Challenges and Strategies of Translating Arabic Novels into English: Evidence from Al-Sanousi’s Fiʾrān Ummī Hissa
This research investigated the strategies adopted to overcome the constraints encountered in the English translation of the Arabic novel Fiʾrān Ummī Hissa in light of Mughazy’s (2016) typology of equivalence and Baker’s (1992) strategies for dealing with idiomatic expressions. The data were collecte...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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De Gruyter
2025-01-01
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| Series: | Open Cultural Studies |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1515/culture-2024-0042 |
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| author | Al-Sharif Luma Al-Abbas Linda |
| author_facet | Al-Sharif Luma Al-Abbas Linda |
| author_sort | Al-Sharif Luma |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This research investigated the strategies adopted to overcome the constraints encountered in the English translation of the Arabic novel Fiʾrān Ummī Hissa in light of Mughazy’s (2016) typology of equivalence and Baker’s (1992) strategies for dealing with idiomatic expressions. The data were collected and categorized thematically into four constraint types: social, political, cultural, and religious. The findings revealed that transliteration was heavily utilized in rendering cultural terms and phrases, such as names, titles, food, and clothing. Paraphrasing was the most used strategy in rendering religious terms requiring clarification, but the extensive details often disrupted the text flow and occasionally led to inaccuracies. Cultural substitution and less expressive words were used in rendering idioms and proverbs, resulting in several mistranslations. In a few cases, omission was applied to terms lacking direct equivalents, yet they were inconsistently reintroduced as transliterated terms in other occurrences. The study recommends that translators follow a consistent translation approach across similar types of cultural expressions to maintain uniformity across the translated text. Translators may use footnotes for terms that require transliteration to help readers understand the cultural context and significance. Further studies could compare similar text translations across languages to explore how cultural contexts influence translation strategies. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-33f870b2d9914eab8a6c654399ac151b |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2451-3474 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | De Gruyter |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Open Cultural Studies |
| spelling | doaj-art-33f870b2d9914eab8a6c654399ac151b2025-02-02T15:45:13ZengDe GruyterOpen Cultural Studies2451-34742025-01-0191678110.1515/culture-2024-0042Challenges and Strategies of Translating Arabic Novels into English: Evidence from Al-Sanousi’s Fiʾrān Ummī HissaAl-Sharif Luma0Al-Abbas Linda1Department of English Language and Translation, Middle East University, Amman, JordanDepartment of English Language and Translation, Middle East University, Amman, JordanThis research investigated the strategies adopted to overcome the constraints encountered in the English translation of the Arabic novel Fiʾrān Ummī Hissa in light of Mughazy’s (2016) typology of equivalence and Baker’s (1992) strategies for dealing with idiomatic expressions. The data were collected and categorized thematically into four constraint types: social, political, cultural, and religious. The findings revealed that transliteration was heavily utilized in rendering cultural terms and phrases, such as names, titles, food, and clothing. Paraphrasing was the most used strategy in rendering religious terms requiring clarification, but the extensive details often disrupted the text flow and occasionally led to inaccuracies. Cultural substitution and less expressive words were used in rendering idioms and proverbs, resulting in several mistranslations. In a few cases, omission was applied to terms lacking direct equivalents, yet they were inconsistently reintroduced as transliterated terms in other occurrences. The study recommends that translators follow a consistent translation approach across similar types of cultural expressions to maintain uniformity across the translated text. Translators may use footnotes for terms that require transliteration to help readers understand the cultural context and significance. Further studies could compare similar text translations across languages to explore how cultural contexts influence translation strategies.https://doi.org/10.1515/culture-2024-0042literary translationfiʾrān ummī hissamama hissa’s miceequivalencetranslation constraintstranslation strategies |
| spellingShingle | Al-Sharif Luma Al-Abbas Linda Challenges and Strategies of Translating Arabic Novels into English: Evidence from Al-Sanousi’s Fiʾrān Ummī Hissa Open Cultural Studies literary translation fiʾrān ummī hissa mama hissa’s mice equivalence translation constraints translation strategies |
| title | Challenges and Strategies of Translating Arabic Novels into English: Evidence from Al-Sanousi’s Fiʾrān Ummī Hissa |
| title_full | Challenges and Strategies of Translating Arabic Novels into English: Evidence from Al-Sanousi’s Fiʾrān Ummī Hissa |
| title_fullStr | Challenges and Strategies of Translating Arabic Novels into English: Evidence from Al-Sanousi’s Fiʾrān Ummī Hissa |
| title_full_unstemmed | Challenges and Strategies of Translating Arabic Novels into English: Evidence from Al-Sanousi’s Fiʾrān Ummī Hissa |
| title_short | Challenges and Strategies of Translating Arabic Novels into English: Evidence from Al-Sanousi’s Fiʾrān Ummī Hissa |
| title_sort | challenges and strategies of translating arabic novels into english evidence from al sanousi s fiʾran ummi hissa |
| topic | literary translation fiʾrān ummī hissa mama hissa’s mice equivalence translation constraints translation strategies |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1515/culture-2024-0042 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT alsharifluma challengesandstrategiesoftranslatingarabicnovelsintoenglishevidencefromalsanousisfiʾranummihissa AT alabbaslinda challengesandstrategiesoftranslatingarabicnovelsintoenglishevidencefromalsanousisfiʾranummihissa |