Journal Article

Difficulties in Translating Culture-Specific Items of Harris' Translation of Al-Aswany's \The Automobile Club of Egypt\

Sallam, Shaymaa Taher, Elsayed, Enas Hassan Anwar, Younis, Nagwa Ibrahim A

2025

Overview

The current study explores the challenges that may face the translator in translating cultural-specific Items (CSIs) within Alaa Al-Aswany's \"The Automobile Club of Egypt\" as rendered by Harris (2015). It examines the strategies employed by Harris to navigate the nuanced and intricate cultural elements embedded in the source text and the extent to which these strategies maintain the novel's cultural and literary essence. The study focuses on specific culture-bound concepts, idiomatic expressions, and societal references in the Arabic original text and their English counterparts. Qualitative and quantitative analyses are conducted on key excerpts from Harris' translation, identifying challenges such as achieving equivalence, preserving the cultural tone, and ensuring accessibility for the target audience while maintaining fidelity to the source text. The analysis is conducted following Newmark's strategies (1981). The findings reveal several obstacles, including (i) the difficulty of rendering culturally embedded idioms into English without diluting their original connotations, (ii) the complexity of translating socio-political contexts unique to Egyptian society, and (iii) the translator's reliance on creative adaptation to convey untranslatable cultural nuances. To address these challenges, the study underscores the importance of cultural competence, a deep understanding of the source language's sociocultural framework, and innovative translation strategies.

• Publisher: جامعة السويس - كلية الآداب
• Subject: الأسواني، علاء / الترجمة الأدبية / التكييف الإبداعي / السياقات الثقافية