Adaptation

Dr. RACHID ED-DALI

This strategy is considered as the freest
form of translation, and it is not usually
differentiated from the following types
(free translation).
 Adaptation is used mainly for plays
(comedies) and poetry; the themes,
characters and plots are usually
preserved, the SL culture is converted to
the TL culture and the text is rewritten.
The following excerpt from Shaw’s
Pygmalion (1912) is translated into
Moroccan Arabic where names of
places are replaced by Moroccan
cities.
THE NOTE TAKER:
And how are all your people down at
Selsey?
THE BYSTANDER:
[Suspiciously] Who told you my
people come from Selsey?
‫اكش؟‬8‫كي دايرين داركوم في مر‬
‫باش عرفتي دارنا في مراكش؟‬
Selsey is translated as‫كش‬8‫ا‬8‫مر‬, . This
choice might be justified by the
translator’s attempt to adapt the play
to the Moroccan setting; thus
choosing a village in
Morocco as well as the use of the
Moroccan dialect in the translation.
TASK 1
Translate the following excerpt from
Act 1 of Shaw’s Arms and the Man,
adapting it to the culture of an Arab
country you are familiar with.
RAINA [laughing and sitting down again] Yes, I was only
a prosaic little coward. Oh, to think that it was all true
– that Sergius is just as splendid and noble as he looks
– that the world is really a glorious world for women who
can see its glory and men who can act its romance! What
happiness! What unspeakable fulfillment!
Ah! [She throws herself on her knees beside her mother and flings her
arms passionately round her. They are interrupted by the entry
of Louka, a handsome, proud girl in a pretty Bulgarian
peasant’s dress with double apron, so defiant that her servility
to Raina is almost insolent. She is afraid of Catherine, but
even with her goes as far as she dares. She is just now excited
like the others; but she has no sympathy for Raina’s raptures
and looks contemptuously at the ecstasies of the two before she
addresses them.]
TASK 2
Translate the following proverbs from
English adapting them to the Arabic
culture.
1. The proof of the pudding is in the eating.
............................................................................................................
....
2. Love me, love my dog.
............................................................................................................
....
3. A Jack of all trades is a master of none.
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....
4. Haste is waste.
............................................................................................................
....
5. Still waters run deep.
............................................................................................................
....
 ‫‪" .1‬تبقى العبرة في التنفيذ’‬
‫‪ .2 ‬اللي بغانا نبغيوه‬
‫‪ .3‬سبع صنايع و الر‪8‬زق ضايع‬
‫‪ .4‬في العجلة الندامة‬
‫‪ .5‬اللي تحسبه موسى يطلع فرعون‬