AN APPRAISAL OF FUNCTIONAL EQUIVALENCE IN ANNE MARRIE FLOOD‘S TRANSLATION OF TWO CLASSICAL ARABIC POEMS
AN APPRAISAL OF FUNCTIONAL EQUIVALENCE IN ANNE MARRIE FLOOD‘S TRANSLATION OF TWO CLASSICAL ARABIC POEMS
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Date
2017-07
Authors
AUWALU, HARUNA ILYASU
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Abstract
This study investigates the level of functional equivalence in the Flood‘s (2008) translation of
two classical Arabic poems into English, a thirty-line poem by al-Mutanabbi and eleven-line
poem by Abu Nuwas. The work focuses on how the translator encodes the linguistic, cultural and
aesthetic features. These features are examined based on functional equivalence in terms of form
and content in the Target Text (TT). The research takes each poem and compares the linguistic,
cultural and aesthetic form and content between the Source Text (ST) and Target Text (TT). For
the linguistic functional equivalence, the research construes the semantic level in the TT with
paying an attention to the schematic and compacted construction of the ST poeticality. In the
cultural aspect, on the other hand, the work attempts to locate the area of convergences and
divergences between the Arabic and English languages. In the concluding appraisal of each line,
the research weighs up between the aesthetic features of the STs and TTs with the purpose of
reflecting and maintaining the beauty of classicality, and how this aesthetics goes in conformity
with linguistic equivalents. After the appraisal analysis, the work finds that it has become
difficult for the translator to capture the linguistic elements as far as classical poetry is
concerned; Flood makes the translated lines non-poetic and plain. While the cultural elements are
functionally captured in the translation, perhaps because of their rarity in the given poems, the
aesthetic features have not been addressed properly. The ST lines were rendered disregarding the
beauty and proportional length of the poems. Therefore, for bridging these gaps, the researcher
attempts to re-encode these poems and make the two hemistichs of each line to be rhymed and
proportionately balanced for having a sense of classical, rather, functional equivalence to the ST.
Description
A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF ARTS (M. A.) DEGREE IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH AND LITERARY STUDIES,
FACULTY OF ARTS, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA
Keywords
AN APPRAISAL,, FUNCTIONAL EQUIVALENCE,, ANNE MARRIE FLOOD‘S TRANSLATION,, TWO CLASSICAL ARABIC POEMS,