The Ideological Factor in the Translation of Sensitive Issues from the Quran Into English, Spanish and Catalan EL Hassane H
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The ideological factor in the translation of sensitive issues from the Quran into English, Spanish and Catalan EL Hassane Herrag Supervisor: Dr. Patrick Zabalbeascoa Tutor: Dr. Carles Castellanos Doctoral thesis Departament de Traducció i d´Interpretació 2012 Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona Abstract: The purposes of this thesis are principally about investigating how some Quranic issues are translated into English, Spanish and Catalan with focus on the intervention of the ideological factor in this translation taking into account the influence of the ideology of each of the selected translators on the original text in its taget version. Additionally, the planned purposes help to establish four hypotheses which are confirmed through a theoretical approach related to the contributions of some eminent scholars in the field of translation studies, especially the theories that are about descriptivism and ideolgy as in the case of the manipulation school whcih permits to understand how a source text is manipulated in its target version and also how other factors interven in its manipulation. As for the practicle part of this thesis, there are examples that are divided into issues that touch upon different Quranic topics and they are studied on the basis of the descriptive and the comparative model which allows to analyse them as they are in their taget versions and not as they must be otherwise the study becomes prescriptive instead of descriptive. Consequently, it is observed that these examples are affected negatively and they change the original meaning of Quranic verses and messages through the use of translation procedures, notably omission, literal translation and amplification. On the other side, it is concluded that Muslim translators pay more attention to the translation of meanings so as to make their translation meaning-oriented and to avoid manipulation and distortion. Morover, it is understood that the ideological factor is not only noticed in the use of translation procedures, but also in the religious influence of each translator and his intention beyond his translation as well as the academic and the exegetical references employed in each translation. In this respect it is observed that Muslim translators exclusively rely on Quranic exegesis of Suni scholars as they are sponsored by Saudi Arabia. On the contrary, non-Muslim translators diversify their references by relying on Suni and Shii exegesis in additon to the opinions of Orientalists and all that is reflected in their translations. Resumen: Los objetivos de esta tesis doctoral se basan en investigar cómo se traducen algunos temas coránicos al inglés, al castellano y al catalán con énfasis sobre la intervención del factor ideológico en dicha traducción teniendo en cuenta la influencia de la ideología de cada traductor sobre el texto original en su versión meta. Asimismo los objetivos planteados nos llevan a establecer cuatro hipótesis que se demuestran a través de un marco teórico relacionado con las contribuciones de varios teóricos en el campo de traductología sobre todo las teorías del descriptivismo en relación con traducción y ideología tal como la escuela de la manipulación que permite comprender cómo un texto se manipula cuando se traduce a otro lengua y cúales son los factores que intervienen en su manipulación. En cuanto a la parte práctica de la tesis, se escogen ejemplos divididos según el tema coránico que les corresponde y se analizan basándose en el modelo descriptivo y comparativo que permite estudiar estos ejemplos tal como parecen en sus versiones meta y no cómo deben ser traducidos sino el estudio llevado a cabo será prescriptivo en vez de descriptivo. Por consiguiente, se observa que los ejemplos estudiados y analizados se han afectado negativamente en varias ocasiones y han cambiado el significado de versículos coránicos mediante el empleo de diferentes técnicas de traduccione sobre todo la traducción literal, la omisión, la amplificación explicativa, etc. Por otro lado se concluye que los traductores musulmanes han prestado más atención a la traducción de sentidos para evitar manipulaciones y distorsiones de los mensajes verdaderos. Además, se entiende que el factor ideológico se nota no solamente en el empleo de técnicas de traducción sino también en la influencia religiosa de cada traductor, su intención de tras de su traducción y las referencias académicas y exegéticas empleadas por cada traductor. En ese sentido se observa que los traductores musulmanes se basan únicamente en referencias del Islam Sunita ya que están subvencionados por un país Sunita que es Arabia Saudita. En contrario, los traductores no-musulmanes diversifican sus referencias cuando reflejan opiniones de diferentes doctrinas islámicas y de orient los alistas. To Mohammed Nadir, my new- born son. To my family. 1 Aknowledgement I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to my thesis director, Dr. Patrick Zabalbeascoa, whose enlightening advice and help have contributed to the completion of this work. I am also indebted to my tutor, Dr. Carles Castellanos, for initiating me into the field of ideology and translation during the first year of my third cycle studies at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. I even extend my gratitude to all the persons that have given me their opinions about this thesis, especially Dr. María Eugenia de la Torre and Mr Musa Khalifa. I am grateful to my brothers Salah and Driss for their advice. My special thanks to my mother who has motivated me and has taught me how to be patient and ambitious. 2 Abbreviations The abbreviations mentioned below are used in the analysis of target examples in part four to refer to the second names of the eight translators whose translations are studied in this thesis: Alhi: Alhilali Arb : Arberry Cor: Cortés Daw: Dawood Epa: Epalza Mela: Melara Rod: Rodwell Ver: Vernet 3 Table of contents 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................... 7 1.1. Motivation and purposes ................................................................................... 7 1.2. Hypotheses ......................................................................................................... 8 1.3. Corpus .................................................................................................................. 8 1.4. Methodology ...................................................................................................... 9 1.5. Structure of the thesis ...................................................................................... 10 2. Theoretical approaches ................................................................................... 12 2.1. Biblical translators ............................................................................................ 12 2.1.1. Nida´s concept of equivalence ............................................................. 12 2.2. The polysystem theory .................................................................................... 14 2.2.1. Even Zohar and Holmes ....................................................................... 14 2.2.2. Toury´s norms ....................................................................................... 16 2.3. The manipulation school ................................................................................... 18 2.3.1. Evolution, patronage, ideology and poetics ......................................... 18 2.4. Venuti´s concept of the translator´s invisibility ............................................... 22 2.5. The functionalist theories: Nord and others .................................................... 24 2.6. Hatim´s and Mason´s contextual dimensions .................................................. 26 3. A preliminary study of the selected translations .............................................. 27 3.1. Spanish translations ......................................................................................... 27 3.1.1. Vernet: introduction, the use of foote notes and the division of chapters into entitled fragments .......................................................... 27 3.1.2. Melara : a translation financed by Saudi Arabia, the reliance on Sunni Quranic exegesis and the use of bracketing ....................................... 30 3.1.3. Cortés: introduction about Islam and the Quran, the use of paragraphing and footnotes ................................................................ 33 3.2. The Catalan translation of Epalza: introduction and the reliance on the Muslim exegete "Alqortubi" .......................................................................................... 36 3.3. English translations ........................................................................................... 40 4 3.3.1. Alhilali: the inclusion of the Arabic version beside the target one, the reliance on Sunni Quranic exegesis and the use of bracketing and foot notes ...................................................................................................... 40 3.3.2. Rodwell : introduction by the editor and the inclusion of explanatory notes at the end of the translation ...................................................... 42 3.3.3. Arberry: introduction about the Quran and the absence of foot notes47 3.3.4. Dawood : the addition of non original information and the use of foot notes when necessary ........................................................................ 50 4. Analysis of the translation of some Quranic