Adaptation of a sacred text as a versioon of propedevtic approach
It is common knowledge that comprehension of a text written a few centuries ago offers a number of problems for a modem reader, while translation of the text into a different language inevitably bears the traces of the translator’s person al tastes and views and, presumably, cannot be looked upon as an adequate rendering of contents and, especially, style of the original. Taking that into consideration, attention should be drawn to what might be called adaptation, a peculiar sort of translation of the old text into its own language but in its present state. In the present article, adaptations of Scene 1 Act 1 from Shakespeare’s Hamlet are analyzed and compared. The author assumes that adaptation is another genre different from traditional commentaries whose aim is to make comprehension of the Early Modern English text by the modern reader easier. Adapted texts substitute obsolete or rare words by their modern synonyms, bring grammar constructions closer to their modern equivalents, make the syntax more ‘democratic’. Some adaptations may be somewhat akin to digests, but the difference is nevertheless significant, as the goal of the adapted text, unlike that of a digest, is only a thorough juxtaposition of itself and the original, detrimental to the artistic value of the latter. In their turn, digests pursue the idea of offering the reader a shortened version of the text, so that he might get the gist of the plot. Adaptations may be of different sorts, depending on the educational degree of the reader. In Russian translation tradition adaptations are not very popular.