Iv - University of Salford Institutional Repository

Rendering this line into English, the translator has successfully
managed to transfer the obligatory meaning by manipulating the
potential of the 'stream' image incorporated in the preceding stanza.
He recalls the image of the "dark, tumultuous stream" and stretches it
further to encompass the entire meditative thought exquisitely
explicated in the Arabic original. He starts with a negation which is
proven to be extremely focal to the portrayal of the poetic image. The
deletion of the elliptical auxiliary "do" intensifies the negative
aspect of the verb and renders the mere thinking of a backward-flowing
stream absolutely impossible. The second line is a continuation and an
amplification of the first. The insertion of "or" at the beginning of
the second line links it to the first and consolidates the concept of
man's helplessness in the face of Fate. This fatalistic concept
permeates the original text and the translated text. The
consecutive recurrence of the voiceless fricative sound 's' in the
second line is suggestive of the noiseless onward flow of the
serpentine stream of life along its predestined course. The image is
made more profound by introducing yet another image, which is not less
mighty or vigorous, ie. the image of a "blazing spark" glowing "beneath
the surface of the deep". Both images are unthinkable, unimaginable,
unrealizable and hence contrary to the divine, predestined order of
things. The translator has, with admirable competence and alertness,
re-created the 'poet i c spirit' of the original and incorporated it in
the target language in a manner most suited to his target reader. The
impossibility of challenging one's fate, a unique attribute of man's
185