Translation of Biblical and Mythological Allusions in Three Shakespearean Tragedies: Hamlet, Macbeth, and Romeo and Juliet

Abstract

Allusions as a literary device are included in a text to express meanings that go beyond the mere words the author uses and depend to a large extent on familiarity to be comprehended. Thus, they carry meaning in the culture in which they arise while this meaning is missed in another culture. The translation of allusions, therefore, which includes two language cultures, requires enormous problem-solving skills and adoption of strategies allowing the translator to evoke more or less the same reaction as that of the source language audience (Leppihalme, 1997). This study explores the adoption of strategies by Pasargadi (1996) in translating allusions rooted in mythology and the Bible in three Shakespearean tragedies, i.e. Hamlet, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet based on the classification suggested by Ruokonen (2010). The analysis of the results revealed that the translator made more frequent use of modifying than retentive strategies, 52.69% and 47.31% respectively. Further investigation of the translation strategies employed by the translator sheds greater light on the reliability of the classification by Ruokonen (2010) and results in a better grasp of how to guarantee as close an effect on the target text audience as the one created on the source text audience.