“Topavasar viss pagasts posās kāzām. Un kā nu ne – staltākais un jautrākais puisis Jukums bija mainījis gredzenus ar skaistāko un krietnāko meitu Rozi.”
“It was spring, and the whole village was preparing for the wedding, for it was no ordinary affair: Jukums, the finest and gayest lad for miles around, had exchanged rings with Lily, the sweetest and loveliest of girls.”
Jukums = Jukums – zero translation
Roze = Lily – pragmatic adaptation; the translator chose to change one flower into another, but the story is about how the flower Waterlily was created and in this compound word the second word is lily not as in Latvian rose, and in this case the meaning of the word remains, it would be more awkward and lose the meaning if her name was Rose and in the end people call the flower as Waterlily. So the translator adopted it to the target culture.
“Bet tolaik pa pasauli vēl klaiņoja velns, kas bija gatavs noplēst deviņus pārus pastalu, lai tikai izšķirtu divus laimīgus saderinātos.”
“It was in the days when the Devil still roamed the earth, ready to wear out nine pairs of shoes so long as it led him to a happy couple he could break up.”
Pastalas = shoes – generalization, the word “pastalas” might have been at that time (30 years ago) a cultural untranslatability, this kind of footwear is known to Latvian culture, but the rest of the World might have been unaware of what it is, so it was probably the best to just mention shoes, because the meaning doesn’t change and it is not that important to specify which type of shoes exactly, although nowadays there is a word in English found in dictionaries “pastalas” which has been borrowed from Latvian language.…
