Arabic-English translational crossover viewed from a linguistic/cultural perspective: with special reference to the major principles involved in translating the metaphorical language of the Quran

This work deals with Arabic -English translational crossover viewed from a Linguistic /Cultural perspective, with special reference to the major principles involved in translating the metaphorical language of the Quran. It provides an analytical critique of the some selected English translations of the Original Quran. This research tries to demonstrate (1) whether the cultural convergence of English and Arabic, due to globalization, is leading, over time, to any further linguistic intermingling. This type of analysis is based chronologically on temporal constraints and, as a consequence, on whether they negatively or positively influence the quality of the final product of the translated text, and (2) whether the cultural backgrounds of translators, in terms of their native languages, religion and place of origin/residence have any influence on the quality of their translational works.Apart from the introduction and the conclusion, this study consists of seven other chapters. The first chapter is an introductory one, devoted to some controversial translational debates. It builds up a theoretical base, by reviewing thematically the available literature upon which translational strategies are established in order to clear the ground for the following chapters. It reviews the most relevant existing works, from the perspective of this study's topic, to highlight the gap that this work aims to fill.The second chapter discusses the differences between the two cultures concerned and the translation of the main features of culture. This chapter concentrates on cultural factors from an Arabic /English translational perspective, i.e. their impact on the rendition of cultural features such as the ecological, religious, social, political, and material aspects.Chapter three is concerned with the literal linguistic differences. More specifically, literal language will be looked at on a grammatical basis. Thus grammatical gaps between Arabic and English such as word order, number, gender and negation will be focused on.The fourth chapter will cover the figurative level of linguistic differences, as it is more cultural based. It will view the most important traditional tropes but will concentrate on the figures of speech that are most commonly used in the Quran and those that are stylistically useful and effective.Being the main focus of this study as well as due to its importance among other figurers of speech, metaphor will be dealt with separately in chapter five. It adopts the same approach in covering the figurative nature of metaphors.The analysis of chapter seven will be linguistically based on text patterns by examining and tracing chronologically the figurative language of the Quran through metaphorical discourse and to find out whether cultural convergence through temporal constraints has an effect on the way translators treat the Quran.Chapter eight focuses culturally on the profiles and cultural backgrounds of the translators of the Quran and their intentions in terms of whether they see the Quran as the word of God or whether they deal with it as a literary text and how this is reflected in their treatment of its metaphoric language

The Miraculous Nature of the Qura’n Defies Imitability and hence Translatability

The Quran in Arabic is unmatched and irreplaceable due to cross-cultural gaps as well as linguistic differences between the Arabic language, in which the original Quranic text is expressed, and some European languages into which the Quran is translated. It is expected, for these reasons, that there will be a considerable loss and hence possible misunderstanding of the main message of the Quran. Nevertheless, translation of the Quran into languages other than Arabic is consensually appreciated by the majority of Muslim scholars as translations are indispensable for those who want to know about the basic rules of Islam, whether they are Muslims or not. This paper will therefore discuss issues related to some aspects of Qur'an translations by analysing selective translated Qur'anic verses that render the miraculous aspects of Quranic text, particularly those of linguistic and scientific nature. It will review some Quranic verses and compare their different English translations, showing, where possible, the general factors governing the systematic mechanism that helps to understand the miraculous nature of the original Quran. The polysemous nature of Quranic terms, the comprehensiveness, and the constantly used techniques of generalization make Qura’nic text resistant to any deficiency that might be caused by the passage of time. The generality of wording is one of the key elements for being time-resistant, so any new sense that occurs in the future should be included in the translation rather than excluded

The Influence of Translators’ Cultural Backgrounds on their Performance: Translation of the Quran as a Case-study

It is in the nature of central religious scriptures to be open to endless interpretations and to be utilised to justify all shades of opinion. The Quran, in this regard, is no exception. In order to cope with the progress of time and avoid place constraints, the Quranic text relies on the technique of generality. Unfortunately, this generality has left the door open for different interpretations, some correct but many wrong, which in turn leads to extremist groups twisting the Quranic text to suit their own beliefs and attitudes, especially since the openness and comprehensiveness of Quranic wording give translators the chance to interpret the same Quranic passage differently and, hence, sometimes to ideologically manipulate the text in a way that suits their misguided beliefs. This paper deals with Quranic discourse according to translators' cultural profiles and their intentions when translating the Quran, in terms of whether those dealing with such an authoritative text remain invisible (as required) or whether they have fallen victim to the influence of their cultural ideologies. In a larger context, it will focus on translators’ variables, such as the degree of professionalism (loyalty in particular) employed from a cultural perspective; religious background, and ideological attitudes, in order to discover to what extent the cultural background of translators, in terms of whether their religious background has influenced their translational works. This hypothesis is based on the view of Lefevere's (1992: 15) patronage patterns issue and his ideas on ideology. Of particular relevance to this study are the constraints of translators’ cultural backgrounds and hence their ideologies, i.e., the translators’ personal set of values and attitudes