Problems of Translating Qur'anic Euphemisms: A Comparative Socio-pragmatic Study
Ali Albashir Mohammed Alahj Ph.D; Mohamoud Ali Ahmed Omer, Ph.D.
Abstract
The current study aims at investigating through analysis and comparison, the incongruities and the disparities of meaning and style in translating the Quranic euphemistic expressions into English in the work of Mohammed .A.S Abdel Haleem, Mohammed. M Pickthall and Mohammed Khan and Mohammed Taj Al-Din Al-Hilali . Also, the study aims at exploring how the three translators deal with the euphemistic expressions in their renditions of the Holy Quran. This has its crucial significance in achieving a better understanding on the part of the Holy Quran translators and subsequently of English readers in general and for non- Arabic Muslims in particular, where euphemisms are concerned. The main trust of the current study is investigating how far the three translators are accurate in rendering the Qur'anic euphemisms into English based upon the contexts and the interpretive meaning. The present study hypothesizes that Qu'ranic euphemisms are rhetorical aesthetic devices, but, unfortunately remained unattended by the Holy Quran translators. The study has revealed that euphemisms are evident phenomena in the Holy Quran and that the process of rendering them into English is generally problematic for the reasons such as linguistic and cultural diversity. It is hoped that the study will cast light on two important ideas; firstly, that the translators have been aware of euphemistic expressions in translation. Secondly, translators of the Holy Quran have to translate them accurately as they mean in the source text.
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