INSUFFICIENT INTERPRETATION OF METAPHOR IN THE QURANIC TRANSLATION: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF SELECTED VERSES’ TRANSLATIONS BY PICKTHALL AND ARBERRY

Abstract

Quranic verses are full of metaphoric phrases and compound metaphors which can be said to be the biggest challenge for its translators to the other languages. There is no doubt that a number of renown Western scholars and orientalists have translated Quran in different languages including English but keeping in view the cultural and religious difference, usually even renown translators and scholars like Pickthall and Arberry seem unable to totally apprehend and transfer the intended meaning of the Arabic metaphors of Quran. In this article, it has been tried to discuss and highlight the impact of this deficiency of Western scholars and untranslatability of Arabic metaphor into English without proper command and in-depth knowledge of the Arabic language. The methodology is based on the basic theories of Translation Studies in this regard, especially presented by Peter New Mark and Eugene Nida i.e. literal translation, semantic translation, equivalence, domestication and foreignization