Translation is a process of not only transferring linguistic meaning but also cultural meaning, which requires a keen understanding of the two languages, cultures, and contexts. When translating between two languages from different families, which have several distinct differences because they are derived from different roots, such as Arabic and English, translators might be challenged due to the differences in grammar, syntax, and cultural context.
Here are five common issues in translation between Arabic and English and how to avoid them:
1) Using inappropriate cultural expressions
Hans Vermeer views translation as “a cross-cultural transfer, and the translator should be bicultural, if not pluricultural”, meaning that translators should be familiar with both the source and target cultures and be aware of the cultural contexts of the texts they are translating. Further, Eugene Nida defines culture as “the total beliefs and practices of a society”. Therefore, words have meaning only in terms of the culture in which they are used, and they reflect society’s beliefs and practices. Cultural expressions include ecological, material, and social cultures; they include expressions related to social organizations, political, religious, artistic, gestures and habits, and they are found in proverbs, phrasal verbs and figures of speech.
Example:
النساء المتزوجات بعقد صحيح والمفترقات عن أزواجهن بعد الخلوة بالطلاق أو الفسخ عدتهن ثلاثة أشهر إذا كنّ بلغن الإياس
Rendering the term (عدّة) as merely as “waiting period” or “three months pause” is not adequate and might confuse the readers.
In Islam, Iddat is the period a woman must observe after the death of her spouse or after a divorce, during which she may not marry another man. However, it has no one-to-one equivalent in English. Therefore, it represents a problematic area for translators who are not familiar with the term. In this case, translators might transliterate it as (Iddat) add an explanation or a footnote to familiarize the reader with it.
In general, cultural expressions can be rendered using another cultural equivalent in the target language, or using functional translation where the function of the source language is translated into the target language.
| Arabic Text | Suggested Translation in English |
|---|---|
| السلام عليكم | Hello |
| الدّم ما بيصير مي | Blood is thicker than water |
| إنّا لله وإنا إليه راجعون | I am sorry for your loss |
2) Using an incorrect equivalent
Finding the correct equivalent can be challenging for translators, especially when the text contains specialized terms that have no direct equivalence in the target language. The problem arises from the absence of terminology in Arabic or the inability of the translator to find it. Anna Matamala suggests that this could happen because translators “do not have enough time to undertake thorough research and consult specialists.”
For example, when translating the word “pixel” into Arabic, it is more adequate to render it as (بكسل) rather than other possible equivalents such as ‘أصغر عنصر للصورة’, (smallest part of the picture).
Vinay and Darbelnet suggested a set of strategies to apply in translation. One of them is borrowing, which is the simplest method of translation, where the source text is transferred to the target text directly. It is usually used in terms of new technical or unknown concepts to overcome a metalinguistic one; the source language form is used in the target text to fill a “semantic gap” in the target language, as Munday suggests. Examples of borrowing are seen in Zakah, Alcohol, Algebra, and Sugar, which are derived from the Arabic words الزّكاة, الكحول, الجبر, سكّر.
3) Adopting literal translation
Literal translation refers to the word-for-word translation, in which the linguistic rules of the target language are preserved, and the grammar and word order of the source language is replaced. While this method works perfectly in some contexts, it is very problematic in others, especially with figures of speech.
These strategies were highlighted by Al-Adwan & Al-Jabri (2022) and Alqawasmeh (2022), and they were: converting a metaphor to its sense, replacing the image in the source language with another image in the target language, reproducing the same image in the target language, and omitting the metaphor.
For example, in the sentence, “I need to know what was in Teresa’s head” might be literally rendered as (أريد أن أرى ماذا يوجد في رأس تيريزا). However, a more natural translation would be (أريد أن أتحرّى عن تيريزا). Although the literal translation would be acceptable and understood by the target audience, opting for converting the metaphor sense into the target language would produce a sentence that makes more sense to the target language.
4) Not paying attention to collocations
Collocation is a partnership which holds words together. Two or more words usually come together in different text types; thus, it gains new meanings in the linguistic context. According to Leech, the collocational meaning consists of associations in which a word has a tendency to coexist with itself, derived from environmental relations. Providing a dictionary translation for these expressions will not be a semantically appropriate translation.
Since collocations reflect the sociological, economic and ethical situation of a society, it is essential to pay attention to using the correct pair of collocation in the target language. For example, the phrase “law and order” is a common collocation used in English culture, which refers to the meaning of law and command. The Arabic equivalent would be (القانون والتقاليد), which translates to (laws and tradition). The English collocation reflects the concentration on the order of society; on the other hand, the Arabic one concentrates on the importance of the tradition concept for the Arabs.
Translation might lead to strange collocations under the influence of the native language. For instance, the sentence “he caught a cold” is translated as (أُصيب بنزلة برد), while the verb “caught” can be rendered differently in Arabic based on the language pair. In Arabic, the verb (يلقي) which means “cast away or throw” can be rendered in English differently depending on the collocation, as seen in the coming table:
| Arabic Text | Suggested Translation in English |
|---|---|
| يلقي عليه المسؤولية | To place someone’s responsibility on something |
| يلقي الرعب في قلبه | To strikes in someone’s heart |
| يلقي السلاح | To lay down his arm |
| يلقي خطاباً | To deliver a speech |
5) Using wrong syntactic structures
Arabic and English have different structures; a misunderstanding of the function of a given tense or aspect may lead to mistranslation.
In the sentence, “the more the product is the more the income is” could be translated as “كلما زاد الإنتاج كلما زاد الدخل”, which is not accurate. The translation has some flaws, first of which is the repetition of “كلما” and using a non-formal word, “زاد”. The word كلما is a subordinator and the sentence would be a fragment as it contains two subordinate clauses. However, a better translation is “كلما ازداد الإنتاج، ازداد الدخل”. Following the structure of the source language would result in a weak structure of the target text. The deeper the translator understands the structure of the target language, the more natural the translation is.
How to Avoid Translation Mistakes
Some of the reasons behind insufficient translation between Arabic and English are the lack of translators’ comprehension of the source text and source language and lack of experience. Also, translators are often given tight deadlines to submit their translation which lead them to overlook certain issues.
The lack of linguistic and cultural comprehension is more difficult to overcome. Generally speaking, avoiding common translation mistakes requires a combination of linguistic expertise, cultural awareness, and attention to details. Further, translators are required to do thorough research to render certain texts and be mindful of the translation strategies offered by translation scholars, which are many. An example of these strategies is Vinay and Darblent who suggested two main strategies: direct and oblique translation, which encompass seven strategies.
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