The Translation Center at the University of Jordan held On Thursday dated 4/6/2023 a "free" workshop for students of the School of Foreign Languages and those interested in translation entitled
"Topics in Literary Translation"
The workshop was presented by Dr. Mahmoud Zaidan from the Department of English Language and Literature at the University of Jordan.
Dr. Zaidan discussed a number of important topics in translation, such as translation strategies, and presented the most important books that showed how translation is concerned with conveying the meaning of the text, indicating that the translation of literary texts is a creative act in itself, in which the translator creates another text that is different from the original one. Therefore, the style of writing varies according to the language into which it was translated and the difference in culture.
He also pointed out the importance of punctuation marks in the text, and that how the translator's good use of them plays an important role in the integrity of the meaning conveyed to the reader, and thus affects the translation of the text, so that the translator must take into account the way these marks differ from one language to another. During the lecture, Dr. Zidan discussed examples from literary texts such as Moby Dick by the American writer Herman Melville, as well as from Ghassan Kanafani's Men in the Sun, and other texts like verses from the Holy Qur'an, in which he explained how translation differs from one person to another due to the different cultures and understanding of the original text.
At the end of the lecture, which was attended by a number of students and are interested in translation at the university, Dr. Zaidan answered the questions and inquiries of the attendees. And due to the great response and success of this workshop, the Director of the Translation Center confirmed that this workshop is an introduction to a series of workshops and seminars that the UJTC will hold in the field of translation in the near future.