Cultural challenges in translating Tayeb Salih’s novel Season of Migration to the North (1969) from Arabic into English : a comparative and analytical study with a focus on metaphors and similes

Abstract

This study investigates how and to what effect metaphors and similes from Tayeb Salih‘s novel Mawsim al-Hiǧra ilā ash-Shamāl (1966) were translated into English – a worthy topic, given the many linguistic and cultural differences between Arabic and English, and the difficulty of translating figurative language. The novel depicts aspects of the life and culture of the Sudanese people. Initially banned in the Arab world, it was voted, in 2001, the most important Arabic novel of the twentieth century. This brought Tayeb Salih (1929–2009) fame and recognition, and translation into more than twenty languages. Season of Migration to

the North (1960), the English translation by Canadian-born orientalist Denys Johnson- Davies (1922–2017), is the object of this particular study.

This qualitative study employs descriptive translation studies (DTS) as the main theoretical framework, supplemented by insights gained from equivalence theories, theories of culture, the functionalist approach and cognitive studies. Following a textual approach, the study investigates the Arabic source text, the English target text, applicable translation theories and secondary literature on metaphors and similes as sources of information and/or data. It discusses the aforementioned translation theories, definitions, components and types of metaphors and similes in Arabic and English, as well as strategies and procedures of translating metaphors and similes. The researcher identifies, describes and analyses a selection of similes and metaphors in the Arabic source text, and how they were conveyed in the English target text. The study concludes with a discussion of the effects of the translation choices made and the strategies used.