Translating Emirati literature: exploring culture-specific items in Mohammed Al Murr's Dubai Tales

Literature translation presents complexities when rendering culture-specific items because translators mediate between distinct cultures and their modes of thought. Cultural references may be unknown in the target culture or carry different connotative or denotative meanings, creating obstacles for translators. Prior scholarship underscores that misunderstanding the source text or lacking cultural awareness can lead to inaccurate results, so selecting effective strategies is crucial. This study narrows the focus to short stories within the Emirati context, offering a qualitative analysis of strategies used to translate CSIs in Mohammed Al Murr’s Dubai Tales and a quantitative analysis of CSI categories. Given the UAE’s role as a multicultural hub and the rising popularity of Emirati literature, there is a growing need for translations that retain cultural nuance while remaining accessible. Objectives include identifying and classifying CSIs using Newmark’s categories, and analysing translation strategies following Davies’s framework, in order to enhance understanding of Emirati culture in literature and inform strategy choices for rendering Arabic CSIs in English. The study’s significance lies in addressing a rarely discussed area in Arabic translation studies, highlighting the importance of cultural awareness and balanced methodology to respect the source text while ensuring comprehensibility for diverse audiences.

Studies on translating CSIs into Arabic have focused on fiction and children’s literature and on translator training. Al-Rikaby et al. 2018 and Aljabri 2021 found that Arabic translators often favoured foreignisation when rendering CSIs from English, preserving source culture elements. Habtoor and Al-Qahtani 2018, examining the Chronicles of Narnia translations into Arabic, observed frequent but inconsistent foreignisation and argued for a balance between foreignisation and domestication to ensure accessibility without losing cultural essence. Translator training research by Dweik and Suleiman 2013 and Bahumaid 2017 showed that students faced substantial difficulties translating CSIs, with frequent literal renderings, transliteration, omission and mistranslation, indicating limited cultural awareness and research skills. Few studies address Emirati literature specifically. Work on drama Khamis 2007; Al-Khaleel 2011 highlighted the challenges posed by dialect and CSIs, with findings pointing to mixed literal and free strategies and the need to consider performative, cultural and stylistic aspects. Studies on folklore Al Khamiri 2015 and Nabati poetry Al Qassimi 2017 reported literalism and mistranslations stemming from insufficient cultural understanding, leading to loss of meaning and detachment from cultural context. Collectively, prior research indicates that translating Emirati CSIs requires deep cultural knowledge, and that both foreignisation and domestication may be necessary in balance to preserve meaning and accessibility. This study extends the limited Emirati-focused scholarship by analysing CSIs in Dubai Tales using Newmark’s categories and Davies’s strategies.

Data comprised the English translations of 21 short stories from Mohammed Al Murr’s Dubai Tales translated by Peter Clark and published in 1991. The Arabic stories originate from different volumes by Al Murr. Analysis proceeded in two stages. First, each researcher independently read the Arabic stories to extract CSIs, then cross-checked to form a unified list. Identification relied on Baker’s 2011 criteria: a CSI is unknown in the target culture, lacks an equivalent in the target language, and represents a fact tied to a specific culture, custom, language or environment. Extracted items were grouped using Newmark’s 1988 five cultural domains: ecology; material culture food, clothes, houses and towns, transport; social culture work and leisure; organisations, customs, activities, procedures and concepts political, administrative, religious, artistic; and gestures and habits. Second, CSIs were analysed according to the strategies used in the English translation following Davies’s 2003 framework: preservation, addition, omission, globalisation, localisation, transformation, and creation. Quantitative counts by category and strategy were compiled, complemented by qualitative analysis of representative examples to assess how strategy choices shape meaning and cultural representation.

• The study identified 121 CSIs across 21 stories. Distribution by Newmark’s categories: organisations, customs, activities, procedures and concepts 44 items; 36.36 percent; material culture 42 items; 34.71 percent; social culture 32 items; 26.44 percent; ecology 3 items; 2.47 percent.
• Translation strategies overall: globalisation 79 examples; 65.28 percent; preservation 37; 30.57 percent; transformation 3; 2.47 percent; addition 1 and creation 1; together 0.82 percent. Localisation and omission were not used.
• Organisations category: globalisation dominated 37 of 44; 84.09 percent with preservation in 7; 15.90 percent. Example effects include rendering haram alaik as shame on you, which loses the stronger religious undertone; preserving items such as al-badu Bedu or Bedouin, al-quran Qur’an, and jinn maintained cultural specificity where familiarity allows.
• Material culture: preservation prevailed 24; 57.14 percent; globalisation 16; 38.09 percent; transformation 2; 4.76 percent. Food and clothing items were often preserved e.g., haris, sambusa, kurkumba; clothing such as igal, ghutra, bisht, maintaining cultural texture. Some items were globalised, e.g., taqwim al-ajiri rendered as a calendar and al-anzarut as local medicine, improving accessibility but reducing specificity.
• Social culture: globalisation 25; 78.12 percent; preservation 6; 18.75 percent; transformation 1; 3.12 percent. Examples include alnawakhidha rendered as captains; sewing and embroidery shops rendered broadly as shops losing specificity; al-walaim as large parties rather than feasts or banquets; preservation used for culturally salient proper names and terms such as majalis, Umm Kulthum, and Rubaaiyat of Omar Khayyam.
• Ecology: three items with different strategies across them. One example used addition Sidr of Sayyid Hashim with glossary support for Sidr; another used globalisation emotional desert rendered as emotional wilderness, which dilutes desert-specific cultural resonance.

Findings show a consistent preference for domestication through globalisation to maximise accessibility for a broad audience, especially for complex organisational and social CSIs. This strategy often preserves general meaning but can flatten religious and culture-bound nuances e.g., haram’s moral-religious force reduced to shame on you; al-walaim reduced to large parties. Preservation is used strategically where terms are well known or culturally anchored and beneficial to retain, such as Qur’an, jinn, Bedu, majalis, and prominent cultural names and works, thereby maintaining authenticity and inviting reader curiosity with glossary support. In material culture, preservation supports cultural identity and texture for food and clothing, whereas globalisation of more obscure items e.g., Al-Ajiri calendar, al-anzarut sacrifices specificity for comprehensibility. The category-wise pattern underscores a balancing act between cultural authenticity and readability: organisations and social culture skew to globalisation, while material culture leans to preservation. The approach addresses the research aim by mapping how strategy choices shape cultural representation in translation and by evidencing the trade-offs between domestication and foreignisation within the Emirati literary context.

The study demonstrates that translating CSIs in Dubai Tales involves navigating between preserving cultural authenticity and ensuring comprehensibility. Quantitatively, organisations contained the most CSIs, followed by material culture, social culture and ecology. Clark predominantly used globalisation and preservation, avoiding localisation and omission, indicating a preference to keep cultural elements visible while generalising when needed. Qualitatively, globalisation facilitated accessibility but sometimes diluted cultural or religious nuances; preservation, especially in material culture and salient proper names and terms, maintained cultural richness and integrity. Overall, Clark sought a balance between domestication for readability and foreignisation for authenticity. The study highlights the need for translators to pair linguistic expertise with deep cultural understanding and suggests translator education should further cultivate cultural awareness and sensitivity. Future research could expand to other genres and cultures to develop a more comprehensive view of CSI translation strategies.