Explication and implication in the English translation of Mohamed Choukri's “For Bread Alone”: Linguistic and pragmatic losses

Mahmoud M Gewaily, Purdue University

Abstract

Translators vacillate between original dressing and target redressing in the act of translating a text from one language into another. The questions posed in this study are: to what extent is the act of translating an act of rewriting "discovered" or "chosen" or "adequate" per se? Should a translator have a style of his/her own while translating? Or should a translator adapt to the author's style while reproducing another's text? To what extent is creativity left for the translator if the essential creative impulse is preceded by that of the author? In other words, how far is the translator able to reproduce the message of the author faithfully but also to make his or her contribution to the finished product? These questions are basic to the principle of translation equivalence. The claim here is that there should be variations between translated texts because translators use different translation strategies. Examples of such strategies come from one Arabic text and its English translation: Mohamed Choukri's Al-Khbuz Al Hafi (1982) translated by Paul Bowles as For Bread Alone (1973). Bowles translated with the indirect help of Choukri. Any translation from one language into another results in losses and gains. This dissertation seeks to identify the losses in Bowles' translation of Choukri's text. A comparative matching of some of the extracts from the two texts with particular focus on literal and figurative translations leads to a number of linguistic and pragmatic losses. Any assessment of translation must be constantly updated and signposted. Insofar as we consider discourse in translation as a relationship between speaker and receiver, I maintain, translating becomes as natural as speech—oral and written.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Webb, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Linguistics|Middle Eastern literature|Rhetoric|Composition

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