Translation and Collaboration: The Case of a Mahmoud Darwish Poem

Abstract

This thesis explores the linguistic effects of collaboration between author and translators in the case of Dutch and English translations of an Arabic poem by Mahmoud Darwish’s from لمَاذا تركت الحِصان وحيدًا, Limādhā tarakta al-ḥiṣaan waḥīdan, ‘Why Have You Left the Horse Alone?’ (1995). The research question is: what is the effect of the cooperation between author and translators, or the lack of it, on the target text? Two English translations and a Dutch translation of Darwish’s poem are used for this purpose, with different forms of collaboration. The research is informed by a theoretical framework about translation problems and strategies, theories about poetry translation, translaboration and cultural issues in translation practices. The employed translation strategies are systematically detailed and explained in an analysis. The study concludes that translation in collaboration with the original author of a work can have a domesticating effect, while a lack of collaboration can have an exoticizing effect on a translation. Other factors that could influence the translations have not been taken into consideration in this study. Further research could address these limitations and help arrive at more definite correlations.