Exaggeration in Poetic Texts: Translation Criticism

Abstract

Exaggeration is very much used in language and literature. It can be found in Quranic texts, Prophetic Tradition and poetry as well. Using exaggerated expressions in such texts is to achieve certain purposes. The most significant one is to attract the reader's attention, and sometimes it is used for rhetorical purposes. This research is devoted for investigating the use of exaggerated expressions in poetry. The reason behind this choice is that Arabic poems are very much rich with exaggeration since poetry is supposed to be directed to audience in order to attract their attention in one way or another. Here, we have chosen some famous Arabic old and modern poems in which the poet intended to use exaggeration with all its well – known types (i.e., ?al-mubālagah (exaggeration), ?al-?igrāq (over – exaggeration) and ?al-guluw (extreme - exaggeration) in order to add aesthetic frame to the poem to make the reader or hearer ask about these exaggerated lines and what they mean. This research paper aims at giving a brief idea about exaggeration and its types, an exposition of selected poems that clarify the types of exaggeration, and ends with translation samples for the purpose of criticism on the basis of their equivalence to the original texts. The reason behind such choice is to show the reader / hearer the mistakes that may occur when translating these texts from Arabic into English, especially if the translator does not have a good background about this rhetorical term and its function in this domain.