An Investigation of Cultural Components in Arabic Translation of “Kharidare Eshgh” According Newmark’s Theory

Abstract

Cultural elements as major parts of texts play an important role in conveying the main concepts to the readers. Understanding these concepts is the main concern of translators of different scripts. Therefore, a translator can convey not only the meaning of the text but also the sentiments of the author to the readers using cultural synonyms. To this end, in this paper, we analyze the “Kharidar Eshgh” novel by Mohammad Ali Behzad Rad using the cultural pattern of Mark Newman. Moreover, we investigate how a translator deals with cultural elements and how he/she approaches finding the equivalent of cultural expression in Arabic and Persian language. We use a descriptive-analytical method in our research and we show that the translator of this novel has concentrated more on interpreting the meaning of text rather than conveying the author’s sentiments and feelings. Hence, word-by-word translation in some cases led to the ambiguity of translation. Furthermore, the actual meaning of expressions and metaphors have not been apprehended properly and inappropriate synonyms for words have been chosen. Among cultural components in this novel, cultural contents, proverbs, and ecology have the highest frequency, respectively.

Keywords

• arabic translation
• cultural elements
• kharidare eshgh
• peter newmark