18 thinking arabic translation a course in translation method arabic to english

    THINKING ARABIC TRANSLATION      I �                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        [...]... dictionaries and, where appropriate, databases The course is therefore aimed at final-year undergraduates, and at postgraduates or others seeking an academic or professional qualification in translation That said, the analytical attention given to a wide variety of texts means that students do learn a lot of Arabic - and probably a fair bit of English too This last point is important While our main aim... is to improve quality in translation, it must be remembered that this quality requires the translator to have an adequate command of English as well as Arabic Assuming that this is the case, translator training normally focuses on translation into the mother tongue, because higher quality is achieved in that direction than in translating into a foreign language Hence the almost exclusive focus on translation. .. This is to help students keep in mind that, whatever approach the translator adopts, it should be self-aware and methodical The course is intended to fit into an academic timetable lasting one year Each chapter needs at least 2 hours of seminar time It is vital that each student should have the necessary reference books in class: a comprehensive 4 Thinking Arabic translation Arabic- English dictionary (we... reading by one person A good example of the problematicity of achieving an equivalent effect in 20 Thinking Arabic translation Arabic> English translation is the translation of a piece of ancient Arabic poetry, such as � Uia Even in principle, it seems impossible to achieve in an English translation the effect created by � 4 i'· on the original audience of the poem, i.e the Arabs of pre-Islamic Arabia... is an act of inter-semiotic translation, as is 'The big hand's pointing to twelve and the little hand's Thinking Arabic translation 8 pointing to four, so it's four o'clock' In each case, there is translation from a non-linguistic communication system (traffic lights, clock-face) to a linguistic one To this extent, everyone is a translator of a sort 1.3 INTRALINGUAL TRANSLATION Still more common are... The theoretical notions that we apply are borrowed eclectically from translation theory and linguistics, solely Thinking Arabic translation 2 with this practical aim in mind If this is not a course in translation theory or linguistics, it is not a language-teaching course either The focus is on how to translate It is assumed that the student already has a good command of Arabic and is familiar with the...Introduction This book is a practical course in translation from Arabic to English It has grown out of a course piloted at the University of Durham, and has its origins in Thinking Translation, a course in French -English translation by Sandor Hervey and Ian Higgins, first published in 1992 The approach is essentially the same as in that book, but a number of key concepts, notably cultural transposition,... Prelilllinaries to translation as a process 1.1 BASIC DEFINITIONS An obvious place to begin a translation course is to examine translation as a process - what it is that the translator actually does To do this, we must note at the outset a few basic terms that will be used throughout the course: Text Any given stretch of speech or writing assumed to make a coherent whole A minimal text may consist of a single... ST, and /I indicates a hemistich (half-line) break in the middle of the line This is a standard feature of traditional Arabic poetry, and is marked in the ST by a space between the words - Thinking Arabic translation �� and � which is longer than the spaces between other words in ' 16 the line �I i , • , I Disappeared the-camping-grounds alighting-places-their and-stopping -places-their /I in- Mina become-deserted... Might one say that 'I consumed a small quantity of alcohol approximately 60 minutes ago' is a rephrasing of 'I had a little drink about an hour ago'? If it is, it is distinctly inexact: the tone and connotations of the two utterances are very different, and 'a small quantity of alcohol' and 'a little drink' can hardly be said to have the same denotative meaning 1 4 INTERLINGUAL TRANSLATION Just as it is .     THINKING ARABIC TRANSLATION      I.   