The Effect of Translation Genre on Consistency in English Renderings of Quranic Divine Name

Abstract

The present corpus-based research was an attempt to see the effect of translation genre on consistency in translation of Quranic Divine Names (DNs). To do so, three formally different English translations of the Holy Qur'an were selected. These translations were done by three professional translators namely, Shakir (1985), Qarai (2003), and Nikayin (2006) who provided their translations in prose, phrase-by-phrase, and poetry forms respectively. Based on Chesterman`s model of translation strategies (1997), the type and extent of strategies adopted by each translator for translating Quranic DNs in the Holy Qur'an were examined and discussed. Then, the consistency in performances of the translators in using equivalents for DNs in different contexts was investigated. Finally, the performances were compared and possible causes of their difference were explored. The findings of the study showed that the most frequent strategies adopted by Shakir and Qarai were ‘near-synonymy’ and ‘expansion’ respectively. Nikayin, however, used these two strategies almost to an equal extent as his most frequent strategies. And, regarding the consistency, Qarai ranked first, Shakir second, and Nikayin took the third position in providing consistent equivalents.