Translations of Fear and (Basic) Fears of Translation - "The Little Foxes that Spoil the Vine"

Document Type : Research in linguistic and literary studies

Abstract

 The article explores some of the major sources of fear, or anxiety, in translating, and
occasionally interpreting, between English and Arabic, based on input from a limited sample of
Arab university students, focusing on textual, linguistic and technical aspects, and makes some
informal notes on the effects of hatred and ignorance and how fear of translation translates in
practice. The fears this article addresses are fear of the unknown and the unfamiliar, including
fear of technical vocabulary and neologisms, fear of idioms and metaphors, fear of ambiguity,
fear of mistranslation and of written texts, fear of mechanics, and fear of rhythm and rhyme.
The article does not offer a panacea for any of these basic fears. It rather provides some options
and strategies to overcome each of them.

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