Translation in Arabic language and literature
Amir Afshin Farhadian; Seyyed Mehdi Masboogh
Abstract
Beyond its literary and artistic values, Hafez's poetry is known as a mirror of Iranian culture and worldview. Therefore, familiarity with it by people of other languages and cultures will open a window to the perception of Iranian art and culture. From this point of view, the quality of the translation ...
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Beyond its literary and artistic values, Hafez's poetry is known as a mirror of Iranian culture and worldview. Therefore, familiarity with it by people of other languages and cultures will open a window to the perception of Iranian art and culture. From this point of view, the quality of the translation of Hafez's poems into other languages becomes especially important. So far, at least nine selected or complete translations of Hafez's poems have been published in Arabic, which shows the appreciation of Arabic speakers for Hafez's poetry and thought. One of the most recent translations is the translation of Ali Abbas Zulaikha. because every metonymy expression, in addition to lexical meanings, also contains cultural, historical, and ethnic attachments, translating metonymies into another language that is current in a different context is one of the difficulties of translation is considered. In this research, which was carried out with the method of content analysis and in a descriptive-analytical way, 10 sonnets of Hafez containing 29 metonymies were randomly selected and analyzed using Kendall and Smith's table of numbers. The results of the research showed that in 8 cases, the meaning of the phrase was translated acceptably, and in 21 other cases, the Arabic translation faced serious problems. It is worth noting that 5 out of 21 cases of wrong translation were caused by misreading the Persian text.Keywords: Hafez's Poetry, Arabic Translation, Metonymies Translation, Ali Abbas Zulaikha.IntroductionHafez has a privileged position among numerous poets in the history of Persian literature. Any selection of the best examples of Persian poetry will contain examples of his poetry. This high position is the result of establishing a balance between the two characteristics of beautiful form and deep meaning. Hafez's extraordinary linguistic ability, along with his aesthetics and extraordinary skill in poetic art, has made his poetry desirable to lovers of literature. But regarding the meaning of the word, perhaps it can be considered as the summary of Iranian culture and worldview. "Hafez is not only the great poet of Iran, he is the miracle of Persian literature and the summary of this culture" (Shaygan, 2014: 114). The first feature makes it difficult to translate Hafez's poetry, but the second feature adds to the importance of the quality of his poetry translation. Hafez's poetry shows resistance to being translated in terms of the complexities of the form and the visible and hidden relationships of the words, but since his poetry is the manifestation of a part of the identity of Iranian culture, the correctness of the translation audience's perception of the pure manifestations of Iranian culture and worldview has a direct relationship with the quality of the translation of his poems. Dick Davis in his article " On Not Translating Hafez" says: " Certain poets are held to be untranslatable, or virtually so, and often they are thought of as those that most intimately express the poetic soul of their people (…) The fact that it is often precisely the poets who seem to sum up a poetry’s idiosyncratic potential and identity who are those whose works are most resistant to translation" (Davis, 2011: 74).The importance of Hafez's poetry translation benefiting from a suitable quality, with all its inherent difficulties, makes the mission of the translator of Hafez's poems heavier. Walter Benyamin explains the mission of the translator as follows: "This mission consists of finding that intention or meaning in the target language that echoes the original text in this language" (2003: 44).The world fame of Hafez's poems has been a strong motivation for translators to translate his poetry into many living languages of the world. Among others, we can mention its numerous translations in French, German, English, Italian, Spanish, Swedish, Russian, Armenian, Kazakh, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali, Turkish, Japanese, Arabic, etc. (Hafez Encyclopedia, 2017: pp. 542-585).Due to the extent of cultural exchanges between Persian and Arabic languages, the Arabic translations of Hafez's Diwan are very important. "Numerous translations of Hafez's poems, as well as various academic articles and theses, on the subject of his poems and personality, show that Hafez as a literary-mystical figure in the Arab world has attracted the attention of many writers and poets, including Taha Hossein, Shawarebi, Seyyed Qutb, Salah al-Sawi, Omar Shebli and..." (Zinivand and Almasi, 2011: 57).So far, Hafez's poems have been translated into Arabic nine times, most of which contain excerpts of poems. Mohammad Al Forati (selection), Mohammad Mehdi Javaheri (selection), Mohammad Amin Al-Shawarbi (sonnets), Salah al-Sawi (selection), Youssef Victor Al-Kakk (selection), Muhammad Ali Shamsoddin (selection), Omar Shebli al-Sawairi (selection), Ali Abbas Zulaikha (selection) All Poems) (Azizi, 2013: pp. 75-93) and Nader Nezam Tehrani (sonnets) are the translators of Hafez's poetry in Arabic.Ali Abbas Zulaikha, born in 1958 in Syria, is a doctor and embryologist. The result of his interest in the Persian language and literature was the translation of several famous works of Persian literature into Arabic, among which we can mention the translation of Hafez Shirazi's Diwan, Molana's Masnavi, Attar Neishaburi's Diwan and Asrarnameh (Kakavand and Valvi, 2019: 10). His translation of Hafez's Diwan, which is examined in this article in terms of translation of metonymies, is one of the most recent Arabic translations of Hafez's poetry and includes the entire Diwan of Hafez based on the famous correction of Qazvini and Ghani.Literature ReviewRegarding the Arabic translations of Hafez's poems, articles have been published so far, but in none of them, the translation of the metonymies in Ali Abbas Zulaikha's translation has been investigated.Behrouz Ghorbanzadeh and Shahram Ahmadi in the article "The mystical concept of metonymy in Omar Shibli's Arabic translation of Hafez's diwan based on the theory of Antoine Berman" criticized Shibli's translation of some metonymies in Hafez's poetry and concluded that in many cases the translator understood the metonymy of the expressions. He did not, and for this reason, he has turned to literal translation or ignoring the metonymic expression."Criticism and review of rhetorical translations in the Arabic translation of Hafez's poem by Salah al-Sawi" written by Gholamreza Karimifard is the title of an article that examines the translation of Al-Sawi from a rhetorical aspect. A part of this article is devoted to the analysis of a few cases of translation of metonymies in Hafez's poetry."Examination of the translations of the semantic contrasts of Hafez's sonnets in Ali Abbas Zulaikha's translation" is an article written by Owais Mohammadi and his colleagues in explaining examples of semantic contrasts in Hafez's poems and criticizing Zulaikha's translation of those examples. It is necessary to explain that the study of metonymies was not intended in this article. Hossein Mohseni and Amin Sheikh Bagheri, in an article entitled "Pathology of Transferring Multilayered Semantics in the Translation of Hafez's Poems Based on Catford's Theory of Formal Changes (A Case Study of Al-Shwarabi and Abbas Zulaikha's Translations)" have investigated the translation of the multilayered concepts of words and terms of Hafez's poetry in the translation of the two aforementioned translators.MethodologyContent analysis and descriptive-analytical methods have been used in this research. Overall, ten sonnets from Hafez have been randomly selected using Kendall and Smith's table of numbers for review and analysis in this research. Because the translator used the Qazvini and Ghani correction of Hafez's poems as the basis of his translation, the selected sonnets in this article are considered based on the same order. In each of the selected sonnets, first, the Arabic translation of Zulaikha's verses that contain metonymic compositions was translated into Persian, and then the translator's success in translating those phrases into Arabic was evaluated. It should be noted that in some sonnets, the translator has translated verses into poetry in addition to prose. In dealing with such verses, we have translated both Arabic poetry and prose into Persian and analyzed them.ConclusionThe results of analyzing the translation of metonymies in Zulaikha's translation of Hafez's ten sonnets indicate the failure of the translator to correctly translate those phrases from Persian to Arabic. Seventy-two percent error in the studied population is significant. The main reasons for this failure can be classified into two categories. The first reason that includes the number of translation errors is the failure to correctly understand the metonymic meaning of the phrases in the Persian language, which indicates the translator's lack of respect for the subtleties and details of the text being translated. But another reason is the misreading of the Persian text. The error that occurs in this category, which unfortunately includes nearly a quarter of metonymies translation errors, basically occurs before entering the translation because the text is misread in the same source language, and the resulting translation will be far from the original text. It is clear that Hafez's poem, despite its wide acceptance among Persian speakers, is relatively difficult, and the evidence of this is the large number of commentaries written on it, but this difficulty and complexity is not an acceptable justification for the erroneous translation of a significant literary work. It should be noted that Zulaikha's translation of Hafez's poems is one of the most recent Arabic translations from this Diwan and other examples of Arabic translations of Hafez's poems have been available to the translator. Also, many Persian commentaries of Hafez's poems have been published, which could prevent many misreadings. Undoubtedly, the quality of the translation of the poems of one of the most prominent poets of Iran will have an important effect on the understanding of his words and his literary position in the society of the target language. Zulaikha has not been very successful in carrying out this mission.
Translation in Arabic language and literature
Majid Salehbek
Abstract
In this research, an attempt has been made to criticize and analyze the Arabic translations of Khayyam's quatrains. Therefore, at the beginning, the history of the quatrains, Khayyam's quatrains, the translations done in the West, and how they entered the Arab world have been discussed. Next, Arab translators’ ...
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In this research, an attempt has been made to criticize and analyze the Arabic translations of Khayyam's quatrains. Therefore, at the beginning, the history of the quatrains, Khayyam's quatrains, the translations done in the West, and how they entered the Arab world have been discussed. Next, Arab translators’ methods have been criticized and analyzed under titles such as ideology, source and target language discourse, translation formats, and translation from the intermediate language by bringing evidence. In the topic of ideology, the influence of the ideology of the translator and the target language, and in the context of discourse, the evolution and transformation of the text and the potential of the translator's success have been discussed. The translator's adherence to the main quatrain format or non-adherence to it, as well as its results in the translation process, in addition to the use of the intermediary language and its positive and negative and sometimes destructive effects in the translation, like other cases, have a special place in this study. In the present research, in addition to what has been said, the personal choices and methods of translators and their influence in clarifying, stylization, changing and deleting, the transfer of the received meaning from the source language which is affected by misunderstanding or intermediate language or cultural differences, have been critically analyzed.Keywords: Khayyam's Quatrains, Arabic Translation, Ideology, Context of Discourse, Quatrain Format. IntroductionAlthough the great brilliance of men like Ferdowsi, Hafez, Saadi, Attar, Khayyam, and Molavi in the sky of the vast land of Iran has aroused the admiration of the researchers of the Arab world and many works in this regard have entered the field of literature, but among the Persian language poets, Omar Khayyam has a special place and fame in the Arab world. In such a way, Omar Khayyam and his quatrains have attracted the attention of researchers and Arabic gatherings more than any Persian poet. The existence of nearly a hundred translations of his quatrains in Arabic shows this attention. In this respect, Adib Taqi Dameshqi says: Despite the fact that Khayyam's quatrains are not among the best masterpieces of Iranian genius, and although Khayyam's position is not such that other Iranian poets have not been able to achieve it, what is the secret of this superiority and priority of literature, a phenomenon that may make people wonder (Safi Najafi, N.D.: 17). In response to this question, Reza Tawfiq Bek, a Turkish philosopher, says in his book "Khayyam's Quatrains" that: This success achieved by Khayyam's quatrains is derived from his understanding of the meaning of life based on the present taste and civilization, the basic principles of which are arranged in a new way in his quatrains; Westerners have not turned to Khayyam except because they saw him as a contemporary European sage and followed his teachings (Ibid: 18).Khayyam's name is Omar, his nickname (Kunya) is Abū al-Fatḥ, and known as Ghiyāth al-Dīn. The reason for his fame as Khayyam or Khayami is not known correctly. It has been said that his father had this title and may have been a curtain maker (Foroughi, 1379: 13).What is certain is that during the reign of Jalal al-Din Malik Shah Seljuqi and the ministry of Khwaja Nizam al-Mulk in the year 467 A.H. when they wanted to correctly determine the order of the calendar according to the astronomical rules, they chose a group of scientists for this purpose to arrange the calculation, and Khayyam was one of those scientists, and it seems that he was ahead of everyone (Foroughi, 1379 AD: 13 and 14).Literature ReviewAlthough the research studies that have been done about Khayyam and his quatrains cannot be counted, in line with the title of this research, we can refer to the following items:- The article Analysis of Yusuf Hossein Bekar's critical views on the translations of Khayyam's quatrains based on Antoine Berman's theory written by Zahra Bavand, Shahriar Rahmati, Touraj Zeinivand, and Ali Salimi. In this article, the respected authors' critical opinions on the book "Al-Tarjamat al-Arabiyyah Lerobaiyat al-Khayyam" are examined based on Carman's theory.- The article Review and Analysis of Arabic Translations of Khayyam's Quatrains written by Hossein Kiani and Saeed Hesampour, respected authors, although they have discussed the translation of Rami and Saraf in general terms in their research, but they have not provided an example for their theoretical discussions.- The article Abdul Rahman Shukri and Khayyam's Quatrains written by Jamil Jafari and Sherafat Karimi, in this article the subject of Shukri's influence on Fitzgerald's poetry is examined.- The article Researching on Khayyam based on the Arab World written by Naser Mohseninia, this article focuses more on Khayyam's life and his works in the Western world and the Arab world, and in another section, Khayyam's influence on the Akhawan al-Safa, as well as Ma’ari, has been discussed by referring to the debate between him and Zamakhshari.MethodologyThe method used in this research is descriptive-analytical. It is worth mentioning that in order to clarify the discussions raised in this research as much as possible, an effort has been made to use different examples of well-known Arab translators from different Arab countries, such as Safi Najafi, Ahmed Rami, Abdulhaq Fazil, Ibn Tavit, Ariz, Heydari, etc. and at the end while answering the research questions, present a summary of the findings to the readers.ConclusionAt the end, the results of this research are:- The translation of literary works is always influenced by various factors such as the culture and ideology and personal belonging of the translator, so it is impossible to come across a translation that is not influenced by the culture and ideology that governs the worldview and the translator's belonging, and does not have traces of these things. In other words, any concept and meaning in the form of language cannot be free from culture and ideology, because translation is based on language. It is for this reason that Fitzgerald and his translation, under the influence of the dominant culture and the special position of Great Britain and its undisputed power in the 19th century, have a contemptuous view of the Eastern culture; to the extent that he considered meddling in the works of Iranian poets, including Khayyam, as a source of his entertainment, he stated that they do not have the qualities of a poet and need a little art. Another aspect of it is the cultural and ideological ties of poets such as Safi Najafi and Ahmed Hamed Saraf, who are related to the completely traditional society of Iraq, especially to the religious cities of Karbala and Najaf, or Ibrahim Ariz and Aqqad, whose origin is a society with traditional customs and traditions such as Bahrain and Egypt. As we can see, the apparent invitation to wine in Khayyam's quatrains in Safi Najafi's translation loses its clarity and is used in an inspirational way; and finally, the translator of those quatrains feels remorse because of the popularity of his translation, and seeks to destroy it; or because Ariz who avoids the translation of wine and calls to it and shows a different perception or neglects himself; Aqqad's confrontation with Khayyam and Ahmad Rami's recklessness in saying wine and drinking are also interesting.- The Arab translators not sticking the Persian quatrain format and choosing other formats such as Solasiyat (three stanzas). Moraba’at (four stanzas). Khumasiyat (five stanzas). Musaba’at (seven stanzas). although it has been chosen under the pretext of ease of translation, so that the translator feels free in choosing more words and expressions; but this intention has not been realized, because we come across many evidences that despite the size of the format and the change in meter, not only the entire quatrain has not been translated, but sometimes one or two stanzas have been removed or focus has been made on one or two stanzas.- The polysemous words and their dependence on the sphere of different discourses are other significant things in translation, and at the same time, they provide an opportunity for a capable translator; where the translator can make the necessary balance between the source language and the target language, taking into account the discourse of the age and the audience, to undergo a positive transformation. Among its examples, the interaction of translators such as Wehbi, Saraf, Abdul Haq Fazil, Ibrahim Ariz, Noble Abdul Ahed, Abdul Latif Nashar, Mohammad Jamil Al-Aqili, Abushadi and... with the addition of "Jam Jam" in the negative and positive aspects of the translation of "Water of Life" by Saleh Jafari.- Distance from the original language of the text and the translation from the intermediate language, which, according to the translator himself, is an interpretative translation; or misunderstanding and misinterpretation of the nuances and subtleties of the source language, by the translators' own admission, who do not know even a word of Persian, and the whole translation from translation and lack of adherence to the same Latin text, along with the distance of the Latin text from the Persian equivalents of quatrains, are other challenges. In any case, the results of distance from the Persian original of quatrains in the translation of this group of translators are not surprising. In addition, Fitzgerald, who is the authority of many Arab translators, refrained from bringing the part of Khayyam's prayer that was not in accordance with his poetry. As a result, the comprehensiveness of Khayyam's thought has been damaged in Arabic translations.- In addition to verse translations, a group of Arab writers have turned to prose and word-for-word translations, and their main concern has been to adhere to the text and be faithful in preserving the concepts, preferring the melodious language and style of poetry.- Not adhering to the semantic relationship and the unity of the subject of each stanza and relying on the taste of the source language or pure captivity in the target language to the extent that it leads to the elimination of the subtleties and nuances of the text, all tell about the importance of this issue. Finally, the methods of the translator in clarifying or simplifying or changing and deleting, etc., are all positive or negative aspects of the translation and translator.
Translation in Arabic language and literature
Zahra Salimi; Sajjad Esmaili; Alireza Sheikhi
Abstract
Cultural elements as major parts of texts play an important role in conveying the main concepts to the readers. Understanding these concepts is the main concern of translators of different scripts. Therefore, a translator can convey not only the meaning of the text but also the sentiments of the author ...
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Cultural elements as major parts of texts play an important role in conveying the main concepts to the readers. Understanding these concepts is the main concern of translators of different scripts. Therefore, a translator can convey not only the meaning of the text but also the sentiments of the author to the readers using cultural synonyms. To this end, in this paper, we analyze the “Kharidar Eshgh” novel by Mohammad Ali Behzad Rad using the cultural pattern of Mark Newman. Moreover, we investigate how a translator deals with cultural elements and how he/she approaches finding the equivalent of cultural expression in Arabic and Persian language. We use a descriptive-analytical method in our research and we show that the translator of this novel has concentrated more on interpreting the meaning of text rather than conveying the author’s sentiments and feelings. Hence, word-by-word translation in some cases led to the ambiguity of translation. Furthermore, the actual meaning of expressions and metaphors have not been apprehended properly and inappropriate synonyms for words have been chosen. Among cultural components in this novel, cultural contents, proverbs, and ecology have the highest frequency, respectively.
Aliasghar Shahbazi; Mostafa Parsaeipour
Abstract
Rumi's Masnavi has been widely popular outside the Persian culture, having attracted many an audience. The work has been warmly welcomed in Arabic cultures as well. Arabic literary figures have provided several translations of this literary-mystic masterpiece in prose and poetry, among which the poetic ...
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Rumi's Masnavi has been widely popular outside the Persian culture, having attracted many an audience. The work has been warmly welcomed in Arabic cultures as well. Arabic literary figures have provided several translations of this literary-mystic masterpiece in prose and poetry, among which the poetic translations of two contemporary Arab poets, Abdul Aziz Jawaheri and Mohammad Jamal Hashemi, have served a key role in introducing Masnavi to the Arab audience. Translators’ familiarity with Rumi’s philosophy and cultural affinity between the source and target cultures have helped reflect the spiritual atmosphere of the poems in Arabic. Having discussed the qualitative characteristics of these translations, the study has investigated the translations of the first story in Rumi’s Masnavi, The King and the Handmaiden, within the procedures provided by Viney and Darbelnet. The results show that Jawaher’s translation is closer to the original, adopting direct translation procedures, particularly ‘literal translation’, more extensively. Faithfulness to the source text is yet another virtue of this translation. Hashemi has provided a translation that mostly reveals the syntactic and pragmatic elements of the target language, explicating many elements to make the text more accessible to the readers in lieu of literal translation. Among the seven procedures studied, transposition and modulation are significantly more prevalent than others.
Hossein Kiani; Leila Raeisi
Abstract
Critical analysis of journals is a principled process in spreading knowledge and promoting the quality of scientific researches; therefore, scientific publications need to be criticized on the basis of the correct way of critical thinking. The purpose of this research is to review the articles No. 6 ...
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Critical analysis of journals is a principled process in spreading knowledge and promoting the quality of scientific researches; therefore, scientific publications need to be criticized on the basis of the correct way of critical thinking. The purpose of this research is to review the articles No. 6 to 17 of the Journal of Translation Studies on Arabic Language and Literature by using the Quantitative Content Analysis method. Therefore, using a questionnaire designed by the Human Sciences Institute and Cultural Studies, 61 articles of this journal were criticized and analyzed using quantitative content analysis. The findings of the research show that the "reviewing translations" with 49% statistic has the most frequent subject of the journal. The journal trend in 2017 was toward translation critique based on the existing theories and is outstanding in evaluating cultural subjects. The journal has had a lot of evaluated attributes in 2016; and particularly in 2017 has prevailed reflecting the growing trend of the magazine. The articles in 2016 in terms of title, writing introduction, innovation and theoretical foundations of research, and in 2017 in terms of research method, the method of collecting the analysis, adherence to the method, referring to the article, thesis and databases have had a better performance. The most of shortcomings are as follows: Selecting inappropriate research method and not to adhere to it in the main body of the article, not to explain the theoretical foundations of the research, not to have a critical and analytical approach, to be descriptive the research background and not to update the sources of the articles.
Mohammad Rahimi Khoighani
Abstract
The purpose of this research is to investigate how the cultural elements of the story "Farsi Shekar Ast" by Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh, is transferred from Persian to Arabic, using Peter Newmark's model for categorizing cultural categories and its translation strategies. The most important findings of the ...
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The purpose of this research is to investigate how the cultural elements of the story "Farsi Shekar Ast" by Mohammad Ali Jamalzadeh, is transferred from Persian to Arabic, using Peter Newmark's model for categorizing cultural categories and its translation strategies. The most important findings of the present study, which have been written with a descriptive-analytical method, indicate that the story of "Farsi Shekar ast" has all five categories of cultural categories that Newmark deserves, the translator translates this story more than the equivalent cultural equivalent and in this way, a translation is tailored to the culture of the target language.
Sayyed MohammadReza Ibnorrasool; Nafiseh Raeisi Mobarakeh
Volume 3, Issue 8 , September 2013, , Pages 175-195
Abstract
The purpose of this paper is classification, correction, and elaboration of the most outstanding mistakes and errors occurred in the Arabic translation of Beihaghi History by YahyaAlkheshab and SadeghNashat. This translation has been done based on the edition of GhasemGhani and Ali Akbar Fayaz. The Arabic ...
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The purpose of this paper is classification, correction, and elaboration of the most outstanding mistakes and errors occurred in the Arabic translation of Beihaghi History by YahyaAlkheshab and SadeghNashat. This translation has been done based on the edition of GhasemGhani and Ali Akbar Fayaz. The Arabic translation of Beihaghi History as a historical document – which is considered outstanding from the literary and scientific point of view worldwide – is clear, and since the proper understanding of the Persian texts contributes to our knowledge of the Iranian literature and culture, it is indispensable for Iranians to assure the proper translation of those texts for non-Iranians. On the other hand, because of the historical and social subject of this book, its correct translation is considered necessary for Arab researchers. As a result, it is helpful for native speakers of Arabic interested in Persian language and literature. In this article, we have tried to investigate this translation from different points of view; we look into "translators' additions", "translators' reductions", "mistakes in finding lexical and idiomatic equivalents ", and "mistakes in content transmission". In addition, after reviewing each sample, we tried to suggest equivalents that are more suitable for them.
