Cohesion in two English Translations of Surat An-Naml in the Holy Quran

Abstract

The present paper aims to investigate how cohesion is handled in two English translations of Surat an-Naml in the Holy Quran. It seeks to examine how it is processed in the religious translated texts. It is concerned with observing the degree of explicitness of cohesive markers taking place in the target texts in comparison with the source text to validate Blum-Kulka‟s explicitness concept in the process of translating religious texts. Explicitness is hypothesized to be used as universal in translation; that is, translators have to use explicit cohesive links in target texts more than those used in source texts. After investigating whether cohesive ties are explicit, the researcher will identify the effect of such in/explicitness on translation. To this end, the researcher will compare two different translations: Saheeh International‟s (2001) Translation and Khattab‟s (2018) „The Clear Quran‟. The models used in this paper are Halliday and Hasan‟s (1976) "Cohesion in English" model and Blum-Kulka‟s (2004) concept of explicitness with the consultation of various Qur‟anic exegeses and Arabic references.