Assessment of Arberry’s Translation of Emphasis in Qur’anic Dialogue

Abstract

Studies on the translations of the Qur’an into English are widely prominent. However, research in translating the emphasis in Qur’anic dialogue has not been given sufficient attention. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the procedures followed by Arberry in translating emphasis in Qur’anic dialogue considering the dialogue between God and His creation as an example. Arberry’s translation is selected because a non-Muslim translator writes it without prejudice and is widely respected among academics. The main aim of this paper is to investigate the procedures used by Arberry to translate the emphasis in Qur’anic dialogue. This is to find to what extent these procedures are successful in conveying the intended message of the emphasis used in the Qur’anic dialogue. To achieve this aim, different types of dialogue between God and His creation from Arberry’s translation will be selected for analysis and compared by al-Hilali and Khan’s. The analysis will not only rely on the linguistic aspects, as have most of its predecessors, but will also focus on cultural aspects. Venuti’s “domestication” and “foreignisation” strategies will be adopted as a framework in the analysis. This is to provide a more appropriate translation of emphasis in Qur’anic dialogue for both religious and non-religious readers.