Metaphor in Hafez's Sonnets from the Perspective of Its Arabic Translations by al-Shvarabi and Shebli

Abstract

The viewpoint about metaphor has completely changed from the past to the present especially after the theory of metaphor by George Laykoff and Mark Johnson enters into the field of cognitive linguistics. Based on this approach, metaphors reflect the conceptual system of the human mind that is influenced by its culture and experiences in the form of language. In this regard, it should be noted that one of the problems of translating poetry and specially Hafez's poem is linguistic and cultural concepts. In this article, we examine the methods used by the two Arab translators, Ibrahim al-Shvarabi and Omar Shebli, in translating the metaphors of the Hafez Divan, and show the impact of the methods employed in the translation of metaphors on the representation of cultural identity. For this purpose, we highlighted Hafez ghazals’ metaphors (50 ghazals of Divan of Hafez based on Qazvini version) according to classic comments, then explaining the method of translating each metaphor using Newmark's theory. The results show that Arabic-language translators, in spite of attempting to provide faithful translations and not deleting the phrases of Hafez's sonnets, have not succeeded in translating metaphors that depend on the cultural concepts of this poet.