Translation in Arabic language and literature
Fatemeh Akbarizadeh; Yosra Shadman
Abstract
According to Bakhtin's theory, the novel as a literary type, appropriate to the spirit of the age and human society, has dialogical relations in linguistic dimensions. A conversational visual novel is the result of the entanglement of languages emerging from the characters, each of them with a different ...
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According to Bakhtin's theory, the novel as a literary type, appropriate to the spirit of the age and human society, has dialogical relations in linguistic dimensions. A conversational visual novel is the result of the entanglement of languages emerging from the characters, each of them with a different worldview, social and cultural level, is present in the novel and interacts with each other. The novel "Post-e Shabaneh" in a multi-voiced world, with the depiction of different sounds, has the heteroglossia feature, and the language of each character in each part of the novel interacts with other languages. This heteroglossia can be seen in the language, tone, and form of the novel, and its translation is very important, and this article will analyze this feature. The novel "Post-e Shabaneh" is a Persian translation of the Arabic novel "Barid Al-Layl" by Hoda Barakat. The present article tries to criticize its Persian translations with a descriptive-analytical method in order to find out how translators dealt with the heteroglossia feature of the novel in the translations. There have been three translations of this work by Hamidreza Mohajerani, Mansoureh Ahmadi Jafari, and Soha Banouni and published under the title "Post-e Shabaneh". In the study of more than 60 samples of translations in multiple languages manifested in the tone and language of the character and the double-voiced discourse, it seems that each of the translators has been successful in translating the heteroglossia feature to some extent. Banouni has performed poorly in this field and has often not provided an acceptable translation.Keywords: Novel Translation, Heteroglossia, Post-e Shabaneh, Hoda.Introduction The Arabic novel "Barid Al-Layl" by Hoda Barakat is the winner of the 2019 Arabic Booker Prize, and due to its importance in the contemporary Arabic novel, it is also translated into Persian under the title "Post-e Shabaneh" by three translators (Hamidreza Mohajerani, Mansoureh Ahmadi Jafari and Saha Banouni). By explaining this feature of the novel, this article is trying to examine with what components it is possible to translate the heteroglossia style of the novel and whether the translations of this work have been able to reflect this important feature in the style of the novel. Because a good translation of a novel is not a translation of words and sentences, but a translation of all the narrative, stylistic, and linguistic aspects of the novel; the present article tries to criticize the translations of the novel "Post-e Shabaneh" by Hoda Barakat, focusing on its "heteroglossia" feature. Therefore, this article examines the characters' utterances in accordance with the characterization, the interaction of the novel with other literary types, and the interaction of the speech styles of hybridization, polemic, parody, and stylization.The current research aims to answer the following questions:In what components can the feature of heteroglossia in the novel "Post-e Shabaneh" be studied and evaluated?Which of the translators has presented a more successful translation of the heteroglossia feature of the mentioned novel? The hypotheses are as follows:According to the narrative style of the letter in the first part and the self-talk of the characters in the last two parts, the novel "Post-e Shabaneh" has put the speech of the story characters in conversational interaction with other sounds and has established heteroglossia in the language of the characters according to the type of each character. Also, heteroglossia can be seen in the interaction of the language of the novel with other literary and non-literary types in the language of the characters, as well as double-voiced discourse in the interaction of speech styles such as hybridization, polemic, parody, and stylistics.In the examination of the double-voiced discourse of the novel, it seems that the translators have not provided a suitable translation and the interference of sounds and correspondence or correlation or contrast in the desired double-voiced discourse have not been considered.Literature ReviewIn analyzing the feature of heteroglossia in the novel, the following points can be mentioned:Akbarizadeh et al. (2014) in the article Heteroglossia Effects in the Novel Things We Left Unsaid, investigated the double-voiced discourse between the female writer and the characters and narrator's language and the language of literary and non-literary genres, and by studying the three levels of multilingualism in Pirzad's novel for women, they analyzed different elements in the creation of an inconsistent language system in the discourse of the novel.Baloo and his colleagues (2016) in the article Bakhtinian Polyphony and Heteroglossia and Their Presentation in the Novel Sangesabor, besides the polyphonic feature of this novel, paid attention to heteroglossia feature, and while enumerating the characteristics of the sounds of the text manifested in the characters, they also dealt with the conversational relationships between them and enumerated the aspects of parody and consonance between them.Professor Mohammadi and his colleague (2016) in an article entitled Multilingualism and Polyphony: Post-modernism Features in "Possible Night" (Shab-e Momken) Novel, while enumerating the novel's postmodern characteristics, pointed out multilingualism and listed the use of English and French alongside Persian as well as the use of colloquial language and the use of words different from the official language by the characters as manifestations of multilingualism.MethodologyIn order to understand a novel, it is important to pay attention to its linguistic and stylistic layers. Also, it is necessary to discover and understand the different language varieties that have emerged according to linguistic rules. The novel "Post-e Shabaneh" is a Persian translation of the Arabic novel "Barid Al-Layl" by Hoda Barakat. This article tries to criticize the Persian translations of Hamidreza Mohajerani, Mansoureh Ahmadi Jafari, and Soha Banouni with a descriptive-analytical method and library tools in order to understand how the heteroglossia feature of this novel is translated.ConclusionAccording to the analysis of the discourse of the novel "Post-e Shabaneh" by Hoda Barakat; in confirmation of the first hypothesis, it can be found that the words of the characters in the novel in the official language of the letters are appropriate for each character as well as the specific time and place of writing.Heteroglossia can be seen in the language of the characters, in the mixing of the language of religion, popular culture and science in the words of the characters. The double-voiced discourse is arranged in relation to the voice of the hypothetical addressee of each letter, as well as the voice of the society and the ruling presuppositions and taboos. Where another voice has an objective embodiment in the speech of the speaker, we are faced with a hybrid discourse. However, when another voice is implicitly considered during the speech, or the speaker's voice is consistent with another voice, it is the stylistic double-voiced speech, or it is in contrast with the other, and the representation is contradictory. It is very important to pay attention to the interference of sounds in speech and translators should consider the type of personality, insight, and social level of the person as well as another voice, to represent the double-voiced speech and translate the multiple voices and choose the appropriate interpretations and words. Among more than 60 selected samples, some of which were mentioned in a small part of the article, it was observed that the second hypothesis is somewhat true and the translators tried to translate these heteroglossias in an experimental way and were successful to some extent.
