Arabic-English/English-Arabic Literary Translation and Its Cultural Complexities: Illustrated by Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz and The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway

Abstract This is a comparative study on literary translation which aims at describing differences and similarities between English and Arabic with reference to literary translation. It focuses on areas of difficulty in English-Arabic/ Arabic- English translation in relation to cultural complexities with regard to religious, social issues, and literary issues. Translation difficulties are often the reflection of the differences between the source and target cultures and linguistic systems. Hence, this research is a practical step towards identifying cultural difficulties in English-Arabic/ Arabic-English translation. It is also concerned with the translation problems relating to the production and reception of the source text by the target reader who have different religious, social and literary backgrounds. Working within these two languages, both the challenges and opportunities for the translator are unusually high, and are discussed in more detail. In order to illustrate the problems that inevitably arise for any translator working with the Arabic and Anglo-American worlds, the study investigates two novels: Midaq Alley by Naguib Mahfouz (1911-2006) and The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961), both writers being of the same generation and both Nobel Prize Winners for Literature. The results obtained from this study have shown that both translators were confronted with a vast range of problems when translating cultural expressions from English into Arabic and the other way round. The main cause behind the problems is the lack of knowledge concerning the cultural background of the source text. This clear from the cultural losses in translation , which here refer to the cultural information associated with the original that is absent in the respective translation. But such losses do not hinder a full understanding of the text , even in reference to style , one of the sources of difficulties discussed, despite the fact that each novelist represents a different style to convey his ideas. The results of the findings lead to useful recommendations for future Arabic-English and English-Arabic translators which, hopefully, may help to improve the final results of such ventures.