A Study of the Coordination of Non-structural Grammatical Cohesion in the First Sermon of Nahj al-Balagha and its Translations

Cohesion is a term used in the field of functional linguistics that analyzes the relationships between different constructive elements of that text in both text grammatical (structural and non-structural) and vocabulary levels. In discussing the cohesion of non-structural grammar, the four dimensions: references, relevance, substitution and elimination are considered as factors integrating text, each, among other cohesive factors, can lead to cohesion and integration of text. With regard to necessity of the principle of balance and equality in the process of translation, the reflection of each of mentioned factors in the translations, along with aligned progress with the original text, is very important. Since Nahj al-Balagha, as a coherent text, includes different cohesive kinds, it is expected that its final translations reflect these integrating elements in itself. This article, with a descriptive-analytic approach, deals with the studying and accommodating the non-structural components of grammatical cohesion in the first sermon of Nahj al-Balagha and its five selected translation. In this way, the level of translator's loyalty to the reflections of these cohesive elements was examined and finally, it was concluded that some of the translators, in the light of equivalent progress and having equality with the original text and additionally, through the selection of suitable subjects among many other elements, fully reflected the existing cohesion in the original text into their translations. There were some cases of translators who have neglected this principle; this neglect may be due to factors such as translator's style and language capacity of the destination text.