The Translation of Selected Cultural Items in Al-Nawawi’s Forty Hadiths: A Descriptive and Analytical Study
Abstract
Cultural words usually pose some challenges to translators, especially when they translate texts into languages which are culturally different. This study investigates the translation of cultural items in The Forty Hadiths by Imam Al-Nawawi. It adopted the qualitative approach for selecting and analyzing the translation of culturally-bound items of the selected Prophet Mohammed’s hadiths posted on the Web by Sunnah.com. Moreover, it used Lambert and Van Gorp’s (1985) method to examine the translations and Vinay and Darbelnet's translation strategies to identify the procedures selected by the translators to convey the meanings of the cultural contents. The findings indicated that the translators implemented various procedures to convey the cultural meanings of the hadiths. However, whenever confronted with difficult categories, due to the lexical, syntactic and cultural differences between Arabic and English, they were inconsistent in their choices of translation procedures. Furthermore, they did not succeed in rendering the aesthetic features of the Prophet’s utterances, an issue that is yet to be addressed by researchers. The present study provides implications which could be useful for translators, especially translators of religious texts.
Full text article
References
Aghajani, M. and Jalali, G. S. (2019). A Comparative Study of Three English Translations of Yasin Surah Regarding Vinay and Darbelnet Strategies.” Journal of Advances in Education and Philosophy. 3(2): 47-57. DOI:10.21276/jaep.2019.3.2.2.
Al-Harahsheh, A. M. A. (2013). Translation of Islamic Texts and Ideology. Arab World English Journal, 4, 107-117..
Al-Hussein S. M., Eghfier, F. M., Abujamra, F. O., & Dango, R. M. (2017). The Translation of Al-Nawawi's Forty Hadiths, A Comparative Study. San Francisco, California: Academia.edu.
Al-Megrab, R. (1997). Standards of Textuality and the Translation of Hadith. In Translation sensitive Texts Linguistic Aspect. Ed. Karl Simms. Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279871207_Standards_of_Textuality_and_the_ Translation_of_Hadith. Accessed on 12/10/202" https://www.researchgate.net/publication/279871207_Standards_of_Textuality_and_the_ Translation_of_Hadith. Accessed on 12/10/2021.
Al-Rahawan, M. S. M. (2019) Hadith Translation: Handling Linguistic and Juristic Problems in Translating Ṣaḥīḥ al-Bukhārī. Occasional Papers, 68. https://opde.journals.ekb.eg/article_131921_59e590ecab186b365edad61ab8b3bc27.pdf. Accessed on 12/10/2021.
Arhire, M. (2020). Cătălina Iliescu-Gheorghiu: a polysystemic model for the comparative analysis of drama from the perspective of descriptive translation studies. Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies. 1 (3), 259-264. https://www.ceeol.com/search/article-detail?id=851996.
Berman. A (1999). Traduction et la lettre ou l’auberge du lointain. Paris: Seuil.
Catford, J.C. (1965). A Linguistic Theory of Translation: An Essay in Applied Linguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Dickins, J. et al. (2002). Thinking Arabic Translation – A Course in Translation Method: Arabic to English. London: Routledge.
Dweik, B. S., and Khaleel, H. M. (2017). Strategies and Procedures Used in Translating Ideological Islamic-Related Texts from English into Arabic. International Journal of English Linguistics, 7(3), 161-170. https://doi.org/10.5539/ijel.v7n3p161
Elewa, A. (2014a). A Textbook of Islamic Translation and a Glossary of Islamic Terms. (4th ed.) Cairo: Qalam.
Elewa, A. (2014b). Features of translating religious texts. Journal of Translation, 10(1), 25-33.
Elfaki, E. K. O. (2018). Islamic Terms and Texts: Characteristics and Translation. Alsalam University Journal, 7(1.), 1-24., ISO 690.
El-Nawawi. (n.d.). Forty Hadith of En-Nawawi. https://sunnah.com/nawawi40
Fairclough, N. (2013). Critical discourse analysis: The critical study of language. London: Routledge.
Ghazala, H. (2014). Translating Islamic Texts. Jeddah: Konooz Al-Marefa for Printing and Publishing.
Hatim, B. and Mason, I. (2005). The translator as communicator. London: Routledge.
Hermans, T. (ed.) (1985). The Manipulation of Literature. Studies in Literary Translation. London/Sydney: Croom Helm.
Koller, W. (1995). The concept of equivalence and the object of translation studies. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies, 7(2), 191-222.
Lambert, J. and Van Gorp, H. (1985). On describing translations. In The Manipulation of Literature. Theo Hermans (ed.), 42–53. London and Sydney: Croom Helm.
Munday, J. (2016). Introducing translation studies: Theories and applications. Routledge.
Mutar. Y. (2014). Strategies for Translating An-Nawawi’s Forty Hadiths: A Descriptive Analysis. PhD Thesis in translation, University of Anbar. DOI:10.13140/RG.2.2.12008.11526 Accessed on 10/30/2021
Nida, E. (1964). Towards a Science of Translating. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Rosa, A. A. (2010/2016d). “Descriptive Translation Studies - DTS (revised version).” In Handbook of Translation Studies. Ed. Yves Gambier and Luc van Doorslaer. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 94-104. Toury, G. (1995). Descriptive Translation Studies -And Beyond. Amsterdam and Philadelphia PA: John Benjamins.
Venuti, L. The Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation. London and New York: Routledge.
Vinay, J. P. and Darbelnet, J. (1995). Comparative Stylistics of French and English. Trans. In J. C. Sager and M. J. Hamel. 1958. Amsterdam and Philadelphia PA: John Benjamins.
References in Arabic
سالم، ع. (n.d). شرح الأربعين النووية. [تفريغ تسجيل صوتي]. المكتبة الشاملة الحديثة. https://al-maktaba.org/book/7719/447
السيوطي، ع. (1907). المزهر في علوم اللغة و أنواعها. تحقيق: منصور، ف. (الطبعة الأولى). بيروت، لبنان: دار الكتب العلمية.
العثيمين، م. (2005). شرح رياض الصالحين. (الطبعة الأولى). الرياض، السعودية: دار الوطن للنشر.
العثيمين، م. (n.d). معنى حديث " لا ضرر ولا ضرار ". [تفريغ تسجيل صوتي]. الموقع الرسمي. https://binothaimeen.net/content/9242
قاموس المعاني. (2010-2022). تعريف و معنى الإحسان في معجم المعاني الجامع - معجم عربي عربي. shorturl.at/iorV9
قاموس معاجم. (2010-2022). معنى الزهد في معاجم اللغة العربية قاموس عربي عربي. https://www.maajim.com/dictionary/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B2%D9%87%D8%AF
النووي، م. (2009). الأربعين النووية. تحقيق: الحلاق، ق،. (الطبعة الأولى). الأربعين النووية. بيروت، لبنان: دار المنهاج للنشر والتوزيع.
Authors
Copyright (c) 2022 Mimouna Zitouni, Ahad Alzahrani, Nouf Al Kous, Sultana Almutlaq, Abdul-Qader Abdul-Ghafour, Bahia Zemni

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Copyright / Open Access Policy: This journal provides immediate free open access to its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of ideas and is distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). But the copyright was retained by the authors. Articles are free for personal use but are protected by copyright in the sense that they may not be used for purposes other than personal use without permission.
Article Details
Funding data
-
Deanship of Scientific Research, Princess Nourah Bint Abdulrahman University
Grant numbers PRFA-P-42-13