المستخلص: |
This is a study about the issue of interpretation in the Arabic into English translation of the Sufi Dictionary, a pioneer project under the framework of the Applied Linguistics Team at the Institute of Studies and Research for Arabization (IERA) in Rabat. Being a member of this team, mainly concerned with the English translation, I focus in this article on the risk of misinterpretation that could happen when translating some Sufi terms into English. This paper exemplifies how translation does not only rely on linguistic knowledge, but also on the extra-linguistic knowledge elicited by the sign as well as demonstrates the necessity for resorting, in some cases, to an interpretive approach to translation (Lederer 2003). It also shows that any decontextualization of the Sufi terms is likely to cause a literal translation which might distort their intended meaning. Moreover, it gives examples from Sufi terminology extracted from the Sufi Dictionary, about how the choice of a signified that is relevant in the specialized area of Sufi science depends not only on the degree of knowledge the translator has about Sufism but also on the help of a specialist in orienting the translator’s interpretation. The problem that this study exposes is of a terminological and cultural nature, and constitutes one of the many other challenges in translating Sufi terminology. Hence, this paper specifically emphasizes the importance of having the joint-efforts of both specialists and translators in specialized translation projects to reach successful translations, i.e. ones in which terms are correctly interpreted
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