Translating Euphemisms of Sexual Taboos in the Qur’an: A Trans-Linguistic Approach

Abstract

Translating the Qur'an is an extremely challenging task because of the special nature and the distinctive style of the Book. The Qur'an has some unique characteristics that may hinder translators from rendering the intentional Qur'anic stylistic deviation, ambiguity, metonymy, and many other figurative images as well as euphemism and its intended meaning into English with high accuracy. This study tackles euphemism and dysphemism in religious discourse, namely the Qur'an. It is a trans-linguistic study that delves into the problems of translating euphemism and dysphemism in three translations of the meanings of the Qur'an. The study thoroughly examines and analyses nine Qur’anic verses of illegal sexual relations, i.e., adultery and lesbianism. The study finds that translators, especially of holy texts, should merge domestication and foreignization according to the skopos (i.e., purpose) of the translation. The impact of conveying euphemism adequately or inadequately seems to be identical for both Ali and Ghali, but it is discrepant in Pickthall, which indicates that the translators' background plays a pivotal role to render euphemism adequately into the TL culture.