Islamic Studies and Quranic Research in the Contemporary World

Islamic Studies and Quranic Research in the Contemporary World

Studying and Comparing the Linguistic and Cultural Problems of the English Translation of the Holy Qur'an by Yusuf Ali and Arbarry

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Mahbubeh Yazdanpanah 1
Fatemeh Sadat Safavi 2
1 Assistant professor and faculty member of Language and Literature Department, Hazrat Narjes School of Humanities, Vali Asr Rafsjan University.
2 English translation expert, Department of Language and Literature, Hazrat Narjes College of Humanities, Vali Asr University, Rafsanjan, Kerman, Iran.
10.22034/iscw.2023.713496
Abstract
Translators of the Holy Qur’an frequently face considerable challenging while trying to translate the sacred textual content into different language, mainly English. The present study aims at examining linguistic and cultural problems in two English translation of Holy Qur’an as provided by Yusuf Ali (1934) and Arberry (1955). In addition, researcher used Quranic exegesis by Qaraati (1383) to examine the translators’ level of accuracy in translating of linguistic and cultural items. The theoretical framework is based on the theory of Peter Newmark (1988) to evaluate the strategies adopted by the authors of two English translations of the Holy Qur’an when faced with a sample of linguistic and cultural items. In this study used comparative analytical method and data were collected from various verses of the holy Qur’an.The analysis of the data showed that there are some Linguistic and cultural problems that face the translators when translating Qur’anic verses into English and  two translators used various strategies  to translate linguistic and cultural items, the most widely used of which was literal translation , but unfortunately, in most cases, they failed to convey the exact and complete meaning. The results of the study have showed this paper could be beneficial for those who are interested in the translation of the Holy Qur’an into English and informs about problems of translating this sacred text.
 


Keywords
Cultural problems
English translation
Holy Quran
Linguistic problems
Newmark

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Islamic Studies and Quranic Research in the Contemporary World
Volume 2, Issue 2 - Serial Number 4
September 2023
Pages 286-306

  • Receive Date 28 August 2022
  • Accept Date 29 May 2024
  • First Publish Date 29 May 2024
  • Publish Date 23 September 2023