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ABSTRACT
The paper aims to shed light on reader-focused and text-focused coherence
shifts in Quran translation. The data consists of selective examples involving
potential problems related to such shifts, which are excerpted from five well-
known English translations of the Holy Quran. The results show that Quran
translators sometimes fall victim to such shifts. On the one hand, the wide
cultural distance between source text and target text may cause reader-focused
shifts when opting for literal translation in handling partial and complete
referential gaps. On the other hand, the translator’s inadequate language
competence in Arabic and the absence of consulting Quranic exegeses
sometimes trigger text-focused shifts, thus offering unintended readings. The
study concludes that coherence shifts constitutes a serious problem in Quran
translation, which calls for remedial work in future endeavors.
1. Introduction
Blum-Kulka (2004: 291) defines coherence as “a covert potential meaning
relationship among parts of a text, made overt by the reader or listener
through processes of interpretation”. She equates coherence with the text`s
interpretability, thus considering general changes or loss in meaning of the
Source Text (ST) through translation as affecting its coherence. More
interestingly, she divides coherence shifts into two categories; the first results
from the Target Text (TT) reader’s failure to make sense of the ST because of
different world views, which leads to reader-focused coherence shifts, while
the second involves text-focused shifts of coherence which result from
mistranslations.
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Sayyab Translation Journal (STJ), ISSN: 1757-5222
Being the Arabic Word of God verbatim, the Holy Quran constitutes the most
important source of authority for Muslims. Hence, Quran translation into
foreign tongues has always been a controversial issue among Arab/Muslim
scholars since Medieval times (for more details, see Mustafa 2001). However,
there is a consensus nowadays that existing Quran translations should be taken
as interpretations of the sacred text rather than exact translations. In
particular, this issue was resolved when religious bodies, such as Al-Azhar
(Egypt), gave permission for translating the Quran provided that Quran
translators explicitly state that their translations are not replacements of the ST
and that they are merely rephrasings based on the agreed upon meaning of the
original. Despite this, one can readily observe that most Quran translations are
source-oriented and hardly, if at all, take the needs of the target audience to
access the intended meanings into consideration (for more details, see Mustafa
2001; Farghal 2012).
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And be constant in prayer, and render the purifying dues;
for, whatever good deed you send ahead for your own
selves, you shall find it with God: behold, God sees all that
you do. (110) (Asad: 32)
Establish worship, and pay the poor-due; and whatever of
good you send before (you) for your souls, you will find it
with Allah. Lo! Allah is Seer of what you do. (110)
(Pickthall: 18)
Both translators employ the word due(s), i.e. something required, to denote
the obligatory sense of zakaat in the TT. This modification succeeds in
conveying the main aspect of the term; however, the translators differ in the
choice of the generic word chosen to render it. Asad derives his rendition
from the spiritual connotations of zakaat: he notes in his footnote that its
main function is to “purify a person's capital and income from the taint of
selfishness” (p. 18), thus basing his translation on the connotative meaning of
the term. By contrast, Pickthall derives his translation from the category of
people who are eligible to receive it, so he renders it as ‘the poor-due’. In this
way, both translators attempt to approximate the concept to TT readers by
defining it in their footnotes as an obligatory tax and provide sufficient
amount of technical information about it, in order to prevent a reader-
focused shift. For his part, Ali employs 'charity' as an equivalent for zakaat:
And be steadfast in prayer and regular in charity: And
whatever good ye send forth for your souls before you, ye
shall find it with God. For God sees Well all that ye do. (110)
(Ali, p. 48)
It should be noted that in the SL culture the concept of zakat is very specific
and is associated with obligatory giving, so the term 'charity', which is
associated in the TL culture with voluntary giving is too general. Moreover, in
the SL culture voluntary giving is associated with another term, that is
sadaqah, thus ‘charity’ becomes a more appropriate rendition for sadaqah but
not zakaat. In this way, Ali's translation seriously diverges from what is meant
by the Islamic concept of zakaat, and without a footnote, the relevant features
required for the full and coherent interpretation of the term are lost in his
translation.
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Mohammed Farghal & Noura Bloushi, STJ, 2012, Vol. (4), pp. 1-18
And perform the prayer, and pay the alms; whatever good
you shall forward to your souls' account, you shall find it
with God; assuredly God sees the things you do. (110)
(Arberry, Vol. 1, p. 42)
Keep up prayer and pay the welfare tax; you will find any
good you have sent on ahead for your own souls' sake is
already [stored up] with God. God is Observant of
whatever you do. (110) (Irving, p. 9)
Arberry employs 'alms' as an equivalent for zakat. Collins Cobuild Advanced
Learner's Dictionary defines 'alms' as “gift of money, clothes, or food to poor
people” (2003). This lexical item is too general and does not have the same
denotative meaning of the Islamic term. In addition, the nature of these alms,
defined above as being 'gifts', i.e. given with free will, diverges from the
obligatory nature of zakat.
Likewise, different implications might arise from Irving's
translation. He uses Modern American English in his translation of the Quran
and renders zakaat as 'welfare tax'. Target readers may derive different
implications from this rendition since it carries different associations from
those of zakaat in the Islamic context. Welfare tax pertains generally to the
amount of money paid by all people, rich and poor alike, to the government for
the advancement of society as a whole. Without a footnote or any other
means of explication, these readers are likely to interpret this term in a
different way from that intended in the source text. For example, without
specifying that zakaat is obligatory for the well-to-do and not the poor, the
readers might infer that it is obligatory for the rich and poor alike. This
inference does not serve the message of zakaat which aims at compassion and
social justice rather that burdening the poor. Both Arberry and Irving`s
translations may lead to reader-focused coherence shifts.
Let us now examine the translation of a complete referential
gap ‘uddah to see how it can lead to reader-focused coherence shifts. The
term ‘uddah is a Quranic euphemism referring to the legally prescribed
waiting period before a divorced woman can remarry; the legal period is
prescribed to rule out pregnancy. Consider the following verse along with
Asad`s translation:
،١( َِدة
َّ ِدتِهِنَّ وَأَحْصُوا۟ ٱلْع
َّ ٱلنسَٰٓاءَ َفطَلِّقُوهُنَّ لِع
ِّ ُيٰٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلنَّبِىُّ إِذَا طَلَّقْتُم
)الطالق
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O Prophet! When you intend to divorce women, divorce
them with a view to the waiting period appointed for
them, and reckon the period [carefully]. (1) (Asad, p. 994)
This translation is vague for two reasons. Firstly, neither renditions conveys the
full sense of ‘uddah, so both lack equivalence. Secondly, the translation lacks
consistency because Irving translates the two occurrences of uddah in this
verse differently. Therefore, it is very unlikely that TT readers will get the
intended message, the result being a reader-focused coherence shift.
Farghal and Al-Masri (2000) note that using 'period' as an equivalent for
‘uddah may lead target readers to confuse it with the menstrual cycle in
women because “when the text was given to a group of 20 American native
speakers, about 75% of them provided interpretations relating to the monthly
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Mohammed Farghal & Noura Bloushi, STJ, 2012, Vol. (4), pp. 1-18
period rather than the intended legal sense” (p.151). Without explicating the
meaning, this translation will certainly cause a reader-focused coherence shift.
ِح عَلَيْه
َ إنَّ ٱلصَّفَا وَٱلْمَ ْر َوةَ مِن شَعَآٰئِرِ ٱللَّهِ ۖ فَمَنْ حَجَّ ٱلْبَ ْيتَ َأوِ ٱعْتَمَرَ فَلَا جُنَا
) البقرة، ١٥١( أَن يَطَّوَّفَ ِبهِمَا ۚ وَمَن َتطَوَّعَ خَيْرًۭا فَإِنَّ ٱللَّ َه شَاكِرٌ عَلِي ٌم
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Al-Safa and Al-Marwah are two hills between which Muslims are required to
travel back and forth seven times during the annual pilgrimage and the Lesser
pilgrimage. Therefore, ( يَطَّوَّفَ بِهِمَاLiterally 'go round them') signifies running,
or pacing, between these two hills. This is rendered accurately by Asad and
Irving in the above translations because they opt out of literal meaning in
favor of intended meaning. By contrast, text-focused shifts occur in the
translations below:
يَٰٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ كُ ِتبَ عَلَيْكُمُ ٱلصِّيَامُ كَمَا كُ ِتبَ عَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ مِن قَبْلِكُمْ لَعَلَّكُ ْم
ِْدةًٌۭ مِّن
َّ ) أَيَّامًۭا مَّعْدُو َٰدتٍٍۢ فَمَن كَانَ مِنكُم مَّرِيضا َأوْ عَلَىٰ سَفَرٍٍۢ فَع١١١( َتَتَّقُون
ًٌۭأَيَّامٍ أُخَرَ وَعَلَى ٱلَّذِينَ ُيطِيقُونَهُۥ فِدْيَةًٌۭ طَعَامُ مِسْكِينٍٍۢ فَمَن َتطَوَّعَ خَيْرًۭا فَ ُهوَ خَيْر
) البقرة،١١١( ن َ خيْرٌۭ لَّكُمْ إِن كُنتُمْ تَعْلَمُو
َ ۟لَّهُۥ وَأَن َتصُومُوا
O ye who believe! Fasting is prescribed for you, even as it
was prescribed for those before you, that ye may achieve
piety; (183) (Fast) a certain number of days; and (for) him
who is sick among you, or on a journey, (the same) number
of other days; and for those who can afford it with hardship
there is a ransom: the feeding of a man in need - but who
does good of his own accord, it is better for him: and that
you fast is better for you if you did but know. (184)
(Pickthall, p. 27)
The above verses order Muslims to fast during the month of Ramadan and
permits those who are unable to fast or are ill to make up for the days they
have missed by either feeding the needy or fasting the same number of days
later. Although Muslims are given two options, the comparative structure is
employed in ُم ْ ' وَأَن تَصُومُوا۟ خَيْرًٌۭ لَّكand if you fast it is better for you' to
demonstrate that making up for the days missed in Ramadan by fasting on
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other days is better than the other option. This specific instruction is rendered
accurately in the above translation by Pickthall, whereas Asad's failure to
preserve the comparative relation that holds in the ST distorts the ST's
meaning in his translation below:
O you who have attained to faith! Fasting is ordained for
you as it was ordained for those before you, so that you
might remain conscious of God: (183)[fasting] during a
certain number of days. But whoever of you is ill, or on a
journey, [shall fast instead for the same] number of other
days; and [in such cases] it is incumbent upon those who
can afford it to make sacrifice by feeding a needy person.
And whoever does more good than he is bound to do does
good unto himself thereby; for to fast is to do good unto
yourselves - if you but knew it. (184) (Asad, p. 49)
English does not lack the tools to construct a comparative structure, but the
shift was caused due to the translator's failure to realize the role of the
comparative relation in delivering the proposition in the ST. As a result, Asad's
translation fails to deliver what the verse conveys.
Behold! Moses said to his family: "I perceive a fire; soon will
I bring you from there some information, or I will bring you
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Mohammed Farghal & Noura Bloushi, STJ, 2012, Vol. (4), pp. 1-18
ٍ ن كُلُّ فِ ْر
ق َ فََأوْحَيْنَا إِلَى مُوسَى أَنِ اضْرِب بِّعَصَاكَ الْبَحْرَ فَانفََلقَ فَكَا
ُ﴾ وَأَنجَيْنَا مُوسَى وَمَن مَّعَه٣١﴿ َ﴾ وَأَزْلَفْنَا ثَمَّ الْآخَرِين٣١﴿ َِالطوْدِ الْ َعظِيم
َّ ك
)﴾ (الشعراء٣٣﴿ َ﴾ ثُمَّ أَغْرَقْنَا الْآخَرِين٣٥﴿ َأَجْمَعِين
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Sayyab Translation Journal (STJ), ISSN: 1757-5222
َّ ) وَإ٧١( يَٰٰٓأَيُّهَا ٱلَّذِينَ ءَامَنُوا۟ خُذُوا۟ حِذْرَكُمْ فَٱنفِرُوا۟ ثُبَاتٍ َأوِ ٱنفِرُوا۟ جَمِيعًۭا
ِن
ْمِنكُمْ لَمَن لَّيُبَطِّئَنَّ فَإِنْ أَصَٰبَتْكُم مُّصِيبَةًٌۭ قَالَ قَدْ أَنْعَمَ ٱللَّهُ عَلَىَّ إِذْ لَمْ أَكُن مَّعَهُم
) النساء،٧٧( شهِيدٌۭا َ
You who believe, take your precautions and march off in
detachments, or march off all together. (71) Among you
there are some who procrastinate. If any disaster strikes you,
they say: “God has favored me, for I was not a witness along
with them”. (72) (Irving, p. 45)
The word شَهِيدًۭاin the above example is an exaggerated form derived from
شاهد, i.e. 'witness' or 'be present', but it shares a relation of homonymy with
the Arabic word for 'martyr' due to the transformation undergone during the
derivation process. It is rendered accurately by Irving and Pickthall, but Arberry
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Mohammed Farghal & Noura Bloushi, STJ, 2012, Vol. (4), pp. 1-18
mistakes it for شَهِيدًۭا, the Arabic word for 'martyr' (which has the same
phonological form). This results in a mismatch of the denotative meaning
between the ST and the TT.
وَإِذْ قُلْتُمْ يَٰمُوسَىٰ لَن نَّصْبِرَ عَلَىٰ طَعَامٍٍۢ وَٰحِدٍٍۢ فَٱدْعُ لَنَا رََّبكَ يُخْرِجْ لَنَا مِمَّا
َتُنٍۢ ِبتُ ٱلْأَرْضُ مِنٍۢ بَقْلِهَا وَقِثَّآٰئِهَا وَفُومِهَا وَعَ َدسِهَا وَبَصَلِهَا قَالَ أَ َتسْتَبْدِلُون
ْٱلَّذِى ُهوَ أَدْنَىٰ بِٱلَّذِى ُهوَ خَيْرٌ ۚ ٱهْ ِبطُوا۟ ِمصْرٌۭا فَإِنَّ لَكُم مَّا سَأَلْتُمْ ۗ وَضُرِبَت
َضبٍٍۢ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ ۗ ذَِٰلكَ بِأَنَّهُمْ كَانُوا۟ يَكْفُرُونَ َعَلَيْهِمُ ٱلذِّلَّةُ وَٱلْ َمسْكَنَةُ وَبَآٰءُو بِغ
َبِـَا َٰيتِ ٱللَّهِ وَيَقْتُلُونَ النَّبِيِّينَ بِغَيْرِ ٱلْحَقِّ ۗ ذَِٰلكَ بِمَا عَصَوا۟ وَّكَانُوا۟ يَ ْعتَدُون
)) (البقرة٣١(
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town, and ye shall find what ye want!" They were covered
with humiliation and misery; they drew on themselves the
wrath of God. This because they went on rejecting the Signs
of God and slaying His Apostles without just cause. This
because they rebelled and went on transgressing. (61)
(Ali, pp. 32-33)
And when you said, 'Moses, we will not endure one sort of
food; pray to thy Lord for us, that He may bring forth for us
of that the earth produces - green herbs, cucumbers, corn,
lentils, onions'. He said, 'Would you have in exchange what
is meaner for what is better? Get you down to Egypt; you
shall have there that you demanded'. And abasement and
poverty were pitched upon them, and they were laden with
the burden of God's anger; that, because they had
disbelieved the signs of God and slain the Prophets
unrightfully; that, because they disobeyed, and were
transgressors. (61) (Arberry, Vol. 1, p. 36)
The text narrates an incident involving the Children of Israel during their
journey after fleeing Egypt. In verse 57 we are told that God sent down unto
the Children of Israel food consisting of ' المن والسلوىmanna and quails' to
sustain themselves after they fled Egypt. Nevertheless, in the above text they
complain to Moses about having to eat the same food everyday and ask him to
pray for God to send unto them other kinds of food. They are reprimanded for
not showing gratitude and Moses refuses to ask for this kind of food through
prayer since it is considered lowly and is available in any city or town.
Therefore, as a punishment they were told to seek any city or town to find the
food they wanted. They were not told to head to Egypt misra (the place they
were fleeing from) to seek this food. Hence, the translators' misinterpreting
ِمصْرًۭاmisran as a reference to 'Egypt' changes the meaning of the ST in the TT.
Moreover, this shift could have been avoided if the translators were aware of
the morphological clues; the fact that مِصْرًۭاmisran 'a town/district' here is
inflected indicates that it is the singular of ' أمصارtowns/districts'. Hence, it
should be translated as 'any town or place'. Whereas, if reference were made
to 'Egypt', it would have been to the usually uninflected noun َ مصرmisra.
ِ َٰٱعْلَمُوٰٓا۟ أَنَّمَا ٱلْحَيَوٰةُ ٱلدُّنْيَا لَ ِعبًٌۭ وَلَ ْهوًٌۭ وَزِينَةًٌۭ وَتَفَاخُرٌٍۢ بَيْنَكُمْ وَتَكَاثُرًٌۭ فِى ٱلْأَ ْمو
ل
ُجبَ ٱلْكُفَّارَ نَبَاتُهُۥ ثُمَّ يَهِيجُ فَتَرَىٰهُ مُصْفَرًۭا ثُمَّ يَكُون َ ْوَٱلَْأوْلَٰدِ ۖ كَمَثَلِ غَ ْيثٍ أَع
ُضوَٰنًٌۭ ۚ وَمَا ٱلْحَيَوٰة ْ ِحطَٰمًۭا ۖ وَفِى ٱلْآخِ َرةِ عَذَابًٌۭ شَدِيدًٌۭ وَمَغْفِ َرةًٌۭ مِّنَ ٱللَّهِ وَر ُ
) ) (الحديد٧١( .ِٱلدُّنْيَآٰ إِلَّا مَتَٰعُ ٱلْغُرُور
Know that the life of the world is only play, and idle talk,
and pageantry, and boasting among you, and rivalry in
respect of wealth and children; as the likeness of
vegetation after rain, whereof the growth is pleasing to the
husbandman, but afterward it dries up and you see it
turning yellow, then it becomes straw. And in the Hereafter
there is grievous punishment, and (also) forgiveness from
Allah and His good pleasure, whereas the life of the world is
but matter of illusion. (20) (Pickthall, p. 545)
The above verse is the only instance in the Quran where the word َٱلْكُفَّار, the
plural of كافر, is used in its original sense ‘tiller of the soil’ (Ibn Katheer 2006,
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Sayyab Translation Journal (STJ), ISSN: 1757-5222
Vol. 3, p. 282; Asad, p. 954). Through semantic change this word has come to
be known primarily as reference to 'unbelievers', and in both senses the
connotation of covering or concealing something exists. In this way, the above
verse is employed َ ٱلْكُفَّارallegorically in its original sense to compare
'unbelievers' to 'tillers' or 'husbandmen', i.e. (those who cover or conceal
things). This imagery is preserved in Pickthall's translation, which renders the
relevant sense. However, Arberry and Irving's choices depart from the
intended ST meaning and results in a text-focused coherence shift.
4.Conclusion
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Mohammed Farghal & Noura Bloushi, STJ, 2012, Vol. (4), pp. 1-18
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List of Arabic Phonetic Symbols
18