Comparing English and Persian Translations of Culture-Specific Items in the Surah Al-An’am

Each culture encompasses unique concepts that can be challenging for outsiders to grasp, often due to their deep-rooted connotations within the source language and culture. Various strategies exist for translating culture-specific items. This descriptive-comparative study examines the strategies employed in the Arabic-to-Persian and Arabic-to-English translations of Surah Al-An’am. This surah is one of the Tiwal suras, which are seven lengthy surahs in the Holy Qur’ān. Its complete recitation in one sitting, known as Khatme Anaam (complete recitation of Al-An’am Surah), is a common practice in Iran, performed with the hope of having one’s prayers answered by God. The Persian translation analyzed in this study was by Mohammad Mehdi Fooladvand, one of the top eight translators of the Holy Qur’ān, recognized for his balanced approach between literal and content-based translation. The English version studied was by Mustafa Khattab, a Canadian-Egyptian translator renowned for The Clear Qur’ān. The translation strategies for culture-specific items were evaluated using frameworks proposed by Vinay and Darbelnet, Newmark, and Nida. The analysis identified ۵۰ culture-specific items in the surah. The findings revealed that both translations predominantly employed the strategy of literal translation, while footnotes and modulation were the least utilized. Statistical tests, including log-likelihood for significance and Bayes Factor for effect size, indicated significant differences between the two translations regarding the use of seven strategies. Notably, the strategies of borrowing and functional equivalence provided strong evidence against the null hypothesis.

کلیدواژه ها:

Al-An’am ، Culture-specific items ، Holy Qur’ān ، translation