Translating Arabic Free Poetry Texts into English by ChatGPT: Success and Failure

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to examine the success and failure of ChatGPT in translating some Arabic free poetry texts selected from Wahib's 'Hulm 'ala Nasiat Aljabin 'A Dream on the Corners of Nostalgia.’ In this study, we examined ChatGPT’s ability in the translation field. In particular, the focus is on translating in Arabic context. The free poetry texts were first translated by the authors and then by ChatGPT. Both translations were then analyzed and compared to find out to what extent ChatGPT translation deviates from human translation. A qualitative approach is adopted with the help of comparative and analytical methods. The results show that ChatGPT is, to some extent, successful in producing a natural English translation of the Arabic poems in this study. In contrast, humans adopt translation strategies like paraphrasing, adapting, recreating, and transliteration. ChatGPT adopts translation strategies like paraphrasing addition, word-for-word, and literal translation. However, there is no care for the aesthetic values in ChatGPT’s translation, and many types of translation errors result from applying these strategies.