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

variation in the treatment of transcribed Arabic words. The comparison of the two
versions indicates that in the final version, the translator tended to paraphrase or
delete transcribed Arabic words and names to reduce the cultural information
load. Where the initial version requires the reader to guess the meaning of a
transcribed word, the final version often replaces the transcription with a
shortened definition, thereby offering immediately accessible information. The
sentence in example 19 presents two transcribed words that the translator chose to
treat differently in the final version.
19 o: elle avait passé un bâtonnet de Khôl dans l'intérieur de ses paupières,
avait légèrement coloré ses joues de rouge et avait frotté ses dents de
Souak pour les faire briller davantage. (11-12)
19 i: she darkened the inner lids of her eyes with a kohl stick, lightly
rouged her cheeks and rubbed her teeth with souak to make them shinier.
kohl footnoted: A very fine black powder used to line the eyes
souak footnoted: The inner bark of the walnut tree, rich in iodine, used
cosmetically to shine the teeth and give color to the gums and lips.
19 f: she darkened the inner lids of her eyes with a kohl stick, lightly
rouged her cheeks and rubbed her teeth with cured walnut bark to make
them shinier.
Whereas the original text and the initial version mark both "Khôl" and "Souak" as
transcribed Arabic words, the final version paraphrases "Souak" but treats ""Khôl"
as an English word. "Kohl" need not be italicized or defined as a foreign word
since it is included in English dictionaries and a familiar word and beauty product
for many Anglophones. Several other English words borrowed from Arabic were
marked with an asterisk and explained in the glossary in the initial version,
including caftan, jihad, henna, muezzin, imam and pouf. In the final version, these
words are neither marked nor explained in the text, but are included in the
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