CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

The nature of literature is mainly woven with stylistic inventiveness and deviations in form to (re)create or replicate beauty and provide instruction. In terms of translating works of art, this nature of literature, potentially, makes Wechsler (1998: 4) to confer that ―literary translation is an odd art.‖ If a translator engulfs in replicating the oddity of form (what can affect content in some cases) and aesthetics into another language, so, what he does is making work of art from another language. Therefore, the literary translator, as an artist, should attempt to go in conformity with the author‘s natural and closest style. 

These elements of oddity and aesthetics are more visible in poetry translation. Translating a poem is, arguably, as hard as composing it because the translator is bound to apply the ethics of fidelity and Venuti‘s (1995) invisibility while his hands are tied with the condensed structure of poetry, especially the classical one. In the process of translating a poem, the challenge piles up for the need to encode and harmonise the poetic devices, context and cultural features of the

Source Language (SL henceforth) into the Target Language (TL henceforth). According to Apte (2004), the burden in poetry translation occurs because each line should be taken into account and must be given a due consideration in relation to other lines for maintaining the organicity and rhythmical quality of the poem in the TL. After the translation, if the challenging factors have been systematically addressed, the target readers of the translated version may get it natural and functionally communicative.        

Therefore, this study appraises Flood‘s (2008) translation of two classical Arabic poems, one by al-Mutanabbi and another one by Abu Nuwas. Flood (2008) collects some previous translations of the two poems for reviewing and harmonising. However, Flood fails to render the poems with functional equivalence in conformity with sound effects, content, compactness, density of imagery among others. Defecting to capture some fundamental features into Target Text (TT henceforth) makes the translated version to lose its original poetic values, bearing in mind that reaching a formal equivalence in poetry translation is hardly achieved. On appraising these translated poems by Flood (2008), also, this study argues that translation of poetry can be discharged with conserving the comprehensive ideas and stylistic patterns of the Source Text (ST henceforth) in order to painstakingly get a sort of originality in compliance with domesticity. 

1.2 The Translator, the Poets and the Poems

 Though her biography was not available to the researcher, Anne Marie Flood, the translator, attempts the translation of the poems of al-Mutanabbi and Abu Nuwas. The work, which was written in fulfilment of the requirements for the award of a Master of Arts in English in the Swarthmore College (2008), was entitled ‗Riding the She-Camel into the Desert: A

Translation of Two Classical Arabic Poets.‘ Two professors supervised the work, Professor Kim Arrow and Professor David Harrison. In her words, Flood (2008: 1) admires that: 

I owe a much of my thesis to my two academic advisors, Professor Kim and Professor Harrison, who helped me through the many drafts of the translation and the discussion thereof, respectively. In addition, I would like to thank all of the students who either read my thesis or my poems for their helpful input. 

This admiration indicates the rigorous process the work went through as it serves as an appraisal and retranslation of some previous translations. The work, which looks more like a book rather than a research, provides accounts on translation, Arabic poetry, discussion of the previous translations and the introduction of her harmonised translation. However, Flood‘s main concern is to pave an introductory way to her translation without a deep review and irrefutable argument of the various translational efforts.         

1.2.1 Al-Mutanabbi: The Poet and the Poem

 Abu al-Tayyib al-Husain (popularly known as al-Mutanabbi, 915-965 A.D.) was born in Kufah, Iraq. As a tradition of child bringing, al-Mutanabbi left the city of Kufah to Bedouin and learnt Arabic and doctrines. He started writing poetry when he was nine years old. According to

Encyclopaedia Britannica (2014), al-Mutanabbi‘s early panegyric poems were composed in extreme fashion, pretentious style and powerful metaphors. Later, he adopted the style of the poets Abu Tammam and Buhturi what earned him a great reputation. Despite being reputable in poetry, al-Mutanabbi was known by his desperate quest for excessive pride and arrogance as they prevailed against his life. Also, the poet claimed prophecy as implied in his name al-

Mutanabbi ‗the Would-Be Prophet‘. However, al-Mutanabbi has been arguably considered as the most prominent Arabic poet. Some critics tag him ‗the Shakespeare of Arabic‘ because of the prolific quotations of his poems which are full of philosophy and wisdom (Flood, 2008). 

 Al-Mutanabbi‘s poem The Horse and the Night shows how grief and sorrow the poet was against his king Saif al-Daula as he rejected him in his royal court because of the enviers‘ gossips and conspiracies. Al-Mutanabbi cited the poem publically after feeling resentful, and the poem caused his death according to some scholars as it was labelled as ‗the poem led to the death of its owner.‘ Making effort to be a predominant hero in battles after being familiar a great poet, al-Mutanabbi wanted to carry his poetic carrier to the warfare as warrior. This unfitted action was one of his weak points that tormented his life.

1.2.2 Abu Nuwas: The Poet and the Poem

          Abu Nuwas al-Hasan bn Hani al-Hakami (756-814) cognomen Abu Nuwas was born with an Arabic father and a Persian mother in Ahvaz a town located in Iran now. Abu Nuwas ―is widely regarded as the best poet of the Abbasid period. Whether this is true or not, it‘s an undeniable fact that his poetry, his wine poetry in particular, has left ineradicable traces in Arabic literary history‖ (Erol, 2014: 1). Abu Nuwas became extremely famous in his lifetime for deviation from the cultural and religious norms and proclamation of modernism. Flood (2008:

20) postulates that Abu Nuwas ―had a reputation of wit and humour, and themes of his most well known poems are often things specifically forbidden by Islam, such as drinking. Later in life he appeared to have repented and wrote a number of devout, religious poems.‖

 In her work, Flood (2008) chooses to translate one of the Abu Nuwas‘ famous wine poetry (Khamriyyat) which was composed to react and rebuke a scholar Ibrahim an-Nazzam who happened to be a friend of his. An-Nazzam criticised him for taking wine and advocating it in his poetry. The poet became angry and urged the scholar to stay away from his drunkenness affairs because of the cure he used to have in it.

1.3 Statement of the Research Problem

Different languages refer to different worlds and entities because, to Sapir (1921), every language has distinctive peculiarities in substance and form. In translating a poem and some other literary texts, the most problematic issue is finding a functional equivalence to go with conformity and interdependency between form and content. Translators are often in dilemma to translate idioms, collocations, proverbs and poetic expressions from one language into another, especially if the two languages are typologically different. For instance, the Arabic and English poetic structures differ in terms of length and rhythmical pattern. Therefore, for finding a linguistically functional equivalence in this regard, a translator should apply maximum skills to reflect the linguistic and aesthetic values of the Source Language Text (SLT henceforth) into the Target Language Text (TLT henceforth). 

By observing three major genres of literature, poetry has more complex linguistic and literary form. The complexity, especially in the classical poetry, comes as a result of the choice of diction, use of literary devices and its compactness with musicality incorporated in the rhythmic flow. Looking at these difficulties, therefore, the ability of the poetry translator can be questionable if he fails to carry out the rendition effectively without distorting, neglecting, over emphasising or misunderstanding the poetic features of the Source Text (ST henceforth) and Target Text (TT henceforth). 

As the case of this study, in translating a classical poem from Arabic into English, it can be argued that these poetic qualities can be reflected without losing much of the aesthetic form and meaningful content of the ST into the TT; the linguistic, stylistic and cultural elements of the ST can be captured in the TT; The literary elements of metaphorical compactness and density of imagery can be equivalently mirrored. In addition, an aesthetic point of view should not be disregarded. It is the aesthetics that makes a poem to have a sensible composure and draw the mind of the readers. This beauty has a power to apparently inspire the readers to the content. Therefore, this study argues that translating classical poets can be exercised with functional equivalence in a classical like-form not a free verse.

1.4 Research Questions

Based on the above problematic, the study attempts to answer the following questions:

i- To what level are the TTs linguistically equivalent to the STs? ii- How does the translator deal with the cultural differences? iii- Do the TTs reflect the poetically aesthetic values that are realised in the STs?

iv- How can the lack of equivalence in form and content be re-encoded?

1.5 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The aim of this study is to appraise the levels of equivalence in the work of Flood (2008) in her translation of two classical Arabic poems into English. Hence, the following are the objectives of the study:

i- to describe the level of linguistic equivalence of the TTs; ii- to analyse how the translator treats the cultural differences; iii- to evaluate the aesthetic (poetic) values of the TTs compared to the STs; and iv- to re-encode the TTs to reflect the classicality in form and content.

1.6 Justification for the Study

Poetry has the power to make the listeners or readers share the same emotions, nostalgias, grievances, experiences and/or ecstasies. For the sake of extending this communication beyond one community speech, the translated poetry can serve to disband the linguistic vacuum. That is why the role of translators is immeasurable in bridging this gap. Though there are different types of translators as well as texts, the researcher feels that Anne Marie Flood‘s translation of alMutanabbi and Abu Nuwas (ones of the most famous Arabic poets) would be suitable and appropriate for studying. The translator is English and the language the poems were translated into is English. Therefore, potentially, the TTs should have the quality of target audience-based features, but the translator‘s ability to comprehend the STs may hamper the fluidity of the translated versions. 

Therefore, a proper translation of these poems can expose the readers and listeners to the one of the enriched treasures of the Arabs. This is imperative in this era of globalisation and the feelings and cultures of different peoples can be perceived through their poets. Also, this study can be useful in promoting translation studies and in understanding a good translated poem which is the most difficult among the literary genres. Furthermore, the findings of this research may be beneficial to the translation professionals and practitioners, translation bureaux, ethnolinguists, sociolinguists, translation trainers, among others. As these expertises have a crucial role to play in developing Translation Studies, this study can open a new room in the realm of classical poetry translation. 

1.7 Scope and Delimitation

In translation studies, there are many linguistic fields involved; fields such as Stylistics, Semantics, Syntax, Sociolinguistics, Pragmatics, Applied Linguistics among others. This study, therefore, was conducted under the scale of poetry translation with a focus on the problems of linguistic, cultural and aesthetic equivalence from Arabic into English. The case study of this research is a research work by Anne Marie Flood titled Riding the She-Camel into the Desert: A Translation of Two Classical Arabic Poets (2008). Flood translates two poems, one by alMutanabbi and another one by Abu Nuwas with thirty (30) lines and twelve (12) lines respectively. However, since there are different dimensions which a study of this nature can be approached with, this work is limited to appraising the TTs under the developed concept of Nida‘s theory of Functional Equivalence and Halliday‘s Functional Semantic Relationship. The areas of concern are linguistic, cultural and aesthetic equivalence.   

1.8 Methodology

 This work is a text-based research. The primary data for this research was sourced from Flood‘s (2008) translation of two classical Arabic poems; one by al-Mutanabbi and another by Abu Nuwas. Flood‘s (2008) work was titled Riding the She-Camel into the Desert: A Translation of Two Classical Arabic Poets, presented in the Department of Linguistics, Bryn Mawr College, Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania (2008). In al-Mutanabbi‘s poem, there are thirty (30) lines and twelve (12) lines for Abu Nuwas. In total, there are forty two (42) lines. The study accounts for only thirty (30) lines against thirty four (34) translated. This happens because of the unavailability of the remaining four ST lines; the lines are not found even in the Flood‘s (2008) Arabic appendix. For the secondary sources, however, many sources that are related to this research were consulted and used - such as academic researches, books, journal articles, internet sources, among others. 

For the analytical procedure, the data were analysed based on the Eugene Nida‘s theory of Functional Equivalence and Halliday‘s Functional Semantic Equivalence. The data were arranged by laying the original text of the Arabic verse then attaching it with the translated one by Flood (2008). From the onset, the researcher paraphrases the context and then moves to look at the translated line critically for comparing and contrasting the level of equivalence. Therefore, the mode of analysis is arranged by placing a line of the Arabic ST and attaching its English TT underneath. Each line is stipulated with a specific code. For instance, in the first line there is a ‗ST1‘ code. ‗ST‘ represents Source Text, while the number indicates the line number of the poem. The translation of the line followed by the code ‗TT1(a)‘ and later ‗TT1(b).‘ ‗TT‘ stands for the Target Text, the number goes with the ST line of the poem, the code ‗(a)‘ indicates the Flood‘s translated version while the one with ‗(b)‘ extension is for the researcher‘s retranslation attempt of the given line.

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