Babel 58 : 2 (2012), 181204.

Fdration des Traducteurs (fit) Revue Babel

doi 10.1075/babel.58.2.04sae issn 05219744 e-issn 15699668
Difculties of translating high-frequency idioms
Difculties Arab translation trainees
encounter when translating
high-frequency idioms
Aziz Tabit Saeed
University of Sharjah
1. Introduction
Translating idioms is one of the major difculties that translation trainees encoun-
ter during their training period and, perhaps, in the beginning stages of their career.
Tis difculty is ascribed to many reasons including the usual non-transparency
and cultural specifcity that idioms embody. More ofen than not, the compon-
ent words that make an idiom do not always reveal the overall meaning intended
by the idiom. For instance, in Keep your hair on, the meaning of the individual
words do not give the slightest idea of the meaning of the idiom. While the sur-
face meaning of the components of this idiom imply keeping ones hair neat, the
idiom means dont be mad or be calm. What makes the issue thornier for begin-
ning translators is the fact that most idioms are cultural specifc. For Baker (1992:
68), the association of an idiom with culture-specifc context is what makes it
untranslatable or difcult to translate. Chen (2009: 44) maintains, idioms are
usually culture-loaded expressions. Tus, for an Arab translator to make sense of
what keep your hair on means, he or she has to be familiar with the culture of the
SL. In Britain, people do not usually wear something on their heads as is the case
in most Arab countries where head covering is very common. Terefore, if one
gets mad, there is a possibility that ones hair may get mussed. For an immature
translator, grasping this cultural specifc implication or thinking along these lines
might not be easy.
1.1. Objectives
Tis paper, therefore, attempts to investigate the difculties that translation train-
ees encounter when translating idioms. More specifcally, the study seeks answers
to the following questions:
182 AzizTabit Saeed
1. What are the major difculties that translation trainees encounter when trans-
lating idioms?
2. How similar or diferent are the difculties encountered by graduate and un-
dergraduate translation trainees?
3. What strategies do translation trainees use when translating idioms?
4. Are there any diferences in the types of strategies used by graduate and under-
graduate translation trainees?
5. To what extent can context help translation trainees decipher the meaning of
idioms?
2. Review of literature
Many scholars have ofered diferent defnitions for the term idiom. However, the
common thread in all these defnitions is the fact that the meanings of the single
words that constitute the idiom do not necessarily reveal the meaning of the whole
string. Nida and Taber (2003: 45) state the meaning of the whole idiom is not sim-
ply the sum `of the meanings of the parts. Makkai, Boatner and Gates (1999: vi)
defne idioms as: the assigning of a new meaning to a group of words which al-
ready have their own meaning. Oxford Dictionary of Idioms defnes an idiom as:
A form of expression or a phrase peculiar to a language and approved by the usage of
that language [...] Tis includes a wide range of expressions that have become in a
sense fossilized within the language and are used in a fxed or semi-fxed way without
reference to the literal meaning of their component words (Speake 1999: v).
Bakers defnition of idioms is similar to those mentioned above. She contends that
idioms . . .carry meanings which cannot be deduced from their individual com-
ponents (Baker 1992: 63).
Since our focus in this study is on the difculties that translation trainees en-
counter when rendering idioms, a straightforward defnition of idioms such as
that ofered by Oxford Dictionary of idioms will sufce.
Te strategies that are usually employed in rendering idioms have received
attention in many studies including Baker (1992), Abu-Ssaydeh (2004), Aguado-
Gimenez and Perez-Paredes (2005), Bataineh and Bataineh (2002), among others.
Baker suggests four main strategies, including: using an idiom of similar meaning
and form [. . .], using an idiom of similar meaning but dissimilar form [. . .], trans-
lation by paraphrase. . . [and] translation by omission (Baker 1992: 727).
Abu-Ssaydeh (2004: 128) examined the strategies used by professional transla-
tors in rendering idioms. In terms of the type of strategy that a translator should
opt for, he states:
Difculties of translating high-frequency idioms 183
Once the multi-word unit is recognized as an idiom, the translator can opt for any of
several strategies that will vary, depending on the closeness of the two languages, the
interaction between them, the translators experience, the adequacy of dictionaries
and the nature of the idiom in question (Abu-Ssaydeh 2004: 117).
Te difculties that are involved in translating idioms have been the focus of
attention of some studies. Baker (1992) delineates some of these difculties in-
cluding:
[1]An idiom [...] may have no equivalent in the (TL). [2] An idiom or fxed expression
may have a similar counterpart in the target language, but its context of use may be dif-
ferent... [3] An idiom may be used in the source text in both its literal and idiomat-
ic senses at the same time. [4] Te contexts in which they [idioms] can be used, and
their frequency of use may be diferent in the source and the target languages (Baker
1992: 6870).
Reviewing the related literature on such a topic, the author came across a
study by Bataineh and Bataineh (2002) that investigated the difculties that Jor-
danian graduate learners of English face when translating English idioms into
Arabic. Te authors present a sound literature review, defning idioms and sum-
marizing relevant literature that touches upon the types of idioms and the strat-
egies of translating them. However, the methodology that the authors followed in
their study was not as rigorous, particularly the data collection part. Te authors
used 45 graduates from two Jordanian universities as subjects for their study. Te
informants were given a translation task that comprised 45 idioms of diferent
types (idioms with verbs, idioms with adverbs, idioms with noun phrases, phrasal
verbs etc.). However, the authors did not state how they got these idioms, nor did
they mention any information regarding their frequency in daily communication.
In other words, the authors provide no reasons justifying the choice of those for-
ty-fve idioms as opposed to any others. Tis casts serious doubts on the reliability
of the results and generalizations of their study since the main objective of their
study was to examine the extent to which graduate Jordanian students could trans-
late idioms and the translation strategies they would utilize in their translation at-
tempts. Te difculties that their subjects encountered might be attributed to the
exotic nature of the idioms rather than to the lack of translation skills or weak lan-
guage competence of the informants.
To prove this point, the author of the present study, took the forty-fve idioms
in their study out of their context and gave them to fve professors of translation,
asking them to judge the frequency of usage of each idiom. Te fve professors rat-
ed only 13 of the 45 as frequent while three of them rated as many as 21 idioms as
infrequent. If professors judge the frequency of most of these idioms as extremely
low, how can they be a valid set of data to investigate graduate students ability to
184 AzizTabit Saeed
translate them? Again, if the study aims at exploring the students skills in render-
ing idioms, how can such infrequent idioms be a valid measurement means? Te
authors cite Bakers views (1992) regarding idioms, noting that
Baker says that the learner of the language cannot match the competence of a native
speaker when it comes to idioms. She claims that idioms are difcult to translate be-
cause of the difculty of recognizing them and rendering all their aspects of meaning
(Bataineh and Bataineh 2002: 501).
Bakers stance is valid, and while Bataineh and Bataineh agree with her, they used
many idioms which were infrequent.
While our current study investigates the difculties that translation trainees
encounter when translating idioms, our focus difers from that of Bataineh and
Bataineh (2002) in the following respects.
First Bataineh and Bataineh examined the performance of graduate students,
but our study investigates the difculties that both graduate and undergraduate
trainees encounter when translating idioms. Investigating the performance of
both levels of trainees help identify the types of problems that translation train-
ees encounter in each training stage. In addition to comparing the difculties that
such translation trainees encounter, the study compares the strategies utilized by
both groups. Second, the study uses a set of data that was rigorously designed to
investigate the questions of the study. Te idioms utilized in the translation task
passed through four steps of frequency check tests (see methodology). Tird, the
study, in fact, flls in an important gap pertaining to the importance of conduct-
ing a study that compares the types of strategies both graduate and undergraduate
learners employ when translating idioms as well as the difculties they encounter
in the process. Indeed, Bataineh and Bataineh (2002: 79) recommended further re-
search in this feld when they state: . . . further research be done in closely related
matters such as 1. Comparing and contrasting the strategies used by students at dif-
ferent levels. . . (emphasis added). Tis is, in fact, what our current study aims at.
3. Methodology
3.1. Data collection
To come up with truly frequently used idioms, the author consulted several repu-
table and common dictionaries. One of the English dictionaries, A Guide to Idi-
oms, lists some of the most commonly used idioms in British and American Eng-
lish (Kay 2000: iii). Tus, this dictionary was resorted to for it contains the most
frequently used idioms in both major varieties of English. Using the N
th
sampling
Difculties of translating high-frequency idioms 185
method, the author decided to select the third idiom listed on the third page, sixth,
ninth, etc. in this dictionary. Te total idioms obtained were 71. Although A Guide
to Idioms presents, as it states, the most frequently used idioms, the author of this
study thought it was important to check the frequency in a large contextualized-
oriented corpus since dictionary compilers may, at times, rely on their intuition
when judging the frequency of idioms, as Liu (2003: 672) argues. Terefore the
next step in the data collection process involved checking the frequency of the 71
idioms in Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) which encompass-
es more than 400 million words. Tis corpus includes both American and British
English data.
Using COCA, the author checked the frequency of each of the 71 idioms ex-
tracted from A Guide to Idioms. Te author identifed the number of contextual-
ized occurrences each idiom has in this corpus. Te percentage of occurrence of
some idioms was high while the percentage of occurrence of some others was re-
markably low. Te author selected the idioms which were used 30 times or more in
the corpus. Tirty-fve idioms of the seventy-one received either 30 or more uses.
Te thirty-fve idioms were given to fve Arab professors of translation to as-
sess their frequency of occurrence in an Arabic-English context. Te colleagues
were asked to rate each idiom as most frequent, very frequent, frequent or infrequent
(see Appendix 1). In analyzing their responses, the author regarded any idiom that
was rated as infrequent by three or more of the fve professors as truly infrequent
and thus was eliminated from the survey. As many as 15 idioms of the thirty-fve
were rated infrequent by the translation teachers. Te other twenty idioms were
rated as follows: 5 most frequent, 8 very frequent, 7 frequent.
Te twenty idioms were put into contextualized sentences, extracted from
COCA and from A Guide to Idioms. Tis was done to ensure authenticity of use.
Ten these sentences were made into a translation test task (see Appendix II).
3.2. Subjects
Te subjects of the study are 30 undergraduate students and 15 graduates. Te grad-
uate students are MA students in the translation program in the Department of
English, University of Sharjah. Te undergraduate students were senior English
major students, majoring in English and Translation, University of Sharjah. Prior to
their admission to the BA Program, the students had met the language requirement
which was scoring a minimum of 500 on the TOFEL.When the study was conduct-
ed, they had fnished almost all the English content courses, including Principles
of Translation, Translation of Legal and Business Texts and Literary Translation. At
the time of the study, there were 41 senior BA students and 18 MA ones.
186 AzizTabit Saeed
Te students were given enough time to do the translation task and were per-
mitted to use whatever monolingual and/or bilingual dictionaries they had at their
disposal. Some of the bilingual dictionaries that the students had in the testing
room include Al-Deeb and Al-Masri (2002) and Baalbaki and Baalbaki (1997).
4. Results and discussion
In what follows, we will discuss the fndings of the analysis, highlighting the trans-
lation strategies utilized by the MA and BA translation trainees in the study fol-
lowed by a brief discussion of the major difculties they encountered in the trans-
lation process. Te discussion will also cite examples that show the trainees use
of the translation strategies. Te examples that show the trainees translation at-
tempts are presented in Arabic together with a back translation of these attempts
as well as a transliteration of the parts that stand for the idioms.
4.1. Strategies
Tables 1 and 2 summarize the fndings of the analysis, demonstrating the types of
strategies utilized by the trainees and the accuracy of their translation attempts.
Te fndings of the analysis reveal, as the two tables show, that the translation
trainees in the study used fve strategies in their attempt to translate the idiomatic
expressions in the translation task:
a. Translation by paraphrasing
b. Literal translation
c. Translation by using an equivalent TL idiom
d. Translation by omission
e. Translation by means of any two of the above strategies concurrently.
Except for the use of two concurrent strategies by MA trainees, both groups of
trainees used more or less the same strategies in their attempts to translate the
idiomatic expressions in the study. Te two groups of trainees, however, exhibited
signifcant diferences in terms of the frequency of the use of these strategies as
well as the degree of accuracy in the translation attempts.
Before highlighting the trainees use of these strategies, it is worth mention-
ing that some trainees ofered no translation to certain sentence prompts, i.e., no
translation is ofered to the whole sentence that contains the idiom. Tis, as Ta-
bles (1) and (2) show, accounted for 13% of the 600 rendition attempts provided
by the 30 trainees at the BA level and 7.5% of the 300 translation attempts made by
the 15 trainees at the MA level. Ofering no rendition, accurate or inaccurate, to
Difculties of translating high-frequency idioms 187
prompt sentences may be ascribed to many reasons including unfamiliarity with
the idiom, difculty of the contextualizing sentence, etc.
In what follows, the paper will discuss examples of the use of the major strat-
egies which were employed by the trainees followed by an account of the main dif-
fculties they encountered in their translation endeavors.
4.1.1. Paraphrasing
Te strategy of paraphrasing emerged as the primary strategy utilized by the trans-
lation trainees in their attempts to render the idioms in the translation task. Nearly
49% of the responses ofered by the trainees at the BA level showed the use of this
strategy with a percentage of accuracy as low as 38.4% of the 180 translation at-
tempts via this strategy. Te MA trainees made an even more extensive use of par-
aphrasing; almost two thirds of the idioms in the translation task were translated
via this strategy with 61.5% of the attempts being accurate, i.e., a percentage that is
clearly higher than that achieved by the BA trainees. Tis remarkably high use of
Table 1. Translation strategies used by the BA translation trainees and their translation
accuracy (N=30)
Strategy Paraphrasing
Literal
translation
Idiom
equivalent Omis sion Blank
Accuracy
A
c
c
u
r
a
t
e
I
n
a
c
c
u
r
a
t
e
A
c
c
u
r
a
t
e
I
n
a
c
c
u
r
a
t
e
A
c
c
u
r
a
t
e
I
n
a
c
c
u
r
a
t
e
Tokens 180 111 66 99 48 6 12 78
Percentage 30 18.5 11 16.5 8 1 2 13
Total % 48.5 27.5 9 2 13
Table 2. Translation strategies used by the MA translation trainees and their translation
accuracy (N=15)
Strategy Para phrasing
Literal
translation
Idiom
equivalent
Omis-
sion
Two
strategies Blank
Accuracy
A
c
c
u
r
a
t
e
I
n
a
c
c
u
r
a
t
e
A
c
c
u
r
a
t
e
I
n
a
c
c
u
r
a
t
e
A
c
c
u
r
a
t
e
I
n
a
c
c
u
r
a
t
e
A
c
c
u
r
a
t
e
I
n
a
c
c
u
r
a
t
e
Tokens 115 72 34 7 33 6 9 2 0 22
Percentage 38.3 24 11.3 2.3 11 2 3 0.7 0 7.3
Total % 62.3 13.6 13 3 0.7 0 7.3
188 AzizTabit Saeed
this strategy may be ascribed to the lack of exact equivalent in the TL. Te follow-
ing are some examples illustrating the trainees appropriate use of paraphrasing.
Idiom Arabic translation by
means of paraphrasing
Back translation
Its a dog-eat-dog world out
there, and youve got to fght
fre with fre.
. . .

innahu lamun yakulu
bauhu baa, wa lidh fa
l budda min muraati
l-quwa bi quwan shabhatin
bih
Lit: It is a world in which
people eat each other.
Terefore, powers must be
wrestled with similar powers
Well, I guess they just
smoke pot in the open out
here.


asanan, ataqidu
annahum yudakhkhinna
l-mirawn amma l-jam
Lit: Well, I think they smoke
marijuana in front of
everybody.
I just felt like I needed to go
against the grain to make
this project unique.


shaartu bi anna alaiya
kasra bai l-awjizi. . .
Lit: I felt that I must
break some barriers in
order to make the project
distinguished
Te back translations of these examples show that the trainees managed to ofer
acceptable paraphrases for these idioms. Te frst idiom fght fre with fre was rela-
tively easy for trainees; virtually 90% of the paraphrasing attempts ofered by both
groups of trainees as a rendition to this example were fairly accurate. Te situation
is a little diferent in the second and third idioms where many students, as we shall
see later (section 4.2), misunderstood the meaning of certain words in these idi-
oms and consequently came up with inappropriate interpretations.
Two MA trainees used the strategy of paraphrasing together with another
strategy, namely an equivalent idiom. As mentioned above, none of the BA train-
ees used two strategies concurrently. Te following is one example:
Difculties of translating high-frequency idioms 189
Idiom Arabic translation by
means of two strategies
Back translation
. . . she was in the thick of
her wedding preparation.

knat mashghlatan bi
t-tari li ursih
(
)
knat mashghlatan atta
akhmasi qadamaih bi
t-tari li ursih
Lit: She was busy in the
preparation of her wedding
Lit: She was busy to the soles
of her feet in the preparation
of her wedding
In this instance, the trainee ofered an appropriate rendition to the idiom by means
of a paraphrase and added, between parentheses, an equivalent idiom. Te Arabic
idiom to the soles of her feet conveys the meaning of the SL idiom ft-
tingly and creates a similar, if not identical, impact on the hearer, i.e. that the lady
is extremely busy preparing for her wedding.
4.1.2. Literal translation
Te fndings of the study reveal that the strategy of Literal Translation occupied
the second rank in terms of use by translation trainees at both levels. 30% of the
responses ofered by the trainees at the BA level showed use of this strategy with a
percentage of incorrectness as high as 56% of the total number of responses ren-
dered via this strategy. Many reasons could have led to such a high percentage of
incorrectness we will highlight some of them later in this paper.
Te use of this strategy by the MA trainees is quite revealing. Unlike the case
with the BA trainees, here as few as 42 of the 300 responses (14%) showed that stu-
dents opted for this strategy with a remarkably high percentage of accuracy. In-
deed only 5% of the responses that showed evidence of this strategy were inaccu-
rate. Tis, in fact, is expected for the higher the English level of trainees and the
more translation practice they have had, the more alert they should be in their
choice of translation strategies. Since the translation task at hand involves idioms,
then endeavoring to translate them literally may not be always appealing to trans-
lators. Yet, LT cannot be ruled out in rendering idioms, since many instances can
be translated via this strategy. Te following are examples that show a successful
use of this strategy in rendering some of the idioms in the study.
190 AzizTabit Saeed
Idiom Arabic translation by
means of literal translation
Back translation
Were he not a kinsman, I
would let him sink or swim


law lam yakun mina
l-aqribi lajaaltuhu
yaghraqu aw yasbau
Lit: If he were not a relative,
I would let him sink or swim
Just be factual and resist the
urge to jump to conclusion

kun wqiiyyan wa qwim
raghbata l-qafzi ila
n-natiji
Lit: Be realistic and resist the
desire to jump to results
Despite the fact that the idiomatic impact of the SL idioms is not as strong in these
literal-oriented translation attempts, the translations are not inaccurate.
4.1.3. Translation by using an equivalent TL idiom
Translating idioms via equivalent idioms ranked third in the hierarchy of the strat-
egies utilized by the trainees. Te fndings show that the trainees at the BA level
tend to shy away from using this strategy, which is expected, for opting for such
a strategy requires a solid translation background as well as high level of English
mastery. Tus, here translating idioms by means of equivalent TL idioms account-
ed for 9 % only with a reasonable percentage of accuracy. Opting for this strategy
was a little higher at the MA level; 13% of the responses demonstrated the use of
this strategy. Te following are some illustrative examples that show a successful
use of this strategy by both groups of translators.
Idiom Arabic translation by
means of an equivalent
idiom
Back translation
Its a dog-eat-dog world
out there, and youve got to
fght fre with fre.
. . .
wjihi l-adda bi l-addi
Lit:. . .Face fre with fre
I think they just smoke pot
in the open here.


asanan, ataqidu
annahum yudakhkhinna
l-mirwna ala mar wa
masma
Lit: I think they smoke
marijuana in front of
everybody
Difculties of translating high-frequency idioms 191
Although many attempts to translate idioms such as the second one via equiva-
lent idioms were not a success, as we shall see below, 6 out of the 30 translation
attempts of the frst instance (fght fre with fre) by the BA trainees were accurate
compared with 11 correct attempts out of the 15 made by the MA trainees.
Findings show that trainees translated a number of idioms via TL idioms that
are equivalent in both form and function. Te following is an example:
Idiom Arabic translation by
means of an equivalent
idiom
Back translation
His decisions were right on
target.

qarrtuhu knat f
-ammi

qarrtuhu knat f
maallih
Lit: His decisions were right
in the heart. .
Lit: His decisions were right
in place
In this example, the SL idiom on target, which comprises a preposition and a noun,
is translated by equivalent idioms such as or both of which consist
of a preposition and a noun.
In some cases, trainees translated the SL idioms by means of idioms from col-
loquial Arabic. Te following are examples:
Idiom Translation by means of
an equivalent idiom from
colloquial Arabic
Back translation
. . . he doesnt beat about the
bush.

(illi bi qalbu ala lisnu)

(la yuibbu l-lafa wa
d-dawarn)
Lit: Whatever is in his heart
is on his tongue
Lit: He doesnt like turning
and circling
She was in the thick of her
wedding preparation


Knat munshaghilatun bi
tajhzti ziffh
(laisa ladaih waqt litaukk
rsah)
Lit: She was busy. . . she
doesnt have time even to
scratch her head.
192 AzizTabit Saeed
Tese renditions are quite acceptable, for they convey the meaning intended in
the SL idioms appropriately. Some of these Arabic colloquial idioms are heard in
Egypt, Jordan, Yemen and in all the Arab Gulf countries.
Some trainees realized the main aim of the translation task, i.e., exploring
trainees abilities to translate idioms and thus ofered renditions only to the idi-
oms rather than to the whole sentences that contained these idioms. Tese out of
context translation attempts led, in some cases, to renditions that are somewhat
acceptable, but certainly not the ideal translation. Consider the following:
Idiom Arabic Translation by
means of an equivalent
idiom
Back translation
Its a dog-eat-dog world
out there, and youve got to
fght fre with fre.

dwih bi l-lat knat hiya
d-du

kun dhiban aw kalatka dh-
dhibu
Lit: treat her using that
which caused the disease
Lit Be a wolf or wolves will
eat you
Tese translations, though close to the meaning intended in the SL idiom, may not
be the most appropriate renditions of the idiom fght fre with fre in this particu-
lar context. Perhaps the trainees who opted for the second rendition
be a wolf or wolves will eat you were inspired by the frst part of the sentence
that contains this idiom, i.e. a dog-eat dog world.
Related to this is the efort some trainees exerted, particularly the MA ones,
to translate the idioms in the translation task via equivalent TL idioms. Naturally
such a decision was not always a success. In some cases, trainees came up with idi-
oms that were suitable in isolation but not as an appropriate rendition of a whole
sentence. Consider:
We never go out for a meal, and its only once in a blue moon that we go to the
cinema.

l nakhruju litanwili -ama f maamin, (wa f s-sanati asanatun) nadh-
habu ila s-sainam
(Lit.: We dont go out to restaurants for meals and we go to the cinema maybe
once in a good year).
Tis translation is fairly appropriate, yet one feels that the TL idiom is forced into
the sentence. Tat is, although the translation is fairly acceptable, a paraphrase
sounds more natural and more straightforward. Consider:
Difculties of translating high-frequency idioms 193

l nartdu l-maima badan wa qallam nadhhabu ila s-sainam
(Lit.: we never go out for a meal and rarely do we go to the cinema).
4.1.3. Translation by omission and compensation
In a number of cases, the trainees employed the strategy of omission in their at-
tempts to translate some idioms in the translation task. 2% of the BA trainees at-
tempts showed use of this strategy, probably due to unfamiliarity with the idioms.
Tis percentage is higher in the case of the MA trainees. However, unlike the BA
trainees, this group sometimes managed to make a purposeful use of this strategy.
Te following is an example of this:
Whatever happens, the bottom line is that the next president will never be able
to be as strong.
Tis idiom was rendered by means of a number of idioms from Arabic including
the following:
(the crux of the matter is), (the summary of the issue),
(the essential point) (at the end of the day) (
(the fnal outcome), (it is certain that), etc.
One can observe that most of these translations convey one vivid implication,
namely that of emphasis. Tat is, the translation attempts imply that the bottom
line functions as an emphasizing element in this particular sentence. Perceived as
such, some trainees did not translate this idiom overtly, but used instead a com-
pensatory lexical item in its place: a particle which functions in Arabic as an ele-
ment of emphasis, namely fainna. In other words, the trainees used two strategies:
omission and compensation. Te following is one example of such renditions:
.
mahm adatha fainna r-rasa l-qdima lan yastaa an yakna qawyan
Back translation: Whatever happens, it is certain that the next president will
never be able to be as strong as the previous one.
Tus, (fainna) is used here in place of the idiom, resulting in a fairly accepta-
ble rendition. Such a fne translation is a sign that shows the ability of some of the
trainees to make lucid translation decisions.
4.2. Difculties encountered by the trainees
One of the recurring difculties the fndings reveal is misunderstanding the mean-
ing of a lexical item in the idiom or in the sentence that contains the idiom, which
results in inaccurate renditions. Consider the following example:
194 AzizTabit Saeed
I think they just smoke pot in the open out here.
Tis idiom is rendered as follows:

ataqidu annahum yudakhkhinna f tilka l-maniqati l-mafati
Back translation: I think they smoke in that open area.
Tis inaccurate rendition is a result of misunderstanding an important word in the
sentence, namely pot. Apparently, the translation trainees who proposed this ren-
dition thought that the word pot refers to the device that is sometimes used when
smoking such as shisahs (water pipes) or hookahs. In fact, one of the MA trainees
translated the sentence as:

yudakhkhinna l-arjlata f tilka l-maniqati l-mafati
Back translation: Tey smoke water pipe in that open area.
However, the word pot in the English culture is usually associated with drugs,
something that cannot be deciphered easily by a translator unless s/he has had a
sound exposure to the culture of the SL. Tus, misunderstanding the meaning of
a word either in the idiom or in the sentence that contains it can lead to a wrong
interpretation. An appropriate rendition for this idiom is:
(lit: they smoke marijuana in the open)
yudakhkhinna l-mirawn ala mar wa masma
Another frequent difculty that both groups of translation trainees encountered is
their inability to preserve the idiomatic efect found in the SL idiom. Tis usually
occurred when resorting to the strategy of LT, which is the primary cause for such
a difculty. Te straightforward nature of the constituents of some idioms tempts
the trainees to opt for this strategy, as in the following example:
. . . (lit: you have to fght fre with fre)
alaika an tuqtila n-nra bi n-nri
In terms of meaning, this word-for-word translation is correct. However, the re-
sultant rendition is rather clumsy due to the fact that the SL idomaticiy impact is
barely felt in this rendition. Te translation could be slightly more acceptable if
the word to fght is replaced with to confront. Such a rendition lends a
slight sense of idiomaticity to the translation and in such a case, the ensuing ren-
dition will be an idiom rather than a literal one. Consider:
. . . (Lit: you have to confront fre with fre)
alaika an tuwjiha n-nra bi n-nri
Difculties of translating high-frequency idioms 195
Te following is another example that further shows how the idiomatic sense could
be jeopardized as a result of an inappropriate use of the strategy of LT.
Were he not a kinsman, I would let him sink or swim.

law lam yakun mina l-aqribi lajaaltuhu yaghraqu aw yasbahu
(Lit: if he were not a kinsman, I would let him sink or swim.)
Nearly 80% of the MA and BA trainees used the expression sink or
swim as a rendition to this idiom. However, this translation does not truly convey
the subtle impact the idiom has in the SL. Te translation sounds artifcial in Arab-
ic. In English, the expression sink or swim is an established idiom, but its literal
translation in Arabic does not convey any sense of idiomticity. Read-
ers can comprehend the meaning, but the idiomatic impact that is found in the SL
idiom is almost lost. A plausible rendition can be something similar to the follow-
ing, which were ofered by a number of MA trainees:

law lam yakun mina l-aqribi la taraktuhu yuwjihu marahu
(Lit: were he not a kinsman, I would let him face his destiny.)

law lam yakun mina l-aqribi la taraktuhu yatadabbaru amrahu
(Lit: were he not a kinsman, I would let him manage his own issue.)
Tese two renditions, the frst of which is an established idiom in Arabic, convey,
more or less, the same impact found in the SL idiom.
In some cases, the trainees proposed renditions to idiomatic expressions with-
out paying attention to the context that surrounds these idioms which resulted in
erroneous renditions. Consider the following example:
Whatever happens, the bottom line is that the next president will never be able
to be as strong.
Some trainees translated the bottom line as (lit. the crux of the matter
is) or (at the end of the day). However, the context that surrounds the
idiom renders these two translations inappropriate. Consider:

mahm adatha fabaitu l-qadi anna rrsa l-qdima lan yastaa an yakna
biquwwati r-ra si s-sbiqi
196 AzizTabit Saeed
Back translation: Whatever happens, the crux of the matter is that the next pres-
ident will never be able to be as strong as the previous one.
As readers, we feel that the idiom crux of the matter is forced into the sen-
tence. Te following rendition, discussed above, conveys the meaning clearly and
precisely.

mahm adatha fainna rr sa l-qdima lan yastaa an yakna biquwwati
r-ra si s-sbiqi
Back translation: Whatever happens, it is certain that the next president will
never be able to be as strong as the previous one.
A fourth difculty that exhibited itself in the trainees translations is their inability
to get away from the infuence of their L1 culture. Consider the following interest-
ing translations:
Idiom Arabic Translation Back translation
Tey just smoke pot in the
open here.

yujhirna bi lmiati

a taqidu annahum nsun
la qmata lahum
Lit: they commit sins in
public
Lit: I think they are people of
no morals
As the back translations show, these renditions imply that the trainees did com-
prehend the crux of the idiom, yet instead of ofering a translation to the central
meaning of the idiom, they ofered a rendition of their value judgment of the be-
havior of the people who smoke pot in public. Such intriguing translations refect
the strong infuence of the trainees mother language culture Arabic culture
which considers smoking marijuana or hashish a sin. Of course, such renditions
cannot be considered acceptable, for they, among other things, violate the max-
ims of the cooperative principle, particularly those of relation and manner (see
Grice 1975 for discussion of the Cooperative Principle).
A ffh difculty was caused by the superfcial resemblance between certain
SL idioms and TL ones. In their attempt to translate idioms by means of equiva-
lent idioms from the SL, the trainees were sometimes deceived by some seemingly
analogous idioms in English and Arabic. Te following idiom is a case in point:
I just felt like I needed to go against the grain to make this project unique.
Trainees rendition of the idiom: (lit. swim against the current)
yasbau asksa t-tayr
Difculties of translating high-frequency idioms 197
As many as nine MA and 14 BA trainees proposed swim against
the current, as an equivalent idiom for go against the grain. However, this resem-
blance is rather phony. It is true that the two idioms are similar in some respects;
nevertheless each one has a distinct meaning. What makes matters worse here is
the fact that some translation tools suggest such inaccurate translations. For in-
stance, Dictionary.com translates go against the grain as (lit. go against
the current), a translation that is not absolutely accurate. According to Longman
Dictionary of English Language and Culture, going against the grain means to do
something that one does not like doing (Summers 1993: 570). On the other hand,
the Arabic idiom (lit: swim against the current) means that one does
something or behaves in a manner that is not usually common or ordinary in the
environment in which one lives. Terefore, these two idioms should not be per-
ceived as equivalent. A possible rendition of this idiom could be something such
as the following:
Idiom Arabic Translation Back translation
I just felt like I needed to go
against the grain to make
this project unique.

shaartu bianna alaya an
khlifa s-sida liajala
l-mashra fardan min
nawihi
Lit: I felt that I have to go
against the norms to make
the project one of its kind.
A sixth major difculty that the fndings reveal is the trainees inability to rec-
ognize the presence of an idiom in the prompt sentence. Tis failure led to inaccu-
rate paraphrases of the idiom. Te following is an example:
It was touch and go whether she would live or not.

knat lamsatun faqa litaddi mariha
Back translation: It was just a touch that determined here destiny
Such an inadequate rendition implies that the trainee who proposed it did not rec-
ognize the string touch and go as an idiom. Tis usually occurred with the idioms
that were ranked as frequent by the fve Translation professors consulted in the
study (see appendix 1). A possible translation for this idiom is:
198 AzizTabit Saeed
Idiom Arabic Translation Back translation
It was touch and go whether
she would live or not.


laqad knat aytuh aw
mawtuh masalatan f ilmi
l-ghaib
Lit: Here life or death was a
matter of uncertainty
Te idioms that tend to be rather abstract, particularly the multi-word type
such as get away with and keyed up constituted a concrete difculty for both
groups of trainees. Consider the following example:
As I walked back home, I knew I was too keyed up to sleep.
Trainees translation:

bainam an amsh idan il l-manzili adraktu anni saanmu f l-l
Back translation: while I was walking home, I realized that I would sleep imme-
diately.
Despite the fact that the idiom is put in a fairly revealing context, most of the train-
ees mistranslated it, as the sample translation above demonstrates. Tis rendition
was ofered by many MA trainees and almost 90% of the BA ones. Translating the
idiom keyed up in too keyed up to . . . as so tired that, or wanting to sleep, indi-
cates that these trainees are rather incompetent in English grammar. Te particles:
too +adj + to should have helped them realize the meaning even crudely. Te fact
that trainees were unable to guess the meaning despite this contextualizing gram-
matical clue implies an apparent weakness in English. Te following is a possible
translation of this idiom:
Idiom Arabic Translation Back translation
As I walked back home, I
knew I was too keyed up to
sleep.


bainam kuntu f arq
il l-baiti arafu anni
mutwattirun ila addin la
yasmau li bi n-nawmi
(Lit: While I was on my
way home, I realized that I
was so anxious that I would
not be able to sleep
Related to this are the vivid examples that refect the BA trainees incompe-
tence in English.
Difculties of translating high-frequency idioms 199
Idiom Arabic Translation Back translation
We never go out for a meal,
and its only once in a blue
moon that we go to the
cinema.
Whatever happens, the
bottom line is that the next
president will never be able
to be as strong.

marratan f l-qamari
l-azraqi

nakhruju marratan f sh-
shahri

yakhrujna marratan f
muntaaf sh-shahri


mahm adatha fainna
l-khaa l-asfala yan anna
r-ra sa l-muqbila. . .
(Lit: . . .once in the blue
moon
(Lit: . . .we get out once a
month
(Lit: . . .they get out once
every half a month
(Lit: Whatever happens, the
below line means that the
next president. . .
Tese erroneous renditions are striking. None of the MA trainees ofered such
translations. However, seven (7) of the thirty BA trainees proposed such inaccu-
rate translations. Tey indicate that these trainees language background is not up
to the mark, which defnitely interferes in their translation training and will po-
tentially afect their career.
5. Conclusions and implications
Te fndings of this study revealed that the trainees used most of the strategies sug-
gested by Baker as well as a novel strategy that involves the concurrent use of two
strategies.
Te strategies used by both groups are almost the same yet the frequency of
use difers with the MA trainees making use of the strategies of paraphrasing and
equivalent idioms more than their BA counterparts, with a relatively higher lev-
el of accuracy. Despite the fact that many translation attempts showed that both
groups of trainees resorted to the strategy of omission, the MA group made a fairly
skilful use of the strategies of omission and compensation. Te BA trainees resort-
ed to the LT strategy more than their MA counterparts, which is expected, since
the latter is supposed to have received a greater amount of translation practice that
should enable them to be more alert in their choice of translation strategies.
Te fndings of the study revealed many major difculties that the trainees en-
counter when translating idioms. Tese difculties range from unfamiliarity with
certain frequent idioms, unfamiliarity with a word in seemingly obvious idioms,
200 AzizTabit Saeed
to inability to preserve the idiomaticity sense in their translation, low competence
in the English language and interference of L1 culture. Although the context tai-
lored for certain idioms was supposed to help the trainees infer the meaning of
these idioms, this help was not used well.
Te difculties that the study revealed are alarming defciencies. Tey necessi-
tate that measures be implemented in order to lessen the intensity of the problem.
In this respect we suggest the following:
1. Te noticeably heavy reliance on the strategy of LT when translating idioms im-
plies that the amount of exposure trainees receive in the subject of idiom trans-
lation is insufcient. Tis means that idiom translation should be a component
in most, if not all, the translation courses that translation programs ofer.
2. Translation trainees should be encouraged to use the existing translation tools
skillfully and efectively. Tey should be cautioned against the temptation to
take whatever these tools suggest for granted, but rather attempt to assess the
validity of such proposals.
3. Inappropriate renditions that result from the interference of trainees L1 cul-
ture imply that the trainees did not receive sufcient grounding in the subject
of culture and translation. Terefore, translation programs should ofer at least
one course that introduces trainees to the importance of culture in translation.
4. Poor translations that result from incompetence in L2 point to the need to ofer
more language courses so as to strengthen trainees language skills.
5. Translation trainees should be exposed to a great amount of translation prac-
tice that involves idioms, since practice makes perfect.
References
Abu-Ssaydeh, Abdul-Fattah. 2004. Translation of English Idioms into Arabic. Babel 50.2:114-
13.
Al-Deeb, Ghassan and Al-Masri, Adil, eds. 2002. Atlas encyclopedic dictionary: English Arabic
(1st edition.) Cairo: Atlas Publishing House. xv + 1573 pp.
Aguado-Gimenez, P. and Perez-Paredes, Pascual-Francisco. 2005. Translation-Strategies Use:
Aclassroom-Based Examination of Bakers Taxonomy. Meta. L 1:294-311.
Baalbaki, Munir and Baalbaki, Rohi. 1997. Al-Mawrid dictionary: English-Arabic/Arabic-English
(11th edition). Beirut: Dar El-Ilm Lilmalayin. 1255 pp.
Baker, Mona.1992. In Other Words. A Coursebook on Translation: London and New York: Rut-
ledge. xii + 304 pp.
Bataineh, Ruba and Bataineh, Rula. 2002. Te Difculties Jordanian Graduate Learners of Eng-
lish as a Second Language Face when Translating English Idioms into Arabic. RASK: Inter-
national Tidsskrif for Sprog Communication 16:33-83.
Chen, Linli. 2009. On Translatability of English Idioms. Asian Social Science. 5.2:43-44.
Corpus of Contemporary American English (COCA) (updated last: March 2010) Visited in
March 2010, < http://www.americancorpus.org/>.
Difculties of translating high-frequency idioms 201
Grice, H.P. 1975. Logic and conversation. In Syntax and Semantics, edited by P. Cole and
J.Morgan, Vol 3, 41-58. New York: Academic Press.
Kay, Cullen et al., eds. 2000. A Guide to Idioms. Boston: Chambers Harrrap Publishers. vi + 218
pp.
Liu, Dilin. 2003. Te Most Frequently Used Spoken American English Idioms: A Corpus An-
alysis and Its Implications. TESOL Quarterly 37.4:671-700.
Makkai, A., Boatner, M. and Gates, J. 1999. Dictionary of American Idioms. Hauppauge: Barrons
Eductaional Series. vii + 455 pp.
Nida, Eugene and Taber, Charles. 2003. Te Teory and Practice of Translation. 4th edition. Lei-
den-Boston: Brill. viii + 218 pp.
Speake, Jennifer. 1999. Oxford Dictionary of Idioms. Oxford: Oxford University Press. vi + 395
pp.
Summers, Della. 1993. Longman Dictionary of English Language and Culture. Harlow: Longman.
F31 + 1528 pp. + B27.
Appendix 1.
Based on your knowledge as an Arab Professor of Translation, please rate the following idioms
in terms of their frequency of occurrence in an ArabicEnglish context.
a. Most frequent c. Frequent
b. Very Frequent d. Not frequent
N
o
t

f
r
e
q
u
e
n
t
F
r
e
q
u
e
n
t
V

f
r
e
q
u
e
n
t
M
o
s
t

f
r
e
q
u
e
n
t
Idiom
D C B A beat about the bush
D C B A in character
D C B A come to a close
D C B A jumping to conclusions
D C B A till the cows come home
D C B A same diference
D C B A eyes on the back of so-and-sos head
D C B A fght fre with fre
D C B A go against the grain
D C B A at frst hand
D C B A afer somebodys own heart
D C B A play hooky
D C B A keyed up
D C B A bring something to light
D C B A the bottom line
202 AzizTabit Saeed
N
o
t

f
r
e
q
u
e
n
t
F
r
e
q
u
e
n
t
V

f
r
e
q
u
e
n
t
M
o
s
t

f
r
e
q
u
e
n
t
Idiom
D C B A get lost
D C B A come to mind
D C B A once in a blue moon
D C B A get away with murder
D C B A in the open
D C B A Keep a low profle
D C B A at close quarters
D C B A on the quiet
D C B A in the red
D C B A enough said
D C B A sink or swim
D C B A go up in smoke
D C B A all systems go
D C B A on target
D C B A in the thick of something
D C B A touch and go
D C B A quick and on the uptake
D C B A on the wane
D C B A cant have it both ways
D C B A on the streets
Appendix 2.
Translate the following sentences into Arabic, please. You can use your dictionary.
1. Te happy day came to a close, and everybody went to bed.
2. Hes very candid. He doesnt like to beat around the bush. He says whats on his mind.
3. Just be factual and resist the urge to jump to conclusions.
4. Its a dog-eat-dog world out there, and youve got to fght fre with fre.
5. I just felt like I needed to go against the grain to make this project unique.
6. You cant have it both ways, either a rising housing market helps landlords or a falling mar-
ket helps them.
7. As I walked back home, I knew I was too keyed up to sleep.
8. Te manager collected all the information at frst hand from the employees themselves.
9. If you have some facts that we need to see, bring them to light.
10. Whatever happens, the bottom line is that the next president will never be able to be as
strong.
Difculties of translating high-frequency idioms 203
11. I was there to cover it, but you cant help but get lost in the whole party.
12. So whys he avoiding the pre-game show? A few reasons come to mind.
13. Well, I guess they just smoke pot in the open out here.
14. I try to keep a low profle.We avoid any contact with the UN.
15. Were he not a kinsman, I would let him sink or swim!
16. His decisions were right on target I can t imagine how he could have done it any better.
17. It was touch and go whether shed live or not.
18. We never go out for a meal, and its only once in a blue moon that we go to the cinema.
19. She didnt have time to talk because she was in the thick of her wedding preparation.
20. Tey managed to get away with the murder.
Abstract
Tis study attempts to investigate the difculties that translation trainees encounter when ren-
dering idioms into Arabic. It also explores the strategies that the trainees utilize in their trans-
lation attempts. To carry out the investigation, the author designed a translation task that com-
prises 20 frequently used idioms, the selection process of which passed through four rigorous
steps of frequency check tests.
Te translation task was distributed to a randomly selected group of translation trainees, 30
undergraduates and 15 graduates, from the Department of English, University of Sharjah.
Findings of the study show that both groups of trainees used more or less the same transla-
tion strategies but with a frequency that difered from one group to the other. Te study also
shows that the translation trainees encounter tangible difculties in their attempt to translate
idioms.
Tese difculties range from the selection of inappropriate strategies, inability to recognize
the presence of an idiom, inability to preserve the idiomatic efect of the SL idiom, interference
of trainees L1 culture to difculties that result from shallow competence in L2. Despite the dif-
ferent levels of training, the fndings of the study did not reveal a signifcant diference between
the two groups in terms of the difculties they encountered.
Keywords: Idioms, translation problems, translation strategies, translation trainees, Arabic
Rsum
Cette tude tente dexaminer les difcults que rencontrent des stagiaires en traduction quand ils
traduisent des expressions idiomatiques en arabe. Elle examine galement les stratgies que les
stagiaires utilisent dans leurs tentatives de traduction. Pour procder ltude, lauteur a conu
une tche de traduction comportant 20 expressions idiomatiques frquemment utilises en uti-
lisant un processus de slection en quatre tapes rigoureuses afn de vrifer leur frquence.
Le travail de traduction a t distribu un groupe de stagiaires en traduction slectionns
de manire alatoire, 30 tudiants en licence (maintenant bachelors ) et 15 diplms du d-
partement danglais de luniversit de Sharjah.
Les rsultats de ltude montrent que les deux groupes de stagiaires ont utilis plus ou moins
204 AzizTabit Saeed
les mmes stratgies de traduction, mais une frquence difrente dun groupe lautre. L tude
montre galement que les stagiaires en traduction rencontrent des difcults considrables dans
leur tentative de traduire des expressions idiomatiques.
Ces difcults vont de la slection de stratgies inappropries lincapacit de reconnatre
la prsence dune expression, en passant par lincapacit de prserver lefet idiomatique de lex-
pression dans la langue source, linterfrence de la culture de la langue 1 des stagiaires et des
difcults dues une comptence superfcielle dans la langue 2. En dpit des difrents niveaux
de formation, les rsultats de ltude nont pas rvl de difrence signifcative entre les deux
groupes en ce qui concerne les difcults rencontres.
Mots-cls: Expressions idiomatiques, stagiaires en traduction arabe, stratgies de traduction
arabe
About the author
Dr. Aziz Tabit Saeed is an Associate Professor of English at the Department of English Lan-
guage and Literature, University of Sharjah. His main research interests include discourse analy-
sis, pragmatics, second language acquisition and translation.
Address: Department of English Language and Literature, University of Sharjah, P. O. Box: 27272,
Sharjah, UAE.
E-mail: [email protected]
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