Assessing Difficulties of Translating Opaque Idioms from English into Arabic: A Case Study

The translation of idiomatic expressions from English into Arabic is considered a difficult task for translators. This
difficulty may reveal that this translation has a serious misunderstanding and mistranslation of the source text. This
study aims to determine the major challenges that master students in the translation department encounter when
translating idioms and identify the methods and strategies for translating such expressions. The study hypothesizes
that the commonest challenge that translators encounter when rendering idiomatic expressions into Arabic is
cultural differences. The commonest strategies are used by students when rendering idiomatic expressions into
Arabic, which include omission, paraphrasing, different form but similar meaning and similar and meaning. The
translation of opaque idioms is harder than the transparent ones. Theoretically, the study presents a literature review
on translation methods of translation and the relation among translation, language and culture, idioms and
difficulties in translating idiomatic expressions, and it tackles translation, models and strategies used in translation
idiomatic expressions. Finally, it sets forth a brief account previous study. Practically, the data used for analysis
comprise twenty-five idiomatic expressions selected from the videos on the you- tube channels (Interactive
English). These idioms are given to 10 M.A. students from the department of translation, college of arts university
of Tikrit who voluntarily agreed to take part in the test to translate the selected idioms. In this study Moon’s (1998)
idioms typology is used as a linguistic model to identify the four types of idioms (The transparent, the semitransparent, the opaque and the semi-opaque idioms) used by the translators. Newmark’s (1981) model of
translation is also used to distinguish two methods of translations, semantic and communicative methods. The other
is provided by baker (1992). The findings of the study showed that master students face many challenges when
translating idiomatic expressions including the lack of awareness of the cultural difference between English and
Arabic. This study suggests that it is important to find a target language idiom rather than translating such an idiom
by paraphrasing. As well as being familiar with the adopted strategies may help student’s abilities translate more
properly. Finally, the study displays that the type of idiom has a minor impact on understanding its meaning and
aiding an appropriate translation.