The Challenges of Translating Figurative Expressions in Literary Texts from English into Kurdish

Abstract

This study aims at highlighting the multi-faceted challenges that are encountered by translators in the translation of figurative expressions in literary texts from English into Kurdish. While English-Kurdish literary translation continues to expand, the transposition of figurative expressions remains a primary linguistic and cultural challenge. Employing a qualitative methodological framework, this study applied semi-structures interviews with experienced and professional translators to analyze the challenges they face. The thematic analysis of the data elucidated several interrelated challenges, starting with an identification gap, where translators fail to recognize figurative expressions and end up translating them literally, which ruins the meaning. This made harder by cultural differences, as the lack of direct matches in Kurdish forces the translators to make big changes to how the text is written. Additionally, there is a constant struggle with aesthetic preservation, where translators find it difficult to keep the original style, rhythm and impact while making it sound natural in Kurdish.

Finally, these issues are made worse by a lack of resources, as there are no official English-Kurdish dictionaries for these expressions, leaving translators to rely on their own guesswork instead of professional guides. The findings suggest that linguistic proficiency is an insufficient prerequisite for managing the thickness of figurative expressions, and being fluent in two languages is not enough to handle a text full of figurative expressions. Since there is a resource gap in English-Kurdish translation, translators are forced to come up with their own personal solutions for figurative expressions. To fix this, the study suggests creating specialized dictionaries for figurative expressions and focusing on those translation procedures that help translation students in translating figurative expressions. Taking these steps are vital to making Kurdish translators more consistent and professional.