Translating Culture: The Challenge of Translating the Untranslatable: Procedures and Strategies

Consideration of Arabic and English cultures in the realm of translation may result in cases of untranslatability making translators generally strained by cultural similarities and contrasts of the source and the target languages to recreate the exact sense of the original script. The greater the gap between them, the more difficult the interlingual transfer can be. Disparity in linguistic usage of both languages, as well as cultural gaps, make translation a significant challenge. Our primary concern is to investigate specific features of culture that may generate challenges, as well as to examine the complexity of the obstacles experienced by a translator while translating culturally distinct phrases in both languages. Highlights of the problem's theoretical and practical implications are addressed through critical examination and evaluation of specific problematic words and expressions, with possible equivalents and remedies. The study inferred that grasping cultural variance is essential for resolving equivalence and untranslatability hardness.