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Title Poetic Translations of English Poems in Iqbal’s Poetry: A Study in Transcreation

Author(s) HANEEF MUHAMMAD KHAN

Abstract Translating poetry is such a grueling task that some theorists claim it to be untranslatable. Translators debate whether during translation the semantic content of poetry should be focused or its emotional effect. To address this issue we have the concept of transcreation, rather than the traditional notion of translation. Transcreating a poem means recreating the main idea of a poem in a different language but at the same time retaining its poetics, tone, intent and emotional content. A transcreated text should evoke or is likely to evoke the same emotional response in the target audience that the original text did in its own audience. The purpose of this research was to find out what strategies a translator uses to transcreate a poem, and whether he/she successfully retains the sense and emotional content of the original. For this research, thus Iqbal’s eleven poetic translations from his book Bang-e-Dara were taken, and they were analysed and compared with their respective source texts. Lefevere’s and Holmes’ translation theories were used to find out what strategies Iqbal adopted to transcreate these English poems, and whether his transcreations were adequate to semantic and aesthetic requirements. The research found out that Iqbal mostly focused on the aesthetic effects and the central ideals of the originals. His primary focus turns out to be the main idea and thus he has conveniently excluded the content that does not contribute to that effect as such. Moreover, he adapted the main idea to his own purpose, and whenever needed he transformed it to such an extent that the target text appeared to be a completely different poem. Music and imagery, however, he always amplified through metaphors and similes, and in some cases his poetic translations look aesthetically even more pleasing than the originals. This suggests that if a translator is competent enough and alive to the poetic ring of his/her source text, a poem can be successfully and adequately transcreated.

Type Thesis/Dissertation MS

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Department English

Language English

Publication Date 2021-06-07

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