Problems in translating poetry

What makes a poem so difficult to translate?

1. Linguistic problems may include the collocation and hidden logic which is also called to be non-standard syntactic structure. As for the translation of the collocations, the translated version of the poem should not look awkward to the reader: usually in the English language we say “to make a speech” and not “to say a speech” or “to run a meeting” and not “to do a meeting” and so forth. One thing to keep in mind is that collocations do not really tend to be similar in different languages; conversely, they are differently made and may be used in different ways to mean totally different expressions. Another point to consider in term of linguistic matter is the obscured or hidden (non-standard) syntactic structures. Such kinds of structures may be written in a poem on purpose as a part of the expressive function of the text. For this reason, these kinds of organizations should be rendered as closely as possible. As Hariyanto states, the first step to deal with this problem is to find the deep (underlying) structure. According to Newmark [5; 116], the useful procedure is to find the logical subject first, and then the specific verb. The most important matters are these factors only. Once we discover those two elements, the rest will fall into place.

With regard to the experience of translation from Shakespeare's writings, the Hamlet tragedy was translated into Russian for twenty-one times and translated into the Uzbek language for three times. The first translation was made by Chulpan(1934), the second translation by M.Shaikhzoda(1948) and the third translation by Jamol Kamol(1991). The translation into Uzbek by the Uzbek translators was translated into almost the same from by Chulpan "Yo hayot, yo o'lim, masala shunda", by Jamol Kamol "Yo hayot, yo mamot: masala shundoq". Chulpan took from the copy of M.Lozinskiy in Russian, M.Shaikhzoda's translation is closer to A.Kroneberg's text. Jamol Kamol's translation seems to have been translated from the original. Let's compare three figures of the Hamlet monologue as follows:

...Soft you now! The fair Ophelia! Nymphe in thy orisons Be all my sing remeniber'd

Jamol Kamol's version:

"Bas, kifoya! Ofeliya! Ey, go'zal pari, Bir osiyman duoingda yod ayla meni"

Maqsud Shaikhzoda translated these verses into Uzbek as follows:

"...Endi bas, yetar!"

Or we compare the first chapters of the Othello monologue in the translation of Gafur Gulam and Jamol Kamol. The following origibal version is available:

Soft you, a word or two before you go.

I have done the state some service, and they know it. No more of that...

Gafur Gulam refers to the translation of the above mentioned work from the Russian translation of M.Lozinskiy:

Ozgina to'xtang.

Ketar ekan, ikki og'iz so'zim bor xolos.

Venetsiyaga xizmat qildim-hamma biladi.

Bu to'g'rida shu kifoya.

Jamol Kamol translated from English directly, strives to express the essence and spirit of the work:

"Jindek sabr qilinglar.

Ikki og'iz so'z aytaman ketish oldidan"

I do not want to discourage the translation of the East and West poetry and scholar Gafur Gulam here. The poet tried to bring his translation from Lozinskiy's version in Russian. According to the translators, M.Lozinskiy's translation is one of the closest pieces of the Russian translation of the work. Jamol Kamol has his own translation way directly. Therefore, the meaning of the work in its translation is more clearly stated.