Equivalence at Word Level in the Translation of Boris Pasternak’s Novel “Doctor Zhivago” from Russian to Turkish Language

Özet

Boris Pasternak (1890-1960)’s Nobel-winning novel “Doctor Zhivago” was first translated from Russian to Turkish in 2014. The published work has been praised on a number
of occasions.
This article studies the translated work in the context of equivalence at word level. It was found out that quite a number of similar words in the source text were mistranslated.
The content of this article, therefore, has been limited to include samples that cause problems of equivalence at word issues due to similarity.
The problems were identified to be emerging from Russian words that gained new meanings with the addition of prefixes, homophones, and similar words that are formed
by similar letters.
The article may be beneficial to translators who will do literary translations, and researchers studying the field of translation between Russian and Turkish. It may also
contribute to a better translation of this significant novel’s future editions if the semantic ‘mistakes’ are eliminated.
Keywords: B. Pasternak, Doctor Zhivago, Equivalence at Word Level, Literary Translation,
Misconception of Similar Words, Translation from Russian to Turkish