The Translation of Figurative Language and Culture- Specific Items in Two Novels by Naguib Mahfouz: The Thief and the Dogs and Miramar: A Comparative Study

Abstract

The present paper attempts to compare the translation of thefigurative language and culture-specific items in two novels by NaguibMahfouz: The Thief and the Dogs (1961) and Miramar (1967). Theanalysis mainly explores whether the translation of the metaphors, thesimiles and the culture-specific items has maintained the local colour of thetwo novels. It is shown that in The Thief and the Dogs (1961), the twotranslators; the main one who is a native-speaker of English and the cotranslator,who is a native speaker of Arabic, have overlooked themetaphors and similes in the source text and translated the intendedmeaning only; whereas in Miramar (1976), the translator, who is a nativespeaker of Arabic, has on rare occasions transferred the metaphors andsimiles in the source text into the target text. Regarding the translation ofthe culture specific items, it has been found that the translators of the twonovels have used some strategies to acquaint the target reader with variousaspects pertaining to the Egyptian culture, leaving other culture –bounditems vague to the target audience.