Challenges in Translating Puns in Some Selections of Arabic Poetry Into English

Abstract

The present study investigates the challenges translators may face when translating pun expressions in some selections found in Arabic poetry into English. The study examines the strategies employed to translate puns, the choice of pun’s sense, and the perseverance of the aesthetic function of puns in English. The study analyses the translation of a sample of ten Arabic-English puns by twenty-five MA translation students grounded on Delabastita’s (1993) model, the graded salience hypothesis and back-translation method. The study has revealed that the familiarity of the pun’s overt meaning and the ignorance of its covert one constitute a major challenge for inadequately translating puns, thereby distorting the pun’s aesthetic function in the target text. Two out of Delabastita’s translation strategies are shown to be employed in the translation of the given puns, among which pun to non- pun is the most prevalent one. The study has suggested editorial techniques and related rhetorical device as a potential means for adequately rendering the respective puns.