Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ministry of Higher Education Imam University College of Languages and Translation

Literary Translation Difficulties as Applied to: "" A short story by Mohammad Youssef Salibi

Done by:

Nahlah Saleh Al-Jar Allah Student ID: 434029211 MA program in Translation Group E

Submitted to:

Dr. Mohammad Salibi December 4, 2012

Literary Translation Difficulties As Applied to: "" A short story by Mohammad Salibi
It is well-known that translating literary texts is one of the most difficult types of translation. Thats because literary texts have special elements that must be taken into consideration when translating, such as the style, the message, the culture, the use of figurative language and the aesthetic aspects of the text. A faithful translator tries to preserve as much as possible of the original text. But this sometimes becomes a really challenging task, simply because languages and cultures are not identical. In this essay, we will discuss some of these difficulties considering a short story entitled , written by Mohammad Youssef Salibi. The first problem in translating this story into English appears in the title, since the subject of the verb (= falls ) is not mentioned explicitly. However, the verb suggests that the subject is masculine, but we dont know if it is a human being or a thing unless we read the story. After reading the story, we know that it or the mouse is the intended subject of the verb falls, but Finally, It Falls or Finally, The Mouse Falls, as possible translations of the title, have less aesthetic effect than the original title. Another set of examples is concerning the use of figurative language. The literal translation of some phrases may deform the text. Lets see ( ) , for example, which refers to ( = the story ). The literal translation of this phrase is loosens its shadow which seems awkward. Instead, we may translate it as gets darkened. Another example is ( )which suggests that a very long time has passed. It

doesnt seem to be good to say that time got old. A third example is (

 ) which means that the speaker is really having a lot of distresses. We cant translate this phrase literally saying we inhale the wind of distresses, however, we might translate it as we sink into despair. Another challenging in translation appears when an author writes some words or phrases in a certain dialect for a specific purpose. For example, the writer says instead of the formal form which means zionists, this choice of certain dialect is difficult to be shown in the translated text. In fact, this story has an implicit meaning, the author uses the mouse as a symbol of Zionists who aggressively colonize Palestine. Finally, these are only few examples. Otherwise there are many various kinds of literary translation problems.

References
1- Albakry, Mohammed. "Linguistic and Cultural Issues in Literary Translation." TranslationDirectory.com. TranslationDirectory.com, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2012. 2- Arno, Christian. "The Challenges of Literary Translation." AuthorsDen.com. AuthorsDen, Inc, 1 Oct. 2010. Web. 30 Nov. 2012.