Figurative units in Yu Hua’s novel “To Live” and techniques for their translation into Russian

The aim of the research is to identify linguistic similarities and differences in the figurative (metaphorical) systems of the original literary work – the famous novel “To Live” by the Chinese writer Yu Hua (1992) – and its Russian translation. The article describes metaphorical units (phraseological units, proverbs, linguistic and individual-author metaphors, and similes) used by the author and the translator, Roman Shapiro. The work is conducted within linguo-cognitive and comparative frameworks. The scientific originality of the study lies in the fact that, for the first time, metaphorical units have been identified in accordance with the theory of linguistic figurativeness developed by the Tomsk Linguistic School and cognitive theory in both the original and translation of one of the most famous works of contemporary Chinese literature, the novel “To Live”; furthermore, the main techniques for their translation into Russian have been identified. As a result, it was found that both the original and the translation present an artistic picture of the world in which the category of figurativeness plays a significant role. Many metaphorical images created by the writer and the translator are simple and clear, characterized by universality, and can be understood by representatives of different cultures. In total, six main techniques for translating figurative units were identified: direct translation, semantic translation, full substitution of original metaphors with Russian figurative expressions, partial substitution of original metaphors with Russian figurative expressions, addition, and omission.