ISSN:
2181-3906
2024
International scientific journal
«MODERN
SCIENCE
АND RESEARCH»
VOLUME 3 / ISSUE 2 / UIF:8.2 / MODERNSCIENCE.UZ
133
THE PROBLEMS AND SPECIAL FEATURES OF TRANSLATING RELIGIOUS
TEXTS
Kuvondikova Makhbuba
Scientific researcher.
Teshaboyeva Z.K.
Scientific supervisor.
https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.10630910
Abstract. This article aims at discussing the problems and special features of translating
religious texts. In this article analyzed some examples and given explanations to them. Highlighted
some problems of translating Islamic religious texts and suggested possible solutions for them.
Key words: Religious texts, cultural terms, lexicon, collocations, misinterpretation, lexical
and textual translation, translation methods.
ПРОБЛЕМЫ И ОСОБЕННОСТИ ПЕРЕВОДА РЕЛИГИОЗНЫХ ТЕКСТОВ
Аннотация. Целью данной статьи является обсуждение проблем и особенностей
перевода религиозных текстов. В данной статье проанализированы некоторые примеры и
даны пояснения к ним. Выделены некоторые проблемы перевода исламских религиозных
текстов и предложены возможные пути их решения.
Ключевые слова: Религиозные тексты, культурные термины, лексика,
словосочетания, неверный истолкование, лексический и текстовый перевод, методы
перевода.
INTRODUCTION.
At present time,
it is highly crucial to study the problems of
Translatology and try to find
solutions for them. Translation of religious texts plays an important role in this field. We think
studying on this matter can be useful not only for the specialists of this area but also representatives
of other scientific subjects. Translation is one of the essential means of communication among
nations and its’ literary work of art including translating a text from one language into another.
The religious translation is one of the most difficult translations for the translator and
interpreter as it relates to the biggest and most sensitive issue in the human life, and the issue of
religion and belief. Man naturally loves his religion and clings to his faith more than anything else.
From this perspective comes the importance of religious translation. There are several
problems while
translating religious texts, such as the problems related to word and semantics.
Translation is an art that is of a great importance to the progress and prosperity of people
and nations. The art of translation includes literary, economic, scientific, technical and medical
texts. Each area needs its specialists, as well as their knowledge of language in all its ways.
In the past
,
several scientists made researches about the problems of translating religious
texts. Among them Gamil (2010) conducted a research on some problems that hinder the
translation of the Holy Koran into French. Specifically, the research studies and analyzes some of
the problems that hinder the translation of the meanings of the Holy Koran into the French
language, which the translator faces many difficulties while doing this work. These problems
include different translation methods and some errors that resulted from the use of these two
ISSN:
2181-3906
2024
International scientific journal
«MODERN
SCIENCE
АND RESEARCH»
VOLUME 3 / ISSUE 2 / UIF:8.2 / MODERNSCIENCE.UZ
134
approaches with the comparison between them, and problems related to the meaning of the
individual in the context of the Koran.
Khammyseh (2015) conducted a research on the problems of translating Islamic
expressions in religious occasions. The purpose of this paper is to find the problems that students
face in translating Islamic expressions into English. The data was collected from ordinary people
in society. This study found some of the problems faced by students in translation, due to the
differences between language patterns and the absence of equations in English and suggested some
solutions.
Dweik (2013) conducted research on the translation of historical and religious texts from
Arabic
into
English. The study aimed at addressing the most important problems faced by the
translator while translating the historical and religious texts from Arabic into
English, as well as
investigating their causes and making suggestions to avoid them. The translation of six texts was
analyzed and the results revealed the existence of many linguistic and cultural problems, including
the misinterpretation of grammatical, stylistic and grammatical structures, as well as the failure to
reach the equivalent of cultural terms, personal names and cities. These researches are just some
examples of the great work carried out in this sphere. It can be witnessed that most translators tried
to find out the problems of translating religious texts and give reasonable solutions to them.
In another
work, it is emphasized that knowing a language is not enough to implement a
quality and satisfying translation. The translator needs to have not only translation abilities but he
or she is also required to realize the context of the source language. In addition to this, studying
the culture and history of the nation whose language is translated, it plays an essential role and can
be handy during the translation process. The translation process must convey the message of the
source text into the target text. This message must include the same semantic feature levels of the
original one. In popular belief, to translate, a person only needs reasonable knowledge of a foreign
language; long and varied experience; and a few good dictionaries. Traditionally, any good
translation requires:
1) It must make sense;
2) It must convey the spirit and manner of the original;
3) It must have a natural and easy form of expression;
4) It must produce a similar response.
It is obvious that Uzbek Islamic religious texts are originally rooted from Arabic. There are
many problems of translating Islamic religious texts from Arabic into English such as lexical,
semantic, structural, and
grammatical
and others whereas translating Uzbek religious texts twice
as difficult. Translator faces to the same problems while translating from Uzbek into English as
while translating Arabic religious texts into English. Because Uzbek religious texts also full of
loanwords from Arabic and Arabic cultural untranslatable words and concepts. Therefore,
the
translator should first study the translation problems of Islamic religious texts from Arabic into
English in order to study problems of translating Islamic religious texts from Uzbek into English.
One of the problems that arises while
translating Islamic religious items is the rich
implications included in it that make the equivalent even if it is available in the target language
unable to convey the same message. Religious expressions are culture-specific par excellence.
They fall into the category of non-equivalence.
ISSN:
2181-3906
2024
International scientific journal
«MODERN
SCIENCE
АND RESEARCH»
VOLUME 3 / ISSUE 2 / UIF:8.2 / MODERNSCIENCE.UZ
135
Ghazala suggested using six types of equivalents to translate Islamic Terms and
expressions: functional equivalent, explanatory equivalent, cultural equivalent, religious
equivalent, referential equivalent, and connotative equivalent. Here we can give some words as an
example and explanation: the words “
halol
” (halal) and “
harom
” (haraam) have literal equivalents
in English as “
permissible
” and “
forbidden
”. However, these equivalents do not convey the extra
levels of social and religious meanings the Islamic religious terms denote. The words “
halal
” and
“
haraam
” in the Islamic culture refer to a wide number of practices and customs that are permitted
(or not permitted) under Islamic law. In addition, they refer to specific Islamic laws governing
food and drinks.
Depending on the context where these words are used, it recommended
to translate them
as loanwords followed by a short explanation and illustrating examples to convey their specific
meaning.
Gerding-Salas points out that the main goal of translation is to serve as a cross culture
bilingual communication vehicle among people. But, in many cases, the source-language word
may express an expression that is unknown in the target culture. In this case, one should note the
difference between the culture-specific term and the culture-specific concept. The former refers to
a concrete meaning, but the latter refers to an abstract meaning. Furthermore, the culture-specific
concept refers to a religious belief, a social custom or even a type of food.
Among the challenges that the translator faces of Islamic religious items is the absence of
the equivalence in the target language. Linguistically this usually causes the problems of cultural
gap in translation or sometimes are called
lacunae
,
semantic void
or
semantic hole
. As for
discussion words such as “
idda
” (iddah) has no equivalent in the English as there is no such cases
in their religion or beliefs. The word refers to the period a woman must observe after the death of
her spouse or after a divorce, during which she may not marry another man. Its purpose is to ensure
that the male parent of any offspring produced after the cessation of a
nikah
(marriage) would be
known. The length of
iddah
varies according to a number of circumstances. There is such
definition in the Dictionary of Islamic words and Expressions to the word
iddah
: a waiting period;
a period after which a divorced woman or a widow may marry again. There are types of
iddah
:
Iddah
at-
talaaq
and
Iddah
al-
wafaah
. From these examples, we can say that some words and terms
have no equivalents in the target language and this condition is highly likely to bring problems to
the translators.
Through reviewing literature for the translation of cultural items, it was obvious that there
are different procedures suggested by different theorists. For example, Vladimir Ivir has proposed
the following seven procedures: definition, literal translation, substitution, lexical creation,
omission, addition, borrowings.
Hervey and Higgins have suggested using cultural transplantation, cultural borrowing,
communicative translation, calque, and exoticism.
Newmark proposed using transference, naturalization, cultural equivalent, functional
equivalent, descriptive equivalent, synonymy, through translation, shift or transposition,
modulation, recognized translation, translation label, compensation, componential analysis,
reduction and expansion, and paraphrase. A combination of different strategies mentioned in
ISSN:
2181-3906
2024
International scientific journal
«MODERN
SCIENCE
АND RESEARCH»
VOLUME 3 / ISSUE 2 / UIF:8.2 / MODERNSCIENCE.UZ
136
different classifications and proposed by different scholar could be used to overcome the
previously mentioned problems.
As a conclusion considering above mentioned information and examples, we can conclude
that there are still translations problems in different areas of Translatology. Translators of religious
texts should be aware of not only two cultures but three cultures of Uzbek, Arabic and English
while translating from Uzbek into English. For the reason that translating from Uzbek may
probably not make sense without knowing original usage of the words in the original text. It is
necessary to take cultural aspects of the language into consideration. One must be careful while
performing especially the translation of religious texts as they are regarded as an integral part of
human life.
REFERENCES
1.
M. F. Badawi, Investigating EFL Prospective Teachers' Ability to Translate CultureBound
Expressions., Online Submission, 2008.
2.
E. A. Nida, Toward a Science of Translating, Leiden: Brill, 1964.
3.
H. Ghazala, Tarjamatul Mustalahatil Islamiati. A Paper Presented in the Symposium on the
Translation of the Holy Quran. Al-Madinatul Munawwaratu, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,
2002.
4.
Gerding-Salas, "'Teaching Translation: Problems and Solutions.' Translation Journal:
Website, @," 2000. [Online]. Available: http://accurapid.com/journal/13educ.htm.
[Accessed 10 May 2022].
5.
5. Dr. Mohamed Ali Elsiddig Ibrahim. The Problems of Religious Translation. International
Journal of Linguistics, Literature and Translation (IJLLT) ISSN: 2617-0299
www.ijllt.org
6.
M. I. Saleh, Dictionary of Islamic words and Expressions, Riyadh: Maktaba Dar-usSalam,
2002.
7.
N. Peter, Approaches to translation., London: Prentice Hall, 1988.
