ترجمة أنطوان حمصي وخالد بلقاسم للنزعة التجميلية في رواية لميلان كونديراLa Plaisanterie.

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine the concept of ""The Embellishing Tendencies"" in novel translation from the perspective of the Francophone novelist ""Milan Kundera"". ""The Embellishing Tendencies"", as envisaged by the author, is a generic term used to designate the aesthetic practices which characterize the work of Western translators, who seek mainly to produce legible and beautiful translations at the expense of the author's style. Thus, we sought to determine whether these tendencies have effectively marked two Arabic translations of the novel ""La plaisanterie 1967"", the corpus of the present study. In order to find answers to the questions raised in this research, the following hypotheses have been formulated: - Western translators regard translation as a mere process of transmitting meaning from one language into another, free of all impurities or exotic expressions. - The author has certainly the ultimate authority over his own text, but as soon as the text is translated into another language, his authority becomes less visible. - Translation errors that have previously been mentioned by Kundera would also slip in Antoine Homsi’s and Khaled Belkacem`s Arabic translations of his novel “La Plaisanterie” (The Joke). - The language of translation, unlike the embellishing tendencies, has no significant effect on the quality of translations. - Driven by the embellishing forces, the aforementioned Arabi translators would resort to free translation strategies. - Publishers would exert an important influence on translators, instructing them to bring about marketable and profitable translations. The results obtained go against the arguments defended by the aforesaid author. Throughout the novel, the two Arab translators literally reproduced the textual structures of the original, which in turn affected the fluency and cohesion of the Arabic version. With regard to the first hypothesis, namely the embellishing tendencies and their effect on translation quality, the comparative analysis carried out in this research has provided clear-cut evidence against the tenability of such a claim. Antoine Homsi’s and ""Khaled Belkacem`s translations were far from being based on embellishing tendencies; on the contrary, they stuck literally to the source text structure and syntax. With respect to the second hypothesis related to the author`s supreme authority over his text, it has been found that this claim was not founded and disregards linguistic, cultural and ideological diversity. As for the third hypothesis, it has been demonstrated through the analysis of the two Arabic translations that the aforementioned errors were nearly inexistent, for the plain fact that the two translators have translated the novel literally. This answer is also valid as regards the fifth hypothesis concerning the way in which the translators behaved vis-a-vis the novel of Milan Kundera. Regarding the fourth hypothesis, it has been found that linguistic differences between French and Arabic played an important role in the quality of the translation, particularly at the syntactic and punctuation levels, for each language has a distinct organizational structure. Finally, the influence of the two Arabic publishing houses, namely (Dar Ward / Merkaz Takafi El Araby) on the translation process could not be determined nor measured, as the two publishing houses did not answer our questions on the subject.