Exploring the Translatability of the Figures of Speech: The Case of the English Translation of Qabbani’s Letter from Under the Sea

What the paper says

Poetry is a form of literature that depends on artistic images to express emotions, feelings, attitudes, etc. It is, however, assumed that poetry is a difficult genre to translate, since some of the poet's feelings, emotions, and visualizations are untranslatable despite the translator’s professionalism and experience. This study aims to shed light on the translatability of the figures of speech in Moore’s English translation of Qabbani’s Arabic poem, ‘Letter from Under the Sea'. The ST and its translation are compared, analyzed, and discussed to see how figures of speech are rendered. Moreover, twenty native speakers of English were surveyed to see how they perceive the aesthetic effect of the poem, taking into consideration that they had no idea that the poem was a translation from another language. Throughout the analysis, it is found that figures of speech are translatable, but the degree of the aesthetic effect is distorted, thereby affecting the poem’s artistic and poetic images. The findings indicate that, while meaning is preserved in translation, the aesthetic effect of figures of speech is often diminished, underscoring the need for creativity-oriented, culturally informed translation strategies. The study highlights the partial un/translatability of figurative language in Arabic–English poetry and emphasizes the importance of sensitivity to aesthetic and imagistic dimensions beyond semantic equivalence. It also contributes to translation studies by providing insights into readers’ aesthetic reception, with implications for translator training, literary translation practice, and future research.