Metaphor in Translation: Cognitive Perspectives on Omar Khayyam’s Poetry as Rendered into English and Kurdish

Rahman VEISI HASAR; Ehsan PANAHBAR

doi:10.4312/ala.7.2.19-36

Authors

Rahman VEISI HASAR assistant professor of linguistics in university of Kurdistan, Iran
Ehsan PANAHBAR PhD candidate in translation studies, University of Isfahan, Iran

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4312/ala.7.2.19-36

Keywords:

metaphor, cultural model, translation, SMC, DMC, Persian, English, Kurdish

Abstract

As cognitive linguistics puts it, metaphor as a cognitive phenomenon can not be relegated to linguistic expression. Therefore, in order to analyze metaphor in translation, cognitive translation hypothesis investigates its translatability and metaphorical equivalence at the conceptual level. However, in such case, the conceptual metaphor is dealt with without considering its significant relationship to the cultural models. Based on Cienki’s theory (1999) postulating that the relation of the conceptual metaphor to the cultural model is similar to that of a profile to a base, and that the possibility of the interpretation and production of the conceptual metaphor depends on the cultural model, the present research reinvestigates the cognitive translation hypothesis from this perspective. The research findings reveal that translators have mostly been successful in translating metaphors dependent on shared cultural models, however, have failed to recreate metaphors dependent on non-shared cultural models. Accordingly, same mapping condition and different mapping condition are strongly dependent on the relationship between metaphors and cultural models. Thus SMC and DMC should be redefined in relation to cultural model.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Author Biographies

Rahman VEISI HASAR, assistant professor of linguistics in university of Kurdistan, Iran

assistant professor of linguistics in university of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran
Ehsan PANAHBAR, PhD candidate in translation studies, University of Isfahan, Iran

PhD candidate in translation studies

References

Al-Fakhuri, H., & Al-Jar, K. (1988). History of Islamic Philosophy (translated into persian by Abdolmohammas Ayati). Tehran: Sazman Entesharat Enghelab Eslami.

Alvarez, A. (1993). On Translating Metaphor. Meta: Translation Journal , 479-490.

Al-Zouibi, M., Al-Ali, M., & Al-Hasnawi, A. (2009). Cogno-CulturL Issues in Translating Metaphors. Perspective: Studies in Translatology , 230-239.

Cienki, A. (1999). Metaphor and Cultural models as Profile and Base. In R. W.Gibbs, & G. Steen, Metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics (pp. 189-205). Amesterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamin Publishing Company.

Croft, W., & Cruse, D. (2004). Cognitive Linguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Dagut, M. (1976). Can Metaphor Be Translated. Babel , 21-33.

Dehkhoda, A. (1971). Dehkhoda Encyclopedia-Dictionary. Tehran: Tehran University Press.

Evans, V., & Green, M. (2006). Cognitive Linguistics: An Introduction. Edinburg: Edinburg University Press.

Fitzgerald, E. (1942). The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam Rendered into English Quatrains. United States of America: Wlater J. Black, INC. Roslyn, N.Y.

George, L. (1987). Woman, Fire and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal about the Mind. Chicagi and London: University of Chicago press.

Gibbs, R. (1999). Taking Metaphor out of Our Heads and Putting it into the Cultural World. In R. Gibbs, & G. Steen, Metaphor in Cognitive Linguistics (pp. 145-167). Amesterdam/ Philadelphia: John Benjamin Publishing Company.

Khayyam, O. (2008). Khayyam's Quatrains (Edited by Forouqi and Ghani). Tehran: Nahid.

Kovecses, Z. (2005). Metaphor in Culture, Universality and Variation. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.

Kovecses, Z. (2010). Metaphor: A Practical Introduction. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.

Lakoff, G. (2006). Conceptual Metaphor, the Contemporary Theory of Metaphor. In D. Geeraert, Cognitive Linguistics: Basic Readings (pp. 185-238). Berlin and New York: Mouton.

Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980/2003). Metaphors We Live By. London: University of Chicago Press.

Lakoff, G., & Kovecses, Z. (1987). The Cognitive Model of Anger Inherent in American English. In N. Quinn, & D. Holland, Cultural Models in Language and Thought (pp. 195-221). Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press.

Lakoff, G., & Turner, M. (1989). More Than Cool Reason: A field Guide To poetic Metaphor. Chicgo and London: University of Chicago Press.

Larson, M. L. (1998). Meaning Based Translation: A Guide to Cross Language Equivalence. Lanham: University Press of America.

Mandelblit, N. (1995). The Cognitive View of Metaphor and Its Impliction for Translation Theory. Translationa and meaning , 482-495.

New Mark, P. (1995). A textbook of Translation. New York and London: Prentice Hall.

New Mark, P. (1988). Approaches to Translation. New York and London: Prentice Hall.

Quinn, N. (1987). Convergent Evidence for a Cultural Model of American Marriage. In N. Quinn, & D. Holland, Cultural Models in Language and Thought (pp. 173-194). Cambridge and New York: Cambridge Univrsity Press.

Shanghai, W. Y. (2009). On the Relationship between Metaphor and Cultural Models, With Dta from Chinese and English Lnguages. Metaphorik , 115-134.

Sharafkandi, A. (2002). Hanbaneh Bourineh, the Kurdish-Persian Dictionary. Tehran: Soroush.

Sharafkandi, A. (2011). Translation of Khayyam's Quatrains into Kurdish (Edited by Ashti). Tehran: Koule Poshti.

Tabakowska, E. (1993). Cognitive Linguistica and Poetics of Translation. Tubingen: Gunter Narr Verlag.

Tabakowska, E. (1997). Translating a Poem from a Cognitive Linguistic Perspective. Target , 25-40.

Van Den Broeck, R. (1981). The Limits of Translatability: Exemplified by Metaphor Translation. Poetics Today: Translation Theory and Intercultural Relations , 73-87.

Yu, N. (1998). The Contemporary Theory of Metaphor: A perspectivr from Chinese. Amesterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamin Publishing Company.