A CRITICAL STUDY OF TRANSLATION OF IDIOMS FROM URDU INTO ENGLISH: POPULAR ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF MANTO’S TOBA TEK SINGH AS A CASE IN POINT

Abstract

Idioms are one of the major types of linguistic barriers a translator faces, especially when translating a literary text. They adopt various strategies to deal with the barrier. The current study, working within a general descriptive-comparative framework and drawing on Baker’s, Newmark’s, and Straksiene’s typologies of idiom translation strategies, compares four English translations of Saadat Hasan Manto’s famous Urdu short story Toba Tek Singh. The aim is to identify the strategies used by the translators to deal with the source text idioms. This is then followed by concentrating on each translator’s set of strategies to discover his or her general approach (in terms of its being source text or target text oriented) towards translating the source text idioms. The study finally discusses the effect of translating idioms literally, focusing on the question whether or not the technique harms the meaning of the idiom, and if it does, to what extent.