а) 随着危机影响的加剧，非食品零售贸易，文化和大众传媒领域也得到了关注。
b) 随着危机影响的加剧，非食品零售贸易，文化和大众传媒领域也得到了关注和支持。
4) Я неоднократно встречался с врачами, учёными и экспертами для выработки оптимальной стратегии, алгоритма введения ограничительных мер и последующей их поэтапной отмены.
a) 我与医生、学者、专家们多次会面，力求制定最佳战略和规范限制举措实行及其随后取消的时。
b) 我与医生、学者、专家们多次会面，力求制定出最佳战略，找到规范限制举措实行及其随后取消的时间。
Through comparison, we will find that the second translation is more in line with Chinese expression habits and easier to understand than the first translation. But it should be noted that adding words must match the original text, and adding does not mean adding meaning.
Omission
The omission is just the opposite of the addition mentioned above. In translation practice, it is sometimes necessary to omit individual words of the original text in the translation, otherwise the writing will appear verbose, which does not conform to the expression habits of the translation, and sometimes even affect the exact expression of the original intent. The omission is by no means to reduce the meaning, on the contrary, the omission is to better express the meaning. The subtracted word no longer exists in the translation, but its meaning is still there. Generally speaking, there are fewer cases in which words need to be subtracted in translation. Therefore, it is necessary to be more cautious when subtracting words. Avoid subtracting words and distort the original text. Omission is often used in the following situations: (Cai Yi 2009:165)
① There are words that are not translated, the meaning is already expressed. Instead, translating them makes them seem cumbersome. For example，Тесным кольцом смыкайтесь вокруг ваших знамём! Many people might translate this phrase into“紧密地围成一个圈，团结在你们的旗帜周围！”. But such a translation reads very poorly. So “紧密地团结在你们旗帜周围” is better.
② Some words may be translated in a way that violates the conventions of the target language, or even distorts the original meaning. For example, Интересы увеличения произодства зерна потребовали изменения структуры посевных площадей. There are two translations of this phrase, the first one is “为了提高谷物的产量的利益，需要改变播种面积的结构。”，the second is“为了提高谷物产量，需要改变播种面积的结构。“Obviously, we would not speak Chinese like the first translation.
③ Translate two words into one. For example, Обе резорюции в общем и целом сходятся. In this sentence, we would translate “в общем и целом” into大体上, not 整个大体上.
The lexical omission is exactly the opposite of addition. This method involves ignoring some semantically redundant words in the translation process that do not carry an important semantic content, and their meaning is often comprehensively restored in the translation.
1) Для этого мы ввели мораторий на проведение практически всех проверок предпринимателей
a) 为此，我们采取暂停实施几乎所有对企业家的检查。
b) 为此，我们暂停了几乎所有对企业家的检查。
2) Всего различные формы поддержки на сумму около 600 млрд рублей получили семьи, в которых воспитываются более 26,5 миллиона детей.
a) 共计有抚养2650多万儿童的家庭获得总额约6000亿卢布的各种形式的支持。
b) 共计有2650多万儿童的家庭获得总额约6000亿卢布的各种形式的支持。
Through comparison, we will find that the second translation is simpler and clearer, without being cumbersome. It is definitely not the case that lexical omission is meant to subtract meaning, on the contrary, omission is meant to better express the meaning of the source text. In general, there are fewer cases where a lexical sense needs to be used when translating, so we need to be more careful about the word sense and not distort the meaning of the source text.
At Syntactical level
Combination
The method of combination is used when: there is a close semantic connection between the two statements, the retention of the main or subordinate sentence in a compound sentence is contrary to the rules of the target language (collapsing into a word or phrase) or one of the sentences is grammatically too incomplete to retain its separate reproduction in the translation.（Zheng Zesheng 1981:45）
1) Ситуация осложнилась и тем, что распространение вируса и действия отдельных стран по наращиванию добычи нефти привели к серьёзному дисбалансу на нефтяном рынке. Это вызвало обвальное снижение цен, усилилась волатильность финансовых и валютных рынков, произошёл отток капитала.
а) 新冠病毒的传播和部分国家为增加石油开采量而导致石油市场严重失衡的行为使得情况复杂化。这引发油价暴跌，加剧了金融和外汇市场动荡以及资本外流。
b) 新冠病毒的传播和部分国家为增加石油开采量而导致石油市场严重失衡的行为使得情况复杂化，引发油价暴跌，加剧了金融和外汇市场动荡以及资本外流。
2) Все меры поддержки безработных Правительство распространило и на более чем 13 тысяч индивидуальных предпринимателей, которые были вынуждены закрыть своё дело после 1 марта. Всем им назначено максимальное пособие в размере МРОТ.
а) 政府把失业人员补助举措扩展到3月1日以后被迫停业的1.3万名个体企业家身上。为他们所有人提供相当于最低工资标准的补贴。
b) 政府还扩大失业人员补助范围，向3月1日以后被迫停业的1.3万名个体企业家提供相当于最低工资标准的补贴。
3) Третье. За II квартал и вовсе списали все налоги и страховые взносы. Такую поддержку получили свыше 1,5 млн малых и средних компаний и индивидуальных предпринимателей.
а) 第三，免除第二季度的所有税收和社保费用。有150余万家中小型公司及个体企业家获得这一支持。
b) 第三，免除第二季度150余万家中小型公司及个体企业家的税收和社保费用支出。
Generally speaking, the method of combination is to translate two or more simple sentences together into a single sentence. This method makes the translation concise and easy to understand, and the translation will not be repetitive and verbose.
Division
Division is the opposite of combination, however, whereas combination is often used to avoid repetition, division is used to emphasis the logical and temporary connections between the parts of the text and to make them explicit.(Breus E.V.2002:58)
1)Если отец или мать теряет работу, а в кризис такое, конечно, не редкость, это может обрушить семейный бюджет.
а) 如果父亲或者母亲失业，当然在危机中这种情况并不罕见，那么家庭的收支预算就会崩溃。
b) 如果父亲或者母亲失业，那么家庭的收支预算就会崩溃。这样的情况在危机中并不罕见。
2) Вчера Государственная Дума поддержала в третьем чтении правительственный законопроект, который позволяет бизнесу комфортно переходить с одного налогового режима на другие.
а) 昨天在杜马第三次会议上通过了一项能使企业轻松地从一种税制转变为另外一种的政府法案。
b) 昨天在杜马第三次会议上通过了一项政府法案。该法案能使企业轻松地从一种税制转变为另外一种。
There are many complex and long sentences in the government report, and translating them directly into Chinese can cause some semantic problems. Therefore, using the method of sentence division is very important.
Inversion
Inversion --- A change in the location (order) of linguistic elements in the translation, corresponding to the linguistic elements of the original. The words, word combinations, parts of a compound sentence, elementary sentences within a compound sentence, and independent sentences in the system of a whole text can be subject to permutations.
1) Тем отраслям, которые сильно зависят от потребительского спроса, помогаем через специальные адресные программы.
а) 那些高度依赖消费者的行业，我们通过专门的有针对性的计划来帮助它们。
b) 我们通过专门的有针对性的计划来帮助那些高度依赖消费者的行业。
2) Во-первых, это разработка комплексного механизма поддержки крупных инвестиционных проектов на федеральном и региональном уровнях, в том числе – на основе соглашений о защите и поощрении капиталовложений.
а) 首先，建立综合机制以支持联邦和地区层面的大型投资项目，这是在保护和鼓励投资的基础上。
b) 首先，在保护和鼓励投资的基础上，建立综合机制以支持联邦和地区层面的大型投资项目。
3) Кроме того, мы сориентируем вузы на подготовку квалифицированных кадров в соответствии с потребностями экономики регионов.
а) 除此之外，我们联合大学培养合格人才，根据地区经济发展需求。
b) 除此之外，我们根据地区经济发展需求，联合大学培养合格人才。
There is a big difference in word order between Chinese and Russian. During translation, only by learning to use "inversion" can the translation be close to the original text and easy to understand.
Conclusion
During the translation of the government report, the author learned that the big weakness was a lack of understanding of the differences in expression and word order between Chinese and Russian, a lack of accumulation of some frequently used fixed phrases and collocations, and a lack of literacy about society, culture and customs.
Sometimes every word in the whole sentence is known but the translation in Chinese is not very fluent, even confusing. To solve this problem, it is necessary to clarify the context. There are a lot of long sentences in the government report. The context of the sentence is not very clear. Parallel phrases or predicates are often used to connect components. Therefore, in the translation process, we must first read through the whole text more than once, understand the relationship between the components of each sentence, and then use authentic Chinese expressions to translate it accurately. A government work report is a summary of all aspects of the government's work in the near future, so it has distinctive characteristics of the time. In order to translate the work report better, a thorough understanding of current events is necessary.
By writing this work, the author has accumulated a lot of vocabulary about politics, and at the same time, has a better understanding of the political style and has a deeper understanding of translation theory and methods. The knowledge of translation is becoming richer and the level of translation ability is gradually improving, and the author has also deeply realized that in order to be an excellent translator the following characteristics must be present: a large range of vocabulary, a good understanding of two languages, the ability to express well, insight into current affairs, and the flexibility in the translation process.
Due to the author's lack of translation experience and academic knowledge, there are still shortcomings in this work that await improvement and require further research.
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