TRANSLATION CHALLENGES AND STRATEGIES IN CROSS‑CULTURAL EPIC TRANSMISSION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF UZBEK ALPOMISH AND ENGLISH BEOWULF

Abstract

The translation of heroic epics across distant linguistic and cultural boundaries presents unique challenges, as epics encode not only narrative content but also formal poetic features, oral performance traditions, and culture‑specific value systems. This article examines these challenges through a comparative analysis of the Uzbek heroic epic Alpomish and the English epic Beowulf, focusing on the problems and strategies involved in translating each work into the other language. Using a descriptive‑comparative methodology grounded in translation studies (equivalence, cultural adaptation, loss and gain, and domestication vs. foreignization), the study analyzes three levels of translation difficulty: (1) formal poetic features (syllabic metre vs. alliterative verse; rhyme vs. no rhyme; sung vs. recited performance), (2) culture‑specific concepts (comitatus code, lof, hospitality, kinship honour, the miraculous horse Baychibar), and (3) the treatment of supernatural and religious elements (pagan‑Christian syncretism in Beowulf vs. Turkic‑Islamic worldview in Alpomish). The analysis draws on existing English translations of Alpomish (fragmentary) and Uzbek translations of Beowulf, as well as theoretical literature on epic translation. The findings indicate that no single translation strategy can preserve all dimensions of the source text; metrical translation tends to sacrifice lexical accuracy, while prose translation loses the epic’s oral‑performative essence.