Translation Process Operators in the Arabic Translation of Alice Munro’s Narrative

Abstract

Translating a literary text poses a challenging task for the translator due to the predominance of the expressive and aesthetic functions. To achieve a successful bilingual revision of the literary text, translators employ process operators. The Arabic translations of some of Alice Munro’s short stories are used to exemplify various operations performed by translators during the transfer process. The principal impediments facing these processes include inter-lingual or intercultural inequality, translating Canadian culture-specific concepts or culturally-determined realia and allusions with foreign connotations. Various operators are utilized to locate culture-specific collocations for Canadian/Arabic community and to render the idiolect typifying characters, Excerpts are taken from some of Munro’s narrative, including: Something I’ve Been Meaning to Tell You, Royal Beatings, Carried Away, Chaddeleys and Flemings, Meneseteung, Dulse, Labour Day Dinner and Turkey Season. An evaluation is offered of the stylistic adequacy, aesthetic or cultural acceptability, and verisimilitude, of these Arabic translations.

Keywords

• Translator Process Operators
• Alice Munro
• Intercultural Inequality
• Foreign Connotations
• Translation Shift