TRANSLATION STUDIES
Year:2007 | Volume:5 | Issue:17|Papers Count:6

This paper studies the Quran as a literary text. First, it reviews the permit for (not) translating Quran and juxtaposes the proponents' and opponents' positions. After reviewing literature, this paper mentions the methods underlying the literary translation in brief. Finally, the postulate of Quran's untranslatability is examined by Quranic instances taken from over ten different Persian and three English translations from linguistic point of view (mostly phonology) and rhetoric. These include, among others, alliteration, minimal sets, words play, rhyme, rhythm. In the end, it is concluded that the Quranic subtle linguistic and complex rhetorical problems, if not completely untranslatable, remain resistant to translation.

There are various centers working on the filed of machine translation in Iran but so far only two of them have produced commercial applications available in the market. The aim of this paper is to evaluate these two applications and comment on their advantages and weaknesses. In order to achieve this goal, we first review the general principles covering the evaluation of the output generated by MT applications; then we will have to proceed with our own evaluation.

The paper starts with an analysis of poetical discourse within the theoretical framework of Systemic-Functional linguistics (Holliday, 1985 & 1994). Then it goes on to put emphasis on the roles of "system" and "function" notions in analyzing, interpreting and translating poetry. Through giving some samples of English Poetry translated into Persian and vice versa, the paper tries to clarify the necessity of rendering the way the source poet deals with the three metafunctions of language particularly with the "ideational" and "textual" matafunctions. It will be argued that the translator’s selections among linguistic signs and the way s/he combines them within the target system should, as far as possible, be based upon the ideational aspects and the textual patterns of the original poem (though the target choices are not necessarily supposed to be equally correspondent with the source elements). Furthermore, it will be emphasized that the final translated work should be in line with the target readers" criteria of textual acceptability and with their intertextual experience of what is considered to be a poem.

The amazing impact of the audiovisual media on the world has caused the dwellers of the translation territory think of a wider and more flexible definition of translation which embraces the new forms of linguistic and cultural transfer.Although subtitling differs from text translation in several aspects, it is considered as a special form of translation (Hatim and Mason, 1997). The commencement of subtitling dates back to the silent films era (Schwarz, 2002) and it has been a common practice in some small countries such as Scandinavian ones (Broddason, 2006). However, it is still a new phenomenon in most countries, including Iran in which it is mostly reserved for feature films offered in video shops. Film subtitling, which might deceptively seem simple, is considered as a complex undertaking with its own restrictions which stem from its unique audiovisual framework (Chaume, 2004). This paper attempts to both explain the peculiarities of this special form of translation and deal with the common standards that should be observed in this field.

This study has analyzed the process of finding the closest/most natural lexical equivalence in terms of a semiotic approach. Having been analyzed some possible types of equivalence, It has been argued that what is compared is not the linguistic signs but the images made by the words. In this respect the translator starts a play, in trail and error method, to find the closest image or picture of the linguistic form in Target Language (TL) for Source Language (SL) word or linguistic sign. Since the image is abstract the translator is imposed to finish the play in words as he had started with them.

One of the most important. aspects of drama and definitely drama translation is that it should be performable. In order to preserve the perform ability, the communicative function of linguistic forms should be recognized and conveyed by the translator.As noticed by some translation scholars (e.g. Snell-Hornby [1988] and Hatim [1998]), speech acts have a vital role in this process. Translators may employ different strategies to overcome difficulties in translating speech acts.Knowledge of difficulties of drama translation, speech acts (especially their different linguistic forms in different languages) and the different strategies of translating speech acts can help translators fulfill their duty as communicators.Studying speech acts as linguistic tools which can contribute to the production of better translations and recognition of the strategies adopted by translators in treating speech acts may pave the way for further researches on this neglected genre and may contribute to producing more adequate translations. This research, which was based on parallel and a comparable corpora, intended to present a classification of the linguistic forms representing the most Frequently-used speech acts in Persian dramas by analyzing randomly-selected pages of authentic Persian.