An Analytical Study of Arabic Culture-bound Expressions in (Ziqaq Al-Midaq) by Najeeb Mahfooz With Reference to Translation (original) (raw)

The Difficulties in Translating Culture-Specific Expressions from Arabic into English

Journal of Education and Practice, 2019

This paper examines the problems faced by undergraduate students in Jordan majoring in translation when translating culture-specific expressions from the Arabic language into the English language. To attain this aim, 11 B.A translation students were given twenty cultural expressions to translate them from Arabic into English. These expressions were taken from volume two of the Jordanian Arabic novel "Mudun al-milh" (Cities of Salt) by Dr. A Munif. The findings show that the participants encounter various types of problems when translating these expressions. These problems are frequently related to; 1. unsuccessful attempts to attain the equivalent in the English language, and 2. inadequate knowledge in translation techniques and translation strategies. This study concludes with some recommendations, including providing at least two courses that deal with cultural differences, cultural awareness, and cultural knowledge, particularly in the academic programs that qualify translators.

Contrastive Analysis of Culture-Specific Items in Two English Translations of “Zuqaq El Midaq” by Naguib Mahfouz

CDELT Occasional Papers in the Development of English Education

This paper seeks to investigate how Culture-specific Items (CSIs) are translated in the two English translations of the Arabic novel "Zuqaq El Midaq" or "Midaq Alley" by the renowned Egyptian novelist and Nobel-Prize laureate, Naguib Mahfouz (1947). The first translation is released by British scholar and translator, Trevor Le Gassick, in 1966. The novel was then retranslated in 2011 by British translator, Humphrey Davies. These two translations are selected because of the 50-year-long distance between them, which would enable the researcher to explore whether or not the lexical choices and translation strategies in both versions changed linguistically over time. The study applies Lawrence Venuti's (1998) model of domestication and foreignization, and Peter Newmark's (1988-1995) taxonomy of 18 strategies to facilitate the translation of CSIs. The researcher added two translation procedures are omission and mistranslation. The selected CSIs will be examined in terms of the categories set by Newmark (1988), and Espindola and Vasconcellos (2006), along with the model set by Linda Alkhawaja (2014). The study concludes that Le Gassick's translation tends to be more domesticated than foreignized except in very few subcategories. However, Davies' translation tends to be more foreignized when compared to Le Gassick's. A Contrastive Analysis of Culture-Specific Items in Two English Translations of "Zuqaq El Midaq" by Naguib Mahfouz (284)

Translation and Cultural Equivalence: A Study of Translation Losses in Arabic Literary Texts

Journal of Universal Language

This article focuses on cultural translation, especially addressing the issue of cultural inequivalences or losses occurring in the translation of Arabic literary texts. The aim of this study is to investigate the translation strategies that led to cultural losses and to emphasize the important role of the translator as a cultural insider. The corpus is based on a collection of Arabic short stories written by Youssef Idris (1991). In order to illustrate cultural aspects in literature, we analyze figurative language (metaphors, idiomatic expressions, proverbs) in two texts: Arabic (the source text) and English (the target text). We argue that figurative language and cultural terms are unfamiliar and so are marked to the target reader on the grounds of the unmarked and should be looked at from the perspective of a cultural insider. The data is analyzed within Pike's (1954) etic-emic approach to translation. The analysis has shown that translation of the source text was communicatively successful. However, it failed to represent the culture-bound and emotionally charged words which represent the implicit/emic level of the source text. The translator has failed to complete the cycle of etic-emic-etic, and so remained an outsider to both the source and target texts. The study * This article is based on a 2004 PhD dissertation. 8 Translation and Cultural Equivalence: A Study of Translation Losses concludes with the implication that a translator has to assume the role of a cultural insider for both texts in order to render a culturally more faithful translation.

The Cultural Problems in Translating a Novel from Arabic to English Language

A lot of translations of many novels are resulting in books different from the original. We see a plot begins to go in a different direction, and the main character is developing into a whole different person. When we say translating, some people thought it is a word for word, others say it is a creative work done without following the original text; and this work gives the target text a life of its own. But to describe the same thought in a different language seems to give it a whole different life that is richer and more creative. How can we translate novels correctly ? Word for word or meaning to meaning? How far can the translator go before we can call this translation an original? And can we? In this paper, we are going to investigate the translating of an Algerian Novel from Arabic language into English language. The focus of the study is twofold: What are the cultural problems the translator can face in his/her translation? How can he/she domesticate the target text? And is the foreignisation a solution in translation?

A Cultural Approach to Translating Arabic Literary Works with reference to Cairo Trilogy I (Palace of Desire)

مجلة کلية الآداب, 2020

Different cultures have many different manifestations that represent the various aspects of the society (e.g. traditions, habits, behaviors, etc.). Due to differences across cultures, meanings and concepts vary across divergent cultures, too. The most obvious points of this divergence appear in extralinguistic cultural markers that result in difficulties in rendering meanings and concepts from one language into another. So, this study investigates the challenges inherent in translating culture-specific items in literary contexts and at the same time highlights the adequate strategies followed by the translators to successfully maintain the cultural properties of STs. To this end, the Arabic ST of Mahfouz"s Palace of Desire and its English translation are used. Then, a contrastive analysis of ST-TT coupled pairs is carried out to figure out how Arabic cultural signs are transferred into English based on Venuti"s model (1995). The findings show that translators should have great sagacity and profound awareness of different culture-specific items in both SL and TL, and that this awareness helps to overcome obstacles in rendering Mahfouz"s Palace of Desire.

Arabic translation across cultures

2004

AbstractThis paper deals mainly with some of the difficulties the translator might encounter when translating some culturally bound pieces of information. These would include the translation of some idioms, and some culturally bound concepts. The paper starts with definitions of translation, language and culture followed by an extensive analysis of the examples provided. All the examples are drawn from Arabic and English. The examples include the translation of some idioms which violate truth conditions, which are easily recognizable, and some others which may be translated either literally or idiomatically with obviously different results. Then the analysis moves to the translation of some culturally bound expressions from both Arabic and English. Here, we find examples that cannot be translated into the other language simply for lack of cultural equivalents. The skill and the intervention of the translator are most needed in this respect because above all translation is an act of ...

THE TRANSLATION OF ARABIC RELIGIOUS -CULTURAL COLLOCATIONS IN LITERARY TEXTS INTO ENGLISH: AN APPLICATION OF DOMESTICATION AND FOREIGNIZATION TRANSLATION STRATEGIES

Since the goal of translation is to bridge the gap between two cultures, translators need to pay attention to literary works. Here lies the importance of good translation to convey cultural messages. The mistranslation of cultural concepts in a literary text may cause misunderstanding of this culture by the TL readers. Therefore, to produce a well-translated literary work, translators need to investigate the expressions that relates to culture such as religious beliefs. The vital role of cultural collocations in a language requires translators to apply effective translation strategies. Domestication and foreignization are two important strategies in translating cultural collocations in a literary text. The authors of this study have applied these strategies to investigate whether religiouscultural collocations in a literary text are domesticated or foreignized. The sentences that have religiouscultural collocations are chosen from an Arabic novel. The collocations are analyzed along with two versions of translation, then the English translations are compared. As a result of discussion, the two translators tend to apply the domestication strategy more frequently. It is found that since religiouscultural collocations are difficult to be understood by the target language readers, the translators tend to reduce their strangeness and domesticate them.

The Hindrances in Translating Specific Cultural Concepts from Arabic into English

This paper investigates problems faced by undergraduate students in Sudan majoring in English language when translating specific cultural concepts from Arabic language into English language. To attain this aim, the researcher randomlyselected 100 undergraduate students who were registered for the B.A program inthe Department of English at Al Imam AlMahdi University in Sudan during the 2012/2013 academic year. The researchers carried out a translation test that consisted of 18 sentences which the learners were then required to translate from Arabic into English. Each sentence comprised of specific cultural concepts based on Newmark's (1988) classification of cultural terms. The researchers also carried out interviews with lecturers who specialize in translation to get further data from their point of view concerning these difficulties, the reasons and their proposed solution. The findings show that the undergraduate learners faced various types of complications when translating specific cultural concepts. These difficulties are frequently associated with; 1) translating specific cultural concepts, 2) unsuccessful attempts to attain the sameness in English language, and 3) lack of knowledge of translation techniques and translation strategies. Based on this result, this research work proposes a solution to narrow the gap between specific cultural concepts such as figuring out programs that deals with specificcultural conceptsthat suit translators.