Assessing English Cultural Authenticity: Translation Strategies for Al-Mutanabbi's ‘Braces’
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25130/Lang.9.4.P1.9Keywords:
Cultural, Translation, and Arabic poemAbstract
This study examines the challenge of preserving cultural authenticity when translating Al-Mutanabbi’s classical Arabic poem "Braces" into English. The research aims to identify key cultural references, evaluate translation strategies (literal, adaptive, domestication, foreignization), analyze distortions in meaning, and propose balanced solutions. Grounded in Newmark’s Adaptation Theory and Venuti’s domestication/foreignization framework, the study employs mixed methods (qualitative and quantitative) by analyzed 15 English translations of 3 culturally dense verses from seminal works by scholars like Arberry, Nicholson, and Montgomery (1907–2016). Findings reveals that the analysis of 15 translations reveals 67% successfully preserved cultural essence, primarily through adaptive strategies (47%) rather than strict literalism (27%). Social references (50%) proved most distortion-prone, while historical terms (50%) demanded careful handling. Foreignization and domestication were equally used (13% each), but neither dominated.
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