A Comparative Analysis of Two Arabic Translations of The Old Man and the Sea

Ernest Hemingway’s novel The Old Man and the Sea portrays the nature of human struggle through the events of a fisherman attempting to catch a giant fish while at sea. Many of the challenges that the protagonist experiences cause him to rely on his faith in God, and as a result, the text is full of religious utterances and symbols. This study was based on the comparison and analysis of the two translations, including examples from the source text and the translation into Arabic by Muneer Ba’lbaki, a Lebanese Muslim, and Gabrielle Wahbeh, an Egyptian Christian. Results showed that reading these two different translations of the same novel reveals many dissimilarities regarding religious terms. The study found that the reception environment and religious background of the translators affected the translational choices to meet the expectations of the target readership.