EXPRESSING NATIONAL MENTALITY AND CULTURAL CODE IN TRANSLATION: THEORY, STRATEGIES, AND UZBEK–ENGLISH EXAMPLES

National mentality and cultural code are among the most difficult layers of meaning to carry across languages because they are often implicit, socially shared, and embedded in everyday lexical choices, forms of address, metaphors, and cultural references. This article examines how translators can represent Uzbek national mentality and cultural code in English translation without sacrificing readability or artistic effect. Drawing on well-established cultural frameworks (e.g., Hall’s high-/low-context communication and Hofstede’s national culture dimensions) and on translation-strategy debates (domestication versus foreignization), the paper proposes a practical, text-sensitive approach: preserve culturally central signals and make them interpretable through guided foreignization, selective explicitation, and pragmatic adaptation. UNESCO’s description of “living heritage” is used to highlight why cultural practices and rituals are not decorative details but meaning-bearing cultural knowledge. The analysis demonstrates typical problem areas—realia, politeness systems, kinship-based address, metaphorical evaluation—and offers examples with commentary to show how meaning can be preserved, compensated, or responsibly adapted for English readers.民族心理与文化密码是跨语言传递中最难实现的意义层级之一，因其往往隐含于社会共享的日常词汇选用、称呼形式、隐喻及文化指涉之中。本文探讨译者在将乌兹别克民族心理与文化密码译为英语时，如何在不损害文本可读性与艺术感染力的前提下完成意义呈现。本文依托学界公认的经典文化分析框架（如霍尔的高/低语境传播理论（high-/low-context communication）、霍夫斯泰德的民族文化维度模型）及翻译策略之争（归化domestication与异化foreignization），提出一种文本敏感型实用翻译路径：保留文化核心要素，并通过引导式异化、选择性显化及语用适配使其具备可解读性。本文援引联合国教育、科学及文化组织（UNESCO）对"活态遗产"的定义，阐明为何文化实践与仪式并非装饰性细节，而是承载意义的文化知识。本分析梳理了典型的翻译难题领域——文化专有项（realia）、礼貌用语体系、基于亲属关系的称呼语及隐喻性评价，并辅以带评析的示例，展示如何在面向英语读者的译文中保留原文意义、进行意义补偿或负责任地进行适配调整。