The Stylistic Amplification of Conceptual Metaphors in Translating Shakespeare into Arabic by Mohamed Enani

Abstract

Translating Shakespeare into Arabic is a century-old cultural project which is still a source of challenge for translators who adopt a source-text-oriented approach that attempts to simulate the original in content, form and impact. Shakespeare’s texts are rife with metaphoric language which serves multiple functions on the cognitive, cultural, pragmatic as well as stylistic levels. This paper aims to analyse the translation of literary metaphors from a stylistic perspective in Mohamed Enani’s version of Othello. The analysis is conducted in the framework of conceptual metaphor theory which provides a microscopic description of how metaphors are influenced by the translation process. The findings of the analysis unveil the translation strategy adopted by Enani to reflect the stylistic function of metaphors while preserving their cognitive content and reveals that translating metaphors is influenced by the cognitive and professional background of the translator. Amplification emerges as a successful translation strategy which is used to extend metaphors creatively thus adding cognitive value to the Source Text content and compensating for a possible loss in the style of the Target Text. This paper concludes that, contrary to the prevalent assumptions, a source-text-oriented approach can deliver an accurate yet stylistically-functional translation if the translator is creative enough and willing to exert an additional cognitive effort similar to that exerted by the original writer. Enani’s translations of Shakespeare into Arabic are worth a life-long research project on the translation of style in literature.

Translating Macbeth’s Colour Metaphors Into Arabic: A Revised CMT Approach to Shakespeare’s Creative Metaphors

“…Shakespeare's translation into Arabic is an extended project launched by an initiative of Arab academics and intellectuals who showed interest in evaluating the different endeavours of translating Shakespeare's work into the Arabic language from various perspectives. Some academic research projects on the topic chose to research the Arabic translations of Shakespeare from the angle of the contributions made by notable Arab translators to Shakespeare's translation vis-à -vis the TTs' accuracy in presenting the STs' content on the lexical, conceptual as well as stylistic levels (Alsaai, 1997;Omar, 2012Omar, , 2020Omar, , 2021Twaij, 1973;Zaki, 1978). Most academic research, however, especially recent projects, on Shakespeare's Arabic translations focused on the topic from a socio-cultural perspective (Al-Shetawi, 1989, 2013; Hanna, 2006Hanna, , 2007Hanna, , 2009Hanna, , 2016.…”

“…One of the challenges that have been associated with translating literary works is metaphors which are laden with multiple layers of meaning in a way that makes them play an intriguing role in indirect communication. There has been a prevalent assumption among academics and translators that the difficulty in translating Shakespeare's texts arises from the complexity and sheer originality of his metaphoric language (Omar, 2012(Omar, , 2020. Although the mechanisms of Shakespeare's metaphoric language have been researched and analysed from different perspectives, very few studies investigated the actual sources of difficulty in translating Shakespeare's creative metaphors and how these metaphors behave in translation.…”

“…This study is significant because it bridges a gap in academic research which investigated the academic translations of Shakespeare into Arabic. Research on Shakespeare's translation from English into Arabic, including studies that addressed the translation of Shakespeare's metaphoric language, has focused on the cultural and stylistic challenges of translating Shakespeare's works (Fung, 1994;Hanna, 2006Hanna, , 2007Hanna, , 2009Hanna, , 2016Omar, 2020) while evading a close examination of language use and its impact on informing the conceptual content of a particular Shakespearean text. This research paper focuses on one of the most intractable challenges that face Arabic language translators who wish to give a very close representation of the Bard's linguistic genius by exploring the translation of one type of Shakespeare's original metaphors in two academic Arabic translations.…”

Kamil Kilani’s Adaptation of Shakespeare in Arabic Children’s Literature: Acculturation Versus Enculturation

“…(Dunges, 2011, p. 172) Translating Shakespeare's plays has always been a prelude to cultural revival in the Arab world in one way or another. Shakespeare was first translated for adults with the rise of the translation movement during al-nahda, and the early translations of Shakespeare embraced adaptation as a translation strategy (Omar, 2012;Omar, 2020) that aimed to introduce Shakespeare to the Arab audience. Translating Shakespeare for children was pioneered by Kamel Kilani who is considered "The leading Egyptian writer of children's books written in Arabic for the first half of the twentieth century" (Morrison, 2015, p. 48).…”