Untranslatability pdf

The chapters depart from the pragmatics of translation practice and move on to consider the role of the translator's voice and the translator as. Difficulties of Koranic Translation and Untranslatability. Against World Literature. Language-meaning-social Construction Interdisciplinary Studies. This uniquely interdisciplinary collection of essays derives in part from a two-day international conference held at Heriot-Watt University in November and conceived as a critical forum for the discussion of the concept of interaction.

The collection satisfies a continuing need for interdisciplinary and multi-disciplinary research in the humanities and. Translational Spaces. This book explores the concept of space, or rather spaces, in relation to translation, to construct a conceptual framework for research to better understand and solve translation problems.

Inimitability i!! With these words the Qurv"n declares its own inimitability: no-one, be they earthly man or fiery jinn, will ever be capable of producing its like even if they were to make a combined effort to do so. It is with this proposition that the Prophet Mu9ammad challenged the sceptical Arabs who were his peers - if you are in doubt as to the provenance of this book being from God, then bring a speech like it, ten chapters like it, one chapter like it Q.

Naturally, the Arabs were expected to attempt such a thing in their own tongue of which they were masters; they were being asked to produce something, in Arabic, similar or equal to the Qurv"n, but not the Qurvan itself. But what about producing or, more properly, attempting to reproduce the Qurv"n itself, not in Arabic, but in another language, by translation based on the Qurv"nic text itself?

Hence, from the outset, any attempt at translation could never preserve the truth value of these self-referential statements. Throughout the long centuries since its advent, the Qurv"n has been recited in Arabic during the Islamic canonical and other prayers by the overwhelming majority of Muslims, Arabs and non-Arabs alike, reflecting the doctrine that the Arabic Qurv"n is the literal word of God. According to scholarly verdicts from a variety of Islamic schools of thought from early times down to the present day, a Muslim must recite the parts of the Qurv"n necessary for prayer in Arabic unless incapable of doing so.

The linguist Ibn F"ris d. God has in fact ordered the recitation of the inimitable Arabic Qurv"n. A translation of the Qurv"n, then, according to this opinion, is the work of man and by necessity flawed; it cannot reproduce the miraculous qualities of the divinely authored original which is inimitable and, as a whole, untranslatable. Ibn Qutayba d. The doctrine of the miraculous inimitability of the Qurv"n has been the subject of a great deal of theorising by Muslim scholars and linguists over the centuries.

In his treatise on the inimitability of the Qurv"n, al-KhaUU"b:5 d. He says n. Institut Francais de Damas, According to al-KhaUU"b: , there are a number of reasons why it is impossible for mankind to produce the like of the Qurv"n: Among these reasons is the fact that their knowledge does not encompass all the nouns and words of the Arabic language which are the receptacles and conveyors of meaning; their understandings do not grasp all the meanings of the things conveyed by these words; and their knowledge is not complete enough to exhaust all the modes of arrangement by which these words are composed and linked together so that they might try and choose the best and the most beautiful of them and produce a speech like it.

Indeed, speech is composed of these three things: a word which conveys, a meaning which subsists in it, and a linking which arranges the two. If you contemplate the Qurv"n you will find these things to be the height of nobility and virtue so that you will not see any words more eloquent or lucid or sweeter than its words, and you will not see any arrangement more beautifully composed and more harmonious and congruent than its arrangement.

As for the meanings, it is obvious to one possessed of a mind that the intellects testify that they are foremost in their field, and ascend to the highest degrees of merit in their properties and attributes. Therefore you should now understand and know that the Qurv"n is an inimitable miracle because it came with the most eloquent of expressions, in the most beautiful forms of composition, containing the most authentic meanings.

Al-KhaUU"b:, then, has identified three levels which he regards in the Qurv"n as being taken to perfection - the level of lexis, the level of structure, and the level of semantics. These three levels of lexis, structure and meaning combine with various rhetorical techniques and linguistic devices to produce a very definite effect on the hearer of the Qurv"n, and I say hearer because, first and foremost, the Qurv"n was, and is, meant for oral recitation and its sonic, rhythmic, and phonetic qualities are an important part of the total package that is the Qurv"n.

Although the Qurv"n is not by any means considered to be poetry although there were some who accused the Prophet Mu9ammad of being a poet , it does have many aspects which might be considered poetic in nature. A poem at its most artistic is the sublime literary form, the pinnacle of any language where structure, form and content, rhyme, rhythm and sound combine in figures of speech to form a unity in which all the contributing factors are finely and equally balanced, and where nothing, neither meaning or form, is sacrificed or compromised for the sake of something else: In poetry, verbal equations become a constructive principle of the text.

Syntactic and morphological categories, roots and affixes, phonemes and their components distinctive features - in short any constituents of the verbal code - are confronted, juxtaposed, brought into contiguous relation according to the principle of similarity and contrast and carry their own autonomous signification. Phonemic similarity is sensed as a semantic relationship. Because of the intricate way in which the fabric of the Qurv"n is woven, its integrity and integrality as a unique opus, and the many levels which combine to produce its overall effect, it seems inevitable that, in translation, there will occur significant losses.

In the following chapters we shall look at examples of various types of difficulties which potentially face the translator of the Qurv"n which show just how these losses manifest themselves. Examples of Qurv" Untranslatability.

There are a substantial number of lexical items in the Qurv"n which pose difficulties for the translator. Many of these difficulties arise because of the existence of linguistic structures peculiar to the Arabic language, particularly through the large number of derivations that can be made from a single linguistic root, each with a specific and often subtly different semantic field.

The very first verse of the Qurv"n poses difficulties of this type and has long been struggled over by translators: a. Both words are considered to be hyperbolic or intensive forms of the simple active participle.

Such hyperbolic Ar. It is quite difficult to pinpoint the precise difference in meaning between the two words. Ibn Kath:r vol. These two terms, then, exhibit a high degree of untranslatability and the subtlety of their meanings can only be conveyed very approximately. Even scholars of Arabic, both ancient and modern, disagree as to the precise meanings of the two terms and whether they both express hyperbole c. Abdul-Raof It is all recorded in a clear record. The question for translators is how to deal with such an item.

This is a clear example of how our knowledge of the world has developed and affects our understanding of texts. Structure, Lexis, Grammar, Logic. Abdel Haleem: Here is a picture of the Garden promised to the pious: rivers of water forever pure, rivers of milk forever fresh, rivers of wine, a delight for those who drink, rivers of honey clarified and pure, [all] flow in it: there they will find fruit of every kind; and they will find forgiveness from their Lord.

How can this be compared to the fate of those stuck in the Fire, given boiling water to drink that tears their bowels. The verse refers to the various rivers of water, milk, wine and honey which will flow for the inhabitants of the garden, but what is interesting is that each of these items is, grammatically, in the indefinite case which seems to indicate that they are not the earthly water, milk, wine and honey that we are accustomed to; rather, they are something unknown, unspecified and indefinite.

Many, even Arab speakers, have not picked up on this point without which makes a description of paradise seem mundane. It is also interesting to note that when fruit is mentioned in the verse it is with the definite article which could refer to reaping the fruits in the afterlife of actions sown in this world. Again, this is lost in translation.

Both translators have also introduced much additional exegetical in-text material including some that is considered to be elliptical and have not always indicated this by use of square brackets. Abdel Haleem:.

Ibn al-Mu! Abdel Haleem: We sealed their ears [with sleep] in the cave for years. On that day it is said that the pregnant camels will be left unattended, something which would never ever happen under normal circumstances since in Arabian society they were regarded as prized possessions and always looked after. The word! There is no equivalent in English which denotes such a specific meaning, and the connotative meaning of these camels being prized possessions which would never normally be neglected is also absent and not easily picked up on from any translation.

The idea is meant to evoke surprise and wonder at the seriousness of the Day of Judgement since it makes people abandon their prized possessions. This verse refers to the ancient peoples of! This simile is meant to compare something which is not known - how the dead bodies appeared, with something which, at least to those familiar with that particular environment, is known - what hollow palm trees look like, and the connecting idea is bodies empty of spirits or empty shells c.

There are a number of words in the Qurv"n, the meanings of which were not fully known even to the original Arab speaking audience and these words may be considered to be neologisms.

The new words usually refer to something about the Day of Judgement including a number of names of this day such as Q. What is the Inevitable Hour? What will explain to you what the Inevitable Hour is? What is the Besieger?! What will show you what is the Besieger?! What is the Reality?

Ah, what will convey unto thee what the reality is? This term and others like it are almost like proper names and it may be a good strategy to simply transliterate them.

One example of a proper name for hell occurs in Q. What will explain to you what the scorching Fire is? And what will show you what is Saqar? Uthm"n b. Aff"n, and! Al: b. However, even within this text there are a number of perennial disputes and controversies over the meanings of certain words or over one particular grammatical point or another. Often, these disputes reflect the views of the various Islamic schools of thought.

For Muslim translators of the Qurv"n who belong to a particular school of thought it seems natural and inevitable that they follow their own tradition in translating the Qurv"n. For non-Muslim translators of the Qurv"n, the problem of how to translate in a non-sectarian way, if such a thing is possible, remains, and the translator must have an awareness and knowledge of all the various controversies in order to be able to navigate through them correctly, perhaps giving balanced and unbiased information on all the differing viewpoints in an explanatory footnote so as not to potentially mislead the readers or cause offence to those who hold one particular opinion to be correct rather than another.

An example of a Qurv"nic verse which has been, and remains, the subject of much controversy is Q. When you stand up for prayer, wash your faces and your hands up to the elbows, and wipe a part of your heads and your feet, up to the ankles.

The controversy revolves around whether, as well as washing the face and arms up to the elbows, and wiping the head, one should wash, rather than, wipe the feet. Many sections of the Qurv"n, particularly the shorter Meccan chapters or suras, conform to a rhyme scheme in as far as the verse endings faw"Nil often end in the same letter or group of letters. This scheme is quite fluid and there can often occur a change of rhyme scheme midway through a sura which may accompany a change in emphasis or in subject or direction of discourse.

A Compendium of Imami Beliefs and Practices. London: I B Tauris. For a discussion from the Sunni perspective see, for example: Ibn Kath:r When the [scrolls of the] scriptures are unrolled, when the sky is stripped off, when hell is set ablaze, when paradise is brought near, then a soul shall know what it has readied [for itself].

Shifts in number often occur in the Qurv"nic discourse. Two examples are given below: a. Neither of our two translators, here, represent this shift in their translations and they both maintain the plural throughout. Abdel Haleem: They are like people who [labour to] kindle a fire: when it lights up everything around them, God takes away all their light, leaving them in utter darkness, unable to see.

Ellipsis occurs frequently in the Qurv"n, particularly when it comes to certain conditional sentences where the protasis or condition is mentioned but the apodosis or result has been left out. Abdel Haleem has filled in the gap himself by adding a possible answer in square brackets. He also gives another possibility in a footnote. Therefore, already we have three different possibilities. In his kit"b al-bad:! These elements include metaphor isti!

One of these elements is a literary device which is peculiar to Arabic and known as jin"s or tajn:s. An example of this from the Qurv"n which Ibn al-Mu! This type of effect is almost a form of paronomasia or punning which can be notoriously untranslatable see There are instances of paronomasia in the Qurv"n which can often be quite subtle and it sometimes happens that translators either fail to recognise instances of punning or choose not to bring them over into the TL.

Let us look at the first of these instances Q. Abdel Haleem: The sorcerers fell to their knees. Moses casts down his staff and it becomes a real snake which consumes the ropes and staves of the magicians who realise by this that Moses is a true prophet sent by God and they submit and fall prostrate. In the previous five verses this verb or its derivatives are used five times in the active voice to refer to Moses and the magicians casting down their staves and ropes. The paronomasia comes in Q.

As we can see, neither of our translators have conveyed this extraordinary use of language and have both made a shift from the passive to the active voice for which there is no apparent justification.

Ydhu bi-rabbin-n"s, malikin-n"s, il"hin-n"s, min sharril-wasw"sil-khann"s, alladhi yuwaswisu f: NudYrin-n"s, min al- jinnati wan-n"s. In the preceding section, I have attempted to demonstrate, with relevant examples taken from the original, several types of problems potentially faced by the translator of the Qurv"n. These problems arise for various reasons each of which is related to a type of untranslatability; linguistic, cultural, or even that arising out of the historical and temporal differences which have occurred between the time of the appearance of the Qurv"n and the present day.

I have used two of the most recent translations of the Qurv"n and I believe that my discussion of the examples in conjunction with the two translations adequately demonstrates the types of problems involved. I have tried to make my examples varied and tackling a wide spectrum of issues although my study is by no means exhaustive. I am certain that there is much scope for further study of this topic.

In my discussion of the concept of untranslatability, I have tried to show that untranslatability is something that is quite common, whether that be regarding our perception of the world, or regarding communication between individuals, cultures and time periods, texts being one form of that communication.

Untranslatability is, however, relative and depends to a great extent upon the function of the text or message involved and the relevance of the various levels - linguistic or otherwise - to the communicative act. If untranslatability is a question of not being able to see a hidden substance in the target language and culture capable of matching the source text, not only translation is undermined, but reading too.

Wanting to make everything translatable is not necessarily a question of brushing aside the speed bumps of untranslatability. Some works of literature, for instance, are more resistant to interpretation than others. Whether this is due to stylistic convolutedness or hermetic cultural references, reading is always possible, and if this is so, so is translation.

Emily Apter p. This is one reason why Apter aims to activate the idea of untranslatability as a strong theoretical point of support for the practice and theory of translation, one which recognises the peculiarly important role played by mistranslation, non-translation and incomparability. There are certain possible ways in which the idea of untranslatability as an impediment to translation, rather than an opportunity, is flawed. The anthropologist Rodney Needham p. If language categorises, codify and systematise experience, it must do so on the bases of some language-independent attribute of that experience Palmer: p.

This paradigm has another nuance. As Ricoeur reminds us, translation is a fairly ancient procedure. There is an important well-known fact that simultaneously must not obscure the primordial jamming of communication myth of Babel and not be obscured by it: within the multiplicity of languages people have always translated Ricoeur: p.

Texts contained in the book of Torah and in other clay tablets discovered by nineteen-century archaeologists, like the Epic of Gilgamesh, for instance were never short of being translated and for that matter, retranslated. The books of the Torah, commonly known as the Old Testament or the Hebrew Bible, as far as we know, were never an exclusivity of the readers of the Aramaic language and close dialects Iser: p.

Within the parameters of Christian and Judaic ideology, from the moment they were first translated into Greek and subsequently from the Greek into Latin until today, they have crossed every linguistic and cultural border possible, being translated, adapted and retranslated in hundreds of vernacular languages. Behind this belief lies an attitude to language and culture which can certainly prove theoretically relevant and productive but that nevertheless can always block, undermine or delay the transitus of ideas if translators feel obliged by it or systematically defeated by the idea.

In the same vein, Homi Bhabha p. Instead, it can be construed as a creative, liberating abstention from any converting action. Conversely, Gauti Kristmannsson Levine p. This pragmatic mode or way of seeing translation is affirmative and useful in a number of ways: as the untranslatable enters by its very resilient, invulnerable quality upon new life the translation , becoming all-powerful and significant in the cross-cultural process, if there is any loss, as some scholars are kin to argue Hardwick: p.

The supposedly repulsive quality of the untranslatable distils something of the ineffable, hard-to-unravel semiotic situation of the text, but in doing so it can give birth to renewed semantic configurations, restorative signifying force and palimpsestic communicative depth.

As David Bellos p. In this view, semiotic relations between signifiers and signified are decidedly personal and individual, irrespective of culture and language. In this sense, Bellos seems to be acutely aware that if a translation may display insufficient quality even when the source material is considered sublime in its original context, the quality of a translated piece of writing with all its presumed untranslatability bears no significant relation to its having been translated, reinstated in another culture.