Ideological Challenges and Linguistic Approaches to Translating a Jewish Semi-Religious Text into Malay

Abstract

Translating texts rich in elements of religions other than Islam into Malay, in the context of Malaysia, is ever sensitive due to its norms and conventions, restricting the translation of such texts which may contain educationally noteworthy knowledge. This study makes use of a semi-religious text, Jewish Wisdom for Business Success, which discusses the secrets behind the Jewish people’s success in various fields, especially in business, along with the real life stories of entrepreneurs from the viewpoint of Judaism. The cardinal purpose behind this study is to determine the potential sociocultural challenges which a translator may encounter when translating a Jewish business text into Malay with the hope of providing new sociocultural perspectives in the context of translation studies in Malaysia. The research also discusses discourse analysis as the primary method in determining, analysing and deciphering the sociocultural elements supported by a communicative-functional approach as proposed by Sdobnikov (2011). In conclusion, the potential issues in translating the ST are ascertained to involve the linguistic and ideological aspects embedded in the text which the target audience, especially Malay Muslim native speakers, are highly averse to. These linguistic and ideological pitfalls may also be overcome through the use of translation procedures such as borrowing, explicitation, paraphrasing and translator’s notes.