Translation of Literary into Both Arabic and English

134 Pages·2011·6.58 MB·English

Translation of Literary into Both Arabic and English:
Problems and solutions

Presented to
the faculty of Effat University
Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

In Partial fulfillment of the Requirements
for
the Degree of Bachelor Science
In English and Translation

Dina Basel Shaath
Spring 2011
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Dedication

This work is dedicated to my beloved parents, Basel Shaath and Randah Qaimari,
without whose caring support it would not have been possible.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

In the name of Allah, The Most Gracious, The Most Merciful
I must sincerely and graciously express my gratitude to Allah for bestowing
upon me unlimited support, mercy, leadership, strength, and guidance which helped me
complete my research. The research would have been possible without the essential and
gracious personal and catalytic support of both my parents whom I love very much and
may Allah bless them. I specially thank mom for her patience and assistance. I am
indebted to many of my colleagues who were there when need be. I thank Arwa Misheal
in particular for her non-stop support.
Finally, I am really and deeply thankful and appreciative to my professors for
their help and encouragement that prompted me to complete the research. Special
thanks to Dr. Ahamad Khuddro, my supervisor, for his help and guidance in this
project.

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PREFACE

This research has been a process of a semester and my four year plan translation major
graduation project. The idea of translating both from English into Arabic and from
Arabic into English is studied carefully and thoroughly. This decision was discussed
with the Chair of the English and Translation Department, Dr. Sanna Dhahir. I have
chosen one English short story from an anthology by female writers whose revenue us
to be donated to the children of war. The Arabic short stories that I have chosen to
translate are from a new Arabic anthology. My English target texts are to be included in
the anthology the English and Translation Department is issuing.
The project looks first at some translation theories which have helped me with
my translation which I have placed in the appendixes. These theories have also helped
in discussing problems encountered and their possible solutions. The content illustrates
many points made in the research. The research, however, is proposed to be reasonably
comprehensive in discussing some of the issues and problems that have come up in
translation. It is therefore designed as a kind of reference book for translation students.

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ABSTRACT

Each translation must be based on one or more theories. This research follows Eugene
Nida's dynamic equivalence theory, Hasan Ghazala's analysis of translation problems,
Mona Baker's equivalence at and above word levels, Lawrence Venuti's domestication
theory, and Reiss & Vermeer's "skopos theory". Nida defines dynamic as the "closest
natural equivalent of the source-language message". (Taber, 1969:12) According to
Ghazala, translation problems are divided into lexical, semantic and stylistic problems;
whereas equivalence at and above word levels are discussed by Mona Baker.
Domestication and foreignization in translation are related to culture and whether the
translator attempts either to bring the text closer to the target reader (TR) or gets closer
to the author of the source text (ST) as much as possible, as Schleiermacher and Venuti
favored. Finally, skopos theory deals with the purpose of ST translation.
Also as this research deals literary texts, it considers literary translation as the
essence. It tackles three distinctive areas. First of all, this research provides a translation
definition in general terms, then a detailed definition of the literary translation from
different translators' point of view, as well as an overview of the history of literary
translation. Secondly, it analyzes the English short story, Best Served Cold by Louise
Voss and the Arabic ones,!.. ًبٓٞ٣ 55 (55 Yawman..!) andًّكًحوطه and (Qaṭrat Dam) from
the book خ٣ٞزًِٓمب٘ػأً(A‘nāq Multawiya) written by Shurouq Al Khled1 by discussing the
problems covered in the research. Finally, the research sheds light on one suggested
solution for each problem.

1ً The author likes to spell her name in English as Shurouq Al Khled. However, according to the IJMES,
it is transliterated as Shurūq Al-Khālid.
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TRANSLITERATION SYSTEM

Transliteration is a process of transferring the pronunciation of source language (SL)
word into target language (TL) word sound using Latin letters. Each language has its
own alphabetical system. Thus, in transliteration the pronunciation of the SL word is
transliterated in the sound system of the TL. I have followed the International Journal of
Middle Eastern Studies (IJMES) style. This table below shows this well-known system
of transliteration for the Arabic language to provide learners of foreign languages with

phonetic transcription that will assist them in acquiring the pronunciation.

Arabic Phonetically
Alphabet Symbol Alphabet Symbol Alphabet Symbol
Alphabet Symbol
ًء ً’ ًة b ﭖ p ًد t
س th ط ًj ػ ḥ ؿ kh
ك d م dh ه r ى z
ً s ُ sh ٓ ًṣ ًٗ ḍ
ٛ ṭ ظ ẓ ع ً، ؽ ًgh
ف f ًڤ ًv ًم q ًى k
ًٍ ًl ًّ ًm ًٕ n ًـٛ h
ًٝ ًw ً١ y

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Arabic Diacritics English Symbols Long Arabic English Symbols
Vowels
ًَ a أ ā
ًَ u ٝ ū
ًَ i ١ ī

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LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Before Common Era BCE
Before Christ BC
Modern standard Arabic MSA
Source Culture SC
Source Language SL
Source Reader SR
Source Text ST
Target Culture TC
Target Language TL
Target Reader TR
Target Text TT

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Dedication ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1
Acknowledgement ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------2
Preface -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------3
Abstract----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4
Transliteration System ----------------------------------------------------------------------------5
List of Abbreviations-------------------------------------------------------------------------------7
1. Introduction----------------------------------------------------------------------------11
1.1 The Organization of this Research--------------------------------------------11
1.2 Overview of Literary Translation History------------------------------------11
1.3 Louise Voss, the Author of Best Served Cold--------------------------------13
1.4 Summary of Best Served Cold-------------------------------------------------14
1.5 Purpose of Choosing This English Story-------------------------------------14
1.6 Shurouq Al Khled, the Author of '55 Yawman..!' and 'Qaṭrat Dam'------15
1.7 Summary of the Stories---------------------------------------------------------15
1.7.1 '55 Yawman..!'-------------------------------------------------------------15
1.7.2 'Qaṭrat Dam'----------------------------------------------------------------16
1.8 Purpose of Choosing These Arabic Stories-----------------------------------16
1.9 Definitions of Translation and Literary Translation, and Methodology--16
2. Problems and Solutions--------------------------------------------------------------27
2.1 Introduction-------------------------------------------------------------------------27
2.2 Problems-----------------------------------------------------------------------------27
2.2.1 Lexical Problems---------------------------------------------------------------29
2.2.1.1 Equivalence at Word Level---------------------------------------------------------29
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