In this article, a fragment from the novel “Mērnieku laiki” (‘The Times of the Land Surveyors’, 1879) by Reinis and Matīss Kaudzīte has been compared with its translations in several languages. The chosen fragment contentwise is saturated with elements of gastronomic cornucopia, and most of these and the accompanying phenomena of the imagined honorary feast can be considered utopian in their nature. In addition, the content of the fragment has been dressed in an utterly Rabelaisian language and poetics, and the tone of the fragment is comical as well, – enumeration crammed with hyperboles containing several language layers, which, in turn, serve as evidence about the ideas of the average Latvian peasant about the world beyond the borders of his parish in the middle of the 19th century. It is important to juxtapose this fragment with its translations as the translation of food and drink is not only a problem of literature, but the daily praxis in this regard produces a lot of intercultural misunderstandings. This comparison allows us to see the challenges and difficulties the translators had to encounter. It also allows to make observations about the solutions the translators had to come up with, and the possible effect produced on the target language audience – to what extent it has been successful and to what degree the atmosphere and language portrayed in the fragment by Kaudzītes is adaptable to other cultural spaces. In the article, the translation history of “Mērnieku laiki” has been described, the connections between the comical and gastropoetics in literature and literary studies, as well as the research literature on the translation of these aspects. In the article, the compared texts are the original by Kaudzītes and seven translations – two German, two Russian, two Lithuanian, and one Estonian translation.
When the World Laughs. Film Comedy East and West – William V. Costanzo
