Thinking Arabic Translation

Thinking Arabic Translation

Thinking Arabic Translation is an indispensable book for linguists who want to

develop their Arabic-to-English translation skills. Clear explanations, discussions,

examples and exercises enable students to acquire the skills necessary for tackling

a broad range of translation problems.

The book has a practical orientation, addressing key issues for translators, such

as cultural differences, genre, and revision and editing. It is a book on translation

method, drawing on a range of notions from linguistics and translation theory to

encourage thoughtful consideration of possible solutions to practical problems.

This new edition includes:

• new material in almost all chapters

• a new chapter on parallelism

• two new chapters on technical translation: botanical and Islamic fi nance texts

• new and up-to-date examples from all types of translation, covering broad

issues that have emerged in the Arab world in recent years

• texts drawn from a wide variety of writing types, including newspapers,

prose fi ction, poetry, tourist material, scientifi c texts, fi nancial texts, recipes,

academic writing, constitutions and political speeches

• at least three full-length practical translation exercises in each chapter to

complement the discussions and consolidate learning.

In addition to the updated Tutor’s Handbook, a Supplement, containing textual

material and practical exercises aimed at further developing the translation issues

discussed in the main text, and a Tutor’s Handbook to the Supplement, are available

at www.routledge.com/cw/dickins.

Thinking Arabic Translation is key reading for advanced students wishing to

perfect their language skills or considering a career in translation.

James Dickins is Professor of Arabic at the University of Leeds, UK.

Ian Higgins, who, with the late Sándor Hervey, originated the Thinking Translation

series, is Honorary Senior Lecturer in Modern Languages at the University of

St Andrews.

Titles of related interest

For a full list of titles in the Thinking Translation series, please visit www.routledge.com

Thinking Italian Translation

A Course in Translation Method: Italian to English

Sàndor Hervey, Ian Higgins, Stella Cragie and Patrizia Gambarotta

Russian Translation

Theory and Practice

Edna Andrews and Elena Maksimova

Routledge Course in Japanese Translation

Yoko Hasegawa

Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies

Second Edition

Mona Baker and Gabriela Saldanha

Arabic-English-Arabic Legal Translation

Hanem El-Farahaty

In Other Words

A Coursebook on Translation

Mona Baker

Becoming a Translator

An Accelerated Course

Douglas Robinson

The Scandals of Translation

Lawrence Venuti

Translation Studies

Susan Bassnett

Thinking Arabic Translation

A course in translation method:

Arabic to English

Second edition

James Dickins, Sándor Hervey

and Ian Higgins

Second edition published 2017

by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

and by Routledge

711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

© 2017 James Dickins, Sándor Hervey and Ian Higgins

The right of James Dickins, Sándor Hervey and Ian Higgins to be identifi ed as

authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with sections 77

and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or

utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now

known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any

information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from

the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or

registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation

without intent to infringe.

First edition published by Routledge 2002

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Dickins, J. (James), author. | Hervey, Sândor G. J., author. |

Higgins, Ian, author.

Title: Thinking Arabic translation : a course in translation method :

Arabic to English / James Dickins, Sândor Hervey and Ian Higgins.

Description: Second edition. | Abingdon, Oxon ; New York :

Routledge, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references, glossary, and index.

Identifi ers: LCCN 2016013513 | ISBN 9780415705622 (hardback : alk. paper) |

ISBN 9780415705639 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315471570 (ebk)

Subjects: LCSH: Arabic language—Translating into English.

Classifi cation: LCC PJ6403 .D53 2016 | DDC 428/.02927—dc23

LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2016013513

ISBN: 978-0-415-70562-2 (hbk)

ISBN: 978-0-415-70563-9 (pbk)

ISBN: 978-1-315-47157-0 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman

by Apex CoVantage, LLC

Contents

Acknowledgements xiii

Introduction xiv

1 Translation as a process 1

1.1 Basic defi nitions 1

1.2 Intersemiotic translation 2

1.3 Intralingual translation 3

1.4 Interlingual translation 5

1.5 The tools of the trade 7

Practical 1 9

Practical 1.1 Gist translation: تطلعاتھ عن عبر فیما 9

Practical 1.2 Gist translation: والملاحظة بالذكر جدیر ھو ومما 11

Practical 1.3 Gist translation: البطيء الموت .. السیارات عوادم: توقف 11

2 Translation as a product 13

2.1 Degrees of freedom in translation 13

2.1.1 Interlinear translation 13

2.1.2 Literal translation 14

2.1.3 Free translation 14

2.1.4 Communicative translation 14

2.1.5 From interlinear to free translation 15

2.2 Equivalence and translation loss 16

2.2.1 Equivalence 16

2.2.2 Translation loss 18

2.2.2.1 Translation by omission 20

2.2.2.2 Translation by addition 21

2.2.2.3 Controlling translation loss 22

Practical 2 22

Practical 2.1 Literal versus balanced translation:

22 وتمیز حكم المحافظین

Practical 2.2 Degrees of freedom in translation: أمك ستقول ماذا 23

Practical 2.3 Literal versus free translation: الجمیلة لغتنا 25

vi Contents

3 Revising and editing TTs 26

3.1 Introduction 26

3.2 Revision 26

3.3 Editing 30

Practical 3 32

Practical 3.1 Revising and editing: السعادة جزیرة سقطرى 32

Practical 3.2 Revising and editing: العھد على .. الأردن 33

4 Cultural transposition 36

4.1 Basic principles 36

4.2 Exoticism 36

4.3 Calque 37

4.4 Cultural transplantation 38

4.5 Cultural borrowing 39

4.6 Communicative translation 41

4.7 Transliterating names 42

Practical 4 43

Practical 4.1 Cultural transposition: خطواتھ وقادتھ 43

Practical 4.2 Cultural transposition: الخلیجي الحضور حجم ویبرز 43

Practical 4.3 Cultural transposition: أنفاسھ یسترد كان وحین 45

Practical 4.4 Cultural transposition: إخصائي ھناك ولیس 46

5 Compensation 48

5.1 Basic principles 48

5.2 Categories of compensation 51

Practical 5 56

Practical 5.1 Compensation: یجري واحدا ترى أن 56

Practical 5.2 Compensation: طویل وقت یمر قد 57

58 نشأت في أسرة مصریة صمیمة :Compensation 3.5 Practical

6 Genre 60

6.1 Introduction 60

6.2 Treatment of subject matter 62

6.3 Oral and written texts 65

Practical 6 67

Practical 6.1 Genre: صلالة خریف 67

Practical 6.2 Genre: العرب الفلك علماء قاس 68

Practical 6.3 Genre: آدم ابن یا 69

Practical 6.4 Genre: الكوشة في مقرونة 69

Practical 6.5 Genre: شیخة الشیخ 71

7 Denotative meaning and translation issues 73

7.1 Denotative meaning 73

7.1.1 Synonymy 74

7.1.2 Hyperonymy-hyponymy 75

Contents vii

7.1.3 Particularizing translation and generalizing translation 77

7.1.4 Semantic overlap and overlapping translation 79

7.1.5 Near-synonymy and translation 81

7.2 Semantic repetition in Arabic 82

7.2.1 Synonym and near-synonym repetition 83

7.2.2 Hyperonym-hyponym repetition 85

7.2.3 Associative repetition 88

7.3 List restructuring 90

Practical 7 92

Practical 7.1 Denotative meaning: الیوم البشریة تقف 92

Practical 7.2 Denotative meaning: المرء یستمع عندما 93

Practical 7.3 List restructuring and associative repetition:

93 كانت متطلبات الدین اٳلسلامي

8 Connotative meaning and translation issues 95

8.1 Basic principles 95

8.2 Attitudinal meaning 95

8.3 Associative meaning 97

8.4 Affective meaning 99

8.5 Allusive meaning 101

8.6 Collocation and collocative meaning 101

8.7 Refl ected meaning 103

8.8 Other types of connotative meaning 104

Practical 8 105

Practical 8.1 Collocation: (a) النظم ھذه وتشمل) ,b) العدید تقوم 105

Practical 8.2 Collocation: (a) دائما الحرب أن) ,b) الرئاسة خسرت 105

Practical 8.3 Connotative meaning: الرحلة 106

Practical 8.4 Connotative meaning: الصھیونیة القرصنة 107

Introduction to the formal properties of texts 108

9 Phonic/graphic and prosodic issues 111

9.1 The phonic/graphic level 111

9.1.1 Alliteration, assonance and rhyme 111

9.1.2 Onomatopoeia 115

9.2 The prosodic level 117

9.2.1 Rudiments of English and Arabic versification 119

9.2.1.1 English 119

9.2.1.2 Arabic 120

9.2.2 Translating Arabic verse 122

Practical 9 123

Practical 9.1 The phonic/graphic and prosodic levels:

123 دع الایام تفعل ما تشاء

Practical 9.2 The phonic/graphic and prosodic levelsːََّاقبیحین

124ِ آه .. كم ُكن

Practical 9.3 The phonic/graphic level: الاعوام تتابعت 125

viii Contents

10 Grammatical issues 127

10.1 Introduction 127

10.2 The grammatical level 127

10.2.1 Words 127

10.2.2 Grammatical arrangement 128

10.2.3 Morphological repetition 132

10.2.3.1 Pattern repetition 132

10.2.3.2 Root repetition 135

10.2.3.3 Suffix repetition 139

10.2.4 Lexical repetition 140

10.2.4.1 Lexical item repetition 140

10.2.4.2 Phrase repetition 142

Practical 10 143

Practical 10.1 Lexical item and root repetition: الطبقي التمییز إن 143

Practical 10.2 Lexical item and root repetition:

143 وعلى الرغم من عبقریة تشرشل

Practical 10.3 Lexical item repetition and other forms of

repetition: حوارالثقافات 144

11 Parallelism 146

11.1 Introduction 146

11.2 Defi nition of parallelism 146

11.3 Simple cases of parallelism 147

11.4 Complex cases of parallelism 148

11.5 Translating Arabic parallelism 152

Practical 11 154

154 ومما ھو جدیر بالذكر والملاحظة :Parallelism 1.11 Practical

Practical 11.2 (Near-)synonym repetition and parallelism:

155 وبھذا الاسلوب البارز

156 علمتني الأعوام ألا ابكي على عھد مضى :Parallelism 3.11 Practical

Practical 11.4 Parallelism and list restructuring:

157 إن الرسول الكریم

12 Sentential issues 159

12.1 The sentential level 159

12.2 Textual variables on the sentential level 160

12.2.1 Prosodic features 160

12.2.2 Theme and rheme 163

12.2.2.1 Sentence stress 164

12.2.2.2 Emphatic preposing 165

12.2.2.3 Basic theme–rheme translation issues 165

12.2.3 Foregrounding and backgrounding 166

Contents ix

12.2.4 Interaction of theme–rheme and main–subordinate

elements 167

12.2.5 Translation of Arabic coordinated clauses 170

Practical 12 171

Practical 12.1 Theme and rheme and mainness and

171 لقد دفعت السعودیة :subordination

Practical 12.2 Theme and rheme, mainness and subordination,

172 وكأن القدر :coordination

Practical 12.3 Theme and rheme, mainness and subordination,

172 حذرت تركیا من المضي قدما :coordination

13 Discourse and intertextual issues 174

13.1 Introduction 174

13.2 The discourse level 174

13.2.1 Cohesion and coherence 175

13.2.1.1 Sentence splitting 183

13.2.1.2 Textual restructuring 183

13.2.1.3 Paragraphing 184

13.3 The intertextual level 185

13.3.1 Genre membership 185

13.3.2 Quotation and allusion 188

Practical 13 190

Practical 13.1 The discourse level: cohesive-device revision

190 TT ولكن ھذه الثمار السیاسیة of

Practical 13.2 The discourse level: الستین شارع من 192

Practical 13.3 The discourse level: الإیراني النووي الملف حظي 193

14 Metaphor 194

14.1 Introduction 194

14.2 General defi nition of metaphor 194

14.2.1 Lexicalized metaphor and non-lexicalized metaphor 195

14.2.1.1 Categories of lexicalized metaphor 196

14.2.1.2 Categories of non-lexicalized metaphor 197

14.2.2 The purposes of metaphor 198

14.2.3 Metaphorical force 198

14.3 Basic translation techniques for metaphor 199

14.3.1 Dead metaphors 199

14.3.2 Stock metaphors 199

14.3.3 Recent metaphors 200

14.3.4 Non-lexicalized (conventionalized and original)

metaphors 201

14.4 Extended and mixed metaphors 204

x Contents

14.5 Metaphor downtoning 206

Practical 14 207

Practical 14.1 Metaphor downtoning: اللحظة ومنذ 207

Practical 14.2 Metaphor: نفسھ مخاطبا صابر قال 208

Practical 14.3 Metaphor: البشریة المخلوقات نھر 209

15 Language variety: register, sociolect and dialect 211

15.1 Basic principles 211

15.2 Register 212

15.2.1 Tonal register 212

15.2.2 Social register 213

15.3 Sociolect 214

15.4 Dialect 215

15.5 Temporal variety 216

15.5.1 Diglossia 217

15.6 Code-switching 219

15.7 Representations of speech in written Arabic 222

Practical 15 226

Practical 15.1 Tonal register: العزیز الأخ سیادة 226

Practical 15.2 Code-switching: المیثاق ڤال ما زي الاشتراكیة 227

Practical 15.3 Representation of speech in written Arabic:

228 قالت حلیمة بائعة اللبن

Practical 15.4 Representation of speech in written Arabic:

229 قلت وأنا اتفحصھ باھتمام ومودة

Practical 15.5 Representation of speech in written Arabic:

229 قابل أحد الفلاحین جحا

16 Introduction to technical translation 230

16.1 Introduction 230

16.1.1 Cultural commonality versus cultural

non-commonality 230

16.2 Lexical problems in technical translation 231

16.3 Conceptual problems in technical translation 235

16.4 Legality and accuracy 238

16.5 Generic features of English technical texts 239

16.6 Information sources 241

Practical 16 243

Practical 16.1 Translation of technical terms:

243 وذلك خلال الفترة ۱۹۹۳ – ۲۰۰۰

Practical 16.2 Semi-technical translation: المظلمة المادة 244

Practical 16.3 Technical translation: العصوي الزحار 246

Contents xi

17 Technical translation: botanical texts 247

17.1 Introduction 247

17.2 Translating Arabic botanical texts 247

Practical 17 254

Practical 17.1 Botanical translation: العشر 254

Practical 17.2 Botanical translation: الأرطة 256

Practical 17.3 Botanical translation: الرجلة 257

18 Technical translation: constitutional texts 259

18.1 Defi nition 259

18.2 General structure 259

18.2.1 Preamble 259

18.2.2 Main text 263

18.2.2.1 Subdivisions 263

18.2.2.2 Salient linguistic features of the main text 264

18.3 Concluding remarks 265

Practical 18 265

Practical 18.1 Constitutional translation:

265 مشروع دستور جدید للجمھوریة اللبنانیة

Practical 18.2 Constitutional translation: الكویت دولة دستور 266

Practical 18.3 Constitutional translation:

267 مقتطفات من میثاق جامعة الدول العربیة

19 Technical translation: Islamic fi nance texts 269

19.1 Introduction 269

19.2 Fundamentals of Islamic fi nance 269

19.3 Cultural commonality and non-commonality in

Islamic fi nance 270

19.4 Modern Islamic fi nance texts 273

Practical 19 274

Practical 19.1 Classical Islamic finance:

274 وإن كان مالھ أكثر من دینھ

Practical 19.2 Modern Islamic finance: المرابحة لبیع بالنسبة 274

Practical 19.3 Modern Islamic finance: المقاولات بشركة الاشتغال 275

20 Consumer-oriented texts 276

20.1 Introduction 276

20.2 Tourist material 276

20.2.1 English-language tourist material 276

20.2.2 Arabic tourist material 277

20.3 Cultural stereotyping 279

20.4 Genre mixing in consumer-oriented texts 280

xii Contents

Practical 20 281

Practical 20.1 Translation of consumer-oriented texts:

281 ان كانت مدینة فاس تفخر

Practical 20.2 Translation of consumer-oriented texts:

282 مرحبا بكم في تونس

Practical 20.3 Translation of consumer-oriented texts:

283 جزیرة جربة – جرجیس

21 Summary and conclusion 285

Glossary 289

References 298

Index 305

Acknowledgements

First edition

We owe a debt of gratitude to many people without whose help and advice this

book could not have been written. In particular, we would like to thank Muham￾mad Al-Fuhaid, Hasan Al-Shamahi, John Bery, Lynne Bery, Tony Burns, Tamara

Hervey, Hilary Higgins, Roger Keys, Richard Kimber, Tim Mackintosh-Smith,

Dinah Manisty, Salah Niazi, Jenny Shouls, Kid Wan Shum, Paul Starkey, John

Steinhardt, Jack Wesson and Emma Westney.

Richard Kimber also gave generously of his time and expertise in helping us

produce the camera-ready copy of the book; we are particularly grateful to him

for that.

James Dickins acknowledges the help of the University of Durham for granting

him study leave from October to December 2000 and unpaid leave of absence from

January 2001 to September 2001. He also thanks the Yemen Center for Arabic

Studies and its director, Sabri Saleem, for giving him membership to the center

while he was completing his work on the book during the academic year 2000–

2001 and for making his stay in Yemen so uncomplicated and enjoyable.

Finally, we would like to thank the students of Arabic>English translation over

the years at the Centre for Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies, University of

Durham. Not only have their positive criticisms of previous versions done a great

deal to improve this book, but several of them have also contributed more directly:

material from their translation projects is a major source of the translation exam￾ples used in the book.

Second edition

James Dickins thanks the University of Leeds for giving him extended study leave,

which allowed him to complete the second edition of this book. He also thanks the

numerous undergraduate and postgraduate students at the universities of Durham,

Salford and Leeds whose insights and positive criticisms since 2002 have been

vital to the development of this second edition. He thanks for their particular help

Ahmed Elgindy, Tajul Islam, Miranda Morris and Mustapha Sheikh, as well as three

anonymous reviewers who provided very useful comments on a previous draft.

Introduction

This book is a practical course in translation from Arabic to English. It grew

out of a course piloted at the University of Durham in the 1990s and has its ori￾gins in Thinking Translation, a course in French–English translation by Sándor

Hervey and Ian Higgins, fi rst published in 1992. The second edition of Think￾ing Arabic Translation draws on a dozen years’ further experience of teaching

Arabic>English translation, as well as refi nements to the treatment of issues, such

as cultural transposition, compensation and genre, in subsequent editions of Think￾ing French Translation, Thinking German Translation, Thinking Spanish Transla￾tion and Thinking Italian Translation. This book also contains topics not found

in the versions for European languages, dealing with various forms of repetition

and parallelism in Arabic, as well as a chapter on metaphor, which poses specifi c

challenges in Arabic>English translation.

Can translation be taught? This question is asked surprisingly often – sometimes

even by good translators, whom one would expect to know better. Certainly, as

teachers of translation know, some people are naturally better at it than others. In

this, aptitude for translation is no different from aptitude for any other activity:

teaching and practice help anyone, including the most gifted, to perform at a higher

level. Even Mozart had music lessons.

Most of us, however, are not geniuses. Here again, anyone who has taught

the subject knows that a structured course will help most students to become

signifi cantly better at translation – sometimes good enough to earn their living

at it. This book offers just such a course. Its progressive exposition of different

sorts of translation problems is accompanied by plenty of practice in developing a

rationale for solving them. It is a course not in translation theory but in translation

method, encouraging thoughtful consideration of possible solutions to practical

problems. Theoretical issues do inevitably arise, but the aim of the course is to

develop profi ciency in the method, not to investigate its theoretical implications.

The theoretical notions that we apply are borrowed eclectically from translation

theory and linguistics, solely with this practical aim in mind. (If you are interested

in translation theory, Munday 2016 provides an extremely clear introduction, while

more detailed accounts are given in Gentzler 2001 and Pym 2009.)

If this is not a course in translation theory or linguistics, it is not a language￾teaching course, either. The focus is on how to translate. It is assumed that the