Publications

Publication details [#8438]

Obeidat, Hisham. 2001. The discourse of peace in Othello: A comparative analysis of three Arabic translations. Babel 47 (3) : 205–227. 23 pp.
Publication type
Article in journal
Publication language
English

Abstract

This paper addresses the way the metaphor of peace in Othello, act i, ii, 197-208, has been rendered into Arabic by three published translations (Ghazi, 1979; Jabra, 1980; and Mutran, 1922). The Duke in the source text (ST) deploys a cluster of personifications in the hope his audience (Brabantio) could accept a peaceful solution to the dilemma of Desdemona-Othello's marriage. By way of comparing the ST against the translated text (TT), the paper argues that (1) formal translation, in the case of dynamic text, would incur on the ST violence, serious translation loss, and foreignizing the TT; and (2) equivalent effect in the sense of sameness is hard to maintain in cases of dynamic text like the one under consideration. In the process of negotiating the text, the translator is assumed to create a language capable of mediating the ST textual effects. In other words, the translator's main concern, it is argued, is to reinstate in the TT a relevant/approximate experience that is relevant to the ST. In doing so, the translator would eliminate the tension that arises in an undesirable literal translation. (LLBA 2002, vol. 36, n. 5)