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

personal matters, unvoiced thought about social concerns, talking to oneself alone
and aloud, voicing inwardly directed thoughts when others are present, and
speaking to a crowd, for example. Preserving the ambiguities of this multilayered
portrayal of speech acts approximates the effects of the original text for the LC2
reader.
Readers’ responses to the use of transcribed words and italics called
attention to sociocultural as well as linguistic constraints. Even though discomfort
and confusion are part of the experience of post-colonial hybridity, given that I
imagined an audience further removed than the original readers from the cultural
context of the narrative, the information load needed to be lightened and
ambiguity clarified at least to some extent. Therefore, I translated or paraphrased
many of the Arabic words that the author had transcribed in the original. For
example, rather than transcribe the word labat as the author did, I substituted the
English word "feltmaker."
Une fois l'animal écorché, mouton ou chèvre, sa peau passe par plusieurs
opérations avant d'arriver entre leurs mains. Le "Labat" en arrache la laine
et en épile les poils. (133-134)
When a sheep or goat is skinned, the hide goes through several operations.
The feltmaker pulls out the wool and plucks the hair.
Though a Moroccan labat performs his job in a highly culture-specific setting
which the word "feltmaker" does not convey, the context of the narrative fully
compensates for the information lost with the substitution of the English word.
The word tahlil, however, is open to interpretation and unexplained in the text.
Si tu étais une bague, mon doigt serait à ta mesure. / Si tu étais un tahlil en
or, j'en serais la cordelière. / Si tu étais un poignard, c'est moi qui te
porterais en bandoulière. (64)
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