From the Word of Allah to the Words of Men
The Qur’an and the Poetics of Translation
Abstract
Although there have appeared many translations of the Qur’an in different languages of the world including English, the Qur’anic language is sui generis and does not lend to easy translation. The aim of this paper is to explore the distinctive features of various English translations of the Qur’an. The study begins with brief comments on the history of some popular English translations of the Qur’an, moves on to discuss the nature of language and some modern views and concepts of the word ‘translation’, turns on to analyze ten popular English translations of the Qur’an with respect to their use of lexical, syntactical and punctuational choices, while rendering four selected verses from Surah Yusuf, and finally closes with highlighting significant differences among the translators in terms of their underlying ideologies and translation approaches.
References
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