Reflection in Translating from Arabic into Persian (A Comparative Approach)

Equivalence in translating pronouns has been for a long time among the most discussed issues in translation studies and was the main objective of this study. It is worth noting that relying on linguistic findings, researchers have done effective works in this regard. They have discovered similarities and differences of languages through linguistic studies, known as equivalence assessment or comparative studies. Reflexive pronoun is a linguistic element that has been the subject of many linguistic studies. The studies show that this pronoun has been used differently in different languages having an objective or an emphatic function. In Arabic, the differentiation between objective and emphatic functions is easy because of the existence of diactrics, while in Persian the words Khish, khishtan and Khod, all meaning self, can have objective and emphasis functions. Using a descriptive-analytical method, this study tried to explicate the common aspects of Arabic and Persian in reflexivity. It then tried to explore the main challenges of Persian translators of Arabic facing the pronoun. Results show that Persian translations almost have two main problems. The first is that the differences between the objective and emphatic functions which have been ignored. The second is that enough attention has not been paid to the meaning of verbs. So the translations are not equivalent. Explicitation is proposed then as a strategy for resolving the problem.