An-Najah National University
Faculty of Graduate Studies

Translation and the Intertextual Space:
The Translation of Religious, Historical
and Mythical Allusions in the Poetry of

Mahmoud Darwish

By
Aya M. J. Halabi

Supervisor
Dr. Nabil Alawi

This Thesis is Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree of Master of Applied
Linguistics and Translation, Faculty of Graduate Studies,
An-Najah National University, Nablus, Palestine

2016



Dr. Mohammad Thawabteh 1External examiner .... .....~

Dr. AbdelKarim Daraghmeh / Internal examiner ~ .... :-:.5~
Dr. Nabil Alawi 1Supervisor

Defence Committee Members

This thesis was defended successfully on 13/0112016 and approved by:

By
Aya M. J. Halabi

Translation and the Intertextual Space:
The Translation of Religious, Historical
and Mythical Allusions in the Poetry of

Mahmoud Darwish

II



III

Dedication

Like a bird flinging the bars of the cage, wishing them branches of a

tree, wishing them as a wide sky where it can fly, the small girl I once was,

is now embroidering this work ,

To who warmly grappled my hands when I was tremulously writing

“Alef” the letter that begins the alphabets of Arabic and my name as well:

my father and my mother, who did their best.

To the fragranced soul of my childhood companion and hero: my

brother Mohammad.

To the voice of wisdom and inspiration at An-Najah University, to

the Great Professor that I will always be indebted to for changing my life

completely: Dr. Nabil Alawi

And to the three heroes of my past, present and future, I dedicate this

work.



IV

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, praise is to Allah for the tremendous care and

support to me in achieving this work.

I would like to take immense pleasure to express my sincere and

deep sense of gratitude to Dr. Nabil Alawi for his sustained enthusiasm,

creative suggestions, motivation and exemplary guidance throughout the

course of my graduate study. As my supervisor; he has taught me more

than I could ever give him credit for here; he has shown me, by his

example, what and how a great academic and person should be.

I offer my profound gratitude to Dr. Mohammad Thawabteh for his

help and support during the period of my thesis, as well as to Dr. Abdel

Karim Daraghmeh for his time and efforts in assessing this work.

I sincerely acknowledge the support and assistance of my friends and

colleagues for finishing this work, I’m really grateful to all of those with

whom I have had the pleasure to work during this thesis, all of those who

have provided me with extensive personal and professional guidance and

taught me a great deal about both research and life in general. I would take

this opportunity to thank each one of them.

Nobody has been more important to me in the pursuit of this thesis

than the members of my family. I would like to thank my parents whose

love and guidance are with me in whatever I pursue. They are the ultimate

role models. I would like to thank also my brothers and my sisters for their

exceptional support and help. There are so many others whom I may have

inadvertently left out and I sincerely thank all of them for their help.





VI

Table of Contents

Subject Page
Dedication III
Acknowledgements IV
Declaration V
Table of Contents VI
List of Abbreviations VIII
Abstract IX

Chapter One
Introduction

1

1.1 Background 2
1.2 Statement of the Problem 4
1.3 Questions of the Study 5
1.4 Significance of the Study 6
1.5 Limitations of the Study 7
1.6 Methodology 8
1.7 Layout of the Study 9

Chapter Two
Literature Review and Theoretical Origin

11

2.1 Review of Related Works and a Theoretical Background 12
2.1.1 Theoretical Origin 12
2.1.2 Intertextuality vs. Innovation 17
2.1.3 Intertextuality and Translation Strategy 20
2.1.4 Inevitability of Intertextuality and Anxiety of
Influence

20

2.1.5 Seemingly Mimic, Substantially Original 22
2.2 A Sneak Peak to Allusions 26

2.2.1 The Concept of “Allusions as Culture Bumps” in a
Nutshell

26

2.2.2 The Functions of Allusions 27
2.2.3 Translation of Allusions 28

2.2.3.1 Leppihalme’s Translation Strategies of
Allusions

28

2.2.3.2 Basil Hatim and Ian Mason 33
Chapter Three
Data Analysis

35

3.1 Introduction 36
3.2 Allusions 38
3.3 The Expert and Responsible Translator 48



VII

Subject Page
3.4 Reconizability of Allusions 50

3.3.1 Religious Resonances found in ‘Pastiche’ 55
3.3.2 Three Distinct Stages 60

3.4 Data Analysis 64
3.4.1 Ruokonen’s Classification of Allusions 64
3.4.2 Translation of Historical and Mythical Allusions 83

3.4.2.1 Mythical Allusions 84
3.4.2.2 Historical Allusions 87

Chapter Four
Conclusions and Recommendations

91

4.1 Conclusions 92
4.2 Recommendations 99
References 101
الملخص ب



VIII

List of Abbreviations

ST Source Text

TT Target Text

SL Source Language

TL Target Language

SLT Source Language Text

TLT Target Language  Text

KP Key-Phrase

PN Proper-Name



IX

Translation and the Intertextual Space:
The Translation of Religious, Historical
and Mythical Allusions in the Poetry of

Mahmoud Darwish
By

Aya M.J Halabi
Supervisor

Dr. Nabil Alawi

Abstract

For many decades, allusions have become the ‘Treasure Land’ that

has brought the attention of many scholars and researchers to write about.

This study tackles the translation issue of religious, historical and mythical

allusions in the literary works of Mahmoud Darwish in view of intertextual

space concept.

Firstly, it proves that writing is not a mere alteration and adjustment

of the existed texts, but it is a re-invention of an invention and a renewal of

the previous meanings, thoughts and ideas; thus, adopting the rhetorical

semiotic approach is very fundamental in the study of allusions in

translation for the meaning matters before adopting any translation

strategy. Secondly, translators need to engage themselves in the translation

process with the assumption that texts are not genuinely created, but they

can be intersected with an anthology of texts from everywhere. Last but not

least, the translator should be a subject-matter expert and sensitive to all the

meanings aroused by different types of the allusive references to enable

her/him to select the most convenient strategy that is fair for both of the

source text (ST) author and target text (TT) readers.



X

Through examining different examples (quotations, utterances,

poems and verses), one can find that the translator opted for retaining the

proper-name (PN) allusions, to use the standard translation for the key-

phrase (KP) allusions, to delete, add or change them. We cannot evaluate

this translation as right or wrong, but translators should conduct readers-

response tests to examine the efficiency level of translation, and to evaluate

the extent to which translators are able to transfer the meaning of the

allusions from the ST into the TT.



XI

Definition of Key Terms

Intertextuality: it is “the shaping of a text meaning by another text.

Intertextual figures include: allusion, quotation, calque, plagiarism,

translation, pastiche and parody” (Genette, 1997, 18)

Intertextual Space: it is the locative space through which a sign travels

between texts; by this way a sign gains different shades of meanings and

implications.

Literary Innovation: it is the newly-created works in literature that have

never been done or said before either in form or content or both.

Allusive Expressions: they are one of the forms of intertextuality. They

are utilized to refer to famous quotes, events, incidents or characters from

religion, history or mythology.

The Death of the Author: it is a concept from literary criticism which

holds that an author’s intentions or biographical background should have

no weight in the interpretation of the text. The interpretation of the text is

only valid when it comes to its readers.



Chapter One

Introduction

1.1 Background

1.2 Statement of the Problem

1.3 Questions of the Study

1.4 Significance of the Study

1.5 Limitations of the Study

1.6 Methodology

1.7 Layout of the Study



2

Chapter One

Introduction

1.1 Background:

“No poet, no artist of any art, has his complete meaning alone. His

significance, his appreciation is the appreciation of his relation to the dead

poets and artists. You cannot value him alone; you must set him, for

contrast and comparison, among the dead. I mean this as a principle of

esthetic, not merely historical, criticism ”. (T.S. Eliot, 1920, 44)

According to translation theorists, translation is the rendering of the

same ideas and thoughts from one language (Source Language: SL) into

another language (Target Language: TL). Theorists almost agree that there

is no absolute definition of translation; however, one can trace some

definitions that have been provided. Newmark (1981:7) defines translation

as “a craft consisting in the attempt to replace a written message and/or

statement in one language by the same message and/or statement in another

language”. This reinforces the idea that the translator has a very

challenging task as a mediator between two languages. S/he is the only text

receiver and the text producer as well since the translator has to understand

and absorb the Source Language Text (SLT) meticulously before rendering

it into the Target Language Text (TLT).

Literary translation is the most difficult type of translation. This is

due to the fact that each literary text has its own specific characteristics



3

which distinguish it from others; i.e., poems, short stories and novels

among many others. In this case, translation is a journey through which the

translator can move on from one shore into another, from a shore that is

familiar to her/him to a shore that s/he has no idea about; s/he begins to

discover the mysteries of this shore, to employ her/his previous knowledge,

and eventually the shore will be familiar to the translator and the act of

translation will end when the translator forms a body of metaphors, words,

ideas and images.  Arabic literature, in particular, poses a serious challenge

to the translator since it is rich in esthetic and phonetic features and

figurative expressions which demand much effort from the translator to

create the same impact on the target text receivers.

Literary texts intertextualized by using textiles from other prior texts

require much time and efforts from the translator. In this case, s/he is thrust

in the middle of a quest to transfer the style as well as the meaning of the

original text to create the same impact on the target audience.

Intertextuality is defined as:

A relation between two or more texts which has an effect upon
the intertext (that is the text within which other texts reside or
echo their presence) is read. In some usages the term
intertextuality is reserved for more overt relations between
specific texts, or between two particular texts while
intertextuality is reserved to indicate a more diffused
penetration of the individual text by memories, echoes,
transformations by other texts” (Hawthorne, 2001, 182).

This study sheds the light on tackling the translation of the

intertextual allusions in the literary works of Mahmoud Darwish. Since the



4

intertextualized networks gain new shades of meanings when traveling

from one text to others, how can the translator mediate between the text

tissues trying to understand the meaning and the values generated through

the use of these allusive expressions?  And what are the strategies that can

be utilized to nearly reserve the same esthetic and rhetorical value between

the ST and the TT?

1.2 Statement of the Problem:

The problem of this thesis is coin-like with two different faces. First,

almost all theorists have agreed that there are no original texts at all; we all

live in a world of mimicry as the originality has been fading day after day.

As we approach the literary works of Darwish, we find textiles form the

Greek culture: Odysseus and Troy, biblical echoes: Virgin Mary, Jesus

Christ, Songs of Solomon, Psalms of David, Isaiah and Quranic

resonances. When these allusive references move from their original

habitat to another, what are the new overtones that they will carry, and how

does the way of representing the overtones to new audience add to the

innovative literary repertoire of Darwish?

In view of this, and as a result of the different meanings carried by

the intertextual references caused by the intertextual space, translation is

considered a very demanding and challenging task. These allusions are

folded with two possible layers of meanings: denotative meaning (the

meaning of the dictionary) and connotative meaning and functions



5

(rhetorical, esthetic, situational and pragmatic functions). Besides, the

meaning of these intertextual networks could be overt or covert or they

may not exist in the stock of the TL culture. The translator, hereby, should

follow certain strategies that enable her/him to decide what to keep or

ignore of these intertextualized texts, and to cover all the perspectives

implied in the allusive references without being lost in the trap of

misunderstanding.

Within the context of intertextuality, allusions participate in the
creation of a network of tissues between texts. Some allusions
are very popular and occur in several texts; they travel between
texts and every time they are borrowed, they gain new
meanings within the intertextual space (Alawi, 2010, 2444)

1.3 Questions of the Study:

More specifically, the study addresses and seeks to answer the

following questions:

1) Is the legend of Darwish vulnerable to be eroded under the mirage of

intertextuality?  In view of the disagreement between the theorists on

the concept of intertextuality, is it true that intertextuality is in the

eye of the beholder? How can intertextuality contribute to enriching

the innovative literary repertoire of Darwish based on the concept of

“intertextual space”?

2) What are the overtones of the religious, historical and mythical

intertextual expressions in the poetry of Darwish? How does

Darwish add his special touch to these expressions? If the main goal



6

of intertextuality is to generate meaning, how can the translator

identify the inwardness of these intertextual relations? And will s/he

be able to re-produce the same meaning and keep the same impact on

the TL readers?

3) While being chased by the concepts of “allusions as culture bumps”

and the “intertextual space”, what are the strategies that the translator

can follow to nearly maintain the same esthetic and rhetorical values

that exist in the ST in the TT? How can the translator mitigate falling

in the trap of misunderstanding to the different shades of meanings

generated by the intertextualized networks when traveling from one

text to others? How does the translator fail to capture the meaning if

s/he misses the different intertextual relations?

1.4 Significance of the Study:

Infinite are the research works made on the issue of translation and

its relation to one or more of the linguistic fields; nevertheless, few are the

studies that tackle the issue of the translation of religious, historical and

mythical allusions in poetry. In fact, the topic of intertextuality has always

been hidden in its own conch; some researches addressed this topic trying

to release it to the world of linguistics and translation; still, none has verily

reached to its essence yet. Particularly, this study examines the intertextual

patterns used in the literary works of Mahmoud Darwish and their

translation so as to elicit the shades of meanings that Darwish has managed



7

to create by his literary works. The value added to this study is the

combination of three major fields: linguistics, translation and literature;

three topics will be analyzed thoroughly and deeply in relation to each

other. Most of the research works conducted about the poetry of Darwish

deal with one or two of his poems tackling a topic in literature, linguistics

or translation; however, this study follows the trails of Darwish in most of

his poems focusing on the special touch that he adds in the allusions that

echo other literary and religious books or prominent historical events. The

scale of this analysis ranges from the story of Adam and Eve up to the

events after the World War II, the peace process, the first Uprising (Intifada

1987) and the Second Intifada (2000), and how all of these incidents are

seen by Darwish; in other words, the researcher will wear the binocular of

Darwish in some instances, then she will take it off and be an appraiser

who will assess the value of translation with a reference to intertextuality,

the main approaches adopted and the strategies utilized. The researcher will

eventually conclude new findings that are essential to the three

aforementioned fields at once.

1.5 Limitations of the Study:

The study in hand has certain restrictions that are worth tackling

when discussing the study and its contributions. The study focuses on the

analysis of the modern poetry of Darwish which is considered the main

ingredient of this study since it enables the researcher to earn the

anticipated fruits of this study.



8

The study concentrates on the intertextual tissues that a text has and

the role of the intertextual space in the creation of different meanings and

implications. This can be proved through the activation of the translation

factor to follow the trail of the problems encountered by all translators

when finding poetic intertextual textiles that need to be translated, and the

possible ways that can be utilized to mitigate falling in the trap of these

bumps.

1.6 Methodology:

The researcher will be able to answer all the questions raised so far

and to reach to the anticipated results through employing two main

approaches: the descriptive and the analytical. A number of the allusive

expressions encoded in the poetry of Darwish will be thoroughly examined

describing their relation to the concept of “literary innovation” and how

they support or negate this concept; these examples will mainly be in

Arabic followed by their translation. Moreover, and after describing the

textures of these intertextual relations, the researcher will conduct a deep

analysis to the implications of the usage of such expressions applying the

strategies derived by Leppihalme (1997) for translating these allusive

expressions. In accordance with this, the researcher can compare between

the SL and the TL in terms of meaning.



9

1.7 Layout of the Study:

In order to testify the complexity of the translation of allusions in the

poetry of Darwish, this study employs the three interdisciplinary fields of

study; literature, linguistics and translation so as to shed the light on the

problems that the translators face during the translation of allusions.  It is

divided into four main chapters, most of which consist of a number of

sections addressing one aspect of the chapter’s topic.

Chapter One consists of six main sections that are considered as a

foreword to the whole study topic; it instills the reader swiftly and briefly

into the skeleton of the study in mere femto-seconds. The study problem,

its questions, limitation, significance and methodology are presented in a

very thoughtful way to fire a desire in the readers’ minds that cannot be

quenched unless they pass from one chapter into another.

Chapter Two introduces the main claims presented in the previous studies,

books, articles and researches that echo the whole topic of the study. The

theoretical background and review of literature are a micro-anchor that

helps the researcher through her journey to decode the particles of the study

problem.

Chapter Three tackles the issue of “intertextuality in the eye of the

beholder” and testifies whether intertextuality negates or supports the

literary innovation of Darwish in light of the “intertextual space” concept.

This chapter is considered the corner stone of the whole study since it



10

focuses on the allusions as entities which are considered as bumps for the

translators due to the factors of time, place and space. It presents the

problems that translators encounter analytically trying to provide

reasonable solutions to keep the same esthetic and rhetorical values that the

allusions carry in the ST and it the TT.

Chapter Four is the final one that gives conclusions and recommendations

by the way of generalizations on translation behavior in the targeted area of

study.



11

Chapter two

Literature Review and Theoretical Origin

2.1 Review of Related Works and a Theoretical Background:

2.1.1 Theoretical Origin:

2.1.2 Intertextuality vs. Innovation

2.1.3 Intertextuality and Translation Strategy

2.1.4 Inevitability of Intertextuality and Anxiety of Influence

2.1.5 Seemingly Mimic, Substantially Original

2.2 A Sneak-Peak to Allusions

2.2.1 The Concept of “Allusions as Culture Bumps” in a Nutshell

2.2.2 The Functions of Allusions

2.2.3 Translation of Allusions

2.2.3.1 Leppihalme’s Translation Strategies of Allusions

2.2.3.2 Basil Hatim and Ian Mason



12

Chapter two

Literature Review and Theoretical Origin

2.1 Review of Related Works and a Theoretical Background:

2.1.1 Theoretical Origin:

“We create our texts out of the sea of former texts that surround us,

the sea of language we live in” (Charles Bazerman)

The relationship of texts to other texts that precede them has always

been a perpetual concern to many theorists and scholars since classical

antiquity, yet the more theorists profoundly inject themselves in this issue,

the more they encourage us to discover other aspects that have still not

been utterly covered the way they should be. Intertextuality has been

studied from the point of view of different disciplines; discourse analysis,

applied linguistics, text linguistics, computational linguistics, literary

criticism, comparative literature, media studies and translation studies;

innumerable approaches within these disciplines have contributed to enrich

the argument depicted in this thesis.

From the perspective of translation, intertextuality is an

indispensable concept for translation since it involves both of the good

reading and writing to arbitrate between the text producers and receivers.

This means that if the translator fails to reach to a very high degree of



13

understanding and apprehension, this will not lead to the production of

well-written texts.

The meaning is not static to be only found in a shell related to the old

texts; intertextuality is believed to be instituted to multiply meanings and

generate new and more different shades than those which already dwell in

the layers of old texts. Thus, this chapter outlines the various theoretical

approaches linguists and critics have taken in the definition of this term and

the strategies used in the translation of allusive references.

First and foremost, the origin of the concept of intertextuality can be

best traced to Ferdinand De Saussure (1986). De Saussure argues that the

linguistic signs do not carry within themselves a one-to-one relationship

with the objects they signify in the real world. Rather, the linguistic sign is

divided into two parts; the sound pattern “signifier” and the concept or

what it signifies “signified”, and there is an arbitrary relationship between

the two parts. He goes on asserting that the linguistic sign is differential in

nature, and not referential; it is activated and empowered not from within

itself, but from its peers within the whole linguistic system.  “The content

of word is determined in the final analysis not by what it contains but by

what exists outside it; in the language itself there are only differences” (De

Saussure, 1986, 114-8). Thus, intertextuality does not indicate a one-to-one

relationship neither with the physical surrounding world nor with the

preceding words found in other texts.  Kristeva said it all when she argued

that:



14

The text is a productivity. Not in the sense that it is a product
of being worked (as narrative technique or the mastery of
style would demand), but as the very theatre of a production
where the producer of the text and the reader come together:
the text ‘works’ whenever and however it is taken up; even in
written fixed form, the text does not stop working, or
undertaking a process of production”. (Kristiva, 1980, 36).

The “productivity of the text” simply implies the various shades of

ideas and meanings that the text can signify when it is placed in different

contexts within the same language. In other words, the ways in which both

of its particles and its whole continue to signify a certain meaning in a

certain context, but more importantly in all other possible contexts and in

all other cultures with no exceptions. Finally, the text becomes like the axe

which digs in the foundations of the authentic meaning till it destroys any

original or fixed meaning because of its differential abilities to be placed in

variable contexts simultaneously while it is also constructive when

devoting all the necessary tools to build a contented meaning.

In spite of that, Kristeva insists that her concept of intertextuality is

derived from another equally important critical concept regarding the

nature of linguistic communication at large and the ways in which language

functions as a whole; this is the concept of dialogism that is coined by the

Russian scholar and theoretician Mikhail Bakhtin.

Bakhtin (1934) explains his concept of dialogism and the internal

relationships between texts saying:

At any given moment of its evolution, language is stratified not
only into linguistic dialects in the strict sense of the word



15

(according to formal linguistic markers, especially phonetic) …
From this point of view, literary language itself is one of these
heteroglot languages, and in its turn is also stratified into
languages (generic, period, bound and others) and thiss
stratification and heteroglossia, once realized, is not only a
static invariant of linguistic life, but also what insures,
stratification and heteroglossia widen and deepen as long as
language is alive and developing. (Bakhtin, 1934, 232-3)

Apparently, Bakhtin argues that every linguistic or literary utterance

is made of several layers and stratifications, each of which represents an

ideological and/or social construction (classes, generations, educational or

cultural standards, etc.); such statements or utterances are the basic means

for constructing meaning, and this constitutes the dynamism of the

language itself and the innovation of its maker/author. This dialogism as

Bakhtin believes is in the nature of the signification itself; the longer the

language lives and develops, the deeper this dialogue becomes in the final

act of meaning. In Kristiva’s words:

“Bakhtin was one of the first to replace the static hewing out of texts with

a model where literary structure does not simply exist but is generated in

relations to another structure”. (Kristiva, 1980, 65).

Bakhtin reiterates the inevitable phenomenon of intertextuality

saying:

The speaker is not biblical Adam, dealing only with virgin
and still unnamed objects, giving them names for the first
time... [A]ny utterance, in addition to its own theme, always
responds in one form or another to others' utterances that
precede it. (Bakhtin, 1986, 93)



16

This quotation comprises the focal point of the concept of

intertextuality; the text is no longer seen as an innocent creation of its

original author, but of the whole socio-political and intellectual contexts in

which it is born and will continue to be alive; a space that will travel

between different contexts and be raised on the hands of several authors in

different environments; however, the effect of creativity will decorate it

while it moves on scoffing all the previous mythology that used to surround

the text: authenticity, singularity and exclusivity. Eventually, original texts

(if they exist) can be very difficult to understand. Intertextuality is regarded

as a new means of facilitating texts comprehension, for readers understand

new pieces of information through the old texts that they already know or

come across in some other texts.

Roland Barthes (2001) followed Kristeva and others in their

assumption about intertextuality which they think that it is a mere

permutation of other preceding quotations; the text is solely a mosaic of

intertextualized networks organized and ordered by piracy. Barthes gets his

sword out of its scabbard announcing the “death of the author” and “the

birth of the reader” pointing out that “a text’s unity lies not in its origin, but

in its destination”. Barthes says: “The reader is the space on which all the

quotations that make up writing are inscribed without any of them being

lost; a text’s unity lies not in the origin but in its destination.” (Barthes,

1977, 144). It is crystal clear that the use of the word “quotations” reveals

the idea that a text cannot really be “created”; it is always made up of an



17

arrangement of preexisting “quotations” or “ideas”. So the word of the

“author” does not really exist as per Barthes’ belief, but the author is a

scripter of preexisting texts.

2.1.2 Intertextuality vs. Innovation:

Although ancient poets considered themselves the conservative

guardians of language, they did not deny the unavoidable effect of the

predecessors on them. Antara says in his famous Ode (al-muʕallaqa):

"ھل غادر الشعراء من متردم

أم عل عرفت الدار بعد توھم" 

“Have the poets left anything for me to explore and reconstruct; and have

you recognized the (beloved's) abode after much guessing and uncertainty”

(Antara’s Ode, translated by Mahmoud Abbas Masoud, 2010)

As being a ritual of the odes’ poets who used to embroider their

poems lamenting the ruins and abode of their loved ones , Antara used the

same practice expressing that what he said or what he will say is not new,

but it is a resurrection of what others expressed, wrote or said. A poet who

occupies a sublime literary rank as Antara admitted the inevitableness of

intertextuality; still, his words, odes and poems are immortalized since they

are regarded an original legacy for many generations to come; his poetry is

authentic in terms of the meanings and images that it generates.  Similarly,

Imru’ al-Qays who is famous for many critics and readers by his innovation



18

and originality, even Prophet Mohammad (p.b.u.h) admitted his poetic

excellence and described him asss leading other poets to hell-fire, the

Prophet’s companions as well extolled his genius classicality and

authenticity.  His Ode is considered a masterwork amidst the literary

productions of all; he inaugurates it saying:

بسقط اللوى بین الدخول فحومل""قفا نبِك من ذكرى حبیب ومنزل 

“Let’s halt! And on the abode of the loved ones weep

Where twixt “Dakhool” and “Hawmal” sands pile deep” (translated

by Ibrahim Momayez, 2004)

Imru’ al-Qays acknowledged that the traditions of halting on the

abode of the beloved is nothing but a repetition of what others said though

he excels in this genre much more than all of his predecessors or successors

and the testimony of the Prophet is the strongest proof on this.

Intertextuality is the womb from which the innovation is born since if there

is no repetition or mimicking, the words will fade away as Ali ibn Abu-

Taleb said:

"لوال أن الكالم یعاد لنفذ"

“If speech was not repeated, it would be drained” (my translation).

All in all, any poet or writer who wants to apprentice such a craft

has to passionately engross her/himself into the literary stock of the



19

predecessors in order to sharpen her/his own thinking and to create her/his

own way that will lead such a poet or writer to creativity and excellence.

Undoubtedly, confluence between remote poets and writers is

unavoidable since all human beings from remote cultures and backgrounds

and distant ages share the same feelings of longings, love, hatred,

loneliness, etc. Therefore, many writers and poets produce masterpieces

which carry the same ideas or meaning; this is what’s called (telepathy).

Per contra, the way the poet represents this particular image or theme

begets new meanings and enables us to evaluate the literary work as

creative or not. The thin line separates creativity from repetition is the

capability to break the rules and change the standard scales of things to

produce unfamiliar images and ideas. For example, the poems of Federico

Garcia Lorca have touched and inspired lots of poets worldwide. His

passion, provocation to oppression and injustice and his unique vivid

incarnation of Al Andalous as a fusion of different distant cultures and

civilization made him a poetry idol to many Arab poets and writers; this

includes the Iraqi poets Bader Shakir al-Sayyab (1926-1964) and Abd Al-

Wahab Al-Bayati (1926-1999), the Egyptian poet Salah Abd Al-Sabour

(1931-1981) and the Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish (1941-2008).



20

2.1.3 Intertextuality and Translation Strategy:

Popvic (1975) stresses out that:

In order to establish a practical model of literary translation,
we have to keep in mind the idea that a literary text is not
merely a combination of verbal signs, but a culturally-loaded
linguistic system, one that requires a thorough going
comprehensive examination before translation is carried out
(cited in Xiaohua, 2005, 5).

Intertextuality provides us with a new way of appreciating texts; the

study in hand broadens the definition and the function of intertextuality. It

combines between both of intertextuality theories and translation theories;

the researcher provides the means for a better understanding of the

functions of intertextuality and the best translation techniques for the

allusive references. Furthermore, it helps to excavate the galaxy of

signifiers and signified embedded in the allusions that Darwish tends to use

in his poetry whether explicitly or implicitly.

2.1.4 Inevitability of Intertextuality and Anxiety of Influence:

Whether we believe that intertextuality is intentional or innate, it

exists in every single text. Riffaterre (1984,142) stresses that the

inevitability of intertextuality does not connote a mere excellence of the

brain or a sign of a good memory, but it does refer to something which we

cannot evade.

Harold Bloom (1973) depicts the struggle between the young poet

(the ephebe: the citizen of poetry as ancient Athenians called her/him) and



21

her/his great precursors are more of a psychological agon, where the young

poet's only weapon against the greats is her/his own literary creative power.

In Bloom‘s humanist model of influence, the author and her/his

predecessor become objects of oedipal, father‐son struggle; the poet  is

involved in a quest to re-beget her/his own self and be the “father of

himself” as Freud believes. S/he is interested in the inner life of the poet,

how the poet thinks and how s/he frees her/himself from the influence of

the predecessors in order to create great poetry. Relying primarily on the

theories of Freud in conjunction with the philosophy of Nietzsche, Bloom

delineates in this work a pattern for the mental processes of the poet.

Each new poet is seen as having one primary precursor: one

dominant influence which s/he must overcome to establish one’s own

voice. The new poet must fight this preceding poet to possess the  poetic

muse; this can only be through destroying the father figure, then the new

poet will be able to find her/his own voice. Bloom’s images are deliberately

aggressive: The poet as son and heir must kill the poetic father in order to

become completely independent and achieve her/his own poetic voice. The

poet’s anxiety of influence can be regarded as a means of intertextuality

abortion and resistance, through which the poet has a conscious alerting to

not mimic others in form or content; however, many poets use allusions

referring to the products of the predecessors, but many factors like time,

place and audience amongst others collaborate to alter the meaning while

traveling between texts; similarity between texts is a disguise, if we dig its

shell properly, we will recognize its real essence.



22

2.1.5 Seemingly Mimic, Substantially Original:

“The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is

that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun” (King

James Bible: “Ecclesiastes”, 1:9, 1462)

Crossing the barriers of time and place, most writers and poets

always telepathize with each other; their works become an affectionate

homeland which comprises other writers’ innovations within its folds.

Literary speaking, we can say that if the repetition does not exist, the words

will be drained. Thus, the act of mimicry in writing is a de-facto

phenomenon for human beings who are predestined to be incomplete and

vulnerable to err and to have finite powers. This, on the contrary, is totally

different for the Almighty who says:

بِِمْثلِِھ َمَدًدا" قُْل لَْو َكاَن اْلبْحُر ِمَداًدا لَِكلَِماِت َربِّي لَنَفَِد اْلبَْحُر قَْبَل أَْن تَْنفََد َكلَِماُت َربِّي َولَْو ِجْئنَا "

)109(سورة الكھف: آیة 

“Say O Mohammad to Mankind if the seas were ink for writing the words

of my lord, surely, the sea would be exhausted before the words of my lord

would be finished, even if we brought another sea like it for its aid”

(Mohammad Muhsin Khan and Mohammad Tariq-ud-Din Al-Hilali, 401,

1999).

The words of the Almighty are infinitely renewable in forms and

content; on the contrary, we approach a text finding the soul of another

conjured up in the textiles of the text in hand; this is considered as



23

Achilles’ heel which writers and poets attempt to transcend through

rejuvenating content and meaning. We, hereby, can say that what has been

will be again, and what has been said will be said again; nothing is

different, but it reappears in new combinations and innovative poetic

practices.

In his “Sonnet 59”, Shakespeare said:

If there be nothing new, but that which is

Hath been before, how are our brains beguil'd,

Which, laboring for invention, bear amiss

The second burden of a former child.

O, that record could with a backward look,

Even of five hundred courses of the sun,

Show me your image in some antique book,

Since mind at first in character was done!

That I might see what the old world could say

To this composed wonder of your frame;

Whether we are mended, or whe'er better they,

Or whether revolution be the same.



24

O! sure I am, the wits of former days

To subjects worse have given admiring praise.

The poet or the writer is in a challenge to beget what is not begotten

before; her/his mind is like the mother’s womb which exerts all the efforts

to produce an innovative new born. With each writing of a “story”,

undoubtedly that the mixture of time, space, place, audience and previous

texts will impact the author or poet in one way or another; each writer

alters the message or meaning to fit the variables existed in her/his own age

(time, place and audience amongst others). The result is that each writer is

creative in her/his own way. This is crystal clear in Shakespeare’s sonnet;

in spite of making a salient allusion from the Bible, he expresses a

multitude of prides in his own innovative powers and capabilities which

influences many future generations.  The allusive reference in his sonnet is

intended for thwarting the idea of glorifying the predecessors who are

molded in a template which does not fit them. As per Shakespeare’s sonnet,

making a reference to old works can be for the sake of showing that

successors can excel and generate new meanings which do not exist in the

old texts, and this is the innovation through intertextuality per se.

Eliot (1964) touches the issue of intertextuality and creativity by

asserting that literature is a two-dimensional work: personal and universal.

In other words, the parameters exist in the previous literary works which

have a de-facto impact upon the successor writers and poets. New texts are



25

born from the same womb, and may be similar in shape, but they differ in

their content, in the aim that they aspire to achieve and the shades of

meanings that they collaborate to generate. Thus, the text is a commingle

between the current “I” and the previous “others” so as to induce creative

texts that can coexist amongst the previous masterpieces.

The poets are not born to be great and creative innately, yet the

surrounding culture, civilization and the literary repertoire cooperate

together to thrust creativity and greatness in one’s own writings.

AbdelMalik Murtad, 1983, 42) says:

ألم یئن أن یعتقد كل من یعنیھ أمر األدب بمفھومھ المعاصر أن النص األدبي ذو "
وجود شرعي مستقل عن مؤلفھ إلى حد بعید على الرغم من أنھ ینتمي إلیھ؟ 
فالنص األدبي، بالقیاس إلى مبدعھ یشبھ النطفة التي تقذف في الرحم فینشأ عنھا 
وجود بیولوجي، لكن الولید على شرعیتھ البیولوجیة والوراثیة ال یحمل 

نھ یستقل بشخصیتھ بالضرورة كل خصائص أبیھ النفسیة والجسدیة والفكریة، إ
عن األب، مھما حاول األب أن ینشئھ على بعض ما یجب ویشق في الغالب لنفسھ 

طریقا خاصا بھ"
“Isn’t it the time for all of who are involved in the
contemporary literature to believe that the literary text has an
independent legitimate entity from its author though it
belongs to her/him? In comparison with its creator, the
literary text resembles the sperm that is thrown in the womb
to generate a biological existence; however, the son does not
necessarily carry all of the psychological, physical and
intellectual prosperities of her/his father; s/he boards her/his
personality away from the father, no matter how the father
tries to nurture the baby on what it should be; thereby, s/he
finds her/his own route independently” (My translation).

This is an indispensable quote to refer to Barthes’s concept of the

death of the author that is tackled before. The text draws an analogy

between the baby and the literary text; on the one hand, the baby has the



26

same genes of her/his parents, but nature has a crucial role in her/his own

nurture, so s/he may not necessarily be a photocopy of her/his parents. On

the other hand, both of the predecessor text and the successor text could

share the same genetic/thematic references that guide the reader to the

initial assumption that the second text (successor text) is a simulation of the

first text (predecessor); in fact, the first and the second texts are vulnerable

to different literary, social and other external factors. The environment

surrounds the poet/writer is the genuine creator of the “special touch” that

this writer has and others lack; without this “special touch” all literary texts

will be the same in terms of effect and meaning. Thereby, we find

successor texts which surpass the predecessors and the opposite is true too.

2.1 A Sneak-Peak to Allusions:

2.2.1 The Concept of “Allusions as Culture Bumps” in a Nutshell:

An allusion is considered as a brief reference, explicit or implicit, to

a person, place, or event or to another literary work or passage (Abrames,

1971). “Allusion refers here to a variety of uses of performed linguistic

material in either its original or modified form, and of proper names, to

convey often implicit meanings” (Leppihalme, 1997, 3). The meaning of

the ST allusion is activated only if the reader is of a good knowledge of the

relation between this allusion and the previous information. In order to

absorb and comprehend the ST allusion, the target audience has to be both:

bilingual and bicultural; however, this is not always the case as the readers



27

may not understand the reference. Hereby, Archer (1986) coined the term

“culture bump” which is used to describe the state when an individual finds

her/himself in a difficult, strange or uncomfortable situation in dealing with

other people from different backgrounds and cultures. The same token can

be applied as well to the act of translation when the translator finds it pretty

intricate to understand the ST allusion and render it to the TL audience.

On the other hand, Ruokonen (2010) states that allusions could be

found in texts of written or non-written nature; he describes them as being

so close to the culture-specific items or “words or combination of words

denoting objects and concepts characteristic of the way of life, the culture,

the social and historical development of one nation and alien to another”

(p.33).

2.2.2 The Functions of Allusions:

Allusions are considered as economical devices which create great

impact on the receivers by using minimum words or by presenting a sort of

puzzle for them to solve. Target readers work to elicit the meaning of the

allusive references through linking it to what it originally refers to. The

impacts the allusions create in all texts in general and literary texts in

particular are innumerable, but the most remarkable function is in creating

a mold where the originality of the previous texts and the regeneration of

the current texts are mingled together forming a challenge for both the



28

ordinary reader and translator to grasp the meaning. Ruokonen (2010)

states the salient characteristics of allusions which are as follows:

1. “Allusion is a reference conveying implicit meaning by means of

activating its referent text or a part of it (a more specific referent or

connotations)”;

2. “It may take an implicit or explicit form, but it must bear a sufficient

resemblance to its referent so as to be recognizable”;

3. “The referent belongs to assumed shared knowledge, which is

presumably familiar to the author and at least some of his/her

readers” (p.33)

Generally speaking, allusions cannot be activated in a specific text

leaving their impact on it unless the target readers are of a good knowledge

of them. The translator, for example, has to control the text and get familiar

with all allusive particles embedded in it so as to be able to transfer it to the

TL readers without sacrificing the meaning.

2.2.2 Translation of Allusions:

2.2.3.1 Leppihalme’s Translation Strategies of Allusions:

Allusions are described as “culture bumps”. Leppihalme (1997)

defines it as follows: "a culture bump occurs when an individual finds

himself or herself in different, strange, or uncomfortable situation when

interacting with persons of a different culture."(p.4). Verily, allusions are



29

considered a big thump in the literary translation domain especially when

the translator finds it so difficult to understand the ST cultural-peculiar

items that inactivate certain allusive codes in the mind of the translator, but

s/he finds them intricate in translation. Leppihalme (1997), hereby,

proposes clear-cut strategies to solve the intercultural problems that

allusions arouse in translation. Allusive names and phrases behold

meanings and have connotations by SL readers, but they glance at nothing

to the TL readers, in whose culture, allusions are provided by different

texts altogether.

In a simple classification of allusions, Leppihalme (1997) classifies

them into two major categories: proper names (PN) and key-phrase names

(KN). The proper name allusions refer to a real life or fictional figures,

names of well-known people and characters from the past, writers, artists,

mythical and religious characters or incidents. On the other hand, key-

phrase allusions include slogans borrowed from films, advertisements,

various catchy phrases, proverbs, idioms, clichés, popular beliefs, stories,

assumptions, phrases from religious books… etc. As per her point of view,

the translation process comprises three basic stages which are listed below

and need to be taken into the translator’s consideration: 1) thorough

analysis of the ST and the translation task in hand; 2) problem-solving

mechanisms; and 3) reverbalisation.

Some allusions are considered as trans-cultural ones since they have

different connotations in both of the SL and the TL; translators, hereby,



30

have to pay attention to the fact that TL readers have a different perception

from the SL readers. According to Leppihalme, translators should look at

the text from the lens of the mediator, for they intercede between two

different languages and cultures trying to figure out which of which has to

be preserved. Leppihalme believes that for translators, the form of allusions

is much more significant than its function; this function, whether being

ironic or parodied, shall be preserved in translation. She proposes two

strategies for allusions translation: one is for the noun-phrase allusions and

the other for key-phrase allusions “as per the schemes below”.



31

Figure -1: Model for the translation of
proper-noun allusions “PN” according to
Leppihalme’s Culture Bumps: Empirical
Approach to the Translation of Allusions,
1997

Is the PN Allusion
Familiar?

YES Retention of the PN
Allusion Strategy

END

NO

Is the Guidance
Sufficient? YES

Retention of the PN
Allusion Strategy

END

NO

Is there a Suitable
Replacement of PN? YES Suitable

Replacement
END

NO

Much Loss if
Omitted YES Overt Explanation

END
NO

PN Omission

END



32

Figure- 2: Model for the translation of key-
phrase allusions “KP” according to
Leppihalme’s Culture Bumps: Empirical
Approach to the Translation of Allusions,
1997

Is there a Standard
Translation? YES Standard

Translation
END

NO

Is the Guidance
Sufficient? YES Adding Guidance

END

NO

Is the Internal
Marking Possible? YES Marking Internally

END

NO

Much Loss if
Omitted? YES Re-create

END

NO

KP Allusion
Omission

END



33

As it is depicted in the aforementioned figures, the first option that

translators firstly resort to is the standard translation that already exists as

option in the scheme below; some slight changes are sometimes required to

make the standard translation blend in. In case of the unmarked and

uncommon allusions, translators have to possibly add the name of the

author or the title of the source in italics; this is called the external marking.

Nevertheless, this is not always applicable; the audience may not recognize

the source of the allusions in poetic texts. For example, translators have got

to pay much attention to the style, rhythm and word order since they give

the text its weight and character. Moreover, translators may recourse to the

internal marking through the enhancement of the effect of the TL.

Otherwise, translators can replace the SL allusions by culture-specific

allusions or items which are peculiar to the TL.

2.2.3.2 Basil Hatim and Ian Mason:

Both of these scholars are not specialized in the concept of

intertextuality; still, they devoted a chapter titled “Intentionality and

Intertextuality” in their book Discourse and the Translator (1990). Both of

them depict the translator as a mediator who negotiates between the source

language text “SLT” and the target language text “TLT” trying to reach to a

fair compromise that can keep the meaning aroused in the ST and reach the

TL readers at the same time. According to Hatim and Mason (1990, 128),

the text is not only a mosaic composed of textures from other texts, nor

should intertextuality be understood as an inclusive tool of references to



34

other texts. For them, intertextuality is not produced and does not exist in a

vacuum, but it is found to fulfil a specific objective that the writer aspires

to.

Hatim (1997, 134) makes an important division between different

types of intertextuality: horizontal and vertical references. Hatim

distinguishes between horizontal and vertical allusive references. In the

case of horizontal references, the relation between two texts is explicit in

regard to its relation to the development of the other one. Vertical

references; on the other hand, are more implicit and may relate to writing

conventions. Hatim and Mason also introduce the term “intertextual space”

which is the meaning value that is attached to the sign and its semiotic

reflections which are modified depending on time, place, environment…

etc. In other words, the meaning is always different and deferred.



35

Chapter Three

Data Analysis

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Allusions Types

3.3 The Expert and Responsible Translator

3.4 Recognizability of Allusions

3.3.1 Religious Resonances Found in ‘Pastiche’

3.3.2 Three Distinct Stages

3.4 Data Analysis

3.4.1 Ruokonen’s Classification of Allusions

3.4.2 Translation of Historical and Mythical Allusions

3.4.2.1 Mythical Allusions:

3.4.2.1 Historical Allusions:



36

Chapter Three

Data Analysis

3.1 Introduction

“Intertextual allusion ... emerges as a culture-bound translation problem”

(Almazan Garcia 2002)

If translation is regarded as transference of the work into different

languages, then intertextuality can be considered as a kind of translation

since it transfers the literary work into different idioms and allusive

references; in other words, translation of allusions is transference of

transference. The difficult task of the translator is to identify the nucleus of

these allusive references embedded in a text and render them into the TL

paralleling between the meaning raised within the different particles of the

text and the familiarity of the TL viewers of such elements.

To translate an allusive reference, a translator needs to remember

that it has “a host of associations” emanatinsg from the previous knowledge

and experience (Hatim and Mason, 1990, 120). Translating allusions is a

complex process because even SL readers need to “travel” in order to truly

make sense of it.

[T]ext receivers must travel the whole distance from the
'Ideologically neutral' denotation of language (i. e. usage) to
the volume of 'signification' which underlies use. A chain of
intertextual references will have to be pieced together and a
thread identified, leading back from signals encountered later



37

in the text to earlier signals and to the whole areas of
knowledge being evoked. (Ibid, 121-2).

Allusions initiate a journey of the sign from one text into another;

that is, a journey launched from a source to a destination through the

intertextual space carrying all the semiotic values attached to the sign

through the intertextual space to adjust to the new audience and

environment. Translators have to revisit the prior texts with which the

current text intertextualizes, so all the meanings attached to this linguistic

sign would be retrieved. Translators face a problem in identifying the extent

of accessibility and familiarity of the TL readers and viewers to the

allusions embedded in the ST and connected through an intertextual web

with other priori texts. Hence, the translator has to identify any cases of

intertextuality and then to decide the degree of which the TL readers are

able to decode them and elicit their meanings.

In this chapter, Leppihalme’s translation strategies of allusions are

meticulously reviewed and discussed via introducing a set of vivid

examples and excerpts taken from Darwish’s literary works. Besides, it

tackles the bumps that the translator encounters when approaching the ST as

a result of the intertextual space that makes the allusive references have

different multiple meanings while transferring from one text into another.

At last, suggested translation strategies and remarks are given to alleviate

the loss of the ST thematic impact and meaning on the TL readers.



38

3.2 Allusions Types

Leppihalme (1997) classifies of allusions into proper names allusions

(PN) and key-phrase allusions (KP). Distinctly, this study tackles the issue

of intertextuality in translation and the problems that translators encounter

when colliding with these text-bumps. Niknasab (2011, p.50) classifies

allusions according to their thematic purposes as follows:

1. Religious Allusions appear in a text or verse which is taken from the

holy scriptures such as, biblical phrases, or a reference taken from a

Quranic sura or the saints’ and prophets’ quotes. These allusive

references are used by the author/poet to add a specific value to ST;

when Darwish uses allusions taken from the Bible, Torah and Quran,

he wants to reveal that from every allusive incident a new meaning

can be elicited and generated to fit his current emotional situation

and life experience; for example:

Example (1a):

" وعلى سبابة یدك الیسرى ندبة أخرى. جلست وبنتاً صغیرة كیمامتین على حجرین في كرم 

رر السكین الصدئة على إصبعك  زیتون. سأقاسمك ھذه التفاحة قلت لھا، وأنت تنظر في عینیھا وتمِّ

وداویت جرحك بحفنة !ال من التفاحة. خافت من الدم وھربت وأنت تنادیھا: خذي التفاحة كلّھابد

)22-21: ص 2006، في حضرة الغیابمن تراب مخلوط بالعشب الیابس" (

“There is another scar on your left index finger. You were sitting next to a

young girl; two doves perched on two rocks in an olive grove. Let’s share

this apple, you proposed as you looked into her eyes and cut your finger



39

with the rusty knife instead of the apple. She was terrified by the blood and

ran away as you called after her: Take the whole apple! You tended to your

wound with a handful of dirt mixed with dry grass” (In the Presence of

Absence, translated by Sinan Antoon, 2011, 14)

Darwish makes an allusion to one episode of the story of Joseph and

the Lord’s wife which is depicted in the Quran as per the below verse:

ا َسِمَعْت بَِمْكِرِھنَّ أَْرَسلَْت إِلَْیِھنَّ َوأَْعتََدْت لَھُنَّ ُمتََّكأً َوآتَْت ُكلَّ َواِحَدٍة ِمْنھُنَّ ِسكِّ “ ینًا َوقَالَِت اْخُرْج فَلَمَّ

َذا إِالَّ َملٌَك َكِریمٌ  (سورة ”َشًرا إِْن ھَٰ

).31یوسف، اآلیة 

“So when she heard of their accusation, she sent for them and prepared a

banquet for them; she gave each one of them a knife (to cut the foodstuff

with), and she said [to Yusuf]: "Come out before them." Then, when they

saw him, they exalted him (at his beauty) and (in their astonishment) cut

their hands. They said: "How perfect is Allah (or Allah forbid)! No man is

this! This is none other than a noble angel!" (The Noble Quran:

Interpretations of the Meanings of the Noble Quran in the English

Language, translated by Mohammad Muhsin Khan and Mohammad Tariq-

ud-Din Al-Hilali , 1999).

The whole religious allusion refers to the early phase of Darwish’s

poetry representing innocence and lack of awareness; besides, it manifests

an incident in the Book of Genesis where Adam and Eve gathered to eat

from the forbidden tree. This unnamed fruit grown in the Garden of Eden



40

has become an apple under the influence of the ‘golden apples’ in the

Garden of Hesperides; afterwards, the apple becomes a symbol of

knowledge, temptation, immortality and the sin of man and his fall from

the Garden of Eden.  Darwish tends to reflect the symbolism of apple in his

own life and his keenness to be mature and knowledgeable after being

naïve and innocent, yet the reader of the TT will not be able to recognize at

first sight that there is a religious allusion to the Quran and the Bible; s/he

will deal with the text as an ordinary story without linking it to any

previous text; thus, it is the task of the translator to add an explanatory foot-

note to guide the readers to the aim and goal of conjuring up such

sequential series of images and events.

Example (2a):

ماء كي یتفتح السر الكبیر"........ علم آدم األس

)1990: "الھدھد"، أرى ما أریدوالسر رحلتنا إلى السري، إن الناس طیر ال تطیر" (

Example (2b):

“……… He taught Adam all the names, so that the great mystery could

reveal

our Journey to the mysterious

It is our journey to the mysterious



41

People are birds unable to fly” (Unfortunately It Was Paradise: Selected

Poems, “The Hoopoe”, translated by Munir Akash et al., 2003, 34)

Darwish said it all when he alludes to a verse from the Quran

highlighting the ancient incidents of the designations tutorial to Adam as it

is mentioned in Surat Al-Baqarah:

"ونِي بِأَْسَماء ھَُؤالء إِن ُكنتُْم َصاِدقِینَ َوَعلََّم آَدَم األَْسَماء ُكلَّھَا ثُمَّ َعَرَضھُْم َعلَى اْلَمالئَِكِة فَقَاَل أَنبِئُ "

)31(البقرة": آیة 

“And He taught Adam all the names (of everything), then He showed them

to the angels and said, "Tell Me the names of these if you are truthful."

(The Noble Quran: Interpretations of the Meanings of the Noble Quran in

the English Language, translated by Mohammad Muhsin Khan and

Mohammad Tariq-ud-Din Al-Hilali , 1999).

Darwish wants to revive the old story of Adam’s creation, who is the

founder of the offspring of man on earth, through making an analogy to the

image of the Palestinians as being the original inhabitants and owners of

the Palestinian land. Comparing this situation with Bloom’s humanist

model of influence, we cannot generalize that Darwish endeavors towards

begetting a text that can be considered as a rival of the Quran or an

alternative to it; he wants to use the light of the father to illuminate the path

of the son towards masterfulness and creativity.

2. Literary Allusions refer to signals from other literary texts and

previous theories either explicit or implicit that are utilized in an



42

overt way to be recognized by the ordinary reader or translator; for

example:

Example (3a):

، رائحة الخبر في"على ھذه األرض ما یستحق الحیاة: تردد ابریل

الفجر ..........

على ھذه األرض ما یستحق الحیاة: نھایة أیلول،  ...........

الدیوان: محمود درویش على ھذه األرض ما یستحق الحیاة: على ھذه األرض سیدة األرض ...." (

).111: ص 2005ھذه األرض"، : "على 3األعمال األولى 

Example (3b):

“We have on this earth what makes life worth living: April’s hesitation…

We have on this earth what makes life worth living: the final days of

September…

We have on this earth what makes life worth living …..” (Unfortunately It

Was Paradise: Selected Poems, “On This Earth”, translated by Munir

Akash et al., 2003, 6).

Darwish here used an implicit literary allusion to Freidrich Nietzsche’s

Thus Spoke Zarathustra; Nietzsche says:

“It is worthwhile living on the earth: one day, one festival with Zarathustra,

has taught me to love the earth” (Thus Spoke Zarathustra, 1885, 247)



43

This is translated by Mohamamd ibn Saleh as:

علمني أن أحب األرض" "على ھذه األرض ما یستحق الحیاة: یوم واحد قضیتھ مع زرادشت

)244: 2005(ترجمة محمد بن صالح، 

Again Darwish utilizes the previous texts to embed his entanglement

with the earth which he was created from and with the homeland that he

belongs to. However, Darwish does not allude to the text of Nietzsche as it

is mentioned in his book, but it is an implicit reference; anyway, the

translator who translated Nietzsche’s volume uses the same words of

Darwish as a direct explicit literary allusion.

Example (4 a):

). 2008، أثر الفراشة" (أثر الفراشة ال یزول/"أثر الفراشة ال یَُرى

Example (4 b):

“The butterfly’s effect cannot be seen

But it never vanishes” (my translation, 2015)

The reader of the SL needs to be fully well-informed to infer that

Darwish is not only affected by religion, history, myths or previous literary

texts, but he is also affected by the different natural phenomena depicted in

the physical theories; this is not strange for a sensitive poet who attaches

himself to every single atom of this planet. Darwish expresses his

sympathetic admiring feelings of the delicate butterfly to the extent that he



44

makes from it a quantum leap towards change; Darwish alludes to the

“butterfly’s effect” term which is coined by Edward Lorenz. This effect

depicts the small unnoticeable events which may result in a dramatic

change at a later stage; the movement of the butterfly’s wings in one place

could be a reason of hurricanes in another place.  This reflects Darwish’s

inclination towards making the Palestinian cause as the cause of all despite

of its low voice and invisible capabilities; it will be the small power that

will change all scales and measures.

3. Mythical Allusions present ancient stories including tales of the gods

and goddesses, heroes and supernatural powers. Myths preceded all;

they were before religion, philosophy, science, language or the

written word. Thus, Darwish employed them in his poetry for being a

very integral part of the cultural repertoire of every nation; for

example:

Example (5a):

"فغني یا إلھتي األثیرة ، یا عناة

قصیدتي األولى عن التكوین ثانیة ...........

یا عناة، 

أنا الطرید والسھام

)20، ص 2000، الجداریةأنا الكالم، أنا المؤبن والمؤذن والشھید"  (



45

Example (5b):

“O Anat, my special Goddess, sing

Sing my first ode on Genesis in anew

………………

O Anat, my special Goddess.

I am the arrow, and the prey. I am the elegist, the muzzien and the martyr”

(The Mural”, translated by Munir Akash et al., 2003, 132).

Darwish here alludes to Anat who is one of the most Canaanite

deities representing love, youthful vigor and ferocity at battles.  The

conjuration of this mythical allusion reinforces the connotations of the

Palestinian existence, ancient history, civilization and identity; Darwish

transcends to the atmosphere of death and farewell in “The Mural” through

spreading hope and life.

4. Historical Allusions comprise references to historical events, places

and people. These incidents have a great impact upon the ST themes,

symbols and characters; for example:

Example (6a):

ماذاسأفعل من دون ورد سمرقند؟ ماذا..…"

سأفعل في ساحة تصقل المنشدین بأحجارھا



46

القمریة؟ صرنا خفیفین مثل منازلنا

في الریاح البعیدة ... صرنا خفیفین مثل منازلنا

في الریاح البعیدة .. صرنا صدیقین للكائنات

وصرنا طلیقین منالغریبة بین الغیوم ... 

جاذبیة أرض الھواء .. ماذا سنفعل .. ماذا

سنفعل من دون منفى ، ولیل طویل

)46: 1999"من أنا دون منفى"، :سریر الغریبةیحدق في الماء؟" (

Example (6b):

“….. What shall I do without the roses of Samarkand?

What shall I do in a square, where singers are

Worn, smooth by moonstones?

We have become weightless

As light as our dwelling in distant winds

We have, both of us, befriended the strange beings in the clouds

We have both been free from the gravity of the land of identity

What shall we do?

What shall we do without exile



47

And long nights of gazing at the water?” (Unfortunately It Was Paradise:

Selected Poems, “Who Am I, Without Exile”, translated by Munir Akash et

al., 2003, 113-114).

Similarly, Samarkand incarnates the lost place; Darwish here does

not lament Palestine through the allusion to Samarkand, but he believes

that this lost place is considered a mirror-experience of the lost Islamic

history and identity. What reinforces this image is the allusion to different

natural portrait: “roses, moonstones and water”; Samarkand is previously

considered as the Garden of Eden known for its moonstones spread through

all is routes and yards, flowers and water, which whoever is washed by,

will be cleansed from all sins; nonetheless, the place is abandoned now and

it is no longer like before; its identity faded and so is its history. Darwish,

being anguished by the fires of exile and Exodus, has seen from Samarkand

a lively characterization of the history of the Islamic states which has gone

with the wind; all what we can trace now is the imprints of a dead heritage

that you can neither forget, nor can you regain.

In the bottom line, the functions of allusions are much important to

readers and translators than their forms; in spite of that, translators need to

be well-acquainted with the different allusive forms to be able to render

their implicit functions and connotations.



48

3.3 The Expert and Responsible Translator

From the outset, scholars have different views concerning the

translator’s role and authority; some see her/him as a mere imitator of the

SL text as Briere (1988) who believes that he behaves like the monkey who

has no choice but to mimic the grimaces of his master; however, other

scholars like Venuti (1995) glorified the translator’s authenticity and

authority in enriching the ST with meaning and producing a text that is

accessible to the TL viewers.

It is of a great importance to bear in mind that the translation of

allusions is one of the serious problems that encounter translators;

according to Harvey et al., when there is an allusive reference in the text:

The translator’s first problem is to recognize that the source
text does contain an allusive suggestion. The second problem is
to understand the allusive meaning by reference to the meaning
of the saying or quotation evoked. The third problem is to
convey the force of the allusion in the target text. (Harvey,
Higgins and Haywood, 1995, 103)

Thereby, translation of allusions demands the interface between the

text and the translator in order to absorb the ST effect. In other words, the

translator should depend upon her/his competence, knowledge repertoire

and awareness to elucidate the allusions to the TL readers. The translator

needs to be a communicator, a mediator, a negotiator, a decision maker, a

bilingual and a bicultural too; all of these are fundamental attributes that the

translator should have. S/he has to acknowledge the TL readers’ knowledge

cognition towards the source culture; moreover, s/he has to be alert to the



49

cultural and social overtones that the allusions have. Notwithstanding the

mentioned, the translator should not go to the extreme in explicating the SL

allusions through adding excessive notes or explanations since they will

reduce the impact that the ST comprises. A good translator has to be

accurate in defining the allusion that the ST has, competent in determining

the values that allusions have and consistent and economical in choosing the

best translation strategy.

The translator is responsible for making a profound meticulous

reading of the text that takes into account all the surrounding realities of the

text and all its parts; however, a partial reading that fragments the text’s

components will result in the loss of meaning, and the reader/translator will

be misled; she/he will delude the TL audience as well from comprehending

the value that a specific allusion enfolds when it is taken from one text and

given a new turn in a new text within the intertextual space. Veritably, the

meaning of the text is not necessarily what the author/poet tends to say or

communicate; once the words leave the mouth of the author, they become

possession of the readers/audience, but the meaning of the text becomes

captive of the original author’s/poet’s purpose. The readers make attempts

to analyze the text trying to understand it within the surrounding matrices

and realities. Leppihalme (1997) says: “With regard to allusions, the

translator needs to be sensitive to what is implied by the use of socio-

cultural and intertextual elements” (p. 20).



50

Being a subject-matter expert is the key for the translator to recognize

the allusions alongside with their meanings and effects; thus, it helps

her/him to preserve the original text touch and transfer it to the TL readers

with the less sacrifice of the ST meaning and the utmost levels of

understanding and comprehension. Eventually, the competent translator will

have to define the frame of allusions found in the ST, classify them into PN,

KP or normal quotations, absorb their effect and meaning and then to work

meticulously select the best translation strategy.

3.4 Recognizability of Allusions:

Alawi (2010) believes that allusions are the most visible explicit

forms of intertextuality that could be easily recognized by the translator.

Contrariwise, there are cases in which the allusions are subtly melted in the

ST; in this case, the translator has to be of a very good knowledge to be

able to un-pack the text and infer the covert allusions.

Receiving and activating the ST allusions depend on the familiarity

with the allusive references; religious, literary, historical or mythical.

According to Leppihalme (1997) “the recognition of allusions, at least at a

superficial level, is reinforced by the exposure of sections of population, in

one way or another, to a common store of names and phrases recalling

shared experience” (p. 63). If the reader has heard a phrase repeatedly and

continuously since childhood, listened to radio programs, watched TV

shows and read books, s/he will be familiar with them and their sources



51

too.  Leppihalme has also highlighted that if there is no familiarity with the

allusive references, there are other ways for recognizing them: deviations in

spelling, lexis, grammar or style and quotation marks.

Many allusions are obvious and easy for the translator to recognize;

nonetheless, there are other allusions which are subtly disguised as

innocent texts though they are charged with penetration from other texts.

The vast majority of the allusions embedded in the literary works of

Darwish are implicit since they enfold historical, religious or mythical

values which are peculiar to the experience of Darwish; he utilizes the

resonance of previous texts to reflect a story of himself on the sheets of the

current text.

Example (7a):

"من أنا؟

أنشید األناشید

الجامعة؟أم حكمة 

وكالنا أنا

وأنا شاعر

وملك

)43-42، ص 2000، الجداریة(وحكیم على حافة البئر" 



52

Example (7b):

“Who am I? The singer of the Song of Songs?

The wise one of Ecclesiastes? Or both?

A king, a poet and a wise man at the edge of the well” Unfortunately It Was

Paradise: Selected Poems, “The Mural”, translated by Munir Akash et al.,

2003, 154)

The “immortality” is the dominant theme in “The Mural”; hence,

Darwish resorts to the use of many religious allusions, for they are always

present in the memory of people and they help him as well to question the

issues of life and death. In this example, Darwish attaches himself to the

wisdom of the “Ecclesiastes” and “Song of the Songs” implying that his

poetry comprises the sagacity and the capability to immortalize him. It is

noted that Darwish does not use the quotation marks to highlight the

intertextuality with another text, but he harmonizes these allusions "نشید 

، حكمة الجامعة وحكیم على حافة البئر"األناشید “Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes and a

wise man at the edge of the well” with the other excerpts in the same way.

It is the role of the translator here to be a mediator thrusting her/himself in

the micro-level of the text and employing previous background knowledge

of the text so as to render it to the TL readers. According to Leppihalme

(1997, 87), the role of the translator is seen as:

A cultural mediator and a decision maker during the translation
process on a micro-level. He/She is an expert who must know
which aspects of the SL must be explicit to his or her reader,



53

and which should be regarded as ‘intercultural common
knowledge […..] The role of the translator on a macro-level is
no longer seen as a mere ‘language worker’, but as a promoter
of intercultural communication. The translator should be aware
of his/her bonds to his/her own background, but equally of how
to overcome them.

In example (7b), Akash et al. depend on the literal translation

approach in translating the (PN) allusions “Song of Songs” and

“Ecclesiastes” without any change or additional notes. Despite of the fact

that Darwish does not use the quotation marks to differentiate the religious

allusive references ناشید، حكمة الجامعة وحكیم على حافة البئر"نشید األ ” “Song of

Songs, the Ecclesiastes, and a wise man at the edge of the well”, the

translator does have the knowledge that enables him to recognize these

items; likewise, the translator has to wear several hats and put her/himself in

the place of the reader to see if the reader is really able to absorb the text

and get the meaning. Hereby, some additional remarks and explanations are

fundamental to pave the readers’ way towards better apprehension since the

cultural bumps that the allusions create may impede this resulting in the

incomplete reading process due to the opaque fragmented meanings.

Through the lens of the mediator, the translator shall interpose

between two different languages and cultures to figure out what aspects to

abandon and what aspects to preserve; the form of the allusions "نشید األناشید 

وحكمة الجامعة" “Song of Songs and the Ecclesiastes” is much more important

to the translator than its function (Leppihalme, 1997). The first question that

should be asked by the translator when approaching the aforementioned

allusive references is whether they are familiar or not? If the answer is yes,



54

s/he has to retain the name; ة""نشید الجامع is a familiar NP religious allusion

for the translator, so s/he can easily use its English equivalence. However,

"حكمة الجامعة" could be used to refer to different equivalences like “the

wisdom of the university”, but it was correctly translated as “Ecclesiastes”

despite of the absence of the quotation marks that guide the translator to the

existence of an allusion here. This authenticates the importance of the

erudition and attainments framework as a perquisite component of the

translator’s mind. The below figures illustrate the process of translation:

Figure -3: Translation Process of PN Familiar Allusions.

Notwithstanding the aforementioned, the translator’s familiarity with

these allusions does not necessarily mean that the TL reader will spot them

effortlessly. Thus, the translator should stamp them as “Songs of Songs” and

“Ecclesiastes” (to be italicized and defined by the quotation marks) so as to

give remarks to the reader that they are allusions (names of religious

books); by this way, it enables the translator to quench her/his thirst of their

meaning through searching about them.

PN
Allusion

Transltor's
familiarity

with it
END

Retention
of the
name



55

An example of the implied intertextual reference is the use of

pastiche which is one form of intertextuality.

3.3.1 Religious Resonances Found in ‘Pastiche’:

Intertextuality is a textual strategy which employs different stylistic

devices like parody, allusions, pastiche, translation and plagiarism. Pastiche

is a form of intertextuality which occurs when a text imitates the style,

theme, words or ideas of another text. Similarly, it can be regarded as the

parody conveying mimicry, or it can be utilized to emphasize the esthetic

aspects in a specific text or to surpass it through intertextuality.

Example (8a):

ُخطاَي. فُكْن أَخي الثاني،بعدُخطَاَي "

الترابُ أَنا ھابیُل ، یُْرِجُعني 

وباً لتجلَس فوق ُغْصني یا غرابُ لإ یَك َخرُّ

أَنا أَنَت في الكلمات. یجمعنا كتابُ 

واحٌد. لِْي ما َعلَْیَك من الرماد ، ولم

نَُكْن في الظلِّ إالّ شاِھَدْیِن ضحیَّتَْینِ 

قصیدتینِ 

قصیرتینِ 

عن الطبیعة ، ریثما یُْنھي ولیَمتُھ الخرابُ 

:ویضیئك القرآنُ 

فَبََعَث هللاُ غراباً یبحث في األرض لِیُِریَھُ كیف یواري سوءة أخیھ، قال: یا ویلتي أَعجزت أن أكون ﴿ 



56

مثل ھذا الغراب ﴾

ویضیئك القرآُن،

: ص 1995، "حبر الغراب"لماذا تركت الحصان وحیدا: " (!فابحْث عن قیامتنا ، وَحلِّْق یا ُغَرابُ 

27.(

Example (8b):

“So they followed my footsteps.

Be my second brother

I am Abel, and the soil returns me to you

As a carob tree, so you settle on my branch, raven!

You and I are one in words

We belong to the same book

The ashes upon you are mine

And in the shadow, we are

The only two witnesses, victims

Two short poems, about nature

Waiting for the devastation to finish its feast

And the Qur’an illuminates you:

Then God sent a raven who scratched the ground



57

To show him how to hide the vile body of his brother

Woe is me! Said he. Was I not even able to be as this raven?

As the Qur’an illuminates you

Search for our resurrection, O raven, and soar “(Unfortunately It Was

Paradise: Selected Poems, “The Mural”, translated by Munir Akash et al.,

2003, 75-76).

Darwish is inspired by Cain and Abel episode as narrated in the

Quran; we approach his poetry finding the images of “Cain”, “Abel” and

the “Raven”. By his own way, he manages to incarnate an incident that

happened thousands of years ago and to apply it in the present proving that

the meaning can be manipulated by the factors of time and place; it travels

from one genre into another creating various shades of connotations and

meanings. In Darwish’s point of view, Cain symbolizes the evil that is

trying to put its hands on the Palestinians’ lands, heritage and identity

whereas Abel stands for the Palestinian who is in a dilemmatic quest to

resist this. By the same token, the pattern of the life of Abel as portrayed in

the Quran is an only appearance and then a disappearance which is his life

and death; however, Darwish changes this in his poetry through bringing

Abel back to life, and this is the re-appearance and restoration that Darwish

creates in his poetry. Abel was murdered to let his soul be rejuvenated in

everybody who rejects injustices which victimized “the real Abel”.

Undoubtedly, Cain in all ages represents evil which is in a quest to erase



58

Abel in all ages and places; Darwish benefits from this through draughting

the Palestinian as Abel who, despite all attempts to victimize him, will

ascend again from ashes to confront evil “the new Cain”.

The question is how did the translator get to the meaning and reflect

it though her/his translation?

Translating such religious allusions activates the importance of

adopting a semiotic rhetorical approach in translation. According to Hatim

and Mason (1990), translation is a process of transferring the semiotic and

pragmatic functions from one code into another. Consequently, the

translator has to pay attention to the form, function and the semiotic value

of the allusive reference. Approaching the ST triggers in the mind of the

translator a Quranic resonance explained as follows:

َعْت لَھُ نَْفُسھُ قَْتَل أَِخیِھ فَقَتَلَھُ فَأَْصبََح ِمَن " ُ ُغَرابًا یَْبَحُث فِي األَْرِض لِیُِریَھُ اْلَخاِسِرینَ فَطَوَّ فَبََعَث هللاَّ

ي فَأَْصبََح َكْیَف یَُواِري َسْوَءةَ أَِخیِھ قَاَل یَا َوْیلَتَى أََعَجْزُت أَْن أَُكوَن ِمْثَل ھََذا اْلُغَراِب فَأَُواِرَي َسْوَءةَ أَخِ 

)31-30(سورة المائدة: آیة "ِمَن النَّاِدِمین

“So the Nafs “self” of the other (latter one) encouraged him and

made fair-seeming to him the murder of his brother; he murdered him and

became one of the losers. Then Allah sent a crow who scratched the ground

to show him to hide the dead body of his brother. He (the murderer) said:

"Woe to me! Am I not even able to be as this crow and to hide the dead

body of my brother?" Then he became one of those who regretted. (The

Noble Quran: Interpretations of the Meanings of the Noble Quran in the



59

English Language, translated by Mohammad Muhsin Khan and

Mohammad Tariq-ud-Din Al-Hilali , 1999).

If the translator has a good knowledge of the story of Cain and Abel

and the symbolism of the Raven, the translated text will smoothly be

transferred to the TL audience and they will get the message; however, this

translation is not sufficient to be a clue to the first ancient murder incident,

how did the human being learn to bury the dead since then? And what is

the wisdom behind referring to the crow/raven in Quran and later in

Darwish’s poem?

In short, science has proved that both crows and ravens are very

intelligent birds, living in tribes which put certain rules to organize the life

between its members, if an injustice is erupted between its members, they

convene a ‘trial’ and hold the guilty accountable, they are also the only

kind of birds which bury their dead; this was the reason behind sending the

crow/raven in particular to teach Cain how to bury his brother.

Nonetheless, the translator will face a problem in translating the word

"غراب" as it is mentioned above. We have two different translations: the

translated verse in the Quran presents it as “crow” while it is depicted in

the poem as “raven”; whatever the choice “raven” or “crow” is, the first

letter of the word should be capitalized, for there is a reference to a

protagonist character in the story whose existence dramatically changes the

hero “Abel”. Last but not least, the researcher believes that the standard

translation of "غراب" as “raven” is stronger than “crow” since there are



60

many literary works (like Edgar Allan Poe’s works) where the “Raven” is a

fundamental character associated with death, horror, pessimism, God’s

message and other alike motifs.

Due to the complexity of some of the implicit hidden allusions and

the importance of translating them to the TL viewers in a way that is fair

for both of the SL author and TL readers, hereinafter are listed the stages

that should be followed whenever a translator approaches a text abundant

with allusions.

3.3.2 Three Distinct Stages :

Due to the significance of the end-product of the TT, there are three

categorical stages that need to be taken into consideration during the

translation of allusions:

1. Identification:

It is mentioned before in management that the first phase of problem

solving is to recognize first what the problem is. Equivalently, if the

translator fails to identify the kernel of allusions found in the ST, s/he will

inevitably be misled from the purpose and the theme of allusions and thus

will fail to convey the text adequately to the TL readers

Failing to recognize an intertextual allusion - that is,
mistakenly taking it for just another stretch of the text - is
considered 'unpardonable' in translators. They must always be
on the look-out for such echoes (Hervey and Higgins 1992, 47)



61

Robinson (1997) stresses out that the general knowledge of the SL

culture may not lead to an adequate comprehension of the allusions; hence,

a good translator is the who thrusts her/himself in the culture-specific

elements of the text to be translated.

One of the most prominent problems of the allusions is that they are

not smoothly identified due to their “esoteric nature” (Almazan, 2002: 28).

Some readers may recognize them on their surface level and be satisfied

with their denotative meaning whereas others "proceed to a superior level of

signification, being familiar with the source of the allusion" -a very hard

level for the translators to attain (Ibid, 29).

Many scholars re-iterated the fact that the more culturally aware the

translator, the greater understanding and accessibility the readership will

have to the ST and SL culture. This argument is supported by an experiment

conducted by Leppihalme on a group of Finnish apprentices of translation

to recognize English intertextual allusions; it was only a few numbers of

students of exceptional backgrounds who got high scores; one of them used

to live in the UK; another had an English-speaking parent and the third is a

professional English translator of fiction. Afterwards, she concluded that the

key-feature that the translators’ syllabus should comprise is the

biculturalism and having good cultural competence and knowledge.



62

2. Interpretation:

The interpretation phase is not of a less significance than the first

one; if the translator does not understand the allusive reference at all, then

s/he will translate it literally, and the readership will be able to recognize its

denotative meaning only. Hatim & Mason say: “The essential point of an

intertextual reference is to analyze it in terms of the contributions it makes

to its host text” (1990, 137)

On the other hand, if the translator does not get the meaning that the

allusion carries, s/he will render a different message and thus the readers

will understand it differently from the original. To resolve this issue,

Leppihalme (1997, 36) argues that translators should always "opt for

collective connotations" and "discard subjective associations" when dealing

with the interpretation and analysis of the allusions in the text in hand.

However, she does not make a clear-cut approach to separate between the

subjective associations and the collective connotations.

When the phase of interpretation is completed by understanding the

whole picture of the allusive reference in the SL and then adapting it to the

TL culture, the phase of translation comes thereafter.

3. Translation:

There are many suggested translation strategies from different

scholars and they are highlighted in the previous section. The process of



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translation is the final stage of the translator’s way towards the problem-

solving of the allusions existence in a specific text.

Every translation can be seen as having a double intertextuality.
The source text has intertextual relationships with other source
language texts. The translation will establish new relationships
with existing L2 texts. The translator cannot ignore the
relationship between the target text and original text.
Confronted with this double intertextuality; the translator must
act in favor the target language text world (Neubert and Shreve
1992, 118)

Hervey and Higgins (1992) elaborate the issue of allusion translation

saying “a translator is obliged to identify a target language genre that

'corresponds' to that of the source language”.

Whatever the translation strategy employed, translators need to

preserve the following elements in their translation:

 Preservation of function and meaning

 Compliance with readership expectations and TL culture norms

 Consistency with global translation strategies

 Adequacy to genre and text type

 Suitability in terms of audience and TT function

 Harmony with context

 Avoidance of culture-bumps

 Mirroring of ST readers responses (Almazan, 2002, 43).



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The above theories of allusions translation and the stages that should

be followed will be applied on the study examples illustrated below in view

of the different classifications of allusions.

3.4 Data Analysis:

This section reviews different types of allusions tackling their

thematic role, the meaning they rouse, the translation strategies employed as

well as an assessment to the translation and its impact on the meaning that

the original allusions embody.

3.4.1 Ruokonen’s Classification of Allusions

On the basis of cultural familiarity and foreignness, Minna Ruohonen

(2010) classifies allusions into three different groups illustrated as follows:

1. Probably familiar: The referent in the ST is widely popular and well-

known for the TL viewers like the reference of a famous author,

character, a religious book... etc. when an allusion is classified as

probably-familiar, it means that the allusive reference, its role in the

text and theme are available mentally for the translators and can

easily be identified and recognized with some help of encyclopedias;

moreover, TL readers are reasonably expected to  acknowledge

allusions and the meaning they arouse as well. The role of the

translator in the case of dealing with a familiar allusion is to retain the

SL allusion/s since they assume that TL readers are culturally aware

of it.



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Example (9 a):

یا نوح !"

ھبني غصن زیتون

ووالدتي حمامة

ال ترحل بنا

إن الممات ھنا سالمة

 ......

إنا جذور ال تعیش بغیر أرضِ 

).125: ص 1966، عاشق من فلسطین("ولتكن أرضي قیامة

Example (9 b):

“O Noah

A branch of olive give me

And my mother a dove

Do not abandon us

Verily salvation is to die here

……..

We are roots that cannot live without our land

So let my land be the Resurrection” (my translation, 2015)



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Noah’s story is present in more than one place in Darwish’s poetry

who regards this incident as an echo to his life. If Noah’s ark symbolizes

safety and salvation, Darwish’s ark depicts alienation and exile.

Thematically, time, place and characters are totally different, but Darwish

manages to wear many hats in this context; first, he describes the flood of

the conspiracies against the Palestinians which collaborated to throw them

from their own homeland, then he goes on making an analogy between

Noah’s ark and his; however, Noah’s ark is the refuge of the righteous

whereas Darwish’s is the bridge which transfers Darwish and his people

from home to exile, so the meaning of the twentieth century’s ark is

different. However, the subsequent circumstances of the flood carry the

same meaning in both cases; as per the Book of Genesis, Noah sent a dove

to testify the end of the flood, it came back afterwards carrying an olive

branch, and this symbolizes peace and safety. In comparison to this,

Darwish utilizes universally-known allusions (the olive branch and the

dove) symbolizing peace as a clue that the Palestinian land is going to

witness a stable pacific period after this chaos.

As for translation, Darwish makes a reference to a probably familiar

religious character “Noah”; the whole incident is culturally well-known and

can be easily recognized by the translator and the TL readers. Therefore, the

translator should retain the name as it is without any additional changes as it

is shown above; however, the meaning the allusion arouses fluctuates as the

text travels from one time into another through the intertextual space, but



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this does not affect the translator’s choice since “Noah” and his ark are

static figures regardless of the choice of the reader to mold their meanings

coping with the current time, place and audience. On the other hand, there is

another intricate probably familiar KP allusion at the very end of the

aforesaid example which is without a ;"قیامة" doubt, there are many

equivalences of this religious KP allusion like (Day of Judgment,

Apocalypse and Doomsday), yet the translator opts to excavate in the roots

of the text to extract the meaning that Darwish inclines to manifest;

concisely, there will be a revival and restoration era in the Palestinian lands

after tasting several colors of anguish, suffering and exodus. Thusly, the

word “Resurrection” in the capitalized form is the most convenient choice

of words to assuage the loss degree in the allusive meaning.

Example (10 a):

"من أیام لوط إلى قیامة ھیروشیما 

)25: ص 2000والیباب ھو الیباب" (الجداریة، 

Example (10 b):

“Ever since the days of Lot, until the apocalypse of Hiroshima

Devastation has always been devastation” (Unfortunately It Was Paradise:

Selected Poems, “The Mural”, translated by Munir Akash et al., 2003: 139-

140).



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Lot’s story is considered a part of the Palestinian’s experience; Lot

is the Palestinian freedom fighter: Darwish himself, Darwish’s brother, his

mother, father, neighbor; he is a symbol of every single Palestinian who is

involved in a confrontation against evil who is trying to confiscate her/his

own identity and demolish her/his own history. The issue is not restricted to

borrowing excerpts from here and there and then embedding them into a

person’s own text, but it is mainly related to the way of organizing these

excerpts to create a distinctive mosaic. Darwish reveals that the

Palestinians’ experience is an extended experience of Lot’s, and Palestine

would be regarded as a reflection of Sodom. In other words, Darwish

applies the past on the present to enable him to predict the future; without

intertextuality, he will not do this, and this justifies that intertextuality is

always used for a purpose and not produced in a vacuum.

Again, Darwish makes a reference to three probably familiar names

no one can disagree on the translation of both of these ;"لوط، قیامة وھیروشیما"

names "لوط وھیروشیما" since the translator of the ST can trace them to the TL

without any cultural bumps, and then the readers have the prerogative to

interpret their function and the purpose of conjuring up such incidents

themselves; however, one should ask why does the translator resort to

retain the word "قیامة" as “Apocalypse” and not as “Doomsday”? And what

is the impact of the translation choice on the meaning evoked from such an

allusive reference?



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In terms of associated meaning and as per the Jewish and Christian

traditions, the Apocalypse is regarded as a divine revelation to the chosen

people of prophets and apostles; however, it has lately acquired the

meaning of the end of the world. Doomsday refers to the end of the world

and the destruction of human race and civilization; the Doomsday is more

secular whereas the Apocalypse has religious connotations. Literally

speaking, the Apocalypse is associated with the divine upheaval that

triggers the end of the world. This explanation justifies the translator’s

choice of the retention of the word "قیامة" into “Apocalypse”. On the one

hand, it copes with the devastation that happened in Hiroshima as an

intimation of Darwish that all wars pave the way towards the ultimate end

of the human civilization. On the other hand, it has more religious

connotations than “Doomsday”, and so it collaborates to enrich the general

theme of the poem. Eventually, the role of the translator in decoding the

meaning that the allusion carries is not of a less significance than the role

of the author; both of them have to be alert to the linguistic and cultural

specs that are peculiar to their viewers.

2. Possibly unfamiliar: The referent text is available in the target

language but not so widely as it exists in the source language. These

allusions could be familiar to some of the TL readers and translators

depending on the cultural stock that they do have; however, their

knowledge is not so deep, so the translator needs to draw her/his

attention to the peculiarities of these allusions and to render them in a

way that can be comprehended by the TL viewers. As per



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Leppihalme (1997), the translator is responsible in this case to add

guidance to her/his readers through her/his translation; guidance may

be achieved through the addition of explanatory foot-notes at the end

of the translated text.

Example (11 a):

"للوالدة وقت، وللموت وقت، وللصمت وقت، وللنطق وقت

).45: ص. 2000، الجداریة" (وللحرب وقت، وللصلح وقت، وللوقت وقت

Example (11 b):

“Nothing abides forever/ a time to be born/ and a time to die/ a time to be

silent/ and a time to speak/ a time for war/ and a time for peace/ all is

bound to pass”(Unfortunately It Was Paradise: Selected Poems, “The

Mural”, translated by Munir Akash et al., 2003: 155-156).

There is a religious KP allusion that resoundingly echoes what’s mentioned

in the Ecclesiastes:

To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose
under the heaven; a time to be born and a time to die, a time to
plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted; a time to
kill; and a time to heal; a time to break down; and a time to
build up; a time to weep; and a time to laugh; a time to mourn;
and a  time to dance; a time to cast away stones; and a time to
gather stones together; a time to embrace; and a time to refrain
from embracing; a time to get; and a time to lose; a time to
keep; and a time to cast away; a time to rend; and a time to
sew; a time to keep silence; and a time to speak; a time to love;
and a time to hate; a time for war; and a time for peace (King
James Bible: Ecclesiastes: 1-8, 1465-1466)



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As illustrated before, both of “The Mural” and the “Ecclesiastes”

depict a life experience; a life that has several opposites like death,

destruction, silence, mourning, giving up, war... Etc. Darwish almost uses

the same pairs of words whether in form or content, and he couples both of

birth and death subsequently to refer to the inevitable fact that Darwish has

learnt; there is no temporal spacing between life and death, and none can

achieve immortality. Moreover, Darwish adds his special touch when

saying "للوقت وقت" as a reference that the meaning of time is the magnificent

controlling force of all life incidents.

The allusions implied