Translation of religious literature into the Yakut language: past and present

The purpose of the article was to highlight the historical periods of the translation of religious literature into the Yakut language and to scrutinize the translation techniques used by S. Leontyeva in her work on the Book of Proverbs of Solomon “Solomuon aman oso”. Translation of religious literature is a very specific niche for ordinary researchers of the Yakut language. Addressed to such philosophical spheres as faith, spirituality, and morality, religious literature is replete with abstract vocabulary, which is difficult to translate as it has a great number of terms. However, over the centuries, each culture has developed its own lexical and semantic systems to designate moral values. But such systems do not always form a coherent system of terminological equivalents pairs of languages. In such a case, translation can clarify equivalents and hone the meanings of abstract vocabulary as translation often opens up new facets of the language. Therein lies the relevance of research of religious literature translations into the Yakut language. Experience in translating religious literature for the past centuries prompts modern translators to choose the grand style of storytelling. A parallel syntax method based on alliteration is used to form such a style. This method is a distinctive feature of Yakut folklore. And the style of folklore (of the heroic epic olonkho in particular) is a naturally developed grand style of the Yakut language. This style is highly sought after in modern language and actively used in fiction. Thanks to the grand style, translations of ancient religious texts are vivid and understandable for a modern Yakut reader, but also have a touch of antiquity due to the distinctive syntax, archaized vocabulary, conventional epithets, etc. The article also shows the adoption of biblical stories in Yakut folklore and literature. The article notes an intricate combination of the traditional epic worldview and biblical plots that result in a tale and are accompanied by humorous commentaries of characters created by Platon A. Oyunsky, a classic author of Yakut literature. “Solomuon Muudarai”, a story by Platon A. Oyunsky, is evidence of the existence of Yakut folklore at the beginning of the 20th century.

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