Problems of translating Iraqi marriage contract into English

Abstract EN

The translation of marriage contracts from Arabic into English represents a real problem for the translators.

Most translators face the problem of finding a direct equivalence in English for certain lexical items, the differences between the legal systems in Arabic and English as well as the problem of handling the difficulty of the cultural gap between Arabic and English.

The current paper assesses and investigates three translations for marriage contract translated by authorized and competent translators.

It is worth mentioning that the assessment of the translations involved is based on Nida’s (1964) theory of formal and dynamic equivalence as well as the techniques of adjustment, addition, subtraction and alteration.

It is concluded that the use of formal equivalence should be the first choice for the translator.

Conversely, dynamic equivalence should only be used in case of absence of formal one or when formal equivalence lead to a meaning different from that of the original text.