Translating orality in the postcolonial Arabic novel: A study of two cases of translation into English and French

Abstract

This article explores the translation of orality in two postcolonial Arabic novels, namely Najīb Mahfūz's Awlād Hāratinā and Muhammad Shukrī's al-Khubz al-Hāfī, into English and French. It is argued that assimilation and non-assimilation of cultural aspects of foreign texts can have both positive and negative effects depending on the case examined. Specific examples are analyzed to show the various factors that can influence the way orality is translated as well as the hybridity of the methods used by the translators. This article further illustrates the complexity of evaluating assimilation and non-assimilation as they have an impact on linguistic, semantic, aesthetic, discursive, and cultural levels. It also sheds light on the translator's role by analyzing the effects of his/her interpretation and choices and the patterns detected in his/her work.

Keywords:

• orality
• literary translation
• postcolonial novel
• ideology
• culture
• discourse

Note on contributor

Mustapha Ettobi is a translator at the United Nations. He completed both an MA and a PhD in translation studies at Concordia University and McGill University, respectively. He is interested in exploring the various aspects and repercussions of cultural representation in translation, and has focused mainly on the translation of postcolonial Arabic literature into English and French. His previous publications include articles on translators as mediators/creators and the effect of ideology and discourse on translation and the representation of foreign cultures.

Notes

1. This aspect is not limited to Arabic-language literary writings but likely also applies to literary works by Arab authors writing in European languages. Ben Jelloun has used Arabic oral tradition in his writing, especially through establishing an intertextuality with the Arabian Nights in novels such as La prière de l'absent. Critic Samia Mehrez has written as follows about his novel La nuit sacrée: “As in L'Enfant de sable, the readers find themselves confronting a text that injects the French with the language of an Other, namely that of an Arabic oral tradition of storytelling that still exists, not just in Morocco, but all over the Arab world” (1992, 128). Ben Jelloun also, in Moha le fou, Moha le sage, for example, makes use of Moroccan proverbs.

2. Another example of the improvement of women's image in Ben Jelloun's translation is his omission of the narrator's comparison of a girl's scarfed hair to cabbage: “شعرها ملفوف في المنديل الأبيض الملطخ بالحنة. ملفوف مثل رأس الملفوف ” (Shukrī 2001, 18–19). Bowles renders it by “[t]he white cloth around her head, stained with henna, was like the outer leaves of a cabbage” (Shukrī 1973, 15). Ben Jelloun, on the other hand, translates the description as follows: “Ses cheveux étaient couverts par un fichu blanc taché de henné” [her hair was covered by a white scarf stained with henna] (Shukrī 1980, 20).

3. The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations.