Translation as a virtuous circle: a case of borrowing in Arabic and re-borrowing in English

Abstract

Abstract – Translation has always been viewed as a virtuous circle throughout history. The present paper examines one of the oldest translation strategies, namely borrowing which also come to be employed by language users to fulfill communicative transaction in daily use of the language. The paper also explores re-borrowing as a translation method used by translators to render borrowed words usually integrated in a Source Language (SL) text by SL author to relay his/her ideology via micro-/macro-signs. The data consists of selected examples from the translation of The Square Moon: Supernatural Tales (SMST) by Ghada Samman. The writer employs borrowing to steer the SL readership towards her ideology. The findings of the paper show that re-borrowing may bring about optimal translation in the target language (TL), but reveal discrepancies between the SL and the TL caused by failure to render the ideology. Keywords: translation, borrowing, re-borrowing, English, Arabic.