Translating Laughter: A Critical Examination of Humor in three Arabic Versions of Mark Twain's Huckleberry Finn

Abstract

This paper critically assesses the translation of humorous expressions from English into Arabic by examining three versions of Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Naseem (1958), Abdulrahman (2015), and Al-Shabini (2018), aiming to identify challenges and propose cost-effective solutions. The paper adopts an interdisciplinary qualitative approach, combining descriptive, comparative, contrastive, and critical analyses, to evaluate the accuracy, fluency, and humorous impact of selected translations. It further identifies translation strategies, proposes solutions to challenges, and suggests alternative renderings where necessary. The research findings indicate that the translators have partially succeeded in meeting the translation objectives, with the intended meanings of the source text's author being largely conveyed in the Arabic translations. However, they were not able to reproduce the humor's full effect and impact. Naseem prioritized educating the target readership and adapting to cultural norms at the time of his translation, potentially compromising the humor of the source text. Abdulrahman and Al-Shabini focused on maintaining high accuracy to the source text, possibly undermining cultural acceptability. The translators' strategies, including omission, literal translation, paraphrasing, and one-to-one transition, may have negatively impacted the accuracy, elegance, force, power, and pragmatic impact of the target texts. As a result, the humorous effects of the source text may have been partially lost in translation. To achieve comparably humorous effects, it is recommended to revise and post-edit these translations, employing domesticating and trans-creative strategies while preserving the source text’s intentions.