THE TRANSLATION OF METAPHOR FROM ARABIC TO ENGLISH IN SELECTED POEMS OF ...

339 Pages·2014·4.13 MB·English

i
THE TRANSLATION OF METAPHOR FROM ARABIC TO ENGLISH
IN SELECTED POEMS OF MAHMOUD DARWISH WITH A FOCUS
ON LINGUISTIC ISSUES
Mohd Nour Al Salem
Submitted in accordance with the requirements for the
degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
The University of Leeds
Centre for Translation Studies
School of Languages, Cultures and Societies
August 2014
ii
Copyright
The candidate confirms that this work is his own and that appropriate credit has been
givenwherereferencehasbeenmadetotheworkofothers.
The copyhasbeen supplied on the understandingthat it iscopyrightmaterial and that
noquotationfromthethesismaybepublishedwithoutproperacknowledgement.
©2014“TheUniversityofLeeds”MohdNourAlSalem
iii
Dedication
Tomymother,wife,andchildrenasthemetaphors
foreverybeautifulaspectinmylife
iv
Acknowledgements
My deep gratitude is due to my supervisor Professor James Dickins for his continued
support and guidance during the research. He gave me a lot of his precious time and
unfailing encouragement. His wise judgement was necessary in each section of the
study. Special thanks go to Mohammad Bataineh for his help in writing great parts of
theproposal.
v
ABSTRACT
MOHD NOUR AL SALEM 2014
THE TRANSLATION OF METAPHOR FROMARABIC TO ENGLISH
IN SELECTED POEMS OF MAHMOUD DARWISH WITH A FOCUS ON
LINGUISTIC ISSUES
The translation of Arabic literature into English is a wide field of study. The present
study focuses only on one aspect - the translation of metaphor in selected poems of
Mahmoud Darwish. Arabic is widely known as a strongly metaphorical language, and
Darwish’s poems as part of Arabic literature hold many embedded meanings and
metaphors that play a major role in building up their artistic flavour. In many
translationsof Arabicpoems,metaphorsand other figuresofspeecharemistranslated
and, consequently, misunderstood by target text (TT) readers. This affects the
meaning,form,imageryandmoral/themeand leadsto adistortedand inferiorcopyof
theoriginalpoem.
The present study aims to analyse the Arabic-to-English translation approaches
adopted in rendering metaphors in poetic discourse, with specific reference to ten of
Mahmoud Darwish’s poems. Six of the poems chosen have been translated more than
once. This approach to selection will provide a platform for a comparative/contrastive
analysis between different translations. The other four poems are translated only
once.Infact,Darwishisapoetofuniversalsignificancewhosemessagetranscendsthe
personal to the public, and he is well known for using many types of metaphors in his
poems to relay certain messages and images to express his themes in an indirect way.
The researcher will analyse each metaphor in the source text (ST)and itstranslation(s)
to investigate whether or not the translators have succeeded in conveying the
metaphor and message accurately, the type of resemblance embedded in the original
poems, as well as the effect of the new metaphor on the reader of English. The study
makes use of the fields of text linguistics, lexical semantics, and contrastive linguistics.
vi
Table of Contents
Acknowledgement iv
Abstract v
TableofContents vi
Appendicies xiv
Figures xv
Tables xvi
Abbreviations xix
Arabictransliterationsystem xx
ChapterOne:Introduction
1.1Statementoftheproblem 1
1.2Motivation 2
1.3Theplaceofthestudyinthefieldoftranslationstudies 2
1.4Researchquestions 3
1.5Significanceofthestudy 4
1.6Thesisstructure 5
1.7Researchmethodology 7
ChapterTwo:DarwishandHisPoetry
2.1Anoverview 9
2.2Darwish’sbiography 11
2.3Darwish’spoetry:anoverview 14
2.3.1SeparationandexileinDarwish’slife 15
2.3.1.1Writingsonseparationandexile 15
2.3.2IdentityinDarwish’sview 18
2.3.2.1IdentityinDarwish’spoetry 19
2.3.3HomelandinDarwish’spoetry 23
vii
2.3.4LoveinDarwish’spoetry 26
2.3.5PeopleinDarwish’spoetry 29
2.4GeneralfeaturesofDarwish’spoetry 34
2.4.1Simplicity 34
2.4.2Modernity 35
2.4.3Symbolism 36
2.4.4Theuseofmyth 38
2.5MetaphorinDarwish’spoetry 39
2.5.1Metaphorsofperseveranceandresistance 41
2.5.2Metaphorsofseparation,exile,journey,andhomeland 41
2.5.3Metaphorsoffreedom 43
2.5.4Metaphorsoflove 44
2.5.5Metaphorsofnature 45
2.6Theoryandpracticeofpoetrytranslation 46
2.7Theoryandpracticeofpoetrytranslation:relevancetothecurrentstudy 51
2.8ProblemsofArabic-Englishpoetrytranslation 52
2.9Translatorswhofeatureinthestudy 57
2.9.1DenysJohnson-Davies 58
2.9.2JeffreySacks 59
2.9.3FadyJoudah 59
2.9.4MohammadShaheen 60
2.9.5CatherineCobham 61
2.9.6MunirAkash 62
2.9.7CarolynForché 62
2.9.8BenBennani 63
2.9.9SinanAntoon 64
2.9.10AmiraEl-Zein 64
viii
2.9.11HusainHaddawi 65
2.9.12NoelAbdulahad 65
2.10DifferencebetweenEnglishnativespeakertranslatorsand 65
Arabicnativespeakertranslators
2.11ChapterSummary 67
ChapterThree:Metaphor
3.1Thedefinitionofmetaphor 68
3.2Theelementsofmetaphor 70
3.3Theoriesofmetaphor 71
3.3.1Thesubstitutiontheory 71
3.3.2Theinteractiontheory 72
3.3.3Thecomparisontheory 73
3.4Theplaceofmetaphorwithinfiguresofspeech 75
3.5.Typesofmetaphor 77
3.5.1Picken’stypologyofmetaphor 77
3.5.2Kovecses’stypologyofmetaphor 78
3.5.2.1Theconventionalityofmetaphor 78
3.5.2.2Thecognitivefunctionofmetaphor 78
3.5.2.3Thenatureofmetaphor 79
3.5.2.4Levelofgenerality 79
3.5.3Newmark’stypologyofmetaphors 79
3.5.4Dickins’typologyofmetaphors 81
3.5.5Semino’sandKnowlesandMoon’stypologyofmetaphors 83
3.5.6Lakoff’stypologyof“dead”metaphors 84
3.5.7Goatly’stypologyofmetaphors 85
3.6MetaphorinArabicrhetoric 87
3.6.1 The place of istiᶜārah within majāz 90
ix
3.7DifferencebetweenwesternandArabictraditions 91
3.8Acomparisonoftypologiesofmetaphor 93
3.8.1Lexicalisation-relatedaspects 95
3.8.2Schema-relatedaspects 97
3.8.3Size-relatedaspects 98
3.9Theinterrelationsbetweenstrandsofthemodelusedintheanalysis 99
3.10Thepurposesofmetaphor 101
3.10.1Embellishmentandhyperbole 101
3.10.2Persuasion 102
3.10.3Descriptionofbehaviouralcharacteristics 103
3.10.4Fillinglexicalgaps 104
3.10.5Creatingemotionaleffect 104
3.10.6Showingpowerorimportance 105
3.10.7Establishingascientifictheory 106
3.10.8Metaphorswhosevehicleliterallyexpressesmovementandchange 107
3.10.9Metaphorswhosevehicleliterallydenotesabodypartofalivingentity 107
3.10.10Advertising 108
3.11Thetranslationofmetaphor 108
3.11.1Al-Hasnawi’sapproach 108
3.11.2Newmark’sapproach 109
3.11.3Dickins’approach 110
3.11.5KnowlesandMoon’sapproach 113
3.11.5OtherwritersonArabic/Englishmetaphortranslation 114
3.12Evaluationoftranslationapproaches 116
3.13Chaptersummary 120
ChapterFour:TheCorpusofPoems
4.Foreword 122
x
4.1Nationalpoetry 122
4.1.1ASoldierDreamsofWhiteTulips 123
4.1.2Psalm2 126
4.2Exilepoetry 128
4.2.1TheEternityofCactus 129
4.2.2Hooriyya’sTeachings 132
4.3Lovepoetry 133
4.3.1LowSky 133
4.3.2SheDoesNotLoveYou 135
4.4Mythicpoetry 136
4.4.1ThePhasesofAnat 136
4.5Autobiographicalpoetry 138
4.5.1Rubaiyat 139
4.6Identitypoetry 142
4.6.1FromNowonYouAreSomebodyElse 143
4.7Naturepoetry 147
4.7.1ToDescribeanAlmondBlossom 147
4.8TheimportanceofmetreinDarwish’spoetry 149
4.9HowfreeverseoperatesinArabic 151
4.10Howfreeverseinfluencesthetranslationprocess 153
4.11ChapterSummary 154
ChapterFive:Analysis
5.Introduction 156
5.1MetaphorsinASoldierDreamsofWhiteLilies/Tulips 157
5.2MetaphorsinPsalm2 163
5.3MetaphorsinEternityofCactus 169
5.4MetaphorsinHooriyya’sTeachings 176