Mohammad Bandar

Translating Metaphorical Expressions from English into Kurdish Mohammad Bandar

Translation needs to be systematized so as to give authenticity to the translations (the product). However, translating metaphorical expressions is even harder and is prone to more difficulties due to the sensitivity of metaphorical expressions to languages. Peter Newmark, in his book Approaches to Translation (1988), presents some techniques for translating metaphorical expressions. So, the applicability of these techniques has been tested on English and Kurdish. Three Kurdish translations of the play Hamlet have been exemplified and the translation of their metaphorical expressions has been analyzed. In translating metaphors, the translator first needs to make up his/her mind whether it better suits the text to focus on the imagery or the sense of the metaphor. If the imagery is to be focused and transferred into the target language, the metaphor can be translated literally or a standard metaphor of the target language can be utilized instead of the original. On the other hand, if the sense of the metaphor is to be transferred into the target language, the sense of the metaphor can be added between brackets or at the footnote after literal translation of the metaphor.