TRANSLATING CULTURAL IDENTITY AND POLITICAL RESISTANCE: ANALYSING TRANSLATION STRATEGIES IN FAIZ AHMED FAIZ'S REVOLUTIONARY POETRY

Abstract

This study examines the translation strategies employed in rendering Faiz Ahmed Faiz's revolutionary poem Bol, Ke Lab Azad Hain Tere into English, focusing on the interplay between domestication and foreignization. By analysing how various translations navigate themes of resistance, freedom, and defiance, and comparing them to an AI-generated translation, the study delves into the challenges of preserving the poem's original impact. Using Venuti’s framework of domestication and foreignization, it investigates five renowned English translations of the Urdu poem, exploring how translators either adapt the poem to the cultural norms of the target language or preserve the linguistic and cultural specificities of the original. The findings highlight that translating from Urdu to English is a complex task, and not all translators succeed in fully capturing the essence of the original text. Translators unfamiliar with the nuances of Urdu language and culture often struggle to convey the power of the poem’s imagery and metaphors. The AI-generated translation, for example, offers a literal rendering that overlooks the poem's intricate metaphors, imagery, and strong messages. In contrast, translators well-versed in both Urdu and English manage to retain the original poem's intensity, successfully transferring its symbolic richness into the target language. This research theorizes that effective translation, especially of politically and socially charged poetry, requires deep familiarity with both the source and target languages. It contributes to translation studies by providing insights into how such works can be translated while balancing fidelity to the cultural and historical context of the source text with the need to make it accessible to a broader audience in the target language.