SECTION 2. Translation features of 'nadsat' language in the novel A clockwork orange by Anthony Burgess

2.1.1. What is the novel “A clockwork orange” and the meaning of “nadsat” language by Anthony Burgess

"A clockwork Orange" is a novel by English writer Anthony Burgess, written in 1962. The book became one of the most popular works of English literature during his lifetime, was once listed as the best novels of English and English literature (100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005 under the version of "Time"; 100 best English-language novels of the XX century. Rated "Modern Library ", etc.) and withstood 330 editions [Worldcat]. A screen 185 Stanley Kubrick was one of the most popular films 70s and was sprinkled with awards and nominations. The most famous feature of the novel is called "nadsat" - teenage language, invented by Anthony Burgess - unique, along with the "Newspeak" of George Orwell, the phenomenon of the literature that is extremely interesting in terms of translatability. In the philological tradition of English-speaking countries there are a number of terms for artificial language "nadsat": the slang of A clockwork orange [Cain 2006, 28], argot [Evans 1971, 5], nadsat talk [Watts] and so on.

Investigated slang "nadsat" based on the use of foreign words, incomprehensible English reader. The most famous Burgess invented word - "horrorshow", a request which we find in Google results and 780.000 which devoted an article in an online dictionary "Urban Dictionary" [Urban Dictionary]. Russian was the main source for "nadsat", but also includes slang borrowed from Yiddish, French, cockney rhyming slang, etc. Burgess wanted to create a modern novel that would not lose the freshness and for decades after. Linguist by training, he understood the seamless nature of slang: Modern slang early 60s seem outdated and clumsy in ten years, it will be for the reader "speech mom and dad." Slang name "nadsat", which is used only teenagers, are a copy of the English "teen": "eighteen" - "vosemnadtsat." Originality and most importantly, recognition of "nadsat" language has long been a business card of "A clockwork Orange" and of Anthony Burgess: slang left the physical limits of the book and took place in the world of youth culture (music bands "Moloko", "Devotchka", "Campag Velocet", Liverpul bar "Korova", cocktail "Moloko Plus" and many others).

Let’s note that Anthony Burgess has never published a dictionary of slang invented by his own because, he said: "The events described in this novel, you don’t have to understand, but to feel." [A Guide to Nadsat Talk]. Therefore, the translator must get into the spirit of the original, to understand its stylistic and architectural plan and try to achieve the same in the translation impact that had on the original British audience. Actuality is due to the general trend of contemporary Translation Studies research for multidimensional analysis of literary text. Also let’s note that in the Ukrainian studies the features of translation of individual style of E. Burgess are unknown.

2.1.2. A guide to Nadsat talk in Anthony Burgess “A Clockwork Orange”

"’Oh that,’ I said, ‘is what we call nadsat talk. All the teens use that, sir’" Alex (Burgess, A Clockwork Orange 167).

Throughout Anthony Burgess’ novel A Clockwork Orange, the main character and his " droogs " speak in a new and entirely unheard of dialect (as of 1962, when the book was published). This dialect was created especially for the book itself in what Burgess called an "exercise in linguistic programming" (Burgess 38), and it was later popularized by Stanley Kubrik’s film interpretation of the book. What makes Nadsat so interesting is that it is still a recognizable form of English, not an entirely new language. Such examples of entirely invented languages may be found in books such as J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings series, or even in video games, such as Final Fantasy X’s Al Bhed language. Nadsat, however, is more reminiscent of George Orwell’s Newspeak from 1984. This essay will be an investigation of Nadsat’s lexicon and morphology. It will also examine Nadsat’s history, construction, and use of cockney (rhyming slang) in an effort to show that it is both similar to and different enough from English to be a dialect of its own. Above all, I would like to show that Nadsat could conceivably still grow and be used; that its construction allows for it to be expanded upon, making it a viable English dialect. It may be practical to have Stanley Edgar Hyman’s A Nadsat Glossary (printed in the 1963 edition of A Clockwork Orange) near at hand for quick referencing.

In his autobiography, Anthony Burgess relates that Nadsat developed as a result of a number of factors. First and foremost was a group of British teens in the late 1950’s called the Edwardian Strutters. "These were youths dressed very smartly in neo-Edwardian suits with heavy soled boots and distinctive coiffures" (26). The British teens, who were prone to violence, inspired not only the look and behavior of the main character, Alex, but they later gave Burgess a blueprint by which he constructed Nadsat. He knew that charactars’ manner of speaking would have to match their exterior to be believable, and after trying to impose the slang of the 1960’s on his novel, he scrapped it and decided to invent his own. "The story had to be told by a young thug of the future, and it had to be told in his own version of English. [] It was pointless to write the book in the slang of the early sixties: it was ephemeral like all slang and might have a lavender smell by the time the manuscript got to the printers" (27). Several years passed, and the manuscript lay dormant; that is until Burgess began to relearn Russian for a vacation he and his wife were planning. One day while poring over the Cyrillic alphabet, the solution came to him: "The vocabulary of my space-age hooligans could be a mixture of Russian and demotic English, seasoned with rhyming slang and the gypsy’s bolo" (37). From this series of events, the foundation of Nadsat was born. Its final product, as found in A Clockwork Orange, held surprisingly true to that first vision.

Nadsat relies heavily on a number of modified Russian loan words. There are about two hundred direct loan words in A Clockwork Orange, and even the name Nadsat is taken from the Russian numeric suffix equivalent to the English -teen (ex. seventeen). In producing his dialect, Burgess relied heavily on the phonetics (sounds) of the Cyrillic words rather than their actual English translations. For example, one Nadsat term which may seem like an English composition, "horrorshow," actually stems from the Russian word for good; khorosho. In this same manner many of the Russian loan words became something of an English-Russian hybrid, with Russian origins, but English spellings and pronunciations. When studying the application of this process, we find that Nadsat occasionally takes on new and entertaining meanings such as the Russian word for people, lyudi, being transliterated to the English "lewdies". However, many of Burgess’ loan words, such as devochka (woman) and droog (friend) maintained both their relative spelling and meaning over the course of translation.

As stated above, Nadsat had more influences than Russian alone. Burgess cites one of these as some kind of gypsy dialect. Nadsat terms such as "dook" (ghost) and "cutter" (money) may have their roots in the gypsy dialect, however there are Russian and English equivalents that the words may also have been parented from. The Russian word, (dukh English equivalent) means literally "soul", while in some English gypsy dialects "dook" denotes anything magical. A consensus on close matters such as this are impossible to come to, but it is possible that some of the manners of speech used, such as "O my brothers", may also have been derived from a regional nomadic dialect.

Some general guidelines for Nadsat’s grammatical layout are laid out concisely by Rita Gladsky. She states that, "[Burgess] limits the use of Nadsat vocabulary to concrete nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Second, he retains in English all connectors, referents, transition words and other cohesive elements. And third he always places Nadsat vocabulary within familiar linguistic environments and reduces the possibility of ambiguity" (44). In addition, Nadsat’s English slang is constructed with common language formation techniques. Some words are blended, others clipped, and still more compounded. All of these techniques reflect what seems to be one of the driving focuses of Nadsat as a whole; a strive for economy. In the cant of Alex and his friends, a fit of laughter becomes a "guff" (shortened version of guffawing); a skeleton key becomes a "polyclef" (many keys); and the state jail becomes the "staja." Many common English slang terms are simply shortened. One such figure of speech, which refers to a cigarette as a "cancer stick" is shortened to just "cancer." This economical use of words also carries over to the Russian loan words; many of the longer ones are also clipped or shortened to have either a more economic sound, spelling, or number of syllables.

Paradoxically, another of Burgess’ main foci is aestheticism. The English language is manipulated and archaized in an effort to make it more lyric; a venture only too appropriate for Nadsat’s reckless and extravagant speakers. Unlike the modifications made to English and Russian loan words, however, there doesn’t seem to have been any effort to economize the spelling or use of these antiquated words. Examples of the jargon’s archaisms are rampant throughout A Clockwork Orange, especially when either two Nadsat-acquainted teens are speaking to each other, or a Nadsat speaker is addressing someone of authority in a disrespectful tone. The following examples were uttered by Alex himself; first to his father, then to a friend, "'[]O my father,’ I said. ‘Fear not. He canst taketh care of himself, verily’," (Burgess 49) and "’Never fear. If fear thou hast in thy heart, O brother, pray banish it forthwith’"(21). Thee and thou are used excessively in the speaking of Nadsat, and one hint as to the reason for this can be found, again, in Anthony Burgess’ auto biography. "[I tried] to devise new rhythms and resurrect old ones, chiefly from the King James Bible, to accommodate the weird patois" (Burgess, You’ve Had You’re Time 38). If his goal was to create "weird patois", then Burgess achieved exactly what he intended; a strange mixture of invented neologisms and archaic words.

Even more estranged from its drive for economy, especially when assimilating loan words, is Nadsat’s use of lengthy, infantilized terms. These invented words are referred to as "schoolboy transformations" in Hyman’s glossary. These "schoolboy transformations" are most easily applied to one syllable words with a short vowel. First, the long e sound () is attached to the end of the word. A copy of the original word is placed after the (), however, a [w] replaces the first letter if it is a consonant, or precedes it if it’s a vowel. For example, in Nadsat talk the word egg becomes eggiweg, bad becomes badiwad, and school becomes skolliwoll. Of course, these are some of the more simple conversions; the conversion formula is only a guideline, as several exceptions exist in the book itself.

Schoolboy transformations seem to be used more or less arbitrarily in Nadsat talk; however, they are often employed sardonically to make light of authority figures, or in violent situations, as a kind of sadistic irony. An example can be found in Stanley Kubrick’s film, A Clockwork Orange. The main character finds himself in a hospital, finally free of the conditioning that prevented him from expressing violent desires. When asked what feelings a picture of a nest with eggs in it are inspired in him he replies, "Eggiwegs. I would liketo smash ’em!" These schoolboy transformations seem to reflect an overall fascination with the rhyming and reduplication of words. "Welly welly welly well," "hi hi hi," and other such reduplications run rampant throughout the book.

The rhyming devices we have just discussed are part of a greater dominating factor that plays a large part in the Nadsat dialect: rhyming slang, which is often associated with England’s Cockney speech. Cockney culture, and rhyming slang itself for that matter, are themselves enormous subjects, however, a rudimentary idea of what they are will be sufficient to understand their relevance to Nadsat talk. According to Antonio Lillo, "[I]t is generally agreed that [rhyming slang’s] origins go back to mid-nineteenth century English, where it emerged as a secret language among the London lower classes (hence the common label ‘Cockney rhyming slang’)" (336). In its very simplest form, rhyming slang is accomplished when, according to the OED, "a word is replaced by a phrase which rhymes with it." If we wanted to replace the word ‘booze’ in the phrase, "I need a shot o’ booze," we simply take any rhyming phrase, such as "Tom Cruise", and use it to replace the word.

Ideally, however, rhyming slang replacements have some bearing to the word they are taking the place of. A clever example of rhyming slang in A Clockwork Orange is the use of the word ‘sinny’ to replace the word ‘cinema.’ Rhyming slang and its origins become further complicated when the replacement phrase is shortened, especially when the non-rhyming part of the slang survives. Our phrase becomes, "I need a shot o’ Tom," and, as is common to Cockney, only those within the dialect understand its connotations. Like any dialect, outside readers/listeners must extract the general meaning of a colloquialism as best they can, or have it explained to them. In Burgess’ book we are almost exclusively required to do the former, as Alex gives us no quarter in his use of slang. For example, he uses performer Charlie Chaplain’s name as a substitute for the job title of a priest, also known as a chaplain.

The linguistic traits we have examined up to this point indicate that Nadsat is an organic, functional dialect, capable of growth and expansion; not just a compendium of words and phrases. It is important to note that this theory is not only supported linguistically, but authorially as well. Burgess was violently opposed to the concept of a Nadsat glossary. The glossary printed in the 1963 American edition of A Clockwork Orange, written by Stanley Edgar Hyman, was included by American publishers (obviously confident in their audience’s intellect) against Burgess’ wishes. The glossary was eventually removed with the inclusion of the 21st chapter of the book, which publishers had also conscientiously cut for their American audiences.

Though it may not be widely used, the historical, semantic, and phonological traits of Nadsat give it the capacity to be a valid dialect. The elements of a dialect are there: it is a modified English, yet it is still within understanding; unknown words can be understood through context; it is capable of growing, changing, being created. Burgess’ opposition to the inclusion of a glossary indicates that he hadn’t meant the A Clockwork Orange’s unique jargon to be a mere lexicon of invented and borrowed words, but a dialect unto itself. It is the author’s willingness to bend and explore within and outside of his own guidelines which shows that Nadsat can still live and breath. In parting, I would just like to say, don’t be like the milenky bratchnies with their bolshy chepooka gullivers who would leave Nadsat for deadwidead.

2.2. The translation of the “nadsat” language into Russian by V. Boshniak and E.Sinelshikov

Let’s consider the strategy used by V. Boshnyak and E. Synelschykov that translated the novel into Russian, which was the source of slang for a writer.

Vladimir Boshnyak rewrote most of the words "nadsat" so that they are clear to the Russian reader ("deng" → "babki"), but a part of the author's words are preserved ("ptitsa").

Fictional language in its translation has been written with English letters:

Our pockets were full of deng, so there was no real need from the point of view of crasting any more pretty polly to tolchock some old veck in an alley and viddy him swim in his blood while we counted the takings and divided by four, nor to do the ultra-violent on some shivering starry grey-haired ptitsa in a shop and go smecking off with the till's guts [Burgess 1986, 5].

Карманы у нас ломились от babok, а стало быть, к тому, чтобы сделать в переулке toltshok какому-нибудь старому hanyge, obtriasti его и смотреть, как он плавает в луже крови, пока мы подсчитываем добычу и делим ее на четверых, ничто нас, в общем-то, особенно не понуждало, как ничто не понуждало и к тому, чтобы делать krasting в лавке у какой-нибудь трясущейся старой ptitsy, а потом rvatt kogti с содержимым кассы [Бошняк 1991, 1].

Another translation suggests Eugene Synelschykov. According to the author, " я попытался передать "надсадский" язык русских тинэйджеров – смесь молодежных сленгов 60-х – конца 80- х годов, где доминируют словечки английского происхождения" [Синельщиков 1991, 82].

On his translation had the greatest impact slang of Soviet hippie and mod:

Then there was the starry very grim magistrate in the lower court govoreeting some very hard slovos against your Friend and Humble Narrator, after all the cally and grahzny slander spat forth by P.R.Deltoid and the rozzes, Bog blast them... [Burgess 1986, 44].

Старый веник судья в Суде низшей инстанции произносил гневные спичи. Ему вторили П.Р.Дельтува и копполы, выступавшие в качестве свидетелей.[Синельщиков 1991, 21].

Typically, Eugene Synelschykov does not adhere to the original "nadsat" and uses it, guiding the principles of convenience, relevance, rhythm and to achieve comic effect.

Reproducing slang "nadsat", translator mostly uses the method of compensation:

The four of us were dressed in the height of fashion, which in those days was a pair of black very tight tights with the old jelly mould … then we wore waisty jackets without lapels but with these very big built-up shoulders...

[Burgess 1986, 5].

Весь мой кодляк дресст по последней фэшн – в черных, облегающих, как вторая кожа, багги-уош. Приталенные куртецы без сливзов, но с огромными накладными шоулдерами почти вдвое увеличивают размах наших далеко не хилых плеч [Синельщиков 1991, 68].

So the translators have gone radically different ways: Vladimir Boshnyak chose the foreignization (estrangement) and Eugene Synelschykov – domestication.

The same sentence Synelschykov Eugene translates as follows:

Около стойки на вращающихся стульчиках сидят три герлы, но нас четверо, а закон стаи суров: ван фор ол, и все за одного

[Синельщиков 1991, 1].

Here slang word 60s «devotchkas» is translated with the other slang 60s «герлы».

As already noted, the author of the novel had not used any existing slang in the book in order to avoid any time, local or subcultural associations.

Reading this translation, we seemed transported to "Broadway" era of Beatlemania, mod and hippie era - peace subcultures, to some extent complete antipodes gang of heroes of the novel.

A hint does not notice onle the young reader, who is unfamiliar with Soviet life 60's and 70's.

Translator reproduce a wordplay partly with the transliteration, in part using the slogan of the novel of the Musketeers, resulting in the loss of any comic effect.

It should be noted that the translation by Synelschykov could be considered from the other side, namely, that his translation is a common reflection of a masterplan of Burgess. The author wrote the book in English and uses Russian words to create slang and translator reproduces the book in Russian and uses English words to reproduce " nadsat ".

Now let’s consider the translation of this sentence by Vladimir Boshnyak:

За стойкой рядышком сидели три kisy (девчонки, значит), но нас, patsanov, было четверо, а у нас ведь как – либо одна на всех, либо по одной каждому [Бошняк 1991, 1]

The translator typically replaces a russian slang of Burgess with the words "devochky" → " kisy ", "boys" → " patsany. " For recognition of all the words the translator of "nadsat" writes the transliteration. Vladimir Boshnyak reflects only one side of the play on words, but he does it funnier than other interpreters: " one for all and all for one " → “ одна на всех, либо по одной каждому ".

It should be noted that the category of gender in Ukrainian and in Russian languages makes it impossible to keep completely original play of words.

The task of translators was to recreate the youth slang "nadsat", firstly, preserving where possible the author's intent, creating a certain word, secondly, to translate slang so that was achieved the same recognition and uniqueness of slang, as in text, original, save the inherent color.

2.4. The translation of the “nadsat” language into Ukrainian by Butsenko

The novel was translated into Ukrainian by ukrainian translator Alexander Butsenko.

At first the translation has been published in the magazine "Universe" 1990. Number 5.

Let’s just see the way of Ukrainian translation:

'What's it going to be then, eh?

There was me, that is Alex, and my three droogs, that is Pete, Georgie, and Dim, Dim being really dim, and we sat in the Korova Milkbar making up our rassoodocks what to do with the evening, a flip dark chill winter bastard though dry. The Korova Milkbar was a milk-plus mesto, and you may, O my brothers, have forgotten what these mestos were like, things changing so skorry these days and everybody very quick to forget, newspapers not being read much neither. Well, what they sold there was milk plus something else. They had no licence for selling liquor, but there was no law yet against prodding some of the new veshches which they used to put into the old moloko, so you could peet it with vellocet or synthemesc or drencrom or one or two other veshches which would give you a nice quiet horrorshow fifteen minutes admiring Bog And All His Holy Angels and Saints in your left shoe with lights bursting all over your mozg. Or you could peet milk with knives in it, as we used to say, and this would sharpen you up and make you ready for a bit of dirty twenty-to-one, and that was what we were peeting this evening I'm starting off the story with.’ [Burgess 1986, 1].

— То що ж далі, га?

Ми, тобто я, Алекс, і три мої кенти — Піт, Джорджі й Дим (цей справді-таки був дурний, як дим), сиділи в молочному барі «Корова», напружуючи ізвіліни, чим би його заповнити вечір і оту лайняву зимову холодну мерзоту (добре хоч без дощу). Бар «Корова» був молочно-плюсовим мєстом; ви, братва, мабуть, уже й забули, що воно таке, оті мєста, адже світ міняється дуже бистро, і всі про все забувають миттю, а газет однаково ніхто не читає. Так от, у тому барі подавали молоко — і плюс до нього. Дозволу на продаж спиртного вони не мали, але закон тоді ще не забороняв нові вєщі, отож вони додавали скільки завгодно всякої дряні у звичайнісіньке молоко: ви могли пити його з «колесами», «хімією», «дуром» чи таким іншим, хапати кайф і чверть години споглядати на кінчику свого лівого черевика господа Бога з його небесним військом і всіма святими, аж поки яскраві спалахи осявали ваш мозг. Або ж пити молоко з «бритвочками», як ми це називали; воно заводило нас і підштовхувало трохи попаскудити, наче зіграти в очко. Саме таке молочко ми й хлебтали того вечора, що оце з нього я починаю свою оповідь.

[Буценко 2004, 1].

The Ukrainian translation of Alexander Butsenko transfers "nadsat" with the Russian words, written by Ukrainian letters:

I do not wish to describe, brothers, what other horrible veshches I was like forced to viddy that afternoon [Burgess 1986, 61].

Не хочу змальовувати, братики, інші жахливі вєщі, що їх мене примусили посмотрєть того дня [Буценко 2004, 37].

The Russian language isn’t considered alien to the average inhabitant of Ukraine, that’s why A. Butsenko doesn’t translate the slang into Ukrainian. So perhaps the translator has chosen an intermediate path between the two types of translation, which can be characterized as estrangement and domestication.

Let’s consider a reproduction of the “nadsat” on example of one more sentence:

There were three devotchkas sitting at the counter all together, but there were four of us malchicks and it was usually like one for all and all for one [Burgess 1986, 6].

Біля стойки сиділи рядком три дєвочкі, але ж нас, мальчіков, було четверо, і ми дотримувалися правила: один за всіх, усі за одного [Буценко 2004, 1].

In this fragment, the word "devotchkas" and "malchicks" transferred using transliteration of Ukrainian letters of words: "дєвочкі" та "мальчіков".

This method allows the reader to understand the meaning of the expressions "nadsat" and facilitates the perception of the work, although it is a departure from the original author's intention, as we have already mentioned, Anthony Burgess originally left all his invented words without explanation.

Russian words written with Ukrainian alphabet, create the impression of doublespeak, lack of culture, marginality, whereas in the original - mystery, secrecy, arrogance and challenge to the social norms. In general, the person who reads a novel Ukrainian, will has the same combination of feelings to the media "nadsat", if he or she read it in the original: disgust and empathy, interest overtly negative heroes.

However, the author of the translation decided to concede mystery and to convey "nadsat" in a funny way. Translator offers a similar version of the original, but adapted to the Ukrainian reality. Because "nadsat" occupies an intermediate position between Russian and English, as well as doublespeak is somewhere between the Ukrainian and Russian. As in the original, foreign inclusions are distinguished from other normative text, remember, prominently and seem something mysterious.

This example is also interesting for it’s play of words: the phrase "one for all and all for one" may refer to women (eg, "одна на всіх і всі на одну") and a gang of teenagers as Alexander Butsenko which reproduced the phrase famous slogan Musketeers. Let’s note that the gang members, known as the musketeers were four.

2.4. Analysis of the ways of translations of the novel

“A clockwork orange” into Ukrainian and Russian

Authors of translations of the novel guided such translation strategies: Alexander Butsenko (Ukrainian translation) transliterated Russian counterparts of "nadsat" using the Ukrainian alphabet, Eugene Synelschykov (Russian translation) replaced the words "nadsat" with Russian words, while the Russian translation of Vladimir Boshnyak includes a combination of two approaches: some of the original words he leaves, and some – he replaces with modern Russian slang.

A distinctive feature of all three translations have the desire to convey "nadsat" humorous, not as a secret language, designed as Burgess. As a result, translators create a sort of funny slang, not incomprehensible argot.

Words Slang "Nadsat", according to the classification by A. Yurovsky, can be divided into four groups. Below is a comparative analysis of translations of V.Boshnyak, E. Sinelshchikov and A. Butsenko on the basis of this classification:

1. Words which are borrowed in direct way and changed in accordance with the rules of English grammar:

2. Words that are subjected to reduction:

3.The combination of Russian (Ukrainian) and English morpheme:

a. Start of the first word and complete the second word:

b. Words formed with the help of compounding:

c. Borrowing a root parts of words from other languages:

4. Copyright occasionalisms:

a. Words with truncated central part:

b. Words formed with the help of compounding:

c. The words formed on the basis of the London Cockney:

Comparative analysis of two translations of the novel shows that option B. Boshnyak is the closest to the original, as transliterated words convey more emotional background "Nadsat". Thus, we can conclude that the translation of literary texts should take into account not only the nominative function of words, but also their capacity for emotional impact on the recipient.