Translation of and Commentary on The Second Chapter Entitled ‘Green Nature: Human Nature’ from The Well-Gardened Mind: The Restorative Power of Nature by Sue Stuart-Smith (2020)

Abstract

‏Stuart Smith discusses the therapeutic and healing effects of gardening on mental syndromes. The second chapter of this book, which is entitled ‘Green Nature: Human Nature’, was chosen to be translated, by me, using a foreignization approach (Venuti, 1995) on the cultural levels for the Arabic market (in particular, the Saudi Market, where there is a shortage of books and articles about the impact of gardening on mental health). This type of translation gives the TT readers an opportunity to know about the English culture, which emphasizes gardening, unlike Saudi culture, and thereby increases Saudi readers’ awareness of the importance of gardening in a society. This stands in contrast to most patients’ pre-existing thoughts—i.e. that mental problems are happening because of supernatural and religious reasons. Therefore, although gardening is receiving attention lately from females in particular, the culture of gardening is still limited in Saudi society. Through this translation, readers can learn about the healing powers of gardening, which may encourage them to have gardens in their homes or even domestic plants in their flats. This integration of gardening could help them overcome mental disorders.

‏In the genres of the ST, namely autobiography, biography and popular science, the standard translation approach on the cultural level is a foreignization approach (Venuti, 1995). This approach gives TT readers the opportunity to know about the SC and to be aware of the differences between the two cultures; in addition, a domestication approach (Venuti, 1995) may be used for a few cultural items and on the linguistic level to avoid grammatical difficulty of the SL for the TT readers and to make the TT sound natural and acceptable to its readers. However, by applying a foreignization approach, TT readers may be affected by some ideological content that contradicts their values, as in the example of presenting atheist material to Saudi readers. In addition, some cultural and religious terms and names may be unfamiliar for the TT reader, but this was overlooked in the current translation, as the focus was on the author, the SC, and bringing the TT readers to the SC rather than the opposite. Adopting a domestication approach can also have the effect of making the TT lose stylistic features such as metaphor in the ST, as was seen in the loss of gardening metaphors in the Arabic translation of Stuart-Smith’s (2020) chapter. Yet, overall, the two approaches of foreignization and domestication work together to build a good translation that allows the reader access to the text by rewriting it in natural and acceptable Arabic language.