Problems of Faithfulness in the English Translation of Tayeb Salih’s Masterpiece Season of Migration to the North: Revisiting Equivalence Theory

Translation is a bi-lingual communication activity that should convey the information similar to the original. Consequently, the translator's target is to be faithful to the original wording and maintain the essence of the source language (SL) when he/she conveys a text in the target language (TL). This study was conducted to cast a new light on the cultural problems encountered by Denys Johnson-Davis in his English translation of Tayeb Salih's Season of Migration to the North, specifically in terms of his faithfulness to the ST, and how these can be addressed from various theoretical and practical standpoints about the equivalence theory. Hence, the researcher selected and analyzed the translations of five proverbs and several social terms from Season of Migration to the North, and the usual translation difficulties as well as gains and losses in the translation were found in Denys Johnson-Davis’s English rendition. Moreover, a descriptive qualitative approach was adopted in this study. The results of the study showed that the translator was faithful to the original wording; he endeavored to abstain from modifying the original proverbs and several social terms by adopting the strategy of foreignization. Also, the study found that the translator used several different translation strategies such as literal translations, footnotes, domestication, foreignization, omission, addition, and faithful translation. The study revealed that there were several cultural challenges closely related to Johnson-Davis’ translation faithfulness, as well as the gain and loss of meaning in the English rendering of his masterpiece ''Season of Migration to the North''.