The impact of cultural and environmental factors on meaning loss in the translation of implied metaphors in the Muallaqa of Antarah

This paper will discuss the role of cultural and environmental features of the source text of the Muallaqa of Antarah while translating the implied metaphor into the English language. The present study will explore how cultural and environmental contexts have contributed to the loss of meaning in the translations of the implied metaphor as rendered by Arberry, Johnson, and Jones, employing ten examples of the implied metaphors (isti’arah) which are extracted from the Muallaqa of Antarah. The findings reveal that cultural specificity and environmental contexts are major challenges in metaphor translation. Moreover, semantic equivalence is also absent in one of the main causes of losing or distorting meaning. This analysis has therefore underscored that cultural and environmental considerations are of crucial importance for an accurate translation.