Examining the Process of Transferring Meaning in Translation Using the Discourse Semiotic Approach: A Case Study of Elahi Qomshei’s Translation of The Prophet

Each translator directs his/her translation choices based on vocabulary substitution and coherence of grammatical structures and by taking into account what intentions the source text holds and the importance of the target culture. Given the fact that the translator is under the influence of an interpolation space between source and target languages, the semantic approach was employed to analyze the process of meaning transfer. Given the semiotic definition of translation, which is understood as an intercultural and intertextual relationship, the purpose of the present study is to show that in the translation of The Prophet, the work by Gibran Khalil Gibran’s work, which was translated by Hossein Elahi Qomshei, the culture of both source and target languages play a role, following two converging and diverging semantic systems. The function of the converging semantic system is to preserve the cultural morph of the source text, and the function of the divergent semantic system is to create intercultural anomalies. The question is, however, how cultural elements could facilitate the transfer of meaning within the framework of a discursive value in the abovementioned translation. The novelty of this study lies on the fact that it studied the cross-cultural elements in this translation from the perspective of the semantic sign.