Research project on

Literary Translation from Arabic into English: Issues and Solutions

an Annotated Translation of the Short Story “Muha Wa Al Bahr “(‫( )محا و البحر‬source text)

paper submitted in partial fulfillment for requirements of BA degree in English studies

English department
Major: Linguistics
Academic year: 2019/2020

Submitted by: Code apogee Supervised by:

Fatimazahra Jaafari 17003723 Dr. Hafida Mourad
Abderrahman Kammou 17004277
 Acknowledgement

First and foremost, praises and thanks to Allah, the Almighty, for His showers of

blessings throughout our research work to complete it successfully.

We would like to express our deep sincere gratitude to our supervisor Dr. Hafida

Mourad for her support, encouragement and her invaluable guidance throughout this research.

Her dynamism, vision, sincerity and motivation has really inspired us.

We are extremely grateful to anyone who gives us a hand or advice or only

encouragement.

We are also very thankful to the first one who thought us how to hold the pen for the

first time.
 Table of contents

I. Introduction 1
Historical background 2
Problem statement and rational 3
Research questions 3

Research method 3

Paper organization 3

Type chapter title (level 1) 4

Type chapter title (level 2) 5
Type chapter title (level 3) 6
 Introduction

Historical background

Nowadays, in the age of globalization, the need to translation increases day after day.

So, translation is indeed indispensable for spreading new information, knowledge and ideas

across the word. It is actually necessary to achieve communication between different cultures.

When we ask ourselves what the role of a language translator is, it is to convert text

from SL to TL. We are also used to say that translation is a mental acting in which a meaning of

given linguistic discourse is rendered from one language to another. Newmark defines the act

of translating as transferring the meaning of a text from one language to another, taking care

mainly of the functional relevant meaning. For him, theory of translation is neither theory nor

science, but a hedge group of knowledge. According to Catford (1995) “translation is the

replacement of textual material in one language (SL) by equivalent textual materiel in another

language (TL)” (p20).

Nida and Taber give another definition in the theory and practice of translation:”

translation consists in reproducing in the receptor language the closest natural equivalent of

source language message, first in terms of meanings and secondly in terms of style.”

In a narrow sense, it is obvious that the role of translator is to submerge in the large

ocean of the meaning in order to get it closer to the reader.

 Generally speaking, translation started with the invention of writing. It growths with the

technological development and the increment of the demand on it. We will focus here in his

growth in the Arab world .it dates back to early second century AD. But in history of Arabic

translation, one name stands out above all others: AL Jahid (776-868). he was considered one

of the great theorists of translation history, and his writing are still relevant in the world of

Arabic translation today. In the field of literary translation, especially from Arabic into English,

recently emerged, whilst Arabic literature become known to English readers when works of

prominent authors, such as Naguib Mahfouz, Yussif Idriss and Tayeb Salih were translated.

Denys Johnson-Davies, one of the most renowned Arabic -to-English literary translators,

translated novels, plays, short stories and poetry for over than 40 years.

The interest in Arabic literature is due to appearance of so called “Islamic terrorism” and

the need of exploring this unknown world where terrorists are coming from. The growing

readership for Arabic literature was also influenced by political struggles. Now, Arabic is the

fourth most translated language in U.S according to [Link] .

In this paper, we devote a lot of time to literary translation. It is that genre which deals

with literary fiction (prose, novels, plays, poetry etc.) so that it can reach a wider audience. “of

all the forms that translation takes – such as commercial, financial, technical, scientific,

advertising etc.- only literary translation lets one consistently share in the creative process”

Clifford(year). This means that the role of translator here is not merely finding the right

equivalent of original text in the TL, but also to create a new effect on the target receptor by

means of stylistic and linguistic tools. So, we cannot deny the huge importance of literary

translation. Consequently, reading contemporary literary translation provides fascinating

insights into life in other culture. In a fast-paced word, such as efforts to share knowledge and

experiences across cultural boundaries should be applauded. The only key challenges of literary

translation is the need to balance staying faithful to original text with the need to evoke the

same feelings us the original.

Problem statement and rational

This is an annotated translation study paper having as object (Leila Abu Zayd novel “the

stranger ‘Al Gharib”). The purpose of this research is to attain factual information concerning

the problems faced by the researcher in translating the (source text) and to give plausible

solutions to the difficulties.

The large difference between the SL and the TL here, must be indicated, either both in

terms of linguistic form and cultural aspect. This difference comes up essentially to their

distinct families of language. Arabic is classified as a member of Semic family of languages and

English as a member of Indo -European language family. Translation issues can be divided into

above-mentioned categories. Linguistic problems include lexicon, morphology, text differences,

rhetorical differences, and pragmatic factors. cultural problems arise for the Arab translators

who may find certain phrases in Arabic have no equivalents in English. The translator may also

face issues as follows:

 Sentences in Arabic are too lang.

 The sentence structure is complex.

 In Arabic terms and words can have multiple meanings…

Studies done on problems encountered in translating from Arabic into English

showed that graduate students frequently face these problems:

 Unfamiliarly with cultural expressions.

 Failure to achieve the equivalence in the second language.

 Ambiguity of some cultural expressions.

The difference between the SL and the TL make the process of translating from

Arabic into English a huge [Link] is not easy to enter to this experience

expect for who have tools and skills that are capable of deciphering the existing

differences, neither at the level of language nor at the level of religious and

cultural patterns.