Section 4 Comparison of the English gerund and its equivalents in Russian

I’ve found the translation of these books by Shaposhnikova and Ostrovskaya. These books are under the edition of N.Trauberg (19; 20). One can see that the authors of the translation used a free technique of translation without paying any attention to the grammar and Russian equivalents. At first I’d like to consider the translation of the gerund, which is rendered by other Russian parts of speech (21; 22). There are:

Without speaking – молчание,

for looking while – победил,

for not liking – не любит,

she couldn’t help thinking – ей казалось.

Let nothing turn your mind from following the sights! – Не забывай о знаках!

like being in an airplane – напоминал самолет.

The sound of waves breaking on the store was growing louder – Звуки прибоя становились громче.

telling – узнать,

No one suggested doing anything. – Никто не говорил, что делать дальше.

she began groping with their feet – стояла изо всех сил,

buzzing – шепчут.

It’s worse than coming back and finding him dead. – Лучше бы мне знать, что он умер.

opening – отверстие,

saying – послышалось,

trying – учить,

without delivery – не успела,

knowing – запоминание,

looking - отправились,

talking of going to a party – речь шла о гостях,

on saying – заметил,

after changing – другим,

resting on – положил,

sleeping – лечь,

stop beating – не остановилась,

talking of archers – о стрелах,

for being able to shoot – научился стрелять,

walking – поехали,

there is no denying – спору нет,

there was no mistaking – были уверены,

saying – спросил,

without thinking –припомнить,

for not knowing – не помнить,

without knocking - не удариться,

climbing down – по ступеням,

began making tour – стали бежать

he had to keep on pretending-с трудом удержался

looking at-вытаращила глаза

without meaning-не трогать

talking again-вспоминать

vanishing-замечать

feeling-хватать

of finding-выходить

stepping out-оказываться

trying on sound-словно

by jeering-смеяться

getting-брать

of getting-попадать

going-перелетела

of being smooth-не ровняй

bringing-стукать

for keeping-позволять

there was nothing stirring-кругом ни движения

wondering-задал вопрос

before leaving-убежал

thinking-хотелось

bringing-в руках

hearing-разбирать

saying-молчали

on using-тереть

(19, 4 – 121; 20, 5 – 20; 22, 4 – 65; 21, 4 – 35).

One can see a big difference between the gerund and Russian equivalents. The thing is that the translator cannot find a direct way to render what C.S.Lewis meant by these gerunds. The translator should see the meaning of words between lines. There is no gerund in Russian and, maybe, it was case for the translator to say like that. But if the translator followed the grammar, the awkward translation would be.

The gerunds, which the translator couldn’t translate: