The academic paper titled "Morpho-Syntactic Complexity in the Translation of the Seven Suspended Odes" by Eyhab Abdulrazak Bader Eddin primarily focuses on the challenges faced in translating the morpho-syntactic elements of the Seven Suspended Odes (Al-Muallaqat) from Arabic into English, particularly in the context of A. J. Arberry’s translation. The paper aims to analyze specific morphological and syntactic features in Arabic that have posed significant difficulties for translators, especially due to the typological differences between Arabic and English.
The study explores these issues by investigating Arabic inflections, such as those indicating emphasis, duality, and gender, and how they are handled in translation. It also examines syntactic constructs like the Cognate Accusative Object and the Causative Object, which are unique to Arabic and often lack direct equivalents in English. Additionally, the paper addresses the translation challenges posed by pleonasm (redundancy) and paronomasia (wordplay) in the Arabic text.
Methodologically, the research involves a detailed comparative analysis of the original Arabic text and Arberry’s English translation. The study uses examples from the Odes, supported by evidence from the Quran, to illustrate the morpho-syntactic complexities and the strategies employed by Arberry to overcome these challenges.
The key findings of the study indicate that translating Arabic's morpho-syntactic features into English often requires significant adaptation, and in some cases, the original meaning or emphasis is altered. For instance, Arberry’s translation sometimes overlooks the duality and gender markers inherent in Arabic or fails to convey the same level of emphasis. Additionally, certain syntactic constructs in Arabic, such as the Cognate Accusative Object, often necessitate creative solutions like using similes or prepositional phrases in English.
In conclusion, the study underscores the inherent difficulties in translating classical Arabic poetry into English, given the profound differences between the two languages’ morphological and syntactic structures. The paper suggests that while Arberry’s translation attempts to maintain the essence of the original text, it sometimes falls short due to the limitations of English in replicating Arabic’s complex morpho-syntactic features. The implications of these findings are significant for future translation studies, particularly in the context of translating Arabic literary texts into languages with different linguistic frameworks.