Culture in Translation ... the Arab translator may find certain lexical items in Arabic having no equivalents in English because the concepts they refer to do not exist in the English-speaking culture. Such items are normally culture-bound terms. From Arabic-English intercultural translation perspective, examples can elucidate the issue of translatable versus untranslatable terms. These examples include: سَحور saHuur (a meal eaten before the dawn for fasting); خلوة khalwah (unmarried man and woman found in a place where there is nobody else); تيمم tayammum (the use of sand for ablution when water is unavailable); قطيعة الأرحام qaTii?at al-arHaam (to be on bad terms with ones relatives); عقيقة ?aqiiqah (a goat to slaughter and distribute its flesh to the poor on the occasion for having new baby); صلاة الاستسقاء salaat al-istisqaa (the prayer asking God to make it rain); صلاة الاستخارة sallat al-istikhaarah (the prayer asking Gods guidance to make a good choice); and عِدَّة ?iddah (a period during which a Muslim woman usually keeps at home and does not use make-up or perfume to beautify herself. 130 days for the woman whose husband passed away and about 90 days for the divorcee). The difficulty in translating these words is due to lexical gaps resulting from the cultural differences between the two languages.
Posted on: Fri, 06 Jun 2014 17:09:54 +0000
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