Cultural and linguistic issues in Arberry’s English translation of the Qur’anic dialogue

© 2019 Dr. Lama EdrisAnalytical and comparative studies on the translations of the Qur’an into English are prominent and widespread. However, to the best of my knowledge, research on translating Qur’anic dialogue, which is one of the most important techniques in Qur’anic narratives, has not received sufficient attention. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate and analyse the strategies followed in translating Qur’anic dialogue into English, as seen in Arthur Arberry’s (1964) text, The Koran interpreted. Within this context, the main question is: To what extent are Arberry’s strategies for translating dialogue in the Qur’an successful in conveying the intended message of the Qur’anic dialogue from a linguistic, semantic, and cultural perspective? To address this question, different types of dialogues from Arberry’s translation are selected for analysis from several Surahs in the Qur’an. The analysis focuses mainly on those dialogues that form connections between diverse participants. This study analyses and evaluates the strategies used by Arberry in his translation of the selected Qur’anic dialogue, and compares Arberry’s translation with that of Muḥammad Taqī al-Dīn al-Hilālī and Muḥammad Muḥsin Khān (1996), The Noble Qur’an: English translation of the meanings and commentary. In addition to the comparison, some of the standard Islamic exegeses are used to aid in the assessment and analytical process. This study does not only rely on the linguistic and semantic aspects, as have most of its predecessors, but also focuses on cultural aspects. Cultural and linguistic translation methods are adopted as a framework for the analysis. Lawrence Venuti’s (1995) “domestication” and “foreignisation” strategies have been chosen as the criteria for analysing different Qur’anic dialogues at the cultural level. In contrast, Mona Baker’s (1992) categories for problematic issues of translation are considered in the data analysis at a linguistic level. This research finds that Arberry, al-Hilālī and Khān have achieved notable English translations of the Qur’an. Arberry uses a literary style with formal English without providing any compensation strategy, while al-Hilālī and Khān use simple language and provide many bracketed illustration and footnotes. Difficulties in Arberry’s translation of the Qur’anic dialogue occur mainly in the translation of conjunctions, emphasis, syntactic order, duality, pronouns, the vocative, culture-specific items and figurative tools. These linguistic problems have led in turn to semantic and cultural difficulties. The research finds that a foreignisation strategy would reduce most of these difficulties and achieve a more authentic translation of the Qur’an, which is a holy book. This research provides a closer and more appropriate translation of the intended meaning of Qur’anic dialogue both for Muslim and non-Muslim readers