HOVOROVÁ REČ ČI LITERÁRNE DIELO? AKO SA VYSPORIADAŤ S METODOLOGICKÝMI ÚSKALIAMI PRI PREKLADE AUGUSTÍNOVÝCH KÁZNÍ

The aim of this article is to define some methodological principles regarding the translation of Augustine’s exegetical homilies from Latin into the Slovak language with the view of the needs of modern recipients. In order to pursue this goal, we have analysed the corpus of Augustine’s Homilies on John’s Gospel (Tractatus in Iohannis Euangelium 1-16) which reflect the real speech of his contemporaries. While doing so we take into consideration not only the contents of homilies but also their formal aspect that very often attracted the hearer’s attention more than the contents itself, and so had both aesthetic and didactic functions at the same time. The proposed methodological principles can thus help translators to make accessible authentic Latin speech in a target language with the use of stylistic means, mainly some figures of speech which facilitate the process of remembering preacher’s message. Moreover, in order to demonstrate what effect this formal aspect of Augustine’s homilies had on his hearers, we have prepared sound records of Augustine’s selected homilies in the Slovak language illustrating his preaching art. The major contribution of the article is thus the new approach toward formal aspect of Augustine’s homilies which has not been dealt with systematically so far in Slovakia.