Аннотация
This study investigates the translation of semantically invisible lexical elements (SILEs), which constitute a Qur'anic-specific, linguistic phenomenon that has never been addressed in Arabic-English translation studies. An SILE is defined here as any Quranic-lexical element that, ostensively, has a visible meaning, normally mistakingly taken to be the intended one, and another invisible meaning that acts as the intended meaning, and which is extricably bound up to skip recognition in the act of any customary reading of the text and context in which it figures. To prove that SILEs present insurmountable translational hurdles, this paper analyzes some of the problems and dificulties associated with rendering a number of SILE instances taken from the Qur'an. The examples of the study were taken from three selected official translations of the Qur'an, namely, Ali's (1983) The Holy Qur'an: Translation and Commentary; The Presidency's (1992) The Holy Qur'an: English Translation of the Meanings and Commentary; and Pickthall's (2002) The Meaning of the Glorious Qur'an: Explanatory Translation. The three translations of each SILE were semantically compared and contrasted in reference to three chief Muslim exegeses, viz. Ibn Kathir's (1997) Tafseer Al-Qur'an Al-Kareem; Al-Sabuni's (2001) Safwat Al-Tafaseer; and Al-Zamakhshari's (2005) Al-Kashshaf. Alongside investigating the relevant texts and contexts of the selected SILEs, the three exegeses were also used as the point of departure in the detection and identification of the invisible meaning, and evaluation of the three selected translations. The study shows that SILEs are translationally problematic and elusive in the sense that they incessantly trigger an inevitable translation loss. Besides, translating these cases requires possessing a working linguistic-exegetical background, without which the results would be unsatisfactory and misrepresenting. Finally, sound interpretation and proper rendering of any given SILE hinge not only on its textual context or broader context (the scriptural-theological context), but also on the combination of both. Peripheralizing this combination revealed that many semantic nuances and idiosyncrasies of the selected SILEs were either partially conveyed, or totally dropped out. Failure to grasp the invisible meaning in the selected translations was also accounted for.
Линки и ресурсы
тэги