An Analysis of Literary Translation Arabic/ English
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An Analysis of Literary Translation Arabic/ English by: Muftah S. Lataiwish A Thesis Submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy At The University of Glasgow Supervisor: Professor John N. Mattock Faculty of Arts. Arabic Department August 1995. ProQuest Number: 13815487 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 13815487 Published by ProQuest LLC(2018). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 4. ^ lOZoo | GLASGOW un iv e rsity library For my wife Nihad and my children, Anas, Islam and Awas. Acknowledgement I would like to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor Professor John N. Mattock who has given me throughout my years of research friendly guidance and unfailing encouragement. He carefully read my material and made many valuable suggestions. Abstract This study is concerned with an analysis of the process of literary translation from Arabic into English, using as basic source material a number of short stories by Yahya Haqqi and Nagib Mahfuz and their English translations by M. Badawi, Denys Johnson Davies and Akef Abadir and Roger Allen, respectively. This thesis consists of five chapters. The first is a review of the relevant literature, and involves the introduction and discussion of a set of concepts fundamental to the field of (literary) translation, most notably the notion of equivalence and formal correspondence vs. translation equivalence. Also approached in this first chapter is the problem of equivalence in translation and its relation to contrastive analysis. We conclude this chapter with a discussion of the adopted approach, the significance of the present study and the formulation of a number of working hypotheses. Chapters two to four examine Badawi's translation of The Three Orphans and A Game of Cards. Davies's The Ditch and Zaabalawi , and Abadir and Allen's God's World , on the one hand, and students' translations of the same works , on the other. These chapters highlight the syntactic , semantic and cultural problems identified in the analysed material and seek to explain the linguistic and cultural aspects of these problems. While we have used a broad structural approach in dealing with the linguistic problems , the cultural problems have been dealt with in the light of the dynamic equivalence approach in literary translation. A conclusion highlighting the findings of our analysis and relating these findings to the working hypotheses formulated in chapter one concludes the analysis of each the selected short stories. Chapter five tackles the manner in which standard published translations handle cultural problems in literary translation especially in the area of such sociocultural norms and issues as belief, verbal behaviour, proper names and cultural metaphor. This chapter continues its examination of the cultural element in literary translation through a discussion of the question of target language audience response, relying fundamentally on the reactions and responses expressed on the part of some native English speakers towards extracts from the selected standard published translations. The thesis offers a final conclusion together with a set of recommendations designed with a view to helping and guiding students of English as a Foreign language, in general, and those learning it for translation purposes, in particular. Table of Contents Arabic sources used and their translations. pages Introduction 1-10 Chapter One: Review of Literature. 1:1 Translation Equivalence. 11-23 1:2 Formal Correspondence vs Translation Equivalence. 23-25 1:3 Contrastive Analysis and the Problem of Equivalence in Translation. 25-32 1:4 Literary Translation. 32-42 1:5 Method. 42-45 1:6 Significance of Study. 45-46 1:7 Hypotheses. 46-48 Chapter Two: Analysis of Student / Badawi's Translation 2:1 The Three Orphans . 49-84 2:2 A Game of Cards. 85-121 Chapter Three: Analysis of Student/ Davies's Translation . 3:1 The Ditch. 122-147 3:2 Zaabalawi. 148-195 Chapter Four: Analysis of Student/ Abadir and Allen's Translation. 4:1 God’s World. 196-248 Chapter Five: Literary Translation and Related Cultural Problems 249-253 5:1 Aspects of Cultural Differences. 1- Belief. 253-255 2- Verbal Behaviour. 255-257 3- Proper Names. 257- 260 4- Cultural Metaphor. 5:2 Audience Response. 5:3 Conclusion. 5:4 Recommendations. Appendix. Bibliography. < 4_xjJax . fU lk ^1 " (jl_£ ... jjSt " j " ^-2il A_j^Ij L_i£" . ^=u . 1 944 JJ^a-4 . 1 984 t _Jk*^A Ajj£-u . ^g^yA\ ^alajall "(jjiaJ!" . Ja_^ia-A <■ ^ n-%. \ .1989 * ^ . aUI "Aill Uj" j .------------- Haqqi, Yahya. "The Three Orphans" and "A Game of Cards". The Saint's Lamp, translated by M. M. Badawi, Arabic Translation Series of the Journal of Arabic Literature . Vol.2. Leiden, 1973. Mahfuz, N ."Zaabalawt' in God's World, translated by Denys Johnson- Davies, Doubleday, 1991. Mahfuz, N. "The Ditch" in The Secret Organisation , translated by Denys Johnson-Davies, Doubleday, 1991. Mahfuz, N. "God's World' in An anthology of Short Stories, translated by Akef Abadir and Roger Allen, Bibliotheca Islamica, 1973. Introduction Translating from Arabic into English involves certain syntactic, semantic, and cultural problems. To understand these problems, one has to return to the cultural and social background of the source language (Arabic) texts and try to figure out how these may affect the process of translating into English. It is also essential to note that Arabic is a VSO Non-Indo-European language which is associated with cultural and social norms quite distinct from those associated with a western language. Problems of translation have been tackled by many translators, linguists, logicians, poets, and semanticists. Recently, the most illustrative works on translation and the nature of translating have been carried out by, among others, Nida (1964), Catford (1965), Nida & Taber (1969), McGuire (1980), Newmark (1981,1988), Wills (1982), Neuberut (1985), Bell (1987), and Hatim & Mason(1990). Much research has already been done on the problems of translating between any two Indo-European languages, but very little has so far been done on the problems of translating from a Non-Indo-European language, such as Arabic, into English. In this study I shall investigate the syntactic, semantic, and cultural problems involved in Arabic-English translation, focusing on five short stories, and with special reference to the notion of equivalence. S. Bassnett-McGuire (1980, 28) states that: 2 The question of defining equivalence is being pursued by two lines of development translation studies. The first, rather predictably lays an emphasis on special problems of semantics and the transfer of semantic content from SL to TL. With the second, which explores the question of equivalence of literary texts, the work of the Russian formalists and the Praque linguists, together with more recent development in discourse analysis, have broadened the problem of equivalence in its application to the translation of such texts. 1 The keystone in any definition of translation is the word "equivalence" Thus, according to Nida (1974, 1-2), the process of translation "consists in reproducing in the receptor language the message first in terms of meaning and secondly in terms of style." 2 Nida (1964) also highlights two types of equivalence appropriate in translation, namely, formal equivalence (closest possible match of form and content between ST and TT) and dynamic equivalence (principle of equivalence effect or reader of TT). Furthermore, concerning literary translation Halliday et al. (1964, 130) have the following to say about literary translation: A feature of literary register is that more than in any other use of language, the translator has to look beyond the sentence boundaries to guide him in the choice of equivalents. 3 20th century developments in linguistics, psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics, contrastive analysis and in communication are 3 revealed in more objective and scientific analysis of the process of translating. Consequently, the dynamic equivalent-effect principle as a new model emerged and was further supported by communication theorists. This new approach is also called "communication translation", and is defined as the process of producing an effect on the target language reader close to the effect of the original on the source language reader, contra the approach of literal and free translation. Literal translation however, has its defenders like Newmark, (1988, 68-69) who insists that "[ljiteral translation is correct and must not be avoided if it secures referential and pragmatic equivalence to the original. "4 The equivalent-effect principle in translation is increasingly becoming superordinate both in translation theory and practice to the principles of primacy of form and content. Steiner, (1975, 47) indicates that "[ijnside or between languages human communication equals translation. A study of translation is a study of language. "5 Moreover, Malcolm Marsh (1986, 23) in his paper "The Value of Ll> L2 Translation on Undergraduate Courses in Modem Language" states that: Translation is a bi-partite exercise involving comprehension and expression. Comprehension requires a profound knowledge of the source language (SL) in order to perceive the meaning at several different levels and also familiarity with the content 4 area of the text. Expression necessities the ability to recreate in the target language (TL) what has been understood in the SL as accurately and faithfully as possible and at the same time in a style which mirrors that of the SL.6 On the other hand, proficiency in the target language is a fundamental factor for securing comprehension and the ability to speak and write grammatically and meaningfully.