Difficulties Encountered by Translators when Translating Yemeni Proverbs into English

Abstract

The present research aims at investigating the difficulties that encountered by translators when they translated Yemeni proverbs into English with the special reference to the two books ''Social Issues in Yemeni Popular Culture (2002), and Words of Wisdom from Yemen (2013)'', and their English versions. Moreover, this research discusses the strategies that translators used in order to deal with these difficulties and determines what is the best strategy, that is more suitable for translating Yemeni proverbs into English, in particular, and Arabic proverbs in general. To achieve the objectives of the research, a sample consisting of a group of Yemeni proverbs is chosen randomly from the previous books. These proverbs are chosen, discussed and analyzed descriptively and qualitatively by using Baker's classification of difficulties that translators encountered when they translated proverbs, and strategies for translating idioms and proverbs. The present research reached to a number of findings. These findings are related to the research objectives. The research revealed that, translators such as "Watson (2002) and Alsharafi (2013)" encountered four difficulties when they translated Yemeni proverbs into English. They are: the absence of the proverb equivalence, the similar counterpart and the different meaning, the literal and the idiomatic meaning, and the different context of use. Through the translators' texts, the research showed that they used these strategies; using a proverb of similar meaning and form, using a proverb of similar meaning but dissimilar form, translation by paraphrase, and translation by omission. Based on the findings, the research concluded by some recommendations and suggestions that may help translators overcome the problems of translating Yemeni proverbs into English. Finally, some suggestions presented for further researches.