Translation and social-cultural particularities: Of the feasibility of the transfer of cultural elements in Jalal Al-Ahmad’s novels
Abstract
Translating and transferring the meaning has always been considered the most delicate phase of translation. Despite their effort to appropriately transfer the meaning during the process of translating a source text into a target text, sometimes even the most experienced translators feel unable to offer a translation worthy of its source value. The problem does not arise only at the level of the transfer of the notions, it goes well beyond a simple translation. The problem arises more precisely at the level of the transfer of the context, the atmosphere created by the author and the thematic universe of the work so that it is capable of producing the same reactions, the same motivations and the same emotions to the potential reader. The temporal issue also comes into play, as well as those related to culture, including religion, politics, society, rituals, habits and customs. The latter, whose chosen equivalents almost never have the same effects or the same reactions on the potential reader in the target text, are called «zero equivalence». In the course of this research, after reviewing the Newmark model, we will discuss the effectiveness and feasibility of the model in question on the Persian cultural elements and concepts in the translation of Persian works into French. We will also be careful to see if we can apply Newmark’s methodology on cultural elements during a translation, and whether this model is sufciently comprehensive to understand all the conceptual aspects of Persian popular culture. Our corpus will consist of the four short stories of Jalal Al-Ahmad, writer, critic and translator of Persian works of the second half of the 20th century known for his works of Franco-Persian folk literature.
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