Translating Nouzha Fassi Fihri's La Baroudeuse: A Case Study in ...

This name of a famous mosque in Fez was revised to provide the spelling most
frequently used for the transcription of this word in English language media.
Another notable difference between the two versions that relates most
directly to sociocultural constraints is the reduction of the glossary and the
addition of a limited number of footnotes as in examples 23 and 24.
23 o: Cette ville séculaire possédait plus d'un point commun avec la ville
d'Idriss. (14)
23 i: This age-old city had several traits in common with the city of Idriss
Idriss glossed: Idriss Ibn Abdullah founded the city of Fez and the
Idrisside dynasty in the late 700's A.D.
23 f: another age-old city that had much in common with the city of Idris
Idris footnoted and glossed: “Mulay Idris b. 'Abdallah, a descendent of the
Prophet, founded the city of Fez in 789 CE,” according to Richard C.
Martin’s Encyclopedia of Islam and the Muslim World V.2 (New York:
Macmillan Reference USA, 2004).
In this example, the translator footnotes cultural information that supports a
narrative theme and would have been implicitly available to most of the original
Moroccan and many of the original French readers. The fact that this city was the
original capital of the modern Islamic state explains part of the historical pride of
the people of Fez, an underlying theme of the narrative. Eliminating this reference
would unduly infringe on the coherence of the text. The translator chose rather to
maintain the reference and the glossary entry and to add a footnote for readers'
convenience.
The word "negafats" occurs six times in two contexts in the original text
and is footnoted in the first appearance in the final version.
24 o: Arrivaient ensuite les négafat avec, en équilibre sur leur tête, le
trousseau de l'accouchée et la layette du bébé qu'une famille aisée envoyait
93