Rendering body-part idioms in the Holy Qur’an : a study of three English translations

Abstract EN

This paper is concerned with reviewing the difficulties faced by translators rendering body-part idioms in the Holy Qur’an, and raises the question of whether the translation choices suggested by three selected translators to express the intended meaning of the bodypart idiom in question are accepted by native speakers or not.

Hence the major concern of this paper is acceptability: do the suggested choices achieve the level of acceptability targeted by the three translators or not? This area has been neglected by scholars and researchers and this what makes this study substantial.

It also sheds light on native speakers’ arguments for accepting one choice and rejecting another, and how this can be of benefit to those who are concerned with translating the Qur’an in the future.

For this study, three translations have been selected, namely, those of Arthur J.

Arberry’s The Koran Interpreted published in 1955 (edition used is that of 1983), M.H.

Shakir’s The Qur’an published in 1959 (edition used is that of 1995) and Muhammad Mahmud Ghali’s Towards Understanding the Ever Glorious Qur’an published in 1997.