Résumé:
At every moment, translation is as necessary as it is impossible” said Derrida; this statement could be the most accurate description of the translation of the Holy Qur’an. The latter, being caught between the urgent need to provide a translation for non-Arabic speakers as it is a text addressed to all humanity on the one hand, and its inimitable character in terms of its eloquence, rhetoric and miraculous composition on the other. The task of its translation proves unavoidable but above all unenforceable at least in theory. The reality is quite different though, as translations into French and even into other languages have always existed over the years. So, if Qur’an is miraculous and
inimitable by its linguistic and rhetorical aspects, and therefore cannot be reproduced - by the most eloquent Arabs - in its very language of revelation, namely Arabic, can translators produce its equivalent in other languages? Or, is its inimitability not limited only to Arabic and Arabs? To what extent is the qur’anic text translatable/untranslatable? What is the origin for a possible untranslatability? And what exactly does ‘untranslatability' mean?
