“Encyclopedia of Russian Life” in Portuguese: Linguocultural Adaptation on Lexical Level

Abstract

The paper focuses on lexical means of representing Russian cultural code in Portuguese translations of A.S. Pushkin’s renowned novel “Eugene Onegin” authored by Dário Moreira de Castro Alves (2008) and Alípio Correia de Franca Neto and Elena Vássina (2019). Specifically, the study examines techniques used by the translators to render culturally marked Russian words into Portuguese. The objective of the study was to determine how Russian realia expressing national cultural practices are reflected in the mirror of the Portuguese linguistic community culture and identify relevant factors affecting translation choices in both versions of the novel. As Portuguese translations of “Eugene Onegin” are relatively new to the global cultural landscape, they become a legitimate interest as an object of comparative analysis in the context of Russian-Brazilian intercultural communication. To conduct the investigation, a parallel Russian-Portuguese corpus was compiled that included fragments containing culturally marked words. The research procedure relied on a set of methods developed for a step-by-step comparative analysis of Russian realia and their Portuguese equivalents registered in the parallel corpus compiled by the authors. The findings suggest that the translators approach the problem of rendering Russian realia from different angles, occasionally displaying antipodal decisions regarding translation strategies. Both versions are not devoid of culturally inappropriate choices of equivalents, which may become an obstacle to adequate perception of the Russian novel by Brazilian readers.