A comparative study of two Arabic translations of chapter four of James Joyce’s Ulysses

Abstract EN

This paper is a comparative analytical study of two Arabic translations of chapter four of Ulysses, Calypso.

The aim is to explore the lexical and syntactic choices of the two translators, Taha and Niazi, and their translation strategies in rendering the culture-specific expressions through the use of (1) House’s translation quality assessment model and (2) Venuti’s domestication and foreignization strategies.

The study shows that both translators use formal and archaic Arabic words while colloquial and borrowed words are used in Taha’s translation.

The use of formal and archaic words does not reflect the informal, casual style of the original text; consequently, the characters’ language appears more eloquent than the original.

Besides, the use of colloquial words adds a familiar Arabic flavour to the text.

The syntactic choices of the translators show that Taha’s use of wa and kaana does not reflect the free indirect style in Calypso whereas Niazi seeks to render the free indirect style by minimizing the use of wa and kaana as much as possible.

In rendering culture-specific expressions, both translators use similar ‘domesticated’ translations in some parts as well as different ‘foreignized’ translations throughout the chapter.