Cultural and Linguistic Constraints: Non-Equivalence and Loss of meanings in Poetry Translation (An analysis of Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s Poetry

Abstract

The present study focuses on exploring Linguistic and Cultural constraints in poetry translations within domain of Translation Studies. This study discusses the stylistic devices and translation strategies employed by a translator in attempt to render the exact equivalent translation of target text (Faiz's poetry). The researchers propose that in the act of poetry translation, the absence or loss of exact cultural and aesthetic meanings emerge. To this end, six Urdu poems from Faiz Ahmed Faiz's poetry collection translated by Victor. G. Kiernan into English have been taken to do targeted linguistic analysis. To foster this argument, the concept of non-equivalence from the field of Translation Studies has been taken to strengthen this notion. The study postulates that how beauty of cultural translated words get loss and resultantly, aesthetic and connotative meanings are changed during the process of translation and untranslatability emerges as a concerned phenomenon, which is the pivotal point of the argument in this study. The study recommended that aesthetic and emotive value of the native language of the writer should maintain its supremacy in the translated version. This research is qualitative in design and is based on textual analysis. In this regard, this study will contribute to the domains of Cultural Translation and Comparative literature.