Every word is directed towards an answer : dialogism and the translation of allusions in three literary works of Mahmoud Darwish

Abstract EN

-This study aims to demonstrate the fact that allusive references are not used by sheer coincidence as linguistic or literary devices; allusive references are culture-bound units that occupy highly significant situational and contextual positions.

Moreover, translating allusions is a very convoluted and troublesome task owing to dialogism which involves the writer, the reader, and the context.

Due to the cultural barriers and differences between the SL & TL, some allusions appear as innocent units in the texts.

Translators, therefore, can face serious challenges identifying them though they are bugged with meanings.

By the same token, if translators manage to recognize some of the allusions in the text, they can miss other aspects like their connotative meaning and contextual impact since their semiotic referents may be deactivated in their language.

This study contributes to building a model for the translation of intertextual references within the concept of dialogic space, where each translated text interweaves with the ST and recontextualizes with potential translations of the ST.

To resolve the translation problems, the Bakhtinian notion does not require establishing fidelity with the source text or the target text as it has been the case with the traditional and recent target-oriented translation.

Translation is rather deemed as the act of rewriting the ST in a tripartite intertextual space including the author, the reader, and the context.

The produced translation, therefore, won’t be standing in an inferior position to the ST, but rather on equal footing with it.

The study espouses a dichotomy to translate the allusions: Leppihalme’s strategies (1997) for the translation of horizontal allusions, and Hervey and Higgins’ compensation strategies (1992) for the translation of vertical allusions.