Critical Reflections on Translating the Yemeni Mohammed Abdul-Wali’s Novella, Yamutuna Ghuraba (They Die Strangers): Its Cultural Specificity, Metaphor, Intertextuality and Euphemism

Abstract

This paper is based on the researcher’s translation of the Yemeni novelist Mohammed Abdul-Wali’s Arabic novella Yamutuna Ghuraba (They Die Strangers). The translator’s avowed purpose of his translation is to promote Yemeni literature and help lift the ‘embargo’ imposed on Arabic literature in general. The translator is keen on preserving the source culture and its specificity by adopting ‘foreignization’ as the main strategy. As the translator aspires to see his translation published and widely circulated, he finds adhering to a single strategy (a foreignizing strategy) throughout the translation is impractical. The paper focuses on four major areas of difficulty in translation: problems relating to cultural specificity, problems in translating the metaphor, problems in translating intertextuality and problems of translating euphemism. The paper also investigates the nature of the difficulties and viable procedures to tackle them. It is not always clear to what extent the problems encountered in the translation are representative of the problems of translating general Arabic fiction into English, but it is quite certain that this study provides some insights into the main problematic issues in translating Yemeni Arabic literature into English.

Keywords

• Literary translation, Arabic fiction, culture, intertextual relations, metaphor, euphemism, Yemeni literature.