Written Works

Gibran International Conference Proceedings, Lebanese House, Moscow, 2021. 

Ibrahem Bani Abdo & Sajida B. Yaseen, "A Cultural Contrastive Translation Study of Omission in Gibran's the Broken Wings", Journal of Social Sciences, Vol.8, No.4, 2019, pp. 805-816. 
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This study investigates how omission may affect the aesthetic features of the target text (TT) compared to the source text (ST) and does omission lead to a loss of meaning in translating the aesthetic entertaining features of Gibran's Al-‘Ajniha Al-Mutakaserah source text (ST) compared to its English equivalent novel target text (TT) the Broken Wings. It aims to discuss the effects of omission in the translation process between Arabic and English and whether this selected technique may affect the semantic level and the loss of meaning of the target text compared to the source text. Consequently, this article detects omission of metaphor, simile, and repetition and how it may affect the semantic levels of the source text (ST). It is a qualitative comparative analysis examines omission of 20 random samples extracted from Gibran’s Al-‘Ajniha Al-Mutakaserah (1912). The sample is grouped in five categories according to the type of omitted figurative expression as (i) Repetitions; (ii) Metaphors; (iii) Adverb of status; (iv) Personification; and (v) Similes. Each sample is assigned according to their functions. The semantic differences in terms of functions were identified to based on Newmark (1988); Petrulionė (2012); Nida & Taber (2003); Baker (2011); Farghal & Shunnaq (1999); Jayyusi (1977); Ryding (2011); Al-Batal (1990); Abdul-Raof (2006); Johnstone (1991); Obeidat (1997); Younis (2015) and Leppihalme (1997). The results show that omission in translating such poetic novel causes loss of the aesthetic semantic features. The sense of originality and the figurative language have been lost. The intentional or unintentional omission lessens the embellishment embedded in the source text (ST). Finally, omission produces a different effective version, other than the source text (ST).

 

Iskandar Najjār (Alexandre Najjar), Qāmūs Jubrān Khalīl Jubrān (Dictionary of Kahlil Gibran), Bayrūt: Dār al-Sāqī, 2008.

Lebsir Mohamed & Louiza Akram, "Misinterpretation in Literary Translation in Gibran Khalil Gibran’s The Prophet", The University 8 Mai 1945 (Algeria), 2016. 
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This study aimed at investigating the difficulties that translators who deal with the English and Arabic language may face when translating literary expressions. Particularly, it aimed at answering the following questions: 1. What are the main difficulties, related to translation that may lead the translator to misinterpret the source text (English) into (Arabic)? 2. What are the elements that should be taken into consideration to translate, interpret adequately from ST to TT? To achieve the goal of this study, the researcher selected The Prophet by Gibran Khalil Gibran translated work from English to Arabic following the two translations by Tharwat Okasha and Antonious Bachir. The researcher focused on two key elements which are subjectivity and equivalence taking into account many odd elements that are mainly related to literary works such as cultural aspects and linguistic as well as extra-linguistic features of the language. The results show that in order to avoid misinterpreting the source text, the translator has to carefully select the equivalent words and expressions taking into account all aspects of the source language as well as being objective while translating. Adequate literary translation must bring an equivalent and objective production of the source text’s style, meaning, and sometimes structure. Otherwise, the subjective and distinctive literary use in the original text will not transmit the three aspects in the target text.

 

 

51 West Tenth Street

Dear friend and fellow countryman Mr. José Mereb, I offer you my cordial greetings.

This beautiful morning, I received your kind letter, including three copies of the book A Tear and a Smile translated into Portuguese.

Great was my joy for your noble act of conveying this moral problem from the region of ideas to the world of reality.

As God is my witness, my contentment is not the effect of a particular disorder, for recognizing that in our Arabic language, thousands of literary works are more deserving than A Tear and a Smile to be translated into another language.

However, I am glad to hear that the awakened sons of my race, after spending so many years in exile, withdrawn wholly to material causes, have begun to exhibit something of our valuable intellectual treasures before the Western people.

The grateful emotion I feel for you is a collective emotion; it is not individual; as an entity, I do not deserve any element of your noble initiative, shaped by delicate and altruistic sentimentality.

As for your decision to translate the book The Broken Wings, it is yet another proof of your spiritual energy and your love of work.

Certainly, it makes my soul very happy, the comforting news of your translation of The Broken Wings as it is more attractive to my heart than other writings of mine, because it represents the painful profile of the oriental woman, who sees herself placed between Divine love and worldly duty.

I had written most of the parts of A Tear and a Smile before I turned twenty springs; they came out pale, wrapped in new ones. The Broken Wings, however, was written many years later; although it is not what I wanted, it is, more like a mature branch than a green one.

Allow me to say another word to you concerning The Broken Wings. Here it is…

I know that the moral problems of our days do not materialize and do not have their effects, if not through money, recognizing, that my moral help is not enough. I therefore want to help this noble initiative with something material; I ask you to inscribe my name with twenty pounds sterling in the list of those who signed up for this worthy act of yours; and I am ready to send you this insignificant amount whenever you want.

The book The Tempests, my last work in Arabic, has just been published by «al-Hilāl» Printing Department in Egypt. But I still have not received the copies they were supposed to send me. As soon as they arrive, I will send you one, hoping you will find something in it that will please and satisfy you.

You told me in one of your previous letters that you had sent me your portrait; however, with great regret, I tell you that I did not receive it: nevertheless, I was happy to see it lithographed in the work A Tear and a Smile. In return, I also offer you mine and ask you to accept it as a proof of my esteem and admiration for you.

If possible, I beg you to gift me with six more copies of A Tear and a Smile, as some friends who know Portuguese here are eager to acquire the work; and, if possible, if you could also send me what is said in the press about the beautiful translation, I would be thrice grateful to you.

Please accept my cordial greetings, filled with esteemed gratitude. And may God keep you for your brother,

Ǧubrān Ḫalīl Ǧubrān

New York, May 16, 1920

Majmūʻat al-Rābiṭah al-Qalamiyyah li-Sanat 1921 (The Collection of the Pen Bond for the Year 1921), New York, 1921.

 

Anthology of writings by members of al-Rābiṭah al-Qalamiyyah. Index begins on page 313, contents listed by author begins on page 316. 
Authors: Nasib Arida; Rashid Ayyoub; Wadi Bahout; William Catzeflis; Kahlil Gibran; Abd al-Masih Haddad; Nadra Haddad; Elia Abu Madi; Mikhail Naimy.

 

Source: Arab American National Museum

 

Mirrors of Heritage, Lebanese American University, No. 12 - Spring/Summer 2020.

 

Mirrors of Heritage, Special Issue, 20th Anniversary, The Center for Lebanese Heritage, Lebanese American University (LAU), 2202-2022.

Mohammed Abdul Ghani Hassan, "Ashaár wa shuaára min al-Mahjar" (Poems and Poets from the Diaspora), Kitab al-Hilal, number 266, February 1973.

Mustaqbal al-Lughat al-'arabiat wa al-'alam al-'arabi [The Future of Arabic and the Arab World], Al-Hilal, March 1920, pp. 489-497.