Features of color meanings in the epic and their translation strategies from Yakut into French

The perception of color is formed through the prism of cultural, historical and social characteristics of a particular people. Cultural traditions, religion, lifestyle, and historical experience influence how people perceive and interpret colors, giving them certain symbolic meanings and emotional associations. The article discusses words and phrases with a color designation component, containing national and cultural specifics, and strategies to translate them. The purpose of this study is to identify the features of the color designation of epic texts and strategies of their translation from Yakut into French. The subject of the research is the colorative vocabulary in epic texts and their translation strategies from Yakut into French. The research material was olonkho “Nyurgun Bootur the Swift” by K. G. Orosin and its translation into French by Y. Karro through an intermediary language – Russian, translated by G.U. Ergis, and “Eles Bootur” by P. V. Ogotoev and its translation into French by V. I. Shaposhnikova. The research methods were comparative original and translation, linguistic and cultural analyses. Comparative analysis with elements of cultural analysis was aimed at identifying color-designation lexemes and a comparative analysis of their connotations in the original and translated texts, which revealed cultural differences in the Yakut, Russian and French linguistic cultures. The linguistic method itself allowed us to evaluate the semantic accuracy of the translation and the use of translation strategies. The relevance of the study is due to the fact that the color definitions of epic texts and their translation strategies from Yakut into French did not become the object of special research. The novelty of the research lies in identifying areas of semantic gaps and emphasizing the peculiarities of linguistic worldviews of different cultures. The study revealed that the studied chromatic color definitions in the epic mainly go back to the animal world, in particular, the horse breeding and cattle breeding culture of the Yakuts, which are superimposed on the surrounding space, perception of the image of the world. The color designations of epic texts are culturally determined, which makes it difficult to maintain accuracy and nuances in translation. When translating specific colorative vocabulary, translators resort to substitution and generalization, which leads to a loss of uniqueness and expressiveness of the original. Translating equivalent vocabulary requires the translator to creatively search, use explanatory notes or comments in order to preserve the national flavor. The prospects of the work are determined by the fact that the results obtained can be used in comparative studies devoted to the problems of comparative linguistics, lexicology, anthropology, ethnology, folklore studies, translation studies and the theory of intercultural communication.

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