Contrastive analysis of the two translations of Shota Rustaveli’s aphorisms into the English Language

Abstract

Our article is an attempt to represent a contrastive analysis of the two translations of Shota Rustaveli’s aphorisms from his timeless epic poem The Night in the Panther’s Skin  into the English language; those of by Marjory Scott Wardrop and Venera Urushadze.  Our study revealed that though very conscientiously done, both translations lack the lustre and rhyme and rhythm of the poetry of the great poem and the compensation is often rendered on behalf of other stylistic or lexical devices; namely it is alliteration and consonance, parallel structures, in most cases. We have also come to realize that the second translation, by Ms. V. Urushadze is certainly greatly indebted to the first one for both: choice of wording and structure of a phrase. However, it should be noted that Ms. V. Urushadze took more liberty at rendering the aphorisms into English, making them more extended and stylistically more expressive. We hope our little study will be of interest to those individuals who are fascinated by translation challenges and especially that of almost impossible task– translation of great poetry.