Qur’anic Metaphors and Their English and Persian Translations: Dead or Alive?

The present study aims at discussing whether metaphors in the Qur’an, revealed more than ۱۴۰۰ years ago, are dead, moribund or live and how these three types of metaphors have been translated in three English and three Persian translations of the Qur’an. The results reveal that among ۷۰ metaphors examined, while only about ۳۲.۸۵% are live metaphors, about ۶۷.۱۴% are moribund, but none of the cases are completely dead. Furthermore, based on Newmark’s (۱۹۸۸a) classification of procedures for translation of metaphors, there is no image in ۱۵.۲۱% of the procedures used in the English and Persian translations of live metaphors while there are images in ۸۴.۷۸% of them. On the other hand, ۴۳.۲۶% of the procedures used in translations of moribund metaphors transfer the images whereas ۵۶.۷۳% of them omit the images, although these metaphors are not dead. Yet the point is that when the majority of Qur’anic metaphors, that are moribund, had been considered by translators as dead metaphors and their images had been omitted, the translations fail to represent one of the important aspects of the original text’s literary style that is its metaphorical and literary language.

Keywords:

Dead Metaphor , Moribund Metaphor , Live Metaphor , Translation Procedure