Linguistic and Cultural Untranslatability: An Analysis of “Before and After Hiroshima” the English Translation of the Short Story “Hiroshima se Pehlay, Hiroshima kay Baad” by Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi

Abstract

In the process of translation, the translators encounter a number of challenges, and to cater those problems linguists have introduced the strategy of translatability and untranslatability. This study aims to identify the linguistic and cultural untranslatable elements in the English translation of the short story “Before and After Hiroshima” of Ahmad Nadeem Qasmi, originally named “Hiroshima Se Pehlay, Hiroshima Kay Baad”, translated by Sajjad Shaikh. To identify those elements a qualitative analysis was done, comparing both the English translated and the original Urdu text. The findings showed that among the linguistic and cultural untranslatable elements nouns, consisting of common nouns, name of persons and places, constitutes 93.1% of the total untranslatable elements, whereas the adjectives and linguistic expressions contribute to just 1.8% and 5.1%, respectively. This study further analysed the translational strategies used in the translation by using the translational strategies proposed by Newmark. The results showed that the most frequently used strategies were transference, synonymy and cultural equivalent, whereas the other strategies that were identified appeared to be used less frequently, these were replacement, replacement and addition, neutralization, literal translation and omission. This study helps in not just identifying and understanding the linguistic and cultural untranslatability but is also a source of cross-cultural communication and an insight into the diverse culture differences.