Collaborative bridge translation

Abstract This study addresses the intricate challenges of translating modern Arabic poetry into English through the analysis of the translation of three selected poems by the renowned Egyptian poet Farouk Goweda. These poems, reflecting Goweda’s sociopolitical engagement with the cultural background of the Middle East, contain cultural specificities and stylistic features that pose difficulties for translators on various levels, semantic, syntactical, idiomatic and sonic. This study explores how a joint approach relying on collaborative translation and a functionalist approach to translation addresses and processes these multilevel difficulties which necessitate a combination of skills and cross-cultural proficiencies of experts from both the source and target cultures to achieve the purpose of the target translation and to appeal to Anglophone readers. This approach manages to balance the aesthetic and thematic effect of the source text with the linguistic and cultural context of the recipient culture, stressing the importance of intercultural communication through translation.