Difficulties of Cultural References in the Translation of the English Novel Wuthering Heights into Arabic

Abstract

This study aims to examine the use of cultural references in the translation of the novel, Wuthering Heights, into Arabic. It also aims to investigate whether the translator, (Murad 2008), succeeded in conveying the cultural references which may contribute to accurate translation of the original. The researcher used Ivir's (1987) procedures which are: (i) borrowing; (ii) definition; (iii) literal translation; (iv) substitution; (v) lexical creation; and (vi) addition as a framework to determine the technique of translating the cultural references from English into Arabic. The findings show that the translator used all Ivir's techniques in the translation of the novel but with different percentages. For instance, literal translation is the most common procedure used with 65.7 % whereas the lexical creation is the least with 1.4 %. The study recommends that translators should use Ivir's procedures to know how to deal with the cultural references in literary contexts and in many other contexts.