Translation in Arabic language and literature
Sajjad Esmaili; Mohammad Zangoei
Abstract
Cultural categories and non-verbal features are crucial components in visual and auditory texts, serving a vital function in effectively transmitting and eliciting the primary concepts to the audience. Translators, particularly those working on movies, are primarily concerned with accurately comprehending, ...
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Cultural categories and non-verbal features are crucial components in visual and auditory texts, serving a vital function in effectively transmitting and eliciting the primary concepts to the audience. Translators, particularly those working on movies, are primarily concerned with accurately comprehending, receiving, and conveying these aspects. The translator can effectively communicate the cultural concepts and non-verbal aspects of the movie to the audience by accurately employing textual counterparts in the movie subtitles. This research is focused on the translator's role in accurately conveying the intended meaning of cultural categories and non-verbal elements in audio-visual texts. It utilizes the descriptive-analytical method to examine the translation of subtitles in the movie "Melody." The translator should undertake the task of translating these elements. To evaluate the translation of subtitles, Gottlieb's methodologies and Peter Newmark's suggested cultural categories were both used to increase the accuracy of the findings. The analysis of the Arabic translation of the subtitles of the Melody movie revealed that the translator mostly employed semantic translation and made efforts to accurately transmit cultural characteristics in the target language for enhanced clarity of meaning. Thus, to accomplish this objective, the translator has employed the methods of "rewriting," "expansion," and "transformation" from the 10 strategies proposed by Gottlieb. However, when it comes to translating non-verbal aspects, the translator has chosen not to translate these parts because they are universally understood in both the source and target languages. As a result, the translation is focused on the needs and preferences of the audience.Keywords: Cultural Categories, Non-Verbal Aspects, "Melody" Movie, Newmark, Gottlieb.IntroductionPeter Newmark emphasizes the significance of cultural values and cultural imbalance in translation and cultural transmission. He argues that when translating cultural categories, it is important to analyze the concepts of meaning and their relationship with language and culture.The goal of translation should be to accurately convey and receive cultural influence with minimal alterations. Under the term of cultural categories, he has enumerated various classifications, including ecology, material culture (artifacts), social culture, institutions, conventions, gestures, and speaking habits. Aside from culturalcategories, non-verbal factors are also a significant aspect of translation. These elements communicate the information through non-linguistic behaviors such as facial expressions, eye contact, body movements, appearance, and voice actions. The translation of cultural categories and non-verbal elements is particularly crucial in the translation of audio-visual texts, such as movie subtitles.This is because films play a significant role in conveying the culture and ideas of a society, and their translation into another language requires meticulous attention. Translation scholars have identified multiple techniques for translating audio-visual texts, particularly the subtitling of movies and TV series. Henrik Gottlieb, a Danish linguist and translator, has contributed some of these ideas. He has implemented various strategies, including expansion, conversion, rewriting, adaptation, transcription, transfer, compression, shortening, and omission, for translating film subtitles.These strategies can be utilized to assess the translator's proficiency in accurately translating a discovered subtitle. This research intends to investigate the Arabic translation of cultural categories and non-verbal aspects in the Arabic subtitles of the 2006 film "Melody" by Jahangir Jahangiri. The objective is to develop ways for achieving the most optimal translation in this context. Two questions have been presented in order to accomplish these goals:What translation tactics does the translator employ to transfer cultural categories in the subtitles of the Melody movie, using Gottlieb's translation procedures?How effectively does the translator represent the non-verbal parts of the movie "Melody"? Literature ReviewSeveral studies have been conducted on the difficulties of translating films, including critiques of the Arabic subtitles for certain Iranian films. Some notable examples include: In his 2016 thesis, Hervi examined the strategies employed in translating cultural elements in Persian subtitles of American films, using Vladimir Ivir's classification. He concluded that the most frequently used strategies were borrowing, lexical translation, replacement, deletion, definition, adding more content or explanations, and making words.In his 2019 thesis titled "Investigation of Cultural Element Translation in Arabic Subtitles of the Films "Ekhraji" and "Miraji"," Masoudi explored the application of Newmark's model and its translation methodologies for translating cultural materials.In a research paper titled "A Critical Analysis of the Arabic Subtitle of the Film Cow (Produced in 1348) Directed by Dariush Mehrjooi," Rahimi Duraki examines the Arabic subtitle of the movie Cow and concludes that it is necessary for the translator to interpret this film.The topics covered include linguistic and non-linguistic variations, grammatical comprehension, literary industries, translation of poetry and lyrics in movie songs, proper names, hilarious thoughts, offensive terms, and curses. Take into consideration religious vocabulary and terminology.Research MethodologyThe research methodology employed in this study is descriptive-analytical. Initial research on the research topic's relevant sources helped establish the theoretical underpinnings of the study. Subsequently, the cultural categories and non-verbal elements utilized in the movie "Melody" were identified and extracted. Following that, each of these elements underwent analysis using Gottlieb's suggested strategies.Conclusion1) The translator's ability to convey cultural concepts has been rather effective. There are only a few mistakes in translation and dubbing, and the majority of the translator's decisions align with the existing norms and conventions of the target language (Arabic). During the translation process, the translator has employed three of Gottlieb's 10 methods, specifically rewriting, transformation, and expansion. The primary focus of the analysis is the data derived from the film and its corresponding subtitles. The translator has selected "rewriting" as the initial strategy for analysis. However, when considering the usage rate classification outside of the Gottlieb framework, this strategy is deemed brief. When comparing the Arabic language to the Persian language, the term "removal" will be the most frequently utilized by the translator.The Melody movie effectively communicates many of its themes and meanings to the audience through non-verbal components. The non-verbal behavior in this film serves as both a substitute for spoken signals and as a means to strengthen and highlight vocal ones. Nevertheless, when it comes to translating non-verbal aspects, the translator has chosen not to translate these elements and has refrained from equating them, based on the assumption that the meaning of these elements is universally understood in both the original and target languages. Non-verbal behaviors may have different interpretations for Arabic and Persian-speaking audiences. Neglecting to accurately translate non-verbal elements in subtitles can lead to misunderstandings and ambiguity in the translated subtitles. Hence, it is imperative to conduct a comparative analysis of the non-verbal elements used by Arabic and Persian speakers. This analysis aims to identify and categorize the unique non-common elements, which can then be incorporated into subtitle texts. The findings of this analysis can be further explored in a separate article.
