Methods of Translating Non-Russian Proper Nouns Employed in Russian Texts

Abstract

The present article deals with proper noun (PN) translation concentrating on the issue of non-Russian PNs employed in Russian texts. While the Italian translation tradition has in general opted for the method of transliteration of all PNs from Russian Cyrillic regardless of the name origins, a decolonizing approach would be that of considering non-Russian PNs as ‘translated’ terms from a third language. This approach will prove useful in expanding our understanding of how translation (and transliteration) may influence the perception of specific cultural and ethnic contexts embedded within source texts. In this article, examples of Kyrgyz, Armenian, Georgian, Azeri, and Belarusian PNs (from Victoria Lomasko’s The Last Soviet Artist) are provided. Avoiding intermediary translation (transliteration) from Russian Cyrillic, the translator (and author of this article) decided to reconstruct the original PNs encountered in the source text. The article thus discusses the reasons for the employment of such method when approaching PNs that are ‘mediated’ in the context of the source text, showing how this helps in decolonizing translation.