DERKACH OLENA 2025 №7

DERKACH OLENA

a Ph.D. in Philology, an associate professor at the Slavic Philology Department of the Educational and Scientific Institute of Philology of Taras Shevchenko Kyiv National University (Kyiv, Ukraine).

ODCID ID: https://orcid.org/0009-0000-7558-1610

The article is dedicated to the study of the lexical and stylistic features of the Ukrainian translation of the novel “Red Water” by the contemporary Croatian writer Jurica Pavičić. The aim of the research is to identify the ways of conveying the national and cultural specificity and the author’s individual style in Ukrainian translation, as well as to determine the main translation strategies that ensure the adequacy and artistic integrity of the text.

The relevance of the study is caused by the lack of systematic works devoted to the Croatian–Ukrainian field of translation studies. Unlike numerous research based on English or German materials, the translation of contemporary Croatian prose into Ukrainian has not received sufficient scholarly attention yet. Moreover, there is a need for a deeper investigation of modern Croatian–Ukrainian interliterary contacts, particularly in the field of literary translation. Against the background of the growing cultural dialogue between Ukraine and the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe, just translation is considered as a mediator in forming a shared European cultural space. Pavičić’s novel “Red Water” is one of the most notable examples of modern Croatian prose, combining social-psychological, detective, and moral-philosophical issues. Its Ukrainian translation provides an opportunity to analyze both linguistic and stylistic techniques and also the ways in which cultural codes are transferred into a new national context.

The main aspects of the lexical and stylistic organization of the translation are analyzed in the article: the rendering of culturally marked vocabulary (toponyms, gastronomic realities, brand names), the preservation of foreign-language insertions, and the reproduction of anthroponyms and national speech forms. The principles of a translation strategy tending to combine moderate foreignization with elements of adaptation, are considered. The preservation of Croatian proper names, ethnorealities and lexemes with local cultural marking ensures the authenticity of the text, while partial grammatical and stylistic adaptation facilitates comprehension for the Ukrainian reader.

The stylistic analysis has shown that the Ukrainian translation retains the rhythm, emotional restraint, and polyphony of the original. Short phrases, repetitions, ellipses, and “semantic obscuration” reproduce Pavičić’s cinematographic style. The retention of sociolects and dialectal elements, as far as possible, contributes to the linguistic authenticity of the translated text. Thus, the translation of “Red Water” can be regarded as an example of a balanced translation strategy combining lexical precision and stylistic adequacy while preserving the national color and artistic impact of the original. The results of the analysis indicate that the Ukrainian version of “Red Water” demonstrates a high level of professional skill and equivalence. It may be considered as a successful example of inter-Slavic literary translation, where a balance between accuracy, stylistic correspondence, and cultural authenticity is achieved. The importance of modern Croatian–Ukrainian translation as an integral part of the process of European cultural integration and the mutual enrichment of Slavic literatures is emphasized in the work.

Keywords: Jurica Pavičić, literary translation, lexical peculiarities, stylistic features, foreignization, Croatian–Ukrainian translation, cultural specificity.

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