The poetry of Adonis in translation: an analysis

Abstract

The focus of this study is in the area of poetry translation and in particular the translation of the poetry of Adonis. Such a study is important in order to understand how translators use translation theories when translating the poetry of Adonis.

The research approach adopted in this dissertation includes analysis of the translated poetry of Adonis and comparisons of these translations after thorough research into translation theories and the translation of poetry.
The main conclusions drawn from this study are:
- Despite most poet-translators’ pragmatic approach to poetry and their declaration that they do not use translation theory in the process of translating poetry, translated poetry can nevertheless be analysed with the help of translation theories.
- It is crucial to translate the poetry of Adonis as he has had a huge impact on modern Arabic poetry.
- In order to create some kind of equivalence the poet-translator must create a new poem using a similar ideology to the author of the ST.
- Using explicitation and implicitation, the translator must look for the original poet’s implied meaning and feeling from the words given in the ST – and then render these meanings and feelings – not necessarily the actual words in the SL.
- The translation of Adonis’ poetry using faithful translation theory is much more common than the use of free translation theory.
- Free translation theory is rare in the translation of the poetry of Adonis.