Babel - Online First

This research examines the use of paratextual features in the Arabic translations of Toni Morrison’s novel, The Bluest Eye, specifically analyzing the translations by Kamel Youssef Hessein (Target Text 1, TT1) and Fadel Al-Sultani (Target Text 2, TT2). Paratextual components such as titles, book covers, introductions, forewords, and footnotes significantly influence readers’ understanding and interpretation, especially in literary translations. The aim of this study is to examine how paratextual elements in the Arabic translations of Morrison’s novel are shaped by cultural, ideological, and gendered considerations. By comparing the visual and semantic presentation of the original text with its Arabic translations, this paper examines adjustments to paratextual elements that reflect the target audience’s cultural expectations. The analysis encompasses various aspects, including title selection, book cover design, forewords, dedications, and explanatory footnotes, to demonstrate their impact on reader engagement and comprehension. The results indicate that translators’ decisions are guided by their cultural, ideological, and gender orientations, which, in turn, shape their translation strategies and may influence how readers interpret the text. Ultimately, the study highlights both the complexities of literary translation and the active role that translators play in negotiating cultural and linguistic boundaries.

Drawing on an interdisciplinary approach borrowed from translation, cultural writing, and travel writing studies, this research has investigated semantic shifts in Yousef Noor Awad’s Arabic translation (1991) of The Lord of Arabia: Ibn Saud: An Intimate Study of a King, a British travel account by Harold Courtenay Armstrong (1934). Situating the two texts within a cultural and historical “continuum” (Bassnett and Trivedy 1999, 2), the study has explored how Armstrong’s English travel account, characterized by both sympathetic biographical portrayals of King Abdul-Aziz and stereotypical depictions of Arabian culture, is transformed in translation. For this, two complementary questions were addressed: (1) How are Arabians and their culture represented in the source text? and (2) How does the target text reflect or alter these representations? By quantifying and analyzing selected semantic shifts, modifications, and omissions in Awad’s translation, the study reveals how the translator domesticates the source text (ST) to align it with his ideological preferences of an idealized leadership. The findings highlight the interplay between translation, ideology, and cultural representation, and underscore Awad’s translational choices. The latter are found to diverge from Armstrong’s ethnographic inaccuracies, yet perpetuate a different form of cultural bias that further complicates the issue of cross-cultural representations (Armstrong 1991).

Before the 1980s, the vast majority of foreign plays in Hong Kong were translated into modern vernacular Chinese, which functioned as the dominant written language for most of the population. Since then, however, a small number of translators began experimenting with Cantonese — the primary spoken language of Hong Kong people — as the medium of translation, notably Jane Lai. By the late 1970s, Lai started using Cantonese as the target language for certain translations. In the mid-1980s, another key figure in Hong Kong theater, Rupert Chan, likewise adopted Cantonese in his translations and adaptations of foreign plays. This study takes Jane Lai and Rupert Chan — two of the most representative theater translators in Hong Kong during the 1980s — as case studies to explore three key questions. First, in an era when most foreign plays were translated into modern vernacular Chinese, why did these two translators choose Cantonese as their medium? Second, what were their translation strategies when working in Cantonese? Lastly, how did their translation practices relate to the historical context of 1980s Hong Kong, including the rise of local identity, reflections on the city’s colonial condition, and the broader development of contemporary Hong Kong theater?

This study investigates the translation of lexical bundles (LBs) in simultaneous interpreting, focusing on the relationship between their discourse functions and observed correspondence patterns. We analyzed a corpus of speeches delivered by Chinese delegates at the United Nations Security Council and their corresponding English interpretations. First, we identified 69 distinct four-word LBs in the interpretations and categorized them into three functional groups: stance, discourse-organizing, and referential. Then, we examined the correspondence patterns these LBs formed with the source utterance, categorized as equivalence, addition, and shift. Our findings reveal that equivalence is the most frequent correspondence pattern (71%), suggesting that interpreters often mirror the LB usage of the source text. However, the presence of addition (22%) and shift (7%) patterns, particularly in relation to specific discourse functions, highlights the interpreter’s active role in shaping the target text to meet linguistic and contextual demands. Notably, interpreters predominantly employ addition with discourse-organizing bundles, likely to bridge grammatical differences between Chinese and English and ensure smoother information flow. In contrast, stance and referential bundles primarily exhibit equivalence, suggesting a greater tendency to preserve the original framing and referential coherence. This study sheds light on the nuanced correspondence patterns employed by simultaneous interpreters in handling LBs, emphasizing the interplay between preserving source text features and adapting to target language conventions and communicative needs.

Globalization has gone digital and presents a new type of connectivity virtually today. Digital globalization has transformed the landscape of translation theory and practice, exerting considerable influence on translation studies and the profession of translators. The translation practice evolves with the change of literary expectations driven by the digital revolution. New translation modes have been cultivated by incorporating two essential features of the age, known as technology and participation. Against this backdrop, Chinese web fiction is going global with establishing and developing overseas volunteer translation websites. With this in mind, this paper analyzes the translation model of Chinese web fiction with respect to digital globalization and argues that the fan-based volunteer translation has emerged as a new paradigm that features the “user participation turn” in translation studies.