Challenges of Arabic into English Literary Translation: An Analytical Study of the Translation into English of Iraqi Short Stories

Abstract

Literary translation, among other types of translation, projects a lot of challenges for translators especially those dealing with disparate languages like Arabic and English. This study investigates the English translation of two short stories by the Iraqi writer Karim Abid. The study highlights two main challenges: linguistic and cultural. The study cites illustrative examples where points of misunderstanding the original text, mistranslation, lack of adequate translation, interference in the original text, etc. are explored. It is concluded that translating Arabic short stories into English is an arduous and daunting task due to the many obstacles and hardships facing even a professional translator. Therefore, literary translators should have the potential and talent to cope with the invincible hardships of this type of translation. As such, part and parcel of their tools is the application of specific strategies and procedures that are necessary to get over them. Besides, it has been shown that this type of translation is highly creative.