Annotated Translation Project: A Pen's Journey

Abstract

Translators from Arabic to English usually face difficulties and obstacles in conveying the exact meanings of the authors of the texts they choose to translate, due to numerous factors such as linguistic differences, religious background among other cultural factors. The motivation behind choosing the source text is reflecting upon certain challenges when translating from Arabic to English when dealing with a text rich with culture specific characteristics. Such characteristics usually present challenges for translators from all backgrounds.

This annotated translation project shall include a translation of a source text chosen from A Pen’s Journey: a collection of op-eds by the late Abdullah Othman Alkasabi written for the Al-Madina newspaper, along with a commentary on said translation comprising of a breakdown of the challenges faced and the strategies used, divided into three sections: A theoretical framework that will introduce Mona Baker’s translation taxonomy, followed by an analysis which will discuss how Baker’s taxonomy was utilized through providing examples from the translation, as well as other discussion points relating to the challenges, ending the commentary with conclusions which will summarize the findings from the analysis, as well as final observations regarding the suitability of Baker’s translation taxonomy in overcoming Arabic-to-English translation challenges.