A comparative study of literary translation from Arabic into English and French
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Date
2006-07
Authors
Moindjie, Mohamed Abdou
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Abstract
This study is a comparative study on literary translation which aims at
describing differences and similarities between three languages - Arabic, English and
French - to establish a translation modelling. More specifically, it examines
occurrences of three aspects of text - macrostructure, microstructure and systemic
context - in translations from Arabic to English and Arabic to French. Two novels and
their English and French translations-..;.wl L5t!j (Midaq Alley, Passage des Miracles) by
Nagib Mahfouz, and JL,....::JI .)! o~1 r"'Y' (Season of Migration to the North, Saison de /a
Migration Vers Le Nord) by Taleb Saleh - form its corpora and Lambert and van Gorp's
Descriptive Systems Theory provides the theoretical framework for this comparative
study.
From the study, it is found that there are substantial relations among the
metatexts, macrostructures and microstructures. The macrostructures are universals
accommodated by language register. The microstructures, however, do not reflect
systematic correspondence; they are often determined by language peculiarities and
translators' preference and choice. English is more diverse with its peculiarities
allowing many microstructure elements to surface. French and Arabic, on the other
hand, show moderate usage and less distinctive usage of microstructure elements.
The French and Arabic have similar microstructures due to the quaSi-similarity of their
peculiarities.
In general, it is found that there are substantial intertextual and intersystemic
relations as proposed by Lambert's and van Gorp's theory. Nevertheless, the
significance of language peculiarities and universals in achieving readership
acceptability should be given due consideration.
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Keywords
Literary translation which aims at describing differences , between three languages - Arabic, English and French