An-Najah National University 
Faculty of Graduate Studies      

Strategies and Motivations in Translated 
Children's Literature: Defoe's Robinson 

Crusoe as a Case Study      

By 
Zeinab Hussein Taha Khwira "Atiyya"     

Supervisor 
Dr. Odeh Odeh         

Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements of the 
Degree of Master of Arts in Applied linguistics &Translation, 
Faculty of Graduate Studies, at an-Najah National University, 
Nablus, Palestine. 

2010 





  
iii

 
Dedication 

To my parents, who offered me unconditional love, patience and 

understanding throughout the course of this thesis. Without them, the 

completion of this thesis would not have been possible. 

To my sisters and brothers for their constant encouragement, support 

and most of all love. 

To the Palestinian children who deserve the best.       



  
iv

Acknowledgements 

I owe an immense debt of gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Odeh 

Odeh. Without his sound advice and careful guidance, the completion of 

this work would not have been possible. I would also like to thank Dr. 

Omar Najjar of al-Quds University for his constructive comments and Dr 

Fayez Aqel, the internal examiner, for his suggestions.  

For their efforts and assistance, special thanks as well to Dr. 

Mahmoud al-Atshan and Miss Fatima Hamad for their insightful 

suggestions and assistance. 

I would like to extend my thanks to those who took part in the study. 

Finally, I would be remiss without mentioning my family and friends for 

their love and support. 

To each and every one of the above, I extend my deepest appreciation.         



  
v

:

Strategies and Motivations in Translated 
 Children's Literature: Defoe's Robinson 

 Crusoe as a Case Study  

":

"

.

Declaration

The work provided in this thesis, unless referenced, is the 

researcher’s own work, and has not been submitted elsewhere for any other 

degree or qualification. 

:Student's name:      Zeinab Hussein Taha Khwira "A'tiyya"          

                                                                                                       

:Signature:  Zeinab                                                                                 

                                            

:Date: January 31, 2010                                                                           

                                            



  
vi

Table of Contents 

Page Contents 
iii Dedication 
iv Acknowledgements 
v Declaration 
vi Table of Contents 

viii List of Tables 
ix List of Figures 
x Abstract 
1 Prefatory Word 

  

3 Chapter I  Introduction  
4 1.1 Statement of the Problem  
7 1.2 Purpose of the Study  
8 1.3 Significance of the Study  
9 1.4 Delimitations of the Study  
9 1.5 Hypotheses  
9 1.6 Procedure  

  

12 Chapter II   Review of Related Literature  
12 2.1 Children's Literature  
18 2.2 On the Translation of Children's Literature  

  

26 Chapter III   Analysis of the Translations of Robinson Crusoe 

 

28 3.1 Ideological Breakdowns  
28 3.1.1 Ideology and the Translation of Robinson Crusoe  
45 3.2 Cultural Breakdowns  
46 3.2.1 Culture and the Translation of Robinson Crusoe  
54 3.2.2 The Translation of Proper Nouns  
55 3.2.3 Robinson Crusoe and intertextual references  
57 3.2.4 Translation and Illustrations in Robinson Crusoe  

  

62 Chapter IV   Findings and Discussion  
63 4.1 Findings Related to the Questions 
86 4.2 Discussion of the Findings  
86 4.2.1 Discussion of the findings on the first question 
89 4.2.2 Discussion of the findings on the second question 
91 4.2.3 Discussion of the findings on the third question 

  



  
vii

 
Page Contents 

94 Chapter V Conclusions and Recommendations  
94 5.1Conclusions  
98 5.2 Recommendations  
102 References 
112 Appendices 

 

Abstract in Arabic )( 

 



  
viii

 
List of Tables 

Table No. Title Page 
Table (1) Children's responses to the first statement in the 

three appendices. 
65 

Table (2) Children's responses to the first statement according 
to age. 

66 

Table (3)  Children's responses to statement 2 in the three 
appendices 

68 

Table (4) Children's responses to the statement 2 according to 
gender. 

69 

Table (5) Children's answers to statement 2 according to age 69 
Table (6) Children's responses to the third statement 

according to gender. 
71 

Table (7) Children's answers to statement 3 according to age. 71 
Table (8) Children's responses to the fourth statement 

according to age. 
73 

Table  (9) Children's responses to statements 5 and 6 
according to gender and age in A. 

75 

Table (10) Children's' responses to statements 5 and 6 
according to gender and age in B. 

76 

Table (11) Children's responses to statement 7 according to 
age. 

77 

Table (12) Children's answers to statement 8 according to age. 79 
Table (13) Children's responses to statement 9 in the three

appendices. 
80 

Table (14) Children's responses to statement 10 in the three 
appendices. 

81 

Table (15) Children's responses to statement 11 according to 
age. 

82 

Table (16) Children's responses to statement 12 according to 
age. 

83 

Table (17) Children's responses to statement thirteen according 
to age. 

84 

Table (18) Children's responses to statement 14 according to 
age. 

85 

 



  
ix

List of Figures 

Figure No.

 
Title Page 

Figure 1 From the Committee's Translation: the Savages and 
the Bones of their Victims (1992: 41). 

53 

Figure 2 From Khashafa's Translation: the Savage Kneeling 
to Crusoe. 

59 

Figure 3 
From ar-Rafi’i’s Translation: the Savage Kneeling 
to Crusoe 

60 

 



  
x

Strategies and Motivations in Translated 
 Children's Literature: Robinson  

Crusoe as a Case Study. 
By 

Zeinab Hussein Taha Khwira "Atiyya" 
Supervisor 

Dr. Odeh Odeh  

Abstract 

The study investigates the translation of children's literature, in 

general, and the translations of Defoe's ‘Robinson Crusoe’, in specific. It 

highlights mistranslations and likely breakdowns caused by cultural and 

ideological differences among Arab and foreign cultures. Owing to this, the 

breakdowns are categorized into: a- ideological, and b- cultural. The study 

also examines the various strategies obtained by the translators in dealing 

with these breakdowns. Analyses show that the translators have attempted 

to bridge the gap that might result from literal translation. The findings 

reveal that 

1. Translators have obtained various translation strategies including 

modifications, omissions, and, sometimes, additions, to avoid cultural 

and ideological misunderstandings.  

2. The translators' attempts to convey certain ideologies in the text were 

not always successful. They, intentionally, or unintentionally, ignored 

the fact that many of the ideologies presented in the ST are not suitable 

or acceptable for the Arab target readers. Therefore, children as target 

readers were not always taken into consideration. 

3. Age and gender are determining factors, and therefore, should be taken 

into account in transferring an adult’s text into one for children. 



 
Prefatory Word

Childhood is an important stage in one's life. It is the phase in which 

one starts to learn about her-himself and the different aspects of life. It is 

also at this stage where children acquire their social and cultural values and 

begin to shape their identity. Reading plays a significant role in acquiring 

such values because in normal circumstances parents and teachers always 

want their children to learn from what they read. Hence, Children's 

literature is seen to be amongst the means of educating and instructing. It 

reflects, to a great extent, the adults' image of children's needs and interests. 

Moreover, educators see the need for children to be exposed to literature 

presented to their peers in other countries to expose them to cultures other 

than theirs. Translation, for this purpose, is an indispensable necessity. In 

the Arab world, many of the texts presented to children are translated from 

other languages and cultures. Some of these texts introduce harmful values. 

Having a deeper look at these translations and the strategies obtained to 

make them fit the Arab cultural values and ideologies is another necessity.  

Therefore, I have chosen to examine a foreign text that was 

transferred to Arab children's literature in an attempt to shed light on some 

of the inappropriate values presented in it and to highlight some of the 

translation strategies that were obtained to make the text fit the target 

culture and readers.  The researcher sees the need to impose constraints on 

literary texts translated for children. Having said this, we do not claim that 

children should not read foreign texts, but on the contrary we claim that 

they deserve to be introduced to the best and the most suitable for their age 

and stage.  



  
2

Through the different stages of my study, I encountered many 

difficulties. The lack of the related literature is one of them. Very little was 

written about the translated children's literature in Arabic.  Most of the 

Arab writers dealt with children's literature in general and with a brief 

reference to its translation. So, I depended mostly on the foreign literature, 

on the one hand, and on general literature about children's literary texts, on 

the other hand. 



  
3

Chapter I 

Introduction 

Some researchers describe translating children's literature as one 

means of ‘cross-cultural communication’ involving the cultures of both 

children and adults alike. This is mainly because adults communicate with 

children through literature (Oittinnen, 2000:6). On the other hand, children 

are introduced to literature read by people of their age in other countries 

and become exposed to domains of other lives and cultures through which 

they begin to understand and accept each other as being 'unique' and having 

different literary and cultural experiences (Vandergift, 1997). However, 

translated children's literature might cause breakdowns concerning morals, 

ideologies and social customs, especially if the source and target cultures 

have little in common. In this study, ideological and cultural breakdowns 

caused by translating children's texts from English into Arabic are 

examined against issues of appropriateness and acceptability.  

The study is in five chapters. Chapter I introduces the topic, the 

statement of the problem, the purpose, significance, delimitations and 

methodology of the study. Chapter II provides definitions of the concept of 

children's literature in the Arab and western cultures. It also presents 

reviews of literature related to the translation of children's literature. 

Chapter III examines the three different translations of Robinson Crusoe 

and their associated breakdowns, strategies and motivations behind these 

strategies. Chapter IV provides the findings of the children's responses to 

Arabic translations of a text taken from the novel and analyzes the findings. 

Chapter V provides conclusions and recommendations.     



  
4

1.1 Statement of the problem: 

Like the translation of adults' literature, translating children's 

literature into Arabic poses not only linguistic but also cultural problems 

regarding cultural references, foreign names and customs, and other 

cultural, social and ideological aspects since the Arab and the English 

cultures are far distinct. It is even more challenging to translators because 

of the specificity of its child reader.  

Because children might not be expected to accept or understand 

some aspects of the English culture and since children are most likely to be 

influenced by what they read, translators should be able to render the 

foreign elements in a way that does not shock the Arab child reader with 

harmful aspects such as the ideas of violence, racism and ethnicity, and the 

use of taboos. They may intervene in the text applying certain ‘protective 

measures’ by first selecting an acceptable text for translation, then 

purifying it (Mdallel, 2003). Then they may modify the text using strategies 

such as adaptations, additions, abridgements, modifications and deletions, 

to make it conform to the social and ideological traditions of the Arab 

culture. The degree of intervention, therefore, depends on the degree of 

strangeness the readers can deal with (Landers, 2001:108). If the translator 

is not aware of the harmful influences of the translated texts on children, 

the target text ideas might clash with what children are taught.  

Most of foreign novels and stories read by Arab children have been 

translated from English and other languages into Arabic; however, many of 

these works seem to be inappropriate for the social, moral and ideological 

values of the Arab culture. These works are thought to represent foreign 



  
5

cultures and thus Arabs should be aware of their content, especially those 

originally written for adults and adapted to children's literature and 

reflecting a colonial and racial view (al-‘Anani, 1996: 112). Instances of 

these are Rowling's Harry Potter, Shakespeare's plays, Johanna Spyri’s 

Heidi, Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Defoe's 

Robinson Crusoe, subject of this thesis, and many others which have also 

been adopted for different kinds of children's programs to be enjoyed by 

Arab children.    

Defoe's Robinson Crusoe is one of the classics of world literature. It 

is an adventure story, a novel of a man's struggle with nature in which 

Crusoe, motivated by his love of adventure, goes to sea without the consent 

of his father. Through his adventures, he faces troubles, and the worst of 

these is when he finds himself alone on an isolated island after the wreck of 

his ship. Nevertheless, he is able to cope with all these difficulties and to 

adjust well to the hostile environment around him (Lall, 1998: 109). He 

shows all signs of inventiveness starting with downloading all he needs 

from the wrecked ship onto the island including the equipment and tools. 

He also takes all the necessary precautions in order to protect himself and 

the gunpowder which he will find indispensable on the island. He builds his 

own habitation and makes himself the master of the island. 

For twenty five years, he lives alone with not a sign of a human 

being. One day, he meets some of them one day; but contrary to what he 

wishes they are cannibals as he calls them. They come to the island with 

people who they intend to eat. One of their victims manages to escape with 

the help of Crusoe. At last, Crusoe gets himself some company and names 

him Friday, the loyal servant. The plot of the novel is explicitly about 



  
6

Crusoe's struggle on an isolated island. However, it presents themes of 

racism and superiority of the white man over other races, more specifically 

Africans and native Indians (ibid: 119), which do not match the Arab's 

ideologies. It might even threaten the Arab children's values. On the other 

hand, Defoe's Robinson Crusoe has also been interpreted as a means for 

justifying colonization in which Crusoe is a symbol of colonizing 

Englishmen acquiring colonies all over the world and building the English 

empire (ibid: 133). At the beginning, he considers the island as a source of 

despair, but then it becomes paradise for him. It becomes his own kingdom 

which is regarded by some critics as a step towards colonization since 

Crusoe begins to see himself as the owner of the island and as superior to 

all others on it (ibid: 189). Censorship, which is a means to preserve one’s 

own cultural identity and avoid being just a copy of the other is ,therefore, 

a vital strategy since Robinson Crusoe involves themes encouraging 

violence, racism, and moral values not accepted by the Arab target culture. 

The three Arab translations I found for Robinson Crusoe were given 

by three different translators. The first one is translated by (

) Khashafa and Hussein and published in 1992 by Rabi' 

Publishing House, Damascus. The second is translated by (

) a Committee of Translators and published in 1992, by Maktabat 

al-Ma'arif, Beirut. A third translation is given by ( ) Akram ar-

Rafi’i and published in 1994, by Dar al-'Ilm, Beirut.  

The reason why I choose to work on Robinson Crusoe is that when 

Defoe wrote it almost three hundred years ago, he did not have a child 

reader in mind as it was originally written for adults. This highlights the 

kind of translation problems due to the distinctions among the Arab and the 



  
7

Western cultures in their image of the child. For instance, they differ in the 

constraints imposed on writing and translating for children since the Arab 

children's literary system is mainly concerned with didactics and religious 

instructions. Moreover, the two cultures differ in many aspects as behaviors 

and beliefs. It follows that choosing children's texts to be translated into 

Arabic should be guided by those restrictions that do not in any way violate 

the ideological, religious and cultural taboos and traditions of writing for 

children in Arabic (Mdallel, 2003). It is interesting to see how culture 

specific items in Robinson Crusoe are communicated to Arab children. 

Hence, this study aims to answer to the following questions: 

-  Were the translators aware of the specificity of the readers of these 

translations, namely Arab children? 

-  Were the translators able to render Defoe's novel in a way that does 

not influence the Arab children's ideologies negatively? 

-  Were the translators aware of the cultural differences between both 

the Arab and the English cultures in terms of racism? 

-  Did the translators intervene in the text to make it more appropriate 

and acceptable to Arab children? To what extent did the translators 

become visible in rendering the novel and modifying the racist signs 

in the text? Did the racist activities vanish from the Arabic text? 

1.2 Purpose of the study 

This study aims at shedding light on the translation of children's 

literature. Moreover it will shed light specifically on the translation of the 



  
8

novel ‘Robinson Crusoe’, originally written for adults, into Arabic, for 

children. We also attempt to demonstrate how its translations pose cultural, 

ideological and social problems because of the specificity of its readership, 

namely Arab children. The study then tries to identify a range of translation 

strategies applied in the translation of this novel and to demonstrate the 

social and ideological implications of the translator's choices. It also aims 

to see if there is a prevailing strategy of translation and if the three 

translators differ in their translations. 

1.3 Significance of the study 

Many of Arabic literary works, especially novels and short stories, 

read by Arab children tend to be translated from English into Arabic. 

Moreover, children's literature, in general, and its translation, in particular, 

could be said to be still ignored. Further still, we can argue that very little is 

written about the translations or more specifically about the theoretical 

domain of translating children's literature or the strategies employed by 

translators in rendering such literature into Arabic. We can also claim that 

most of the Arabic reference textbooks, in this context are about children's 

literature in general, or are devoted to matters of harmful and positive 

effects which such translations can have on children.  

It is hoped that the present study provides guidelines for determining 

the appropriate strategies of translation in which cultural, social, 

ideological and moral factors are significant in determining what we see is 

an appropriate method of translation. In our view, this can constitute a 

suitable methodological tool for studying features of Arab and English 

children's literature and the restrictions imposed on any text which could 



  
9

tentatively become part of the Arabic children's cultural and linguistic 

system. 

1.4 Delimitations of the Study 

In order to be well defined as a discipline of its own, this research 

will be devoted to the translation of children's literature, more specifically 

the translations of Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe into Arabic. It will 

depend on empirical and theoretical analysis of practical translations within 

an interdisciplinary framework. 

1.5 Hypotheses: 

The translations of Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe into Arabic fail to 

meet the needs of Arab children since they are not purified of the harmful 

ideological themes such as superiority of the white man embedded behind 

the overt theme of man's struggle with nature. These translations fail to 

consider both the cultural and ideological factors. Moreover, the child as a 

reader is not taken into consideration in the translation of Robinson Crusoe. 

1.6 Procedure: 

A significant part of the study deals with the features of children's 

literature, particularly the different writings for children between English 

and Arabic. An ample analysis of the translations of Defoe's novel 

Robinson Crusoe into Arabic is conducted within an interdisciplinary 

theoretical background. Some light is shed on both the social as well as the 

ideological breakdowns caused by such translations. The influence of such 

translations on children is tested where extracts of these translations are 

distributed to school children aged 14-16 years together with a number of 



  
10

questions related to the ideologies presented in those extracts. These 

experiments are aimed to investigate the reception and influence of 

translating Robinson Crusoe into the Arab culture and to depict ideological 

and cultural connotations pertaining to the idea of Crusoe’s superiority 

imbedded in the scene where he saves Friday (one of the native Indians) 

from the savages. The description of this scene is examined against the 

three Arabic translations in which the use of the word kneel in the 

following example clashes with the Arab-Muslim culture.    

“at length, he came close to me, and then he kneeled down again, 
kissed the ground, and taking me by foot, set my foot upon his head: 
this, it seems, was in token of swearing to be my slave forever…my 
savage”. (Defoe's Robinson Crusoe: 171).  

It seems that not all translations of this novel into Arabic consider 

the basic differences between the two cultures in their use of the word 

kneel. For instance, the Committee of Translators renders the previous text 

as  

..

.

.....

The word , used by the Committee of Translators, in an Arab-

Islamic context is a better rendition than both

 

or 

 

used by ar-Rafi'i 

and Khashafa and Hussein. The Committee of Translators is not being 

literal as the word kneel does not mean . According to al-Mawrid 

Dictionary (1997), it means

 

or 

 

which have a different implication 

from that of . Why does the translator use a word with a different 



  
11

implication from that of the English text? According to Muslims' culture 

and ideologies, kneeling can only be to Allah (God) and not to a human 

being. Thus,  suits the ideology of Arab Muslim children. Owing to the 

ideological differences between the Arab and the English cultures, the 

Committee of Translators uses a word with a less extreme sense of 

thanking because the word kneel implies subjection and servitude.  

The present chapter introduces the topic, the problem and the 

procedure. The following chapter provides a literature review of both 

children's literature and its translation in both the Arab and the English 

literary systems.        



  
12

Chapter II 

Review of Related Literature 

The study of Children's Literature is a relatively new field of study in 

translation. Not much has been written about the translation of children's 

literature in Arabic, in general, or on the translation of classical world 

literature, such as Robinson Crusoe, in particular. The Arab writings refer 

very briefly to the positive or negative influences of translated children's 

literature into Arabic. Al-Hiti (1988) points out that Defoe's Robinson 

Crusoe enhances the values of patience, endurance, and the love of 

adventure in children. However, it also enhances the ideas of racism and 

superiority of the white man over the black Negroes and the Red Indians. 

In his book, al-Hiti did not deal with the strategies employed by the 

translators in rendering Robinson Crusoe into Arabic. In this chapter, I am 

going to deal with the concept of children's literature, in general, and its 

translation, in specific in both the Arab and the English literary systems. 

2.1 Children's Literature 

There is some controversy on what children's literature is. Education 

Encyclopedia (2008) defines children's Literature as: 

          "Any literature that is enjoyed by children. More specifically, 
children's literature comprises those books written and published for 
young people who are not yet interested in adult literature or who may 
not possess the reading skills or developmental understandings 
necessary for its perusal."  

(Available at http://www.google.com/search?hl=ar&q=48.EducationEncyclopedia). 

http://www.google.com/search?hl=ar&q=48


  
13

Moreover, Huck (1987: 5) points out that any literary text written for 

children should suit their ages, needs and interests, and should contribute a 

great deal to their personal lives and learning. This does not apply much to 

Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, which was originally intended for adults and not 

for children. Therefore, it does not suit the children's levels of 

comprehension and cognitive abilities. It is also more appealing to the 

western white people because it presents their superiority over the black 

Negroes and the Red Indians which does not suit the Arab children's 

interests and needs.  

However, Huck does not neglect the role of children's literature in 

promoting international understanding among people of different cultures 

and ideologies. It introduces children to ideas and traditions they have 

never been exposed to before and takes them to different regions and times 

and, thus, strengthens their relationships with the people and environment 

around them (ibid: 7). For example, Robinson Crusoe, introduces children 

to the tradition of a child being named after both his father's and mother's 

family- a tradition that is not familiar to Arab children who are named after 

their father's family and never their mothers. It is good for them to learn 

more about it since children might come across it in their daily lives. Huck 

adds "the literature intended for children always reflects the changing 

attitudes of the society towards childhood and the family", and so it is 

considered a record of the society and its customs that adults would like to 

transfer to their children (ibid: 96). In the same context, Lathey (2006: 11) 

assumes that 

“The transfer of literature from one language into another or from 
one culture into another introduces the various images of childhood in 
different parts of the world”. 



  
14

Furthermore, the appropriate content encourages the desired values 

and attitudes in children. Through the tales children listen to and the stories 

they read, they can explore the world. They can also move to better 

understand the world in which they live and their relationship to it 

(Shammas, 2004: 33). Puurtinen (1998) believes that children's literature 

plays a significant role as an educational, social and ideological instrument. 

For her, 

"Didacticism is always more or less discernible, explicitly or 
implicitly, in children's books. This principle of didacticism, of 
"usefulness" to the child, is complemented or sometimes counteracted 
by the requirement of comprehensibility: both the language and the 
content of children's books are adjusted to readers' comprehension 
and reading abilities.” 

Robinson Crusoe can be seen as a tool for education and 

socialization as it fulfills different functions under different cultural 

restrictions. For instance, it is intended to teach children how to cope with 

difficulties and to be creative like Crusoe who finds himself alone in an 

isolated island. He builds his own habitation and learns how to make 

bowls, chairs, and clothes. He also manages to cultivate the land with rice 

and corn, dry raisin, and bake bread. When translated into Arabic, it 

exposes target readers to a social life different from their own in which they 

learn more about the English culture (names of people, places, traditions 

and even their way of life).  

Oittinen (2000: 6) defines children's literature as "the literature read 

silently by children and aloud to them". It is read aloud to the future readers 

of stories and novels who might interpret them in their own ways. 

Readability in translating children's literature gives priority to the child as a 



  
15

reader, as someone who understands, as someone who takes part in the act 

of reading. Therefore, children reading Robinson Crusoe might absorb and 

begin to accept the idea white man's superiority if it is rendered with no 

adjustments. Likewise, Hunt (1992: 6) thinks that children's literature as a 

genre is "defined in terms of its audience" as well as by function, which is 

'to serve the dominant culture'. He thinks that children's literature tends to 

be universal because of the educative and acculturating role it has in many 

societies and since children share much in common. Therefore, children's 

literature offers a means of understanding 'cultural disparity' (ibid: 110). 

Ahmad (2006: 47) states that the child's cognitive structures and 

modes of behavior by which they become able to affect and be affected by 

the society, are frequently modified and changed by the literature they read. 

Therefore, anything children read should not clash with what they already 

know and if it does, it can be modified to be both suitable and acceptable in 

form and content. For him, literature written for children enriches their 

experiences in the different aspects of life, and thus shapes their identities. 

Children become aware of the differences and similarities among cultures 

(ibid: 50). Children's literature enables children to benefit from the 

literature taken from other cultures and to avoid the unfamiliar value 

structures that might have negative influences on them (ibid: 44). Ahmad, 

thus, is one of the Arab writers to notice the role of children's literature in 

broadening world understanding among people of different cultures. 

However, he does not comment on the ideological and cultural 

misunderstandings that might be caused as a result of transferring such 

literature into Arabic. 



  
16

Khafaji (2006: 72) pays much attention to the concept of content 

( ) in children's literature because it is the content that matters in 

translating children's literature, not the form. He gives a broad definition of 

content as everything presented to children including values, experiences 

and skills that suit the children's needs and guide them. It develops insights 

into religious values that s/he is an Arab-Muslim and is required to behave 

accordingly. Children's literature teaches children that their cultural values 

and attitudes are distinct from those of other cultures (ibid: 69).  

Najeeb, in his book 

 

(Al Madhmoun fi Adab al-

Atfal) (1979: 11), pays similar attention to the notion of content (

) which is presented not only in words but also through illustrations 

that may also reflect the embedded themes. Illustrations, therefore, are as 

important as words and attention should also be paid to them. However, in 

Robinson Crusoe, little attention is given to illustrations since the troubling 

scenes of cannibalistic violence are illustrated with all the bones and skull 

spread over the island. Najeeb thinks that content in children's literature 

must achieve cultural intentions in which children get to know more about 

the people, life, society, and values of different people which help them 

change false impressions about foreign people (ibid: 45-46). However, he 

points out that the texts taken from world literature should undergo certain 

changes and be subject to the parameters of Arabic children's literature 

which means, first, selecting the suitable content and then, purifying it from 

any harmful feedback through modifications to make it appropriate in form, 

style and more importantly in content (ibid: 57).  

Mdallel (2003) believes that Arab children’s literature is loaded with 

morality, pedagogy, didactics, and religious and ideological concerns. One 



  
17

of the prominent themes in the Arabic literary works for children is Islam 

as a religion, the way a true Muslim should behave, and the biographies of 

Prophet Mohammad (peace and blessing be upon him) and his companions.  

Children’s literature in the Arab Muslim world reflects the values and child 

images prevalent in the region. 

Ad-Deek (2001: 66) points out that any literary text intended for 

young people should have a serious theme and entertaining elements which 

encourage them to adhere to the themes they read about. Through reading, 

children acquire their cultural identity which becomes part of what they 

read and it is hard to change with time. Similar to Najeeb (1979) and 

Khafaji (2006), ad-Deek pays attention to the notion of content presented to 

children and thinks that it is necessary to constantly check and evaluate the 

themes.  

Besides, translators should purify the texts from the original's 

embedded intentions since some of the translated texts as the story of Robin 

Hood might be encouraging theft, violence, and stupid adventures 

(Shahwan 1991: 3; Mahfouz 1991: 26-7). For Shahwan, the translator's 

visibility and intervention is basic and recommended (ibid: 25). She adds 

that the foreign effects of translated stories in terms of illustrations 

including the clothes and the weird appearances affect children. In terms of 

content, the employment of super- heroes like Superman, racism and the 

superiority of one race over others also influence children. The use of 

unacceptable expressions is another example of the harmful effect of the 

foreign stories. However, translated children's literature does have a 

positive influence on children due to the fact that it introduces them to the 



  
18

latest developments and inventions. It enhances various values and 

attitudes as self-reliance, discipline, reading, and exploration (ibid: 47). 

Marjiyyah (2001: 96) believes that children's literature is a link 

between the Arab and the foreign cultures. It also strengthens her/his 

relationships with other children. According to him, the two identifying 

characteristics of any good book are content and form. On the other hand, 

he says that translated literature often fits only the children of the source 

culture and is never suitable for the children in the target Arab culture. 

Therefore, certain "protective measures" should be taken during translating 

it. 

As noted previously, children's literature in the Arab world is defined 

by its content which should be "suitable" and "good" according to most 

Arab writers. In the following section, I will be dealing with the translation 

of children's literature and the criteria that should be taken into 

consideration in rendering a text into Arabic.  

2.2. On the Translation of Children's literature 

The need for translation is a cultural one since it encourages the 

cultural exchange and extends the child's environment. Translation, thus, 

introduces children to cultural patterns they have never been exposed to 

before while preserving the Arab culture from undesired ideas and values. 

It is important in two main aspects: the human aspect related to the 

interaction which goes beyond its target culture to reach other societies. 

The social aspect is related to the absorption of a new coming culture that 

enhances the native one (Shammas 2004: 106-7).  



  
19

Translated literature is studied as an integral part of the cultural, 

literary and historical framework of the target language. It is usually in a 

peripheral position, and, consequently, adheres to established norms and 

conventionalized models in the target language according to the 

Polysystem theory (Even-Zohar, 1990). Even-Zohar suggests that the status 

of the translated children's literature determines the translation strategy. 

However, considering the significant role the translated children's literature 

might have in the Arab children's literature, one can say that it fulfills a 

basic role in the Arabic language. In other words, the translated children's 

literature can affect, and be affected by, the target language, culture and 

readers which makes it necessary to make various adjustments on the ST in 

order to adhere to the notions of what is good and appropriate for children, 

as well as what is considered the appropriate degree of difficulty in a given 

target culture.  

Mdallel (2003) points out that translation is a 'cross-cultural 

communication' and that the way we write for children governs to a great 

extent the way we translate for them. For him, translation is not only a 

'transfer of linguistic units' but it is also a 'cultural transfer'. Therefore, 

adopting some 'protective cultural measures', while translating for children, 

becomes essential especially if the source and target cultures are far distinct 

and belong to two different cultural systems. The recourse to ideological 

manipulation is a must in translation. For instance, manipulating the temple 

at Jerusalem into 

 

is necessary and recommended in order to 

confirm that the temple does not exist. Its substitution is related to 

censorship which is a way to preserve our cultural identity. It is a normal 

reaction if the literature to be translated contains elements encouraging 



  
20

violence, racism, sexism or moral and ideological values not accepted by 

the target Arab culture.   

According to Lathey (2006: 4), translating for children is quite 

different from translating for adults in two aspects: the social status of 

children and their development and the status of their literature which in 

turn characterize whatever written for them. She strongly believes that the 

"unequal relationship" between the adult as a writer and the child reader 

does govern the way of writing and even translating for children since 

adults dictate the child's behavior (ibid: 5). For her, the transportation of 

children's literature form one language and culture into another reflects 

distinct expectations and interpretations of childhood (ibid: 2).  

Shavit (1986: 111) sees translation as a "transfer process". More 

important though is that she sees that translation is a transfer process not 

only "from one language to another but” “from one system to another, 

from the adult's system to children's system". In this regard, Shavit is one of 

the few researchers to recognize the transfer of the literary works from 

adults' to children's literature. This applies primarily to the translation of 

world's literature such as Defoe's Robinson Crusoe into Arabic. She states 

that for a model to be transferred from adult's literature to children's 

literature, it should be "useful and appropriate" to children and it should 

also be easily understood by them. Such criteria help the translators select 

what texts to translate and help them decide the degree of change they are 

allowed to make (ibid: 113). When a translator sees that a specific part 

might be difficult for children to understand, s/he might change or delete 

this part to make it appropriate to the children's cognitive abilities. This is 

why translators of Robinson Crusoe into German and Hebrew delete the 



  
21

opening dialogue between Crusoe and his father about the complicated 

ethos of bourgeoisie (Shavit, 2006: 35). It also explains why the three Arab 

translators of Robinson Crusoe appear to be visible in deleting the dialogue 

for the sake of their target readers.  

She notes that in children's literature, only the traditional and/or 

conventional are accepted. Therefore, in case when the ‘model’ of the ST is 

not available or in the target system, translators modify it by omitting 

elements from the ST and adding others from the target system to make this 

model fit in the target system, especially if these omissions and additions 

do not affect the plot and the characterization of the text (ibid: 128). An 

example of a text being altered in the translation to match the target culture 

is no executioner in Germany could have done it sooner or better 

(Robinson Crusoe 1994: 200) describing Friday's skill in killing his enemy. 

This is rendered as 

 

in which the translator 

compensates the meaning with a more familiar model in the target system 

because the original expression would make no sense to target readers. 

Translated children's literature is generally neglected because of its 

peripheral position within the "literary polysystem" which allows 

translators a great deal of freedom to manipulate the original texts by 

changing, enlarging, abridging, deleting or adding to them in order to 

conform to the target cultural system (Munday, 2001: 108). Analysis of the 

three translations of Robinson Crusoe shows that the three translators have 

shortened and abridged many parts of the novel because the target texts are 

intended for children who might not be able to deal with complicated and 

lengthy texts. Therefore, it is the translator's job to decide what to delete, 



  
22

add, include and modify in the text according to what is acceptable and 

appropriate in the target model.  

If the text cannot be deleted, it might be modified to become 

appropriate to the target reader's ideals and values. Shavit (2006: 34) says: 

“The simplest manipulation is by deleting undesirable elements or 
whole paragraphs. However, if these elements are indispensable, they 
are modified to become suitable for the target text. She says that in the 
early stages of adult literature, the concept of literature as a didactic 
instrument for values and certain ideologies was prominent. Long 
after it ceased to exist in adult literature, it is still prevalent in 
children's literature and even the translators change the text to serve 
the ideological purposes.” 

Landers (2001) is another theorist of general translation to comment 

on the translation of children's literature and more specifically on the 

ideological considerations that should be taken into account. He argues that 

translators should have greater liberties in modifying the foreign cultural 

elements and traditions that the target children may not be interested in. He 

believes that such issues as magic, racism, ethnicity, gender bias, family 

strife, divorce, death and taboos should not be included in children's 

literature and the translator should be aware of the breakdowns caused by 

such aspects (ibid: 106). 

In translating children's literature, translators tend to reject any kind of 

literature that involves harmful themes such as the theme of racial 

discrimination (Joels 1999: 66). As a consequence, ar-Rafi'i modifies as a 

token of being my slave forever into 

 

avoiding any 

reference to Friday as a slave to Crusoe although it is stated in the ST. This 

is also why Khashafa and the Committee of Translators delete the story of 



  
23

Xury as it is a clear depiction of racism and colonization in Robinson 

Crusoe and these do not match the Arab culture.   

O'Connell (2006: 19) assumes that the translation of children's 

literature suffered problems of low status just like the original children's 

literature did, since the original material is considered of marginal interest 

to writers despite the fact that children's literature and its translation play a 

significant role in children's education, instruction and entertainment. For 

her, the norms of translating for children are didactic, ideological, ethical, 

religious, etc. These norms determine what is translated, when, where and 

they change continually. They may vary from language to language, culture 

to culture and generation to generation (ibid: 23). 

O'Sullivan (2006: 98) believes a translator is more likely to become 

visible in the translation of children's literature and make changes in the 

text taking into consideration the culturally-determined interests and 

abilities of children at a certain stage of development (ibid: 99-100).  As a 

result, the Committee of translators intervenes in the text describing Friday 

kneeling to Crusoe and renders the word kneel as instead of its word-

to-word equivalents ,

  

because of the differences of its ideological 

and religious implications in both the Arab and Western cultures. Farghal 

and Shunnaq call this process of substitution "cultural approximation" in 

which a culture specific expression in the SL is translated into a cultural 

substitute in the TL (1999: 26). 

Another example in which socio-cultural and ideological 

considerations are taken into account is the translation of a short story 

called Snow White (2005), one of Ladybird's publishing, into Arabic. It is 



  
24

the story of a girl called Snow White. In translation, the title is localized 

into (2006) or sun in English. In the English culture, snow symbolizes 

beauty. In an Arab culture, this symbol is as snow is and purity. In the Arab 

culture, it does not have the same connotations. It is not as widely used as 

in Western cultures because of the differences in the nature of the climate 

in the Arab region and in the West. In the Arab culture, beauty is related 

more to the sun, so it was rendered as .  

In the same story, when the girl gets sick and faints, the prince kisses 

her. Afterwards she wakes up and gets better. The word kisses is changed 

into 

 

yumsik (holds) because kissing is not appropriate in a text 

intended for children in the Arab culture as it may affect children 

negatively. It is a taboo and needs to be deleted or at least modified, in 

order to adhere to what is appropriate for Arab children. Even the 

illustrations in the Arabic version are changed. In the English version the 

girl Snow White has yellow hair and blue eyes; nevertheless, it becomes a 

girl with black hair and wide brown eyes to show that the typical beautiful 

girl in both cultures is distinct. It is the blonde girl in the West, but the girl 

with dark hair the Eastern culture. 

As noted previously, Arab Children's literature reflects to a great 

extent the Arab culture and the adults' image of the child. Most of the Arab 

writers of children's literature agree that the child image is significant in 

writing for children and that their needs, interests and wishes should be 

taken into account in translating for them. Therefore, any text entering the 

Arab children's literature should abide by the constraints imposed on the 

Arab children's literature taking into consideration the child recipients who 

might not be able to handle the strange elements in the ST.  



  
25 

Viewed historically, translators' prefaces, when they are there, tend 

not to offer much into the selection of texts for translation or the strategies 

applied in such translations. The following chapter will investigate the 

cultural and ideological breakdowns Defoe's novel Robinson Crusoe with 

all its colonial and hegemonic implications, might have when translated 

into Arabic, especially when its target recipients are Arab children. It tries 

to identify or shed light on the pitfalls and problematic areas of the 

translated literary texts into Arabic.      



  
26

Chapter III 

Analysis of the Translations of Robinson Crusoe 

Due to the distinctions among languages and cultures, translators 

encounter problems in transferring children's texts from one language into 

another since "translation is no longer considered a purely linguistic 

matter. Rather, it is affected by social, cultural, economic and political 

factors"(Fornalczyk, 2007: 94; Yamazaki, 2002: 53). Such problems are 

more challenging than the linguistic ones because they are generally related 

to what is appropriate and acceptable in terms of content for the target child 

reader, especially if the text is originally intended for adults and then 

adapted to children's literature. For Ebrahimi (2006), 

“Translating may be defined as rereading and rewriting for target 
language audiences, which makes translations distinct from the 
originals since "every time texts are translated they take on a new 
language, a new culture, new readers, and a new point of view". Texts 
are translated for children, and often adapted to make them 
appropriate and acceptable to the new audience.  

(Available at http://www.sytra.cn/the-polysystem-theory.-an-approach-

to-children's-literature)http://www.sytra.cn/index.php

 

Hence, in translating children's literature, more attention should be 

paid to the target recipients who have little knowledge about the culture of 

the original text, and to what is suitable, or not, for them. Determining what 

fits children, or not, depends largely on the translator's knowledge of the 

source and target cultures and how much strangeness the target readers can 

accept or even deal with. In this chapter, I will be discussing some of the 

breakdowns the translations of Robinson Crusoe into Arabic might give 

http://www.sytra.cn/the-polysystem-theory
http://www.sytra.cn/index.php


  
27

rise to because of the different socio-cultural values between the Arab and 

Western cultures. The purpose of the present chapter is to relate a study on 

the acceptability of three translations of Robinson Crusoe to Arab readers. 

The three translations of Robinson Crusoe will be examined in order 

to see if 

- they took the child reader's socio-cultural background into account. 

- they dealt with the ideological and cultural challenges appropriately. 

- there is a prevailing strategy of translation. 

- the three translators differ in their translations. 

The researcher will attempt to highlight some of the strategies that 

translators can, and do, follow in their translations of Robinson Crusoe to 

make them appeal to their Arab-Muslim child readers and clarify the 

motivations behind such strategies. A variety of translation theories and 

concepts will be dealt with, including polysystem theory, foreignization 

and domestication (adaptation), and the translator's in/visibility. Other 

topics include the conventions of translating for children, child image, 

questions of taboo and censorship in translation. 

The linguistic challenges in translating the novel from English into 

Arabic will not be dealt with. Here, I shall focus on some of the cultural 

constraints on the translation of the English text into Arabic by highlighting 

some of the problems that might be apparent in the translation between 

unrelated cultural backgrounds. The breakdowns and motivations will be 



  
28

categorized into two main types to limit their analysis. The study includes 

the following kinds of breakdowns that will be dealt with: 

1.  Ideological breakdowns and motivations, and 

2.  Cultural and religious breakdowns and motivations. 

3.1 Ideological breakdowns: 

Due to the assumption that children's literature plays a significant 

role in shaping the minds and thoughts of children, it is worthwhile to look 

at the translations of Robinson Crusoe into Arabic in order to see whether 

they contribute to, or distort, the children's values and thoughts. In this 

section, I will be exploring some of the ideological misunderstandings that 

might be caused by ignoring the fact that the Arab and the English cultures 

differ in their values and beliefs and how some of the values presented in 

Robinson Crusoe may distort Arab children's values and clash with what 

they already have. 

3.1.1. Ideology and the translation of children's literature 

Ideology is defined by Merriam's Webster Online Dictionary (2008) as 

“A systematic body of concepts especially about human life, culture or 
manner, or the content of thinking characteristic of an individual, 
group, or culture, or the integrated assertions, theories and aims that 
constitute a sociopolitical program.”(Available at 
http://clerisy.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/merriam-webster-online-
dictionary). 

Meanwhile, Hollindale (1992: 19-27) defines it as" a systematic 

scheme of ideas relating to politics or society or to a conduct of a class or 

group, and regarded as justifying actions". He asserts that all novels 

http://clerisy.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/merriam-webster-online-


  
29

embody a set of ideological values (whether intended or not) which differ 

from one culture to another and influence the readers who in turn differ in 

their tastes, needs, social and ethnic origin. For him, ideology can appear 

implicitly in which the ideas are transferred covertly abiding by the didactic 

guidelines in order to achieve a moral effect (ibid: 29). In this sense, it has 

a significant role in 'socializing children' to accept and absorb a specific 

ideology since children tend to be less sophisticated readers than adults and 

tend to believe what they read easily (ibid: 1).   

Despite the translators' attempts to shorten the ST as it is intended for 

children, they manage to preserve the spirit of the novel and the themes of 

adventure and didacticism which are universal in all cultures. O'Connell 

(2006: 23) defines translation as: 

“a cultural activity that is conducted according to certain norms 
which are didactic, ethical, and religious. They determine what is 
translated, when and where, and they change continually. The norms 
may vary from one language to language, culture to culture and 
generation to generation. While specific norms exist in all cultures for 
writing and translation of children's literature, it does not follow that 
the same approach is adopted in the case of any two languages". 

This explains why the three translators preserve the depiction of 

Crusoe as an adventurer whose struggle with nature is a good experience 

for children to learn. It is recommended that children imitate Crusoe's 

methods of survival and his abilities to cope with all the difficulties. For 

instance, Crusoe builds his own habitation by himself. He makes use of all 

the contents of the wrecked ship from the gun powder, clothes, drinks, 

wood, and food. He shows all signs of inventiveness in building a boat, 

making pots, sowing grains and furnishing his fortress with the chairs he 

makes. They also retain his adventures on the island looking for food, 



  
30

raising animals and the precautions he takes to protect himself because of 

their importance to the theme of struggle against nature. O'Connel writes 

that the aim for, and reception of the translated text by young readers in the 

target culture, are significant and so the translator cannot by any means 

neglect the didactic purposes of the translated text. (ibid: 17).  

However, profound differences are found between the three 

translators in the way they dealt with the ideologies of superiority presented 

in the text which might cause breakdowns. Following are examples of 

some ideological breakdowns expected to result due to the differences 

among the Arab and the English cultures and how each translator deals 

with them. These examples will reveal the features of the Arab children's 

literature and the ideological constraints that can be imposed on any text 

transferred to it. 

From its beginnings, European literature tends to draw certain 

stereotypes to Indians which distort their image and portray them as 

inferior to the Europeans. Once these depictions are passed from one 

culture to another, they are difficult to eliminate, or, even change, resulting 

in racism and prejudiced attitudes (Hoilman, 1980). Daniel Defoe, in 

Robinson Crusoe, wanted his readers to absorb the stereotype of the white 

man's superiority. Through its adaptation to English children's literature, its 

publishers also wanted to make sure that children will grow up with these 

values. Defoe tries to justify Crusoe's behavior and present him as a hero, 

superior to Xury and Friday. Such ideology, present in many foreign texts, 

distorts the Arab children's way of thinking and behaviors as it highlights 

racial discrimination. 



  
31

The readers who might read this novel with no need of change are the 

white children who might accept and even agree with such a stereotype 

since it matches their interests. However, this stereotype might not be 

accepted by the black people, red Indians and even Arab children who have 

different interests and needs and are taught that human beings are equal and 

no one is better than others. Righteousness is the only criteria for being the 

most honored to Allah (God). This is made clear in the Holy Qur'an in 

which Allah says 

"

."),13(

“(O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a 
female, and made you into nations and tribes, that you may know each 
other (not that ye may despise (each other). Verily the most honored 
of you in the sight of Allah is (he who is) the most righteous of you. 
And Allah has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all 
things)”. (Ali, Yusuf, the Holy Quran: A Translation. al-Hujurat 
Surah or (The Private Apartments, the Inner Apartments, verse 13). 

To begin with, we believe that children have the right to be 

introduced to the text, author and publisher in a preface. In the preface, 

translators might state whether the target text is a translation or an 

adaptation. For instance, Bierbaum, in his translation of Pinocchio into 

German, stated that the text was an adaptation and not a straight translation 

of the Italian original. He also stated his purpose of translation and pointed 

out that he 'Germanized' different aspects of the text (O'Sullivan, 2006: 

150). In the preface, translators might also introduce the plot, characters 

and themes. However, none of the three translators of Robinson Crusoe, 

subject of this study, states whether Robinson Crusoe, they are reading, is a 

translation or an adaptation. None of them states that the text is an 



  
32

abridgement of the original. Therefore, Arab children might be misguided 

by the stereotype of ‘white men better than the Negroes or the Indians' 

presented in the text.  

Nevertheless, Khashafa and Hussein provide their readers with a 

short preface about the author, but not about the text or the translation. On 

the other hand, ar-Rafi’i, in his version, is the only one who ends his 

translation with a set of questions concerning the events, the precautions 

Crusoe takes, and Crusoe's behaviors which might be an indication of the 

didactic outcomes and the theme of racial discrimination.  

Crusoe's sense of superiority and his racist behaviors against Xury 

and Friday should be handled with much awareness in translation. Xury is 

the Negro slave who helps Crusoe escape the pirates. Nevertheless, Crusoe 

looks down upon him throughout his voyage and calls him my boy Xury. In 

light of what Crusoe narrates, after his escape from the pirates, he is 

rescued by a Portuguese captain. Crusoe sells the captain all his 

possessions including the ship and Xury, the slave, to this captain. He says 

“he offered me also sixty pieces of eight more for my boy Xury, which 
I was both loath to take, not that I was not willing to let the captain 
have him, but I was very loath to sell the poor boy's liberty who had 
assisted me so faithfully in procuring my own. However, when I let 
him know my reason, he owned to be just and offered me this medium, 
that he would give the boy an obligation to set him free in ten years if 
he turned Christian. ...I let the captain have him.” (Robinson Crusoe, 
1994: 37-38) 

According to Shavit (1986: 112), Translators of children's literature 

are allowed to manipulate the text freely due to the peripheral status of 

children's literature within the literary polysystem. Making use of the 

license given to them, the three Arab translators deal with this part 



  
33

differently. Khashafa and Hussein and the Committee of Translators, for 

instance, delete the whole part related to Xury and the 'shabby treatment' he 

gets as it is an apparent sign of racial discrimination against the Negroes. 

Its deletion is ideologically-motivated based the prevailing values of the 

Arab Muslim non-racist society. The translators purify the text from any 

kind of racism or slavery so as to protect the children's innocence and in 

order to conform to the norms and the image of childhood in the target 

Arab culture (Shavit, 1986: 125). Moreover, Fernandez Lopez states that 

"conflicts based on race do not appear in children's literature" (2006: 41). 

In other words, the change is done according to what is acceptable 

and unacceptable in the target culture in a way that does not conflict with 

the Arab child reader's ideology which believes in cooperation and equality 

among all races. However, ar-Rafi’i, in his version, preserves the previous 

text and only deletes the part about releasing Friday on the condition that 

he became Christian. In this version, the whole text is rendered as follows: 

""

,,

""""

) ., (25:1994

According to the source text, Crusoe treats Xury as one of his 

properties and not as a human being with a free will. He decides for him 

when to be released and on what conditions and does not give him the right 

to decide for himself (Lall, 1998: 197). Ar-Rafi’i, not being aware of 

Crusoe's sense of superiority, enhances Crusoe's feeling of superiority 

when he renders offered me also sixty pieces of eight more for my boy Xury 



  
34

literally as "" , an ideology that is far from the 

Arab-Muslim culture in which a human being can only be a slave to Allah 

(God). However, such a text might be preserved only to show that the 

character is a racist and to evoke feelings of hared against it (al-Hadeedi, 

1976: 286). Further still, ar-Rafi'i enhances the master/slave relationship by 

rendering the word assisted as 

 

(khadama served) which implies 

servitude and subjection. The entries for the words assist and serve 

according to Oxford Dictionary (2005) are 

assist: (v) yusai'd )(  help. 

serve: (v) yakhdim ( ) work for. 

Ar-Rafi’i here tends to be visible in his attempt to modify the word 

assist into the context of servitude, which is not a successful choice in my 

opinion because it enhances Crusoe's superiority. By rendering the word 

assisted as , ar-Rafi’i is neither loyal to the author, nor to the readers. 

Oitinnen (2000: 84) believes that translators should be loyal to the author 

and the target readers. Translators are rather more loyal than faithful to the 

various participants involved. While being loyal to the target language 

readers, the translator is not at all disloyal to the author of the original: 

when books are willingly read by target language readers, they learn to love 

the original author, too. 

As stated earlier, Crusoe's sense of superiority appears from the 

beginning and starts to develop with time to be not just a sense; it becomes 

a code of behavior that affects the theme of the novel. It takes him further 

this time to the extent that people would kneel to him. Following him 

helping Friday, Crusoe describes Friday's reaction as follows: 



  
35

“I beckoned him again to come to me, and gave him all signs of 
encouragement that I could think of, and he came nearer and 
nearer kneeling down every ten or twelve steps in token of 
acknowledgements for my saving his life. I smiled at him and 
looked pleasantly and beckoned to him to come still nearer; at 
length, he came close to me, and then he kneeled down again, 
kissed the ground, and taking me by foot, set my foot upon his 
head: this, it seems, was in token of swearing to be my slave 
forever".( Robinson Crusoe:171) 

The word kneel used in the ST has ideological implications. It is 

used to enhance the master/slave relationship and Crusoe's superiority. 

Khashafa and Hussein render the previous text with no consideration to the 

breakdowns the word 

 

as an equivalent for kneel might cause. It is 

rendered as follows: 

)

,97-8(.

 

The TT will definitely cause breakdowns to its target readers because 

the word kneel is rendered literally as (yasjudu). In an Arab-Muslim 

context, kneeling is a basic part of prayers and has religious connotations. 

As a result it will give rise to religious breakdowns. According to al-

Mawrid Dictionary (1997), the two entries for the word kneel in Arabic 

are: kneel (1): (v) /yasjudu/ or 

 

(to lay one's head, knees, nose and 

hands on the ground to show complete servitude and, kneel (2) : (v) 

/yarka'u/ or) to bow and lower one's head to show gratitude). Oxford 

Dictionary (2005) also gives the Arabic equivalent 



  
36

kneel: (v) /yaj u/  (to lay one's knees on the ground.)

 
St-Pierre (1997: 423) assumes that the aim of translation is to "carry 

across" texts between cultures and it is made difficult by the fact that 

cultures and languages have little in common. When the source and the 

target cultural systems are different, they clash with each other, thus, the 

difference should be reduced through a process of "intercultural 

negotiation" in translation. According to Shavit (1986: 111), "intercultural 

negotiation" may include abridgements, modifications, omissions and 

additions to make the text affiliate to the target system. Therefore, the 

Committee of Translators renders the word kneel as 

 

/yan ani/ (bow in 

English), which is generally used to express regard and gratitude with no 

religious implications. The whole text is rendered as follows: 

.

).,1992:138(

 

Despite the assumption that the ST should be respected, the word 

kneel here is changed even if this change is done at the expense of loyalty 

to the ST because  

"Fidelity does not mean that respect for the ST comes at the expense 
of problems of acceptability of the target text, rather than, in general, 
only those features of the text that could cause conflict” (Fernandez 
Lopez, 2006: 43).  

However, the text is not completely purified since the scene of 

kneeling is described in details in the Committee's version which renders 

the previous text literally as 



  
37

.

.

.),138(  

The Committee of Translators does not appear to be consistent 

because the use of the verb 

 

(ja a) instead of knelt is similar to that of 

 /yasjudu/ and /yarka'u/.     

Ar-Rafi’i renders the word kneeled as 

 

/raka'a/ which is also used 

in a religious context in the Arab-Muslim culture. Ar-Rafi’i renders the 

previous text as follows 

.

...

) .99:1994(

 

None of the three translations seems to be alike in rendering the 

scene describing Friday when putting his head on the ground, taking 

Crusoe by foot and setting it over his head as a token of being his slave 

forever. For instance, Khashafa and Hussein delete it because of the 

extreme humiliation and subjection involved. They modify the phrase: "as 

a token of being my slave forever”, into (thanking or 

requesting mercy). This could be seen more appropriate, and does not 

necessarily denote slavery or servitude. Likewise, the Committee of 

Translators renders it as   

 

with similar implications as 

the word slave and will certainly cause ideological breakdowns to children. 



  
38 

Wakabayashi (1991: 414) believes that socio-cultural distance 

between the target and the ST should be taken into account in translation 

theory and practice in order to reduce the likely breakdowns translators 

might have when little or no attention is paid to the target readers. Due to 

this, ar-Rafi'i provides the most acceptable rendition when he adjusts the 

phrase as a token of being my slave forever into

 

which is a better modification than the first two renditions. Therefore, 

slavery is adjusted into the context of loyalty and faithfulness.   

According to O'Sullivan (2006: 153), children's literature is written, 

published, reviewed and bought by adults to make the text more 

appropriate. She writes: 

“The translation process represents another filter through which a 
text has to pass before reaching child readers, and the filter is often 
used to 'correct' aspects of the original text that are not deemed 
pedagogically acceptable for them.”   

Crusoe moves on to describe the time when he was taken to 

slavery by pirates. He says: 

“Our ship was surprised in the grey of the morning by a Turkish rover 
of Sallee, who gave chase to us with all the sail she could make. We 
were carried all prisoners into Sallee, a port belonging to the Moors. 
The usage I had there was not dreadful as at first I apprehended, nor 
was I carried up the country to the emperor's court, as the rest of our 
men were, but kept by the captain of the rover.” (Robinson Crusoe: 
22-23) 

Khahsafa and Hussein render the whole text as 

"



  
39

) ".

 
, 10(

The sentence I was kept by the captain of the Rover is rendered as 

 

in Khashafa's version. In the English text, there is no 

reference to the captain as a pirate of an Arab origin. The only reference to 

Arabs is that the prisoners are carried to a Moorish port, which also does 

not imply that the captain is an Arab. Therefore, the addition of 

 

is neither an accurate nor a successful choice since it links Arabs 

with piracy. Piracy means robbing and killing sea travelers, and thus, has 

negative implications that might be linked with Arabs. 

The Committee of Translators seems to be more aware of the 

negative implications caused by the intrusion of Arabs into the context of 

piracy. They avoid any reference to Arabs except for the minute detail that 

the port they are carried to belongs to the Moors. Thus, it is rendered as 

",

."",

.

.

) ".,18(

Translators of children's literature can purify the text through a 

process of 'ideological purification' which involves textual elimination of 

certain passages or ideas if they are to do the readers any harm or degrade 

them (Fernandez Lopez: 42). Therefore, ar-Rafi'i in his version also avoids 

any reference to Arabs or even moors. This rendition is the most acceptable 

to Arab child readers because it does not degrade Arabs. Moreover, ar-



  
40

Rafi'i renders the word captain using a generic word (ar-rubban) 

without specifying his country of origin which makes him of any 

nationality and not necessarily of an Arab origin. The whole text is 

rendered as follows: 

"""

".):99(

In the course of his adventures through the novel, Crusoe decides to 

go on a trip to bring African slaves to work on his sugar plantation in 

Brazil. He describes the trade he makes in order to get these slaves, saying:  

…, and how easy it was to purchase upon the coast for trifles (such as 
beads, toys, knives, scissors, hatchets, bits of glass, and the like). 
(Robinson Crusoe: 42) 

The word trifles is used to describe the trade in the ST. Al-‘Anani 

(1996: 26) believes that the literature written for children helps children get 

rid of the harmful behaviors. For him, children's texts that try to prove the 

superiority of the white man over others clash with our cultural values 

which believe in collaboration, equality, and respect among all (ibid: 112). 

Therefore, in Khashafa and Hussein's translation, the underestimation of 

the African trade is eliminated by omitting the word trifles in order to make 

it conform to the values of the Arab Muslim culture which is made clear in 

the Holy Qura'n in which Allah enjoins us not to underestimate others. It 

is important for adults to pass this value to children. Allah says: 

"

) ".,11(



  
41

You who believe, do not let one [set of] people make fun of another 
set; perhaps they are better than they are. Nor let any women 
[mistreat other] women; perhaps they are even better than they are 
themselves. (Irving's English Translation of the Holy Qura'n, 1985). 

Contrary to Khashafa and Hussein, the Committee of Translators 

render the word trifles literally as 

 

(ashya' tafiha) which is source-

culture oriented. It does not involve any kind of textual purification from 

racial elements which are neither acceptable, nor suitable to the children's 

needs and interests according to Ahmad (2006: 103). Moreover, it does not 

contribute to the right shaping of their identities. The whole text is rendered 

as: 

,

.

) .

11(

Translators, thus, can avoid literal translation and be creative in 

rendering any text (Shammas, 2004: 109). Ar-Rafi’i, for instance, shows 

much awareness when he compensates the meaning with 

 

through a process of 'cultural approximation' according to Farghal and 

Shunnaq (1999: 26) which is a better strategy than that of the Committee 

since it does not give rise to racial discrimination. Thus, ar-Rafi'i moves the 

text towards the target readers and away from the ST by creating equivalent 

connotations.  

In the course of action, when Crusoe builds his ship, he talks about 

the kind of wood he uses, which is taken from cedar trees. He says: “I 



  
42

question whether Solomon ever had such one for the building of the temple 

at Jerusalem.” (Robinson Crusoe: 127) 

The reference to the temple at Jerusalem in the ST is a vital one 

because it is a lie made up by the Jews to claim their historical and 

religious right in Jerusalem and Palestine. Ash-Shalalda (2005), points out 

that there is no historical or religious evidence for its existence. He believes 

that 

.

.

.

. 

(Available at http://www.islamonline.net/LiveDialogue/arabic) 

According to al-Faris (1998: 3), every text has an implicit ideology 

and that this ideology should fit its target recipients. In this sense, the 

translator is the one responsible for presenting the author's ideology and 

modifying it if necessary. Al-Faisal (1998: 79) distinguishes between the 

notions of cultural invasion and acculturation ( ) in the 

texts transferred from other cultures into the Arab culture. Cultural invasion 

begins with the translation of the literature that expresses ideologies 

distinct from that of the Arabs and distorts their identities. However, 



  
43

acculturation takes place when the text introduces children to new customs 

and traditions that enhance social and human behaviors such as discipline, 

patience and endurance (ibid: 83-4). The reference to the temple at 

Jerusalem is part of the cultural and ideological invasion. 

Therefore, Khashafa and Hussein and the Committee of Translators 

delete the reference to the scene referring to it. The reference to the temple 

at Jerusalem in the TT would mean recognition of its existence. A more 

pronounced intervention can be found in the text rendered by ar-Rafi’i who 

changed temple at Jerusalem into 

 

(Ma'bad fi Libnan). The 

translation strategy ar-Rafi'i uses is substitution in which the temple at 

Jerusalem is substituted with the temple at Lebanon, a more appealing 

reference. Substitution is a translation strategy by which translators 

substitute a culture-specific element in the ST with a culture specific 

element from the target culture. The aim of this translation strategy is to 

create an effect where the ST reference does not match the interests of the 

target readers or present information that is historically incorrect (Desmet, 

2006: 125).  

Furthermore, Defoe intends to enhance Crusoe's feeling of 

superiority through word choice. For instance, at the beginning of his stay 

on the island, he uses general vocabulary to refer to the island and the 

habitation. He says the island, the castle, the habitation with no reference 

to himself as being the owner of these. Later on in the story, Crusoe starts 

to consider himself as the master of the island and begins to refer to it as 

"my island" and to call the habitation "my castle, my home, my habitation, 

my area, my cave, my grove, my possessions". He even uses words like "my 

boy Xury" to describe the Negro slave, and "my prisoner, my savage, my 



  
44

man, my savage guest, my servant, my slave, fellow savage" on different 

occasions through the novel to refer to Friday. 

The three Arabic versions of the text are quite different in the way 

they look at the significance of such forms in presenting Crusoe's ideology. 

The Committee of Translators, for instance, tries not to enhance Crusoe's 

superiority through the use of generic forms as the house, the island, the 

castle or ,, . It is a successful strategy to indicate that the 

island is not one of Crusoe's properties. Therefore, the Committee of 

translators modifies the words for the sake of the target Arab readers who 

might not accept the fact that a stranger, who inhabits and cultivates a piece 

of land, becomes its owner (colonization in other words).  

The translations of ar-Rafi’i, and Khashafa and Hussein, on the other 

hand, show less awareness of the colonial and racial intentions the use of 

such vocabulary might encourage. Hence, they render the previous phrases 

literally as

 

which 

are, as stated earlier, signs of colonialism. As for the reference to Friday in 

the original version, Crusoe calls him the pursued, the savage, at the 

beginning, then moves on to refer to him as “my slave, my savage”, but 

never my friend or my companion and tells Friday to call him "Master".  

The three translations differ in the way they refer to Friday 

throughout the novel. Khashafa and Hussein seem to be aware of the 

shabby treatment and the use of the vocabulary that degrades Friday. 

Consequently, they adjust the reference to Friday using equivalents like 

 

(the pursued, my companion, friend, and guest) 

to make the references more appropriate when talking about a human being 



  
45

with a free will. Friday is referred to as the savage and my prisoner only 

few times all through their version. However, the Committee of translators 

refers to degrade Friday by referring to him literally as: 

, "the poor pursued, the savage, the slave, my 

slave, my man". As for ar-Rafi’i, more generic forms are used to refer to 

Friday as  (the pursued, and the savage). 

The previous examples demonstrate that ideological and pedagogical 

motivations are not always at work in determining what should or should 

not be deleted or modified in translating for children. In the following part, 

the researcher is going to examine some of the cultural breakdowns 

encountered in the translation of Robinson Crusoe. 

3.2 Cultural breakdowns: 

Lefevere (1992: 79) believes that moral conventions vary across 

cultures, hence, any transfer across cultures causes challenges. For him, 

translation is a means by which foreign influences can challenge the native 

culture and may sometimes subvert it (ibid: 2). Snell-Horny also believes 

that language is an integral part of culture (1988: 39). Therefore, translators 

should have a good knowledge of the source and target cultures in order to 

deal with the socio-cultural context of both cultures more cautiously 

(Hatim & Mason, 1990: 2). Moreover, knowledge of the constraints 

imposed on translation is also recommended in order to avoid breakdowns 

(Puurtinen, 2006: 54).    



  
46

3.2.1. Culture and the Translation of Robinson Crusoe: 

Newmark (1988: 94) defines culture as "the way of life and its 

manifestations that are particular to a community that uses a particular 

language as a means of expression". For him, culture includes food, 

ecology and customs that are specific for one community and distinguish it 

from other communities. According to Hongwei (1999: 1), culture is 

divided into three categories: material, institutional and mental. The first 

one deals with the products manufactured; the second refers to the social 

and religious systems and the third refers to the mentality, behaviors and 

belief. In other words, the third category includes the ideologies and values 

of a certain culture. Language belongs to the institutional culture and 

mirrors other parts of the culture and distinguishes it from other facets of 

cultures. According to Hongwei, translation is a 'transfer of culture' and the 

translator should be aware of the mental culture in order to solve the 

culture-bound translation problems (Ibid: 14). Because translators work in 

a given culture at a given time, they are influenced by their cultural and 

social values (Leskovar, 2003). Following are examples of the cultural 

breakdowns that are caused by the translations of Robinson Crusoe into 

Arabic. 

When Crusoe, describing his trip in the sea, narrates what a sailor 

says to him: “Let's make a bowl of punch; I was made drunk, applying 

myself to drinking and company”. (Robinson Crusoe, 1994: 14). 

According to Oxford Online Dictionary (2008): 

“Punch, seaman's drink, is a beverage composed of wine or spirits 
with hot water, milk or tea, and flavored with sugar, lemon, some 
spice or cordial.” 



  
47

In Western cultures, drinking is related to punch, wine, beer and 

alcohol which are common and allowed. However, it is a religious taboo in 

Islam because it makes the person unconscious of things around him. In 

light of this, Khahsafa and Hussein delete any reference to such drinks in 

their version since parents would not like their children to read about 

heroes drinking and acting stupidly.  

Nevertheless, ar-Rafi’i, not taking into consideration the harmful 

effects of reading about heroes drinking beer and wine, transliterates the 

word punch using an Arabic alphabet " ". Transliteration is the 

conversion of a word in the source language using the alphabet of the target 

language (Newmark, 1988: 81). It is generally used when the word does 

not exist in the TL. Because it is a religious taboo in the target culture, the 

translator could have added a footnote explaining that to the child readers 

but publishers, translators and even parents would not accept this word to 

be explained to children. Moreover, explanatory solutions enlarge the text 

"which can easily disrupt the flow of the text, especially if the text involves 

several cultural references" (Olk, 2002: 131). 

It follows that references to alcoholic beverages are avoided in most 

cases because children may reject a text reflecting a culture that is 

unfamiliar to them (Lathey, 2006: 7). The reference to wine is sometimes 

modified using the phrase (grape juice) 

 

instead of 

 

(wine) since (grape juice) 

 

is not a taboo drink to Arabs and 

Muslims. The change here is done in an attempt to reduce the cultural gap 

between the ST and the TT by (Wakabayashi, 1991: 421-2). In the same 

context, Olk (2002: 121) points out: 



  
48

“Translators who seek to create target texts which will be accepted in 
the target culture need to identify culture specificity in the ST and to 
find a communicatively satisfactory mediating position for cultural 
divergences. Viewed from this perspective translation in its very 
essence is a form of intercultural communication, which draws heavily 
on the translator’s intercultural competence.” 

Later in the text, Crusoe talks about a box of bottles he takes with 

him when he escapes the pirates. ‘Bottles’ in the Western culture is also 

linked with wine and beer. It follows that the Committee of translators 

omits it. Meanwhile, ar-Rafi’i renders a box of bottles as

which is also a taboo. Better still is Khahsafa and Hussein's intervention by 

giving it a generic term .  

Likewise, the reference to dram is also avoided in the Arab versions 

of Robinson Crusoe. As in 

" so I gave Xury a piece of rusk bread to eat and a dram out of our 

patron's case of bottles". (Robinson Crusoe: 30) 

According to Oxford Dictionary (2005), the word dram means: 

, a religious taboo, and thus, it is also deleted from the three 

versions. 

Even when Crusoe gets sick and mixes tobacco with rum which is 

also an intoxicating drink, Khahsafa and Hussein refer to it as: 

 

which is a more acceptable translation than that of the Committee of 

translators who render it as 

 

with no footnote to tell what it means. 

Ar-Rafi’i transliterated as " " with a footnote telling the reader that it is 

one kind of wine  which I think is not a successful strategy since 

wine is a religious taboo to Muslims. The deletion and modification of the 



  
49

reference to taboo drinks are applied on the basis of censorship and 

educational intentions of the translator (Puurtinen, 1998). 

Similar to the reference to punch and rum, pork is another religious 

taboo in the Arab-Muslim culture; hence in our view the reference to it has 

to be omitted. Khashafa and Hussein and ar-Rafi'i modify it using a generic 

form of 

 

(meat).  However, the Committee of Translators renders it 

literally as 

 

abiding by the source text. Keeping ‘source-culture 

orientation’ in translation is problematic according to Olk (2002: 131) 

because it introduces a parameter that is irrelevant to the target text and, 

thus, of no interest to the target readers.  

Translators should always be able to examine anything that is likely 

to violate the target reader's expectations and modify it so that it does not 

introduce harmful (Holman and Beier, 1999: 11). When Crusoe keeps 

mourning the fact that he is alone on an isolated island and rarely prays to 

God to help him and instead keeps wondering and complaining: 

Why has God done this to me? What have I done to be thus used? 

(Robinson Crusoe: 94) 

Can God spread a table in the wilderness? Can God himself deliver 
me from this place? (95) 

But though I could not say I thanked God for being there, yet I 
sincerely gave thanks to God for opening my eyes (114). He also 
says 

“thus my fear banished all my religious hope, all that former 
confidence in God, which was founded upon such wonderful 
experience as I had had of his goodness, now vanished, as if that 
had fed me by miracle hitherto could not preserve by His power the 
provision which He had for me by His goodness” (154). 



  
50

Rendering the previous passages literally with no adjustments will 

certainly violate a religious ‘parameter' since Arab - Muslim children are 

taught to have faith and to thank Allah for better and worse. Thus, they are 

deleted from the three translations. Original works are censored and 

modified to conform to social, political and religious taboos (Fernandez 

Lopez, 2006: 41; Stolt, 2006: 71). However, the Committee of Translators 

preserves thus my fear banished all my religious hope as 

 

(Inna shukria lillahi bada'a yatada'al) or my gratitude to God 

started to decline.  

Furthermore, children are taught to show love and respect to their 

parents which is a general practice in all societies. However, it is given 

more importance in the Arab–Muslim world as a religious practice rather 

than a cultural one. When Crusoe decides to go to sea, he discusses the 

matter with his father who refuses to allow him to go. He says 

“…and my inclination to this led me so strongly against the will, nay 
the command, of my father, and against the entreaties and persuasions 
of my mother and other friends.” (Robinson Crusoe: 8) 

Crusoe disobeys his father and goes to sea without his consent. Ar- 

Rafi'i, in his version avoids any reference to the word 

 

(ya'si) or 

disobeys his father. He only mentions the fact that he is driven by his strong 

wish to go to sea. He modifies it saying 

,

) .:5( 

Successful translation is a "product determined by audience 

response", and its acceptability in the target language (Dollerup, 1999: 



  
51

311). Modifying disobedience is more accepted to Arab-Muslim readers 

especially in the texts that are originally written for adults and then adapted 

for children. Therefore, Khashafa and Hussein omit the part about Crusoe's 

disobedience to his parents and assert his attempt to persuade his parents. 

They render it as 

) .,:7( 

They modify Crusoe's disobedience to the context of running away 

. 

As for the Committee of Translators, they retain his disobedience 

,).

:1-2( 

Crusoe's admission of the consequences of not obeying his parents 

are better be enhanced in the target text for educational and moral purposes 

which are according to Stolt (2006: 71) of the most influential factors 

affecting the translation of children's literature. For her, other factors that 

play a significant role in translating children's literature are the child image 

or how adults perceive what children want to read and the level of 

children's comprehension. In the Arab Islamic tradition, the adult's image 

of the child is accompanied with obedience. Children’s literature in the 

Arab world is basically meant to teach and to guide (Mdallel, 2003). That 

is, the very first lesson that adults pass to their children it to love, respect 

and obey their parents which is quite linked with their obedience to God.  



  
52

For the family relations present in the original text, it seems that they 

are completely ignored since Crusoe never gets to talk about his family or 

how much he misses his parents. Even when he talks about his brothers, he 

does not give a clue about their names. Conversely, he mentions the names 

of his slaves Xury and Friday. Because family relations are very important 

in the Arab-Muslim world, the deletion of chapter 23 in which Friday 

meets his father from the three Arab versions is not a wise choice. By 

deleting this chapter, love, affection and respect among family members 

are all overlooked. Arab literature is read for morality. One of which is 

regard to family and basically parents who are significant for them and 

adults would like their children to read about Friday's attitudes towards his 

father. Oitinnen asserts this point. She writes 

When we write, illustrate, or translate for children, we always do it 
on the basis of our images of childhood, on the basis of the whole 
society’s image of childhood. When we create for children, we have a 
certain kind of childhood and children in mind. When we censor, 
what and how we do so is based on our child concept (2000: 53). 

In the English version, which was intended originally for adults, the 

scenes of the cannibalistic actions, violence, description of the human 

bones and skulls are given in details. However, in the Arabic versions, 

intended for children, translators succeed in making the text suitable for 

children by avoiding the scenes of violence. The Committee of translators, 

however, gives detailed description of the horror and violence not keeping 

in mind that it is presented to children. They, not taking into account that 

the target readers of this text are innocent children who should not be 

exposed to violent scenes at a young age, provide illustrations of the skulls 

and bones of human beings. For my surprise, this scene is not even 

illustrated in the original adult's version because of the violence involved. 



  
53

The following illustration is taken from the Committee's version. It shows 

the bones and skulls of humans, who the cannibals have eaten, a disturbing 

scene that should be deleted, but was retained and illustrated in the TT. 

 

Figure 1: From the Committee's Arabic Translation: the Savages and the Skulls 
and Bones of their Victims (1992: 41). 

A further example of a cultural tradition that exists in the English 

culture and not in the Arab one is Crusoe taking his name from his father's 

and mother's family in the opening scene of the novel. In the Arab culture, 

children are named after their fathers and never after their mothers. Due to 

this, ar-Rafi’i and the Committee of Translators delete any reference to 

Crusoe being named after his father's and mother's family.  O'Sullivan 

(2006: 98) believes that the adaptation of children's literature is basically 

based on what is socio-culturally appropriate for the child readers. 

Therefore, a translator is more likely to become visible make changes in the 

text taking into consideration the culturally-determined interests. Based on 

the previous assumption, Khashafa and Hussein render it literally 



  
54

explaining that it is a tradition in the English culture. It is retained because 

it does not clash with the children's culture. It is good for children to get 

familiar with it as they might come across it in their daily lives. 

3.2.2 The Translation of Proper Nouns: 

Proper nouns are nouns that have a unique reference. They include 

names of specific people, places, countries, months, days and holidays. In 

terms of translation, they are transliterated into the target culture. However, 

some proper nouns are translated if they have meaning (Farghal and 

Shunnaq, 1999: 61). 

For Newmark (1981: 70-1), proper nouns have no meaning or 

connotations; therefore, they are not to be translated. If the name has an 

accepted translation, it still should not be transliterated or naturalized into 

the target culture because the change of the name would suggest a change 

in nationality. Most of the names in Robinson Crusoe are transliterated 

abiding by the principle of "foreignization" by which the translators 

preserve the foreign elements in a text to allow the features of the source 

language influence the language of the target text "(Bernofsky, 1997: 175). 

On the other hand, 'domestication' is a "means of bringing the translation 

closer to the target-language readers" by replacing the foreign elements in a 

text with more familiar ones (Mazi-Leskovar, 2003). The three translators 

use this technique when they translate the name of the Indian savage 

Friday into 

 

(Juma'a) which is neither a successful nor a wise choice 

since it suggests that Friday has an Arab nationality. It follows that, all the 

humiliating behaviors of kneeling and servitude come from an Arab. This 

makes them inconsistent in their choice of the translation strategies as they 



  
55

leave most names intact, and only domesticate the slave's name to their 

own culture. Instead of translating the name Friday, it can be preserved. Its 

connotation can be explained in a glossary (the day on which Friday is 

rescued) while leaving the name intact since Friday's nationality of an 

Indian is important to the plot. 

According to Yamazaki (2002: 53), names should not be changed 

because it deprives children of any knowledge about the cultural diversity. 

Due to this, the three versions of the novel transliterate the foreign names. 

However, Khashafa and Hussein replace proper names with generic forms 

as (port ) instead of port of Humber. Ar-Rafi’ replaces Thames with 

 

(the river), Yarmouth ( ), Newcastle ( ), Humber ( ) and 

Xury ( ) in his version. Similar to Yamazaki, Hejwowski (2004: 93), 

believes that names introduce the readers to the “cultural other”, and show 

that the events of the text take place in a distinct place and culture. Since 

names do not affect the plot and events of any literary text, they can be 

preserved except for very little children who would not be interested to 

read about foreign people and strange names that they would not be able to 

pronounce. For older children, like teenagers, the situation is different since 

they start to accept and even like to read about people other than 

themselves. 

3.2.3 Robinson Crusoe and Intertexual References: 

Contextual and intertexual references created in the ST can also play 

an important role in the translation of children's literature, since they may 

save the translator from having to explain or delete a reference (Olk, 2003: 

133).  



  
56

From the standpoint of Desmet (2006: 125), intertextual references 

in children's literature are sometimes difficult to understand and their 

meaning is not easily created because they are unknown to the target 

audience. Desmet (2006: 125) writes 

Translators may be aware of the gaps in their own reading, may 
observe that certain intertextual or cultural references do not work in 
the target culture, and therefore recognize that particular references 
would remain dormant for most of intended audience in the target 
culture. Yet, since translators are committed to creating their own 
version of an open intertextual text, they may decide to use 
substitution, whereby intertextual or cultural items that would remain 
dormant and close off a text are substituted by different references of 
a similar kind that work in the target culture and create similar effect 
in the target reader. Substitution as a strategy may be linked with 
compensation, that is, where it is impossible to create the same effect 
translators can compensate by creating that effect in a place where 
the ST does not have a reference. 

Therefore, in the translation of Robinson Crusoe, consideration is 

given to intertexual features in the original text. For instance, the three 

Arab translators are aware of the fact the reference to executioner in 

Germany, which was used to describe Friday, is specific to the source 

culture and its meaning would not be understood by the target readers. 

Therefore, the Committee of Translators and Khashafa and Hussein delete 

the reference to it.  

Better still is ar-Rafi's intervention in the text by substituting 

executioner in Germany with 

 

(sayyafu ash-sharq) in an attempt 

to recreate a foreign reference into a more familiar one in order to keep the 

balance between the target and the ST.  The use of 

 

is more 

appealing to Arab children and gives the reference a local Arab color. 

Substitution reveals how the translator manages to compensate for the 



  
57

information that is specific to the German culture. It is also a better strategy 

due to the fact that it works in favor of the target reader's ideological 

intentions rather than the ST writer and readers. Due to this, ar-Rafi'i 

substituted temple at Jerusalem with temple at Lebanon. By leaving out 

some cultural references and changing others, the three Arab translators 

have managed to adjust elements of the text to 'prevalent models' of the 

Arab culture. The actual decision of what to omit and retain depends on" 

the norms of morality accepted and demanded by the children's system; and 

the assumed level of the child's comprehension" (Shavit, 1986: 121) 

3.2.4 Translation and illustrations in Robinson Crusoe: 

I should like to mention a problem that is quite specific to children's 

books: the issue of illustrations. Oittinen (2006: 93-99) points out that 

illustrations are very significant in children’s literature s