Issues and Problems in Translation

1. Issues and Problems in Translation Summer Term of 2014 Part 5 Dr. Abdullah Alkhamis http://fac.ksu.edu.sa/aalkhamisa/home

2. Socio-political Aspects of Translation PracticeThe Translator as a Political Agent Translation is not mechanistic, nor practiced in a vacuum; Translation practice is influenced by (and can influence) social and political contexts. The translator’s (or commissioner’s) practice can be observed through: • Marco level: choice of texts, paratexts(title, cover, blurb, etc.), overall strategy. • Micro level: specific textual translation strategies at sentence or word levels.

4. Obeikan’s translations as a political action From 2003-2008, Obeikan translated the above titles (in addition to others): • In the aftermath of US invasion of Iraq in 2003, the publisher Obeikan translated several book from English which condemn the US military involvement in the region. • The selection of book signifies Obeikan’s position towards US policy. • There is consistency in terms of importing foreign works on current socio-political issues involving Arabs and Muslims in general, especially books that reassure the Saudi public.

6. Translation of The title: • Colossus in English is generally used to refer to “[a] statue (...) of a person or god, that is much bigger than life size” or “[a]n extremely large person (...) of great importance, prominence, or influence” (Oxford English Dictionary) • ‘صنم’, chosen as the equivalent for colossus;denotes “an object that is worshipped as a God” • has a range of negative connotations in modern Arabic; for example it can mean ‘heartless’ or ‘non-human’, and is often used in a derogatory way to refer to people or objects

7. Read the example below carefully. What Zionist extremists had once done to drive the British out of Palestine, Palestinian extremists now did to the Israelis, once their hopes of an Arab military victory had been dashed. (2004:112) • فما فعله الصهاينة المتطرفون ذات مرة لإخراج البريطانيين من فلسطين فعله الفلسطينيون الآن ضد الإسرائيليين، حالما تلاشت آمال العرب بتحقيق نصر عسكري. (2006:173) Did you notice anything? How do you explain this?