Inaccuracies in the Translation of the Quranic Metonymy into the Malay Language

Abstract

Metonymy is regarded as one of the Arabic rhetorical devices and denotes a better eloquence in speech. According to Abdul Qahir al-Jurjaani, it refers to a speech whereby a speaker who wants to express a meaning does not mention it in its common form but substitutes it with a figure of speech associated with another entity or concept. According to modern scholars in semantic field, metonymy falls under the concept of semantic transfer since we interpret it figuratively instead of its literal meaning. Sometimes, the holy Quran uses metonymy in expressing certain connotations which are consistent with the context of the verses. The Quranic metonymies illustrate the mentality and environment in which the Arab society live, thus, making it impossible to translate these metonymies into the Malay language based solely on its literal translation. From this point of view, this paper aims to identify some errors made by the Malay translators in translating the Quranic metonymy, and then analyze them in order to discover the extent of equivalence between translation methods and the intended meanings, as well as to suggest a better translation that may convey the nearest connotation intended by the original Arabic text. This study employs descriptive, analytical and comparative methods on selected Quranic translations in Malay language by Mahmoud Younis, Abdullah Basmeih and Zaini Dahlan. Based on the examples, the study concludes that in some cases, the translators could not deliver the intended meaning precisely in their translation due to their sole reliance on literal translation method. Therefore, this research suggests the need of re-translating these Qur’anic metonymies into Malay language by using the indirect translation method.

Keywords

• Meaning Of the Quran
• Quranic Metonymy
• Semantic transfer
• Malay Language
• Translation