Diss

1.
Introduction
1. Informational Background
Translatability of Poetry
Translatability of poetry has been hotly debated by scholars and linguists. There are two opposite
views in the topic whether or not poetry can be translated: the one is on the one hand that poetry is
translatable and, as evidence, that many cultures has taken poems as foreign but not as translated, such as
English readers of Catullus or Realke, Chinese readers of Keats, or Arabic readers of Homer's Iliad &
Odyssey.
Still, successfully translated poem does not leave the reader to perceive that a translation has occurred,
and only when the poem conforms to such caliber is deemed a translation (Baker & Saldanha, 2020, P.
410).
On the other hand, the view that a poem cannot be at least very difficult to be translated pivots on two
premises: that poetry is mysterious and obscure; poetry is the product of a special relationship between
form and meaning, and that a translated poem is an independent work and entirely separate from the
source, original poem. That in mind, it can then be suggested that to create a translation of a poem the
translator will have to both produce mysterious and obscure poem and re-forge as likened a special
relationship between form and meaning to that of the original poem as possible, an evidently impossible or
arduous task (Baker & Saldanha, 2020, P. 410).
Translation and Literary Translation: Concept and Nature
Translation is to make meaning (Halliday, 1992) from a different source text (ST) of a different
source language (SL), integrate such meaning into a target text (TT) of a different target language (TL),
and retain the stylistic and esthetic effects of that original meaning, the same effects about which literary
translation is primarily concerned. More exactly, literary translation is type of translation that is in
specific quest for molding both the conventional esthetics of the "literary style" and the normal cultural
peculiarities of a different SL into a TL. The literary style forms the basis of literary translation, leads to
constitution of poetic meaning- as opposed to the scientific, universal and invariable meaning of a
non-literary text- and contrasts the non-literary or scientific style that is mainly about pure lexical
meaning (Anani, 2003, p. 34).
The literary translator is thus challenged to predispose the target audience to be as much impressed
by the artistic style of the ST as the source audience has been. Naturally, literary translation deals with
various literary genres (e.g. verse, drama and fiction), and in this respect verse is indubitably the literary
genre that poses the greatest challenge to the literary translator. Namely, the rhythmic, rhetorical, tonal
and cultural specificity of verse incurs considerable efforts for linguistic and cultural equivalence.
Moreover, culture is an integral, organic and inseparable part from language, and the literary style
epitomizes the manifestation of the cultural elements in language, hence the taxing conveyance of the
foreign authorial culture to lay audience (Anani, 2003, pp. 6-7).
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2. Rationale
It seems therefore clear that the cultural specificity of the literary style is starkly evident in mock-
heroic verse, or in Arabic "‫( "اﻟﺴﺎﺧﺮ اﻟﻤﻠﺤﻤﻲ اﻟﺸﻌﺮ‬vide Wahba, 1974, p. 328). To demonstrate, mock-heroic
poem is a satirical poem in which the poet applies to produce the effect of satire a special technique that
employs grand style and lofty language which inappropriately extols and esteems a figure that is in fact
low, ridiculous and inferior. The special technique employs a few and limited number of Homer's epic
conventions (e.g. extended simile, epithet, Muse, etc.), and this is particularly why mock-heroic (always
adjective) distinguished from mock-epic, the proper noun that refers to the same technicality but full,
extensive employment of the Homeric conventions.
Due to this fact, for especial want of equivalent Arabic poetic type to mock-epic, and additionally
for reason of reference to contextual phenomena that are stimuli to satire yet are foreign to target
audience, mock-heroic poems in general and Mac Flecknoe in particular is a problem for Arabic
linguistic equivalence. John Dryden's Mac Flecknoe presents to the reader a satire on Thomas Shadwell
and his questionable artistic allegiance to Ben Jonson's outstanding comedy of humors, both culturally
peculiar to the English audience that conditionally has adequate learning about the drama and literature
at their time (Greenblatt & Abrams, 2006, p. 2111).
3. Significance
In addition, Dryden has on numerous occasions made uncomfortable allusions to English literature
(e.g. playwrights, characters, dramas and poets), several allusions to the Bible and Roman History, and
number of geographic references as well as citation of terminology and jargon. Owing to this culturally
challenging allusions and references, Mac Flecknoe constitutes a dual problem for Arabic translation: the
problem is to imitate the general fundamental esthetics of verse and is added to the additional particular
problem of bridging the huge cultural gap of the Arab audience impeding contextual mechanics of
Arabization.
4. Hypothesis, Problem and Hypothetical Questions
That poetic meaning varies as per person, place and time can hamper the definitive deduction that a
word is problematic. That is, individual perception, etymological uses and situational usage result in
variability and non-universality of poetic meaning, therefore when the problematic account (vide Mac
Flecknoe and Arabic Translation, 2022, p. 3) approaches the esthetic of a word or a lexical element of a
figure of speech, the judgment whether a semantic- hence cultural- problem is decisively manifest or not
will be difficult to make. Nevertheless, the fact that the subject of Mac Flecknoe is a single and definitive
target and the further fact that the esthetic constituents of the poetic meaning have a likewise single and
definitive end goal (i.e. satire) both reduce the problematic variability of poetic meaning to the least
degree. That is why an element of the poetic diction of Mac Flecknoe will, to a safe degree, be judged
problematic.
A duo of hypotheses, then, can be established:
 The manner in which Mac Flecknoe is poetically dictated produce transpositional problematics,
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specifically for Arabization, inasmuch as a cultural distinction is invoked.
 The formal basis on which Mac Flecknoe is poetically constructed correlatively generate- as far as
poetic meaning is organically concerned and actively manifest- cultural dissimilarity from which
transpositional nuisance arises, for Arabization in particular.
The paper concluded, the following hypothetical questions will, in the light of the above hypotheses, have
been responded to:
1. Does the poetic diction of Mac Flecknoe (i.e. rhetorical devices/ figures of speech and words)
constitute a cultural and/or poetic problem when an attempt to Arabize the English source verse is
made?
2. Does the form (i.e. rhyme) give rise to - in so far as culture is concerned- problematic English verse
mechanics when Arabization is attempted?
3. To what extent is a formal element (e.g. figure of sound) intertwined with a poetically dictional element
(e.g. figure of speech) to the that effect?
4. As regards the cumulative eventual tally of culturally bound elements of poetic diction (i.e. figures of
speech and words) and of elements of form both extensively induced from the lines of Mac Flecknoe,
what conclusive numerical order does the induction quantitatively demonstrate?
Accordingly, this paper will methodologically have a try at deducing and closely observing the culturally
foreign elements evidently prevalent in the poetic diction and form of Mack Flecknoe, prior to
quantitatively inducing a number of categorized problematic sub-products.
5. Method and Methodology
An inductive paper, the verse of Mack Flecknoe prior to the quantitative eventual investigation will
methodologically be subject to the following deduction process as per poetic diction and form:
Poetic Diction
To approach the poetic diction, two steps are made in sequence:
1- Thematic account or line-by-line thematic elaboration of the subject matter of the lines at issue;
2- Problematic account or deducing and expounding the rhetorical devices and culturally bound terms (i.e.
words).
Form
Rhyme: the way a rhythmic element (e.g. figure of sound) affects or compounds the problematic nature of
the poetic meaning of a word or rhetorical device will be demonstrated. A set of inducted constituents of
rhyme will be employed on this account.
6. Paper Structure
Five body chapters will be dedicated to the enquiry about poetic-cultural peculiarity of Mc Flecknoe:
Chapter 2 [to be submitted on 13/November/2022]: For lack of parallel Arabic literary concept to that of
mock-meroic, a general historical overview of the Arabized English poetic productions will alternatively
be presented.
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Chapter 3 [to be submitted on 20/November/2022] : The relationship between meaning and translation,
between literary translation meaning, and between poetry and meaning will be explored.
Chapter 4 [to be submitted on 27/November/2022]:

- The general concept and defining characteristics of poetry besides the term mock-heroic will first be
examined.
- Then a complete background to Mac Flecknoe will be presented, after which Mac Flecknoe will viewed
from a general poetic and specific mock-heroic perspective.
Chapter 5 [to be submitted on 4/December/2022] : The core principal chapter, the main hypothetical idea of
cultural specifity in Mack Flecknoe will be deductively researched employing the above-mentioned thematic
and problematic accounts, subsequent to which the formal rhythmic mechanics of Mac Flecknoe will be
viewed from a culturally specific viewpoint that, as it were, will forge an interrelation to poetic diction.
Chapter 6 [to be submitted on 11/December/2022] : the findings that are, by that time, the numerically
amassed inductive product of the all-poem poetic-cultural deduction will ultimately be categorically
organized then analyzed.
A seventh chapter [to be submitted on 18/December/2022] ensues to conclude the above five body chapters
and will in substance present a summary and global note on the culturally problematic content and
technique of Mac Flecknoe and will lastly state a recommended Arabization approach to Mac Flecknoe.
7. Limitation
To limit the paper, Mac Flecknoe will only be viewed from English-specific viewpoint. That is, the
prefatory part of the concept of poetry will not refer to that of Arabic literature, i.e. conceptual premises,
nature or types of Arabic poetry. Likewise, the problematic account will suggest or present no Arabic
translations to the problematic figures and words. Instead, English terms and tools of literary analysis and
criticism will be used to consider the hypothetical question whether figures, words, and rhyme poses a
cultural problem for Arabic translators of Mac Flecknoe.
8. Objective
The problematic hypothesis that underlie this paper will be researched in such a quantitative way that
three ends will- by the end of this paper- have been met:
1. That the rationale behind the perception from a cultural viewpoint of a dictional problem in Mac Flecknoe is
soundly substantiated.
2. That the reasoning behind formally qualifying Mac Flecknoe as culturally problematic is duly corroborated.
3. That the correlative problematic product of a cultural parallel between the poetic constituents of Mac
Flecknoe is derived, demonstrated and vouched for.
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9. Literature Review
Mock-heroic poetry does not have an Arabic counterpart and may for the sake of illustration be likened
to Abbas al-Aqqad's elegiac "Bijo" ,‫ ﺑﯿﺠﻮ‬, that morns yet genuinely his dog, "Bijo". The following are a
few Arabic lines from Bijo (Al-Aqqad, A.M. (1938). Bijo- Qasida. Al-Risalah. Volume 5(9-1), p. 1446.) :
‫ﺣﺰﻧًﺎ ﻋﻠﻰ ﺑﯿﺠﻮ ﺗﻔﯿﺾ اﻟﺪﻣﻮع‬
‫ﺣﺰﻧًﺎ ﻋﻠﻰ ﺑﯿﺠﻮ ﺗﺜﻮر اﻟﻀﻠﻮع‬
‫ﺣﺰﻧًﺎ ﻋﻠﯿﮫ ﺟﮭﺪ ﻣﺎ أﺳﺘﻄﯿﻊ‬
‫ ﻟﺤﺰن وﺟﯿﻊ‬- ‫ ﯾﺎ ﺑﯿﺠﻮ‬- ‫وإن ﺣﺰﻧًﺎ ﺑﻌﺪ ذاك اﻟﻮﻟﻮع وﮫﻠﻟا‬
Interestingly enough, al-Aqqad's Bijo resembles in idea Thomas Grey's mock-heroic "Ode on the Death of a
Favourite Cat, Drowned in a Tub of Goldfishes." (1748):
’Twas on a lofty vase’s side,
Where China’s gayest art had dyed The azure flowers that blow; Demurest of the tabby kind,
The pensive Selima, reclined, Gazed on the lake below.
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1. Review of Literature
Sources
This paper will be premised on the script of Mac Flecknoe from The Norton Anthology of English
Literature (Greenblatt & Abrams, 2006, pp. 2112-2117).
Chapter 1 sources the notion of poetic meaning and the way metre and rhyme, tone, figures, and words
constitute poetic meaning from Al Tarjama al Adabiya: Bayn al Nazariya Wa al Tatbeeq (Anani, 2003).
Chapter 2 will directly quote entries from The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms (Baldick,
2001), the source from which this paper cites literary terms and terminology.
Chapter 3 will refer to the background information on Mac Flecknoe from The Norton Anthology of
English Literature (Greenblatt & Abrams, 2006, p. 2111).
Chapter 4 or the problematic analysis will naturally enlist the help of a number of dictionaries to
determine whether a figure or word is problematic:
Ba'labki, M. (1992). Mu'jam A'laam Al-Mawrid. Beirut: Dar al-Ilm Lil-Malayin.
Ba'labki, M., & Ba'labki, R. M. (2016). Al-Mawrid Al-Hadeeth. Beirut: Dar al-Ilm Lil-Malayin.
Anani, M. (2003). Al-Mustalahat Al-Adabiya Al-Hadeetha. Cairo: The Egyptian International Publishing
Company-Longman
Doniach, N. S. (1972). The Oxford English Arabic Dictionary of Current Usage. London: Oxford
University Press..
Even if a word or figure is likely unknown to Arab reader but has Arabic equivalent will not be deemed
problematic, for the problematic analysis is performed from the point of view of Arabic translator, not
Arab audience.
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Literature
Translation of poetry begins before the second half of the 20th century when printing presses has been
introduced and publishing houses instituted, and then when journalism has been established, and when
writers and cultured Arabs familiar with English has get into direct contact with the West, hence Western
culture and literature.1 Arabic translations have been about assorted lyrical poems, a short stanza from a
long poem, and mostly and predominantly the poetry of T.S. Eliot.
Along with the translations, Arab writers who have been normally poets included contextual
background on the poem or autobiographical accounts of the author. The magazines that attest to
foregrounding T.S. Eliot are "Majalat Shi'r"2, "al-Adeeb"3, al-Katib al-Misry"4, "al-Mijalah"5 and "al-
Ma'rifa"6. In particular, founded in 1956 by Yusuf al-Khal but discontinued in 1970, "Majalat Shi'r")
magazine of poetry) has demonstrated the preference of T.S. Eliot's poems that has begun in the forties
but more importantly featured poetic products from various English poets.
1
Wifaq, Abd-Alhak (2017). Harakat Tarjamat al-Shi'r al-Englizi al-Hadith Ila al-Arabiya. Poetry of Letters. Volume 3(1), pp. 90-93
2
Razouk, Asa'd (1959). T.S. Eliot Tarjamat Mokhtara. Majalat Shi'r. Volume 3(1), p. 86
Al-Khal, Yusuf. (1968). Al-Ard al-Kharab Li Eliot- editor-in-chief. Majalat Shi'r. Volume 12 (4), p. 103.
Al-Haidary, B., Stewart, R.D., Bashshur, M., Al-Khal, Y., & Esber, A. (1958). Tarjamat Min al-Shi'r al-Hadith Li T.S. Eliot. Lebanon:
Dar Majalat Shi'r.
3
Al-Haidary, B., Stewart, R.D. (1955). Ogniyat al-Aashik Prufruk. Al-Adeeb. Volume 14 (8), p. 14-15
4
Awad, Louis. (1946). T.S. Eliot. Al-Katib al-Misry. Volume 2(1), pp. 557-568.
5
Ibrahim, Nabilah. (1959). Al-Ard al-Kharab Lil Shai'r T.S. Eliot. Al-Mijalah. Volume 3(1), p. 42
Shabiro, Karl. & Dawara, Fouad. (1961). T.S. Eliot Aw Nihayat Madrasa Adabiya. Al-Mijalah. Volume 5(8), p. 44.
Qira'a Jadida Li Shi'r Eliot. (1971). Al-Mijalah. Volume 15 (2), pp. 2-9
6
Al-Malih, Qhassan. (1966). Eliot Sha'iran. Al-Ma'rifa. Volume 5 (2), p.81
Abd-Alhai, Muhammad. (1979). Onshodat al-Matar Bayn Eliot Wa Shelley Wa Al-Turath Al-Arabi. Al-Ma'rifa. Volume 33 (9), p.
71.
7
Al-Aqqad, A.M. (1938). Bijo- Qasida. Al-Risalah. Volume 5(9-1), p. 1446.
7
Apart from "‫"ﺷﻌﺮ ﻣﺠﻠﺔ‬, al-Adeeb's Yusuf Abdul-Masih Tharwa provided Arabic translations to almost all
the poets from Living Living Biographies of Great Poets (Thomas & Thomas, 1964)8, namely Geoffrey
Chaucer, John Milton, Alexander Pope, Robert Burns, William Wordsworth, Samuel Coleridge, George
Byron, Percy Shelley, John Keats, Robert Browning, Algernon Swineburne, William Cullen Bryant,
Edgar Alan Poe, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, John Greenleaf Whittier, Alfred Tennyson and Walt
Whitman; each of whom is individually present in issues number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 of
volume 15 (1955), and number 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 of volume 16 (1956) respectively.
Since English poetry is divided into narrative (storytelling), dramatic (theatrical), and lyric (musical),
further examples of Arabic translations of each poetic type include the following:
1. Narrative Poetry:
a- "9"‫ اﻟﻤﻔﻘﻮد اﻟﻔﺮدوس‬, John Milton's "Paradise Lost"
b- "10"‫ﺟﻮان دون‬, Lord Byron's " Don Juan"
2. Dramatic Poetry: "11"‫اﻟﻜﺎﺗﺪراﺋﯿﺔ ﻓﻲ ﻗﺘﻞ ﺟﺮﯾﻤﺔ‬, T.S. Eliot's "Murder in the Cathedral"
8
Thomas, D.L., & Thomas, H. (1946). Living Bibliographies of Great Poets. New York: Garden City Publishing Company.
9
Milton , J. (2002). Al-Firdaos al-Mafqud. Cairo: General Egyptian Book Organization.
10
Byron, L. (2003). Don Juan Malhama Shi'riya Lil Sha'ir Lord Byron. Cairo: General Egyptian Book Organization.
11
Eliot, T.S. (1982). Jarimat Qatl Fil Qatidra'iya. Kuwait City: Minsitry of Information.
8
3. Lyrical Poetry: "12"‫ﺷﻜﺴﺒﯿﺮ ﺳﻮﻧﺘﺎت‬, Shakespeare's 154 sonnets.
In modern day, examples of translated English poetry can be cited from the London-based "Poetry of
Letters" Arabic magazine founded in 2015:
I. Verse from Alexander Pope's "An Essay on Man"13
II. Assorted verse from Emily Dickinson's poems14
III. T.S. Eliot's "Ash Wednesday"15
IV. John Keats' "Fancy"16
V. Rudyard Kipling's "If"17
VI. Philip Sidney's sonnet "Astrophel and Stella 31"18
VII. William Butler Yeats' "An Irish Airman Foresees His Death"19
VIII. Conrad Potter Aiken's "Improvisations: Light And Snow", poems 1 & 220
1. Meaning and Translation
On the one hand, meaning is- Halliday (1992) believes- the substance without which translation cannot
occur, thus translation is a process of meaning-making. However, meaning is variegated and semanticists
and linguists identify different classifications, such as Cruse's (1997) and Leech's.
12
Anani , M. (2016). Sonnetat Shakespeare. Cairo: General Egyptian Book Organization.
13
Mahmoud, A.Y. (2015). Min Ruh Qasidat Al-Sha'r Al-Englizi Alexander Pope "Maqalah A'n Al Insan". Poetry of Letters. Volume
1(4), pp. 70-72
14
Dickinson, E. (2016). Asta'id Al-A'n Lil Zahab, Sahl An Amut- Mukhtarat Min Shi'r Al-Sha'ira Al-Amrekiya Emily
Dickinson. Poetry of Letters. Volume 2(2), pp. 48-60.
15
Eliot, T.S. (2017). Arbi'a' Al-Ramad- Qasida Lil Sha'ir T.S. Eliot. Poetry of Letters. Volume 3(2), pp. 78-96
16
Keats, J. (2016). Min Ruh Qasidat Al-Sha'r Al-Englizi John Keats "Nazwat" . Poetry of Letters. Volume 2(1), pp. 116-118.
17
Kipling, R. (2020). Qasidat Law, Lil Sha'ir Al-Englizi Rudyard Kipling. Poetry of Letters. Volume 6(1), pp. 116-118.
18
Sidney, P. (2016). Al-Qamar al-A'shik, Qasida Lil Sha'ir Phillip Sidney Min Engltara. Poetry of Letters. Volume 2(4), pp. 84-85.
19
Yeats, W.B. (2015). Tayar Irlandi Yatanba' Bi Maotih- Qasida Lil Sha'ir W.B. Yeats. Poetry of Letters. Volume 1(2), pp. 81-82
20
Aiken, C.P. (2015). Irtijalat: Daw' Wa Thalj- Qasida Lil Sha'ir Conrad Potter Aiken. Poetry of Letters. Volume 1(1), p. 100.
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1.1 Cruse on the one hand classify lexical meaning into four types:
1. Propositional meaning or "Denotational meaning" (Palmer, 1981; Hurford et al., 2014): the term
describes the way a word is related to real or imaginary meaning. For example, "blender" is an electric
machine used for cooking. Judgement of such meaning is based on the question whether the meaning is
true or false
2. Expressive meaning: refers to the feelings and attitudes of the speaker, and therefore cannot be true or
false. For example, the words "savage" and "barbaric" suggests a disapproval of attitude. A word may
have a propositional and expressive meaning (e.g. whinge), only expressive meaning (e.g. bloody) or
only propositional meaning (e.g. bloody).
3. Presupposed meaning: the meaning that is restricted to co-occurence, whether selectively or

collectively. That is, restrictions are selectional and collocational. To exemplify, the verb "speak" refers
to a human being, while "meow" refers to an animal; an instance of selectional restriction. An instance of
collocational restriction is the word "law": in English, the word "law" collocates with break, but not
contradict as is the case in Arabic.
4. Evoked meaning: the result of differences in dialect and register.
1.2 Leech on the other hand identify seven types of meaning: conceptual meaning and associative
meaning, which is subdivided into six types, i.e. connotative, social, affective, reflected, collocative
and thematic.
1. Conceptual (or denotative’, ‘designative’, ‘cognitive’, or ‘descriptive’) meaning: the central meaning
of a lexeme, found in dictionaries and where certain lexical features are identified (constituent structures)
and others are excluded (contractivensess structures).
2. Associative meaning: subdivided into the remaining six types, the terms refers to the
cognitive individual understandings of the speaker.
A. Connotative meaning: the subjective, real-world meaning based on the user's experience.
B. Social meaning: a part of connotative meaning that depends on individual factors such as age and
gender and that differs from one personal perception to another. For example, the word "home"
connotes "love" and "family" but also distinctly "monotony" and "boredom"
C. Affective meaning: the meaning by which emotions are communicated and is affected by
intonation and voice timbre. For instance, the expression "I am terribly sorry" conveys regret or
sorrow.
D. Reflected meaning: refers to the way a specific context of word use affects the meaning, e.g. the
verb "pray" has different meanings depending on the context.
E. Collocative meaning: the meaning specified by the collocative nature of the word. For example, even if
"pretty" and "handsome" have similar denotative meaning, each collocates differently with a specific
word and has thus different collocative meaning.
G. Thematic meaning: depending on the theme or what is being talked about, thematic meaning is about
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the order of words and how they affect meaning.
1.3 Meaning and Literary Translation: Poetic Meaning
On the other hand, the literary translator cannot extract the meaning of by excluding the implications of
rhyme, rhythm, tone, repetition and other literary devices and elements that all together produce the
meaning of a literary text (i.e. poetic meaning). Poetic meaning is hence all that lies underneath and
besides the semantics of words and is to be derived by the literary translator.
Nonetheless, poetic meaning is not exclusively about verse but a broad term that covers all types of
literary texts, and poetic meaning is in fact a referential meaning but differs from that of scientific texts
which is a pure scientific reference (Anani, 2003, pp. 34-35).
Since meaning is subject to time, place, society, culture, author and reader- poetic meaning is, now the
meaning of literary text, ipso facto subject to variability and change and cannot be product of a sole,
universal and consensual product of a single personal perception and interpretation.
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2. Poetry
2.1 Definition
Language sung, chanted, spoken, or written according to some pattern of recurrence that emphasizes the
relationships between words on the basis of sound as well as sense: this pattern is almost always a rhythm
or metre which maybe supplemented by rhyme or alliteration or both.
2.2 Nature
The demands of verbal patterning usually make poetry a more condensed medium than prose or everyday
speech, often involving variations in syntax, the use of special words and phrases (poetic diction)
peculiar to poets, and a more frequent and more elaborate use of figures of speech, principally metaphor
and simile.
All cultures have their poetry, using it for various purposes from sacred ritual to obscene insult, but it is
generally employed in those utterances and writings that call for heightened intensity of emotion, dignity
of expression, or subtlety of meditation. Poetry is valued for combining pleasures of sound with freshness
of ideas, whether these be solemn or comical. Some critics make an evaluative distinction between
poetry, which is elevated or inspired, and verse, which is merely clever or mechanical.
2.3 Defining Characteristics
2.3.1 Poetic Diction: in the most general sense, the choice of words and figures in poetry. The term is
more often used, however, to refer to that specialized language which is peculiar to poetry in that it
employs words and figures not normally found in common speech or prose.
2.3.2 Figure (or Figure of Speech): an expression that departs from the accepted literal sense or from the
normal order of words, or in which an emphasis is produced by patterns of sound. Such figurative
language is an especially important resource of poetry, although not every poem will use it; it is also
constantly present in all other kinds of speech and writing, even though it usually passes unnoticed. A
further category of figures, sometimes known as 'figures of sound', achieves emphasis by the repetition of
sounds, as in alliteration, assonance, and consonance.
2.3.3 Metre the pattern of measured sound-units recurring more or less regularly in lines of verse. English
use accentual-syllabic metre, while Arabic use quantitative metre.
2.3.4 Rhyme: the identity of sound between syllables or paired groups of syllables, usually at the ends of
verse lines; also a poem employing this device. Normally the last stressed vowel in the line and all
sounds following it make up the rhyming element.
2.3.7 Tone: a very vague critical term usually designating the mood or atmosphere of a work, although in
some more restricted uses it refers to the author's attitude to the reader (e.g. formal, intimate, pompous)
or to the subject-matter (e.g. ironic, light, solemn, satiric, sentimental).
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2.4 Types
2.4.1 Narrative Poetry: the class of poems (including ballads, epics, and verse romances) that tell stories.
2.4.1.1 Epic
1. Definition and Concept
A long narrative poem celebrating the great deeds of one or more legendary heroes, in a grand
ceremonious style. The hero, usually protected by or even descended from gods, performs
superhuman exploits in battle or in marvelous voyages, often saving or founding a nation—as in
Virgil's Aeneid (30-20 BCE)—or the human race itself, in Milton's Paradise Lost (1667). The Anglo-
Saxon poem Beowulf (8th century CE) is a primary epic, as is the oldest surviving epic poem, the
Babylonian
Gilgamesh (c.3000 BCE). In the Renaissance, epic poetry (also known as 'heroic poetry') was regarded as
the highest form of literature,
2. Defining Characteristics
A. Epic simile:
1. Definition an extended simile elaborated in such detail or at such length as to eclipse temporarily the
main action of a narrative work, forming a decorative digression (a temporary departure from one
subject to another more or less distantly related topic before the discussion of the first subject is
resumed).
2. Nature Usually it compares one complex action (rather than a simple quality or thing) with another:
for example, the approach of an army with the onset of storm-clouds. Sometimes called a Homeric simile
after its frequent use in Homer's epic poems, it was also used by Virgil, Milton, and others in their literary
epics.
B. Invocation
I. Definition: an appeal made by a poet to a Muse or deity for help in composing the poem. The
invocation of a muse was a convention in ancient Greek and Latin poetry, especially in the epic; it
was followed later by many poets of the Renaissance and Neoclassical periods.
II. Nature: usually it is placed at the beginning of the poem, but may also appear in later positions,
such as at the start of a new canto. The invocation is one of the conventions ridiculed in mock-epic
poems: Byron begins the third Canto (1821) of Don Juan with the exclamation 'Hail, Muse! et cetera'.
C. Epithet: an adjective or adjectival phrase used to define a characteristic quality or attribute of some
person or thing, common in historical titles (Catherine the Great, Ethelred the Unready)
D. Formulaic: poem characterized by the repetition of certain stock phrases, known as formulae.
Many orally composed poems, especially epics, are formulaic in that they repeatedly use the same
epithet and the same forms of introduction to episodes and speeches.
E. Machinery: the collective term applied since the 18th century to the supernatural beings—gods,
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angels, devils, nymphs, etc.—who take part in the action of an epic or mock poem or in a dramatic work.
14
F. Canto: a subdivision of an epic or other narrative poem, equivalent to a chapter in a prose work.
2.4.1.2 Mock Epic
i. Definition: a poem employing the lofty style and the conventions of epic poetry to describe a trivial or
undignified series of events; thus a kind of satire that mocks its subject by treating it in an
inappropriately grandiose manner, usually at some length.
ii. Nature: mock epics incidentally make fun of the elaborate conventions of epic poetry, including
invocation of a Muse, battles, supernatural machinery, epic similes, and formulaic descriptions (e.g.
of funeral rites or of warriors arming for combat). The outstanding examples in English are Alexander
Pope's The Rape of the Lock (1712-14) and The Dunciad (1728-43).
2.4.1.3 Mock-heroic (adj) a poem written in an ironically grand style that is comically incongruous with
the 'low' or trivial subject treated. Shorter satirical poems employing fewer epic conventions, such as
Ben Jonson's 'On the Famous Voyage' (1616) and Dryden's Mac Flecknoe (1682), are probably better
described as mock-heroic poems rather than mock epics, partly because they are not long enough to be
divided into cantos. The adjective is also applicable to prose, such as Jonathan Swift's "The Battle of the
Books" (1704) and Henry Fielding's play "The Tragedy of Tragedies" (1731)
2.4.2 Dramatic Poetry: a category of verse composition for theatrical performance.
2.4.3 Lyric Poetry: In the modern sense, any fairly short poem expressing the personal mood, feeling,
or meditation of a single speaker (who may sometimes be an invented character, not the poet). Among
the common lyric forms are the sonnet, ode, elegy, haiku, and the more personal kinds of hymn.
2.5 Poetry and Poetic Meaning: Arabic Translation
Rhyme, rhetorical devices, tone and culturally bound terms fuse into the poetic meaning whereby the
process of equivalence between Arabic and English poetry or vice versa occurs.
2.6 Culturally Bound Terms
Differences between languages give rise to lack of lexical equivalence, hence lack of lexicalization.
Because each language has a peculiar lexis, syntax or style, one word may not be lexicalized in a different
language to the original. An example is "standard" which does not- though common in English- have
Arabic equivalent and is normally rendered "‫ "ﻣﻌﯿﺎر‬or "‫"ﻣﻘﯿﺎس‬.
A product of lack of lexicalization is "culturally bound terms": lexical gaps between two languages due to
cultural specificity. The following table includes illustrative examples:
Culturally bound English term Culturally bound Arabic term
Selfie ‫ﺳﮭﺮة‬
Pop ‫طﺮب‬
LGBT ‫ﺧﺎدم اﻟﺤﺮﻣﯿﻦ اﻟﺸﺮﯾﻔﯿﻦ‬
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3. Mac Flecknoe
3.1 Literary Background
Presented in mock-heroic style, the target of this satire is the playwright Thomas Shadwell (1640-1692)
with whom Shadwell has been on good terms for a period of time extending to as late as the possible date
of the poem, 1678. Considering himself the successor of Ben Jonson, Shadwell has presented himself as
the champion of Jonson's comedy of humors.
3.1.2 Comedy of Humors
a) Conceptual Basis: humours are the bodily fluids to which medieval medicine attributed the various
types of human temperament, according to the predominance of each within the body. Thus a
preponderance of blood would make a person 'sanguine', while excess of phlegm would make him or her
'phlegmatic'; too much choler (or yellow bile) would give rise to a 'choleric' disposition, while an excess
of black bile would produce a 'melancholic' one (Baldick, 2001).
b) The Term: best exemplified by Ben Jonson's play Every Man in His Humour (1598) and practised by
some other playwrights in the 17th century, the comedy of humours is based on the eccentricities of
characters whose temperaments are distorted in ways similar to an imbalance among the bodily humours
(Baldick, 2001).
c) Relation to Mac Flecknoe: Unlike Jonson, Shadwell has produced writings that lack skill, is dull and
consequently fairly inferior to Jonson's. Because of the alleged proclamation, Shadwell has argued
publicly with Dryden about Jonson's comedy of humors, but the exact motive behind the satire on
Shadwell is not known. Possibly, Dryden has grown bored and irritated by the fact Shadwell has been
relentlessly agruing in favor of his succession to Jonson.
3.2 Historical Foreground
In addition to the literary argument, both Shadwell and Dryden has been at the time holding opposing
political stances; Shadwell has been a Whig and Dryden a Tory. The rumor has it that Shadwell has
authored a sharp attack on Dryden, for he has been the Tory writer of Absalom and Achitophel and The
Medal. Referring to Shadwell as "true-blue-Protestant poet", the obscure publisher of Mac Flecknoe is
probably aware of the possibility that the title can increase the sales, especially at a time when politics
has been intense and a prominent feature of the lives of people.
3.3 Contextual Background
The title Mac Flecknoe is made up of two proper names: Mac which is a son, and Flecknoe who is a
Catholic priest. Flecknoe died in the same year when Dryden is believed to have written the poem, 1678.
In this sense, the satire is that Shadwell, the heir of the Poet Laureate Jonson, is the son and successor of
Flecknoe- an additional irony because Flecknoe is a priest, from whom he inherits the throne of dullness.
A priest, king and poet, Flecknoe dedicates a panegyric to extol the qualifying virtues of his successor,
to conduct his coronation, to prophesy the glory of his reign, and finally leaves his mantle to fall on
Shadwell, one of the Biblical symbols with which the poem besides literary allusions abounds. The
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coronation occurs in the City (London) and is broadly acclaimed by a fitting audience that appreciate
dullness. The 217 lines of Mac Flecknoe has stained the reputation of Thomas Shadwell to this day.
3.4 General Defining Characteristics
The following table applies Mac Flecknoe to the defining characteristics of poetry (Chapter 5.3):
Type Narrative; mock-heroic
Metre Iambic pentameter feet
Rhyme End rhyme; rhymed pairs
Poetic Diction Figures (Rhetorical Devices):
Irony: "To teach the nations in thy greater

name" (line 34)
Hyperbole: "And torture one poor word ten

thousand ways" (line 208)
Metaphor: "Sh 's genuine night" (line 23)
Metonymy: "goodly fabric" (line 25)
Pun: "bias" (line 190)
Personification: "when fate summons" (line

2)
Simile: "like Augustus, young" (line 3)
Oxymoron: "the Basses roar" (line 46)
Parallelism: "peace with wit, nor truce with

sense" (line 117)
Paradox: "anointed dullness" (line 63)
Rhetorical question: "What share have we

in nature, or in art?" (line 176)
Repetition: "Sh ll alone" (line 14, 16)
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Anaphora:
"Where queens are form'd, and future

heroes bred;
Where unfledg'd actors learn to laugh and

cry,
Where infant punks their tender voices try"

(lines 75-77)
Words:
Allusion: Augustus, Arion, fears
Proper name: Heywood, Thames, Nursery
Jargon: clinches, buskins, socks
Terminology: anointed, drugget, kilderkin
Voice Tone: formal, solemn
Style: lofty
Language: grand
Point of view Omniscient third-person poetic speaker
3.5 Specific, Type-Related Defining Characteristics:
In mock-heroic poems (and mock epics), the disparity between style and subject gives rise to the satire.
Mac Flecknoe contrasts high voice (i.e. solemn tone, lofty style and grand language) with low subject (i.e.
Thomas Shadwell; low drama, and Richard Flecknoe; untalented writer), and employs for the contrast a
single Homeric convention; an extended simile which extends from line 35 to line 59.
The following graph illustrates how Mac Flecknoe can be defined as mock-heroic:
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19
4. Problematic Analysis
The four pivots of translating poetry between English and Arabic (chapter 6) are viewed from the point of
view of Mac Flecknoe. Since form (i.e. metre and rhyme) and tone of Mac Flecknoe are the least
demanding pivots, the problematic analysis will conjointly be largely about rhetorical devices and
culturally bound terms.
4.1 Metre and Rhyme:
Metric systems of Arabic and English are not the same and are qualitatively distinct: the Arabic metric
system is quantitative metre, whereas English metric system is mostly accentual-syllabic metre. While in
Arabic rhythm is produced by the quantitative sequence of consonants and vowels, the way the English
speaker stresses syllables quantitatively produces rhythm in English. That is, Arabic metres are
quantitative and in contrast English metres are qualitative, hence Metric equivalence between English and
Arabic cannot be achieved and is the main reason why translation of poetry between the two languages is
problematic.
As for Mac Flecknoe, the verse is evidentially moulded into heroic couplets from which rhyme stems and
metre is deduced. Lacking equivalence in Arabic metrics (Wahba, 1974, p. 211) heroic couplet is a
rhymed pair of iambic pentameter lines such as the following lines:
All human things are subject to decay,
And when fate summons, monarchs must obey. (Heroic couplet)
This Flecknoe found, who, like Augustus, young
Was called to empire, and had governed long. (Heroic couplet)
The origin of Heroic couplet stems from Geoffrey Chaucer's (c.1342 - 1400) pioneering mastery of this
type of poetic format, however the designation is derived from John Dryden's and others' use of the
format in the heroic drama of the late 17th century. Epic poetry is also called Heroic poetry, and the kind
of verse line used for epic poetry in a given language is known as the heroic line: the iambic pentameter
in English which is naturally then the metrical basis of heroic couplet. Since Dryden has used heroic
couplet for translating Virgil's epics and Pope has done likewise for Homer's, the format is efficacious in
making the satirical point of mock-heroic at which Mac Flecknoe aims.
Besides end rhyme, the following table includes other sources of rhyme: internal rhyme, figures of sound
and parallelism which produces special rhythmic effect :
Assonance "Sent, yet" (line 213)
Consonance "Glories, grace" (line 110)
"Coarsely, clad" (line 33)#
"Silence, sleep" (line 73)#
"Summoned, monarchs, must" (line 2)

20
Alliteration "Settle, succession, state" (line 10)
"Spread, solemn, state, supinely" (line 28)#
"Wage, war, with, words" (line 84)#
"Set, songs, sing" (line 210)
Parallelism "As king by office, and as priest by trade" (line

119)
"Scourge of wit, flail of sense" (line 89)
"Martyrs of pies, relics of the bum" (line 101)#
Internal Rhyme "Till, true, maintain" (line 115)
"Thy Tragic Muse gives smiles, thy Comic sleep"

(line 198)
"Impudence, ignorance" (line 146)
It seems that the rhythmic mechanics of Mac Flecknoe are rather simple and uncomplicated, and owing
to such presumptive convenience the translator seemingly will not exert serious efforts to a copy the
effects of rhyme and rhythm of the ST. Nonetheless, rhyme and rhythm are both constituents of the
general poetic meaning of Mac Flecknoe and the particular poetic meaning of a unit of poetic diction
(word or figure).
For this reason, it seems clear that failure to transfer the rhythmic effects of a ST line will lead to loss of
part of poetic meaning in translation, since rhythm is, as it is, an integral component of poetic meaning
and cannot be separated from other components (i.e. rhetorical words and especial lexical terms). To
apply this fact, Mac Flecknoe will incur loss of poetic meaning due to the two conventional sources of
rhythm; end rhyme and figures of sound, and other sources of rhythm; parallelism and internal rhyme.
First, the end rhyme is the especial heroic couplet that is foreign to Arabic metrical formation and more
importantly hold considerable esthetic significance. Since culture is part of poetic meaning, the
problematic consequence is that the Arabic lack of equivalent metrical form to heroic couplet, including
the esthetic function and effect of the latter, incurs loss in poetic meaning. In other words, the Arabic
format that the translator provides will not produce the same poetic meaning as that of heroic couplet, a
detriment to the SL special relationship between form and meaning (vide ch. 0.1, p. 1) and accordingly an
incomplete experience to sense and appreciate Mac Flecknoe.
To illustrate the poetic meaning of the heroic couplet, the esthetic effect consists in bearing resemblance
to epic format from a satirical perspective and with an end to satirise (poetic meaning of Mac Flecknoe).
That is, Dryden exploits the format to derisively attribute undesirable traits to a low subject. The
structural end hence is to accord verse a heroic or epic nature, and the functional goal is to arouse
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mock-heroic feelings and elicit from Shadwell satire-driven reaction.
In addition to end rhyme, the figures of sound, parallelism and internal rhyme are parts of the larger
poetic meaning of Mac Flecknoe. All having Arabic equivalents, each rhythmic source need not be
adversely affected while transferred to TL. In view of focus on cultural peculiarity of figures, the
illustrative examples are the following:
A- Line 33: the rhythm of assonontal words "coarsely, clad" is added to the culturally bound term
"Norwich", Shadowell's birthplace, to form poetic meaning.
B- Line 73: the assonontal words "silence, sleep" are source of a culturally specific line owing to the
"Watch" of the culturally bound "Barbican".
C- Line 28: the alliterative line continues and completes the poetic meaning that the culturally bound
"Monarch Oak" (line 27) has initiated. This line also exemplifies the above-mentioned cultural-rythmic
subtlety of end rhyme or heroic couplet.
D- Line 84: the culturally problematic "Panton" compounds the the problem of alliteration that the words
"Wage, war, with, words" pose.
E- Line 101: the culturally peculiar idea that unsold books have been in Dryden's day used for making pie
plates and for toilet paper is moulded into parallel structures (i.e. parallelism).
4.2 Tone:
Implementing mock-heroic mechanism, the tonal solemnity of Mac Flecknoe is an undertone that fuses
with grand style to satirise poor Shadwell. The translator should find equivalent Arabic undertone from a
similar technical and stylistic perspective
4.3 Culturally Bound Terms and Rhetorical Devices:
4.3.1 Thematic Account
To begin with, the title introduces political and religious grounds for Dryden's satire on Shadwell. From
line 1 to 15, the poem begins with the king, Flecknoe, lamenting the fact that even monarchs cannot
escape death and must relinquish the throne to a successor, and, similar to Augustus, Flecknoe is crowned
monarch at quite a young age. Augustus is the title given to the Roman Emperor Octavian in 27 B.C.E
who has assumed his position at the age of 32 in 31 B.C.E. Being undisputed Monarch of nonsensical
prose and verse for so long, Flecknoe is now has before him a multitude of suitable candidates to succeed
him that has as absurd literary qualities and stylistics as he wishes his successor to be. The aged monarch
is then ruminating over selection; the son to stage a never-ending war with witty writing of verse and
prose. Resolutely, the monarch will only select the son who resembles him the most, and, unsurprisingly,
Shadwell (Sh ) is selected.
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Problematic Account
Besides the crucial title, the censored proper noun "Sh " (line 15) is challenging.
The Arabic translation of the title is understandably of paramount importance, since the whole poetic
work of Mac Flecknoe that is special and vitally requires prior contextual understanding cannot be read
without an introduction that informs the recipient of the satirical motive of the author behind the lines.
Specifically, the titular character of the poem "Mac Flecknoe" will require an Arabic equivalent
indicative of the fact that Mac in English signify son. Although the expression "true-blue protestant" has
Arabic equivalence (Ba'labki, p. 926, p. 1261), the culturally bound political implication intended by the
publisher will be a challenge for the translator to render into Arabic. As for the lines of Mac Flecknoe, it
is interesting to see how the translator will deal with the removed letters of the proper noun Shadwell.
Still, a more problematic task is a highly likely lack of knowledge among Arabs about the English author
Thomas Shadwell. The Arab audience may not recognize Shadwell until his work psyche is referred to
for the first time (line 54). Arabised as "‫"ﺑﺴﯿﺸﺔ‬, the Arabic word refers in general to the story of Cupid-
arabised as "‫"ﻛﯿﻮﺑﯿﺪ‬- and Psyche, but not contextually to Shadwell's operatic work premised on such story.
In this sense, it is not safe to introduce Shadwell as the author of the Greek myth, and the proper noun
Shadwell is in this case a problematic culturally bound term.
Moreover, not being informed of the motive behind authoring a special poem that is foreign to the Arab
reader- Mock-heroic poetry in general and Mac Flecknoe in particular, will be a detriment to the
understanding and ultimately appreciation of the poem. In this regard, if the fact that Flecknoe has been a
Catholic priest and never a talented writer has been introduced to the Arab reader, then finding Arabic
equivalent to the co-primary, recurring figure of the poem will be considerably easier. It should in
addition be noted that the two human referents "Flecknoe" and "Shadwell" are highly significant and
each will be the pivot on which the poem rests, hence the respective Arabic equivalents that the translator
will provide will be the most important and burdensome task of the literary work.
From line 16 to line 30, the monarch extols the distinct virtues of Shadwell on which he based his
selection; he is the only son who never pretends the slightest of sense and lets no logic into his writings.
Fortunately, Shadwell's corpulent body befits a royal inconsiderate and supine soul, and, in a prophetic,
Biblical fashion, even the out-of-fashion playwrights Thomas Heywood and James Shirley have
prefigured the advent of Shadwell as the last great advocate of nonsense, similar to Solomon's prefiguring
of Christ.
Problematic Account
Apart from the problematic image that extends from line 21 to line 24 (Some beams of wit on other souls
may fall/ Strike through, and make a lucid interval/ But Sh 's genuine night admits no ray/ His rising fogs
prevail upon the day), the lines comprise a metaphorical image (Thoughtless as monarch oaks that shade
the plain/ And, spread in solemn state, supinely reign; line 27 and line 28 respectively) and
Bible-influenced allusion to two English playwrights, Heywood and Shirley (line 29 and line 30).
23
From line 21 to line 24, Dryden creates an extended hyperbolic image that portray the sense and reason
as a beam of light that penetrates the minds of everyone but Shadwell whose daylight is reduced to night,
courtesy of rising fogs. The problem hence for the translator is to create as effective an Arabic image as
that of the SL and make efforts to prompt the mind of the Arab reader to imagine as similar an image as
that of Dryden's. In fact, the image proceed from the preceding lines where Dryden depicts Shadwell as
the author that stands in firm favour of stupidity while others can claim the slightest of meaningfulness in
his writing, but he is never mistaken for sense. Still, the said subsequent hyperbolic image is more
delicate and challenging image for the translator to convey to Arab reader.
It should be noted that the translator should pay heedful attention to the expression "genuine night" while
transferring the problematic image. "Genuine night" is figurative and satiric and indeed only wittily
suggest that Shadwell lives a day that is more of a night due to his lack of sense or the lack of the light of
sense that the extended image prescribes, and this night, darkness or lack of sense is truly authentic and
cannot be a replica from any other author. Together with "fog", "night" has figurative or poetic meaning
that consequently leads to the problematic extended ST image.
Moreover, a prerequisite to the conveyance of the image that line 27 and line 28 portray is to examine the
the words "monarch oak" and "supinely". The monarch oak or royal oak is the English oak tree within
which the future King Charles II of England hid to escape the Roundheads following the Battle of
Worcester in 1651. Scientifically named "Quercus robur" , the Arabic equivalent is "‫اﻟﺴﻨﺪﯾﺎن‬/‫ "اﻟﻘﻮي اﻟﺒﻠﻮط‬but
is referring only to the scientific word and lexical meaning and not the variation "monarch/ royal oak"
underlain by the English story, and for this reason monarch oak lacks Arabic equivalent. ("Royal Oak, "
2021).
Furthermore, though the adjectival lexeme "supine" has Arabic equivalent, the adverb "supinely" does not
(Ba'labki, 2016, p.1181; Doniach, 1972, p. 1228). According to Merriam Webster's online dictionary,
supinely has the archaic meaning of sloping or leaning backwards, the state often seen in a monarch oak,
and the word in this sense effectively collocates with reign to evoke a subtle visual image. To illustrate,
Dryden metaphorically likens Shadwell's ludicrous claim for writing comedy parallel to that of Ben
Jonson (i.e. thoughtlessness) to a monarch oak. The monarch oak is contextually perfect for the
monarchical status of the heir apparent Shadwell, then the monarch oak is personified to solemnly
spreads branches and supinely reign; reign bearing figurative meaning. In essence, the words "monarch
oak", "solemn", "supinely" and "reign" weave the fabric of the ST image and therefore are the starting
points and later the yardstick of success of rendition for the translator to produce a parallel, similarly
esthetic Arabic image.
Nonetheless, a more problematic task is the burden of conveying the embedded Biblical allusion of line
29 and line 30 using the reference to foreign English playwrights. The ST allusion is about the idea that
the two dramatists Thomas Heywood and James Shirley prefigure the advent of Shadwell as the last
"final" great prophet of tautology in the same way Solomon prefigures the advent of Christ. As for the
culturally bound proper nouns, Shirley has Arabic equivalent (Ba'labki, p. 266) but Heywood does not
and consequently poses a problem.
From line 31 to line 43, Flecknoe claims that he is even more renowned dunce than Heywood and Shirley
24
and has been sent to the nations to foretell- wearing inappropriate coarse woolen garment- the arrival of
the great Shadwell, as has done John the Baptist- Prophet Yaḥyā in Islam, the forerunner of Jesus. Dryden
alludes to the deceased Flecknoe who boasted about the patronage of the Portuguese King, then back in
lines the monarch Flecknoe catches sight of Shadwell rowing a boat down River Thames. Referring to
Shawdell's Epsom Wells and to the farcical scene in his Virtuoso, Flecknoe contends that Shadwell has
had when sighted such matchless qualities that will never subject him to be tossed in a blanket. Flecknoe
also believes he has witnessed a new Arion, a legendary Greek poet who is saved from drowning by a
dolphin who has fallen for his music.
Problematic Account
Several considerable problems are manifest in the lines: the culturally bound expression "coarsely clad in
Norwich Drugget", the allusive reference to the Bible (Was sent before but to prepare thy way/ To teach
the nations in thy greater name; line 32 and line 34 respectively), the reference to the king of Portugal
(line 36), the geographic reference to the River "Thames" (line 38), the figurative expressions "well-
timed oars" (line 39) and the word "charge" (line 40), the reference to one of Shadwell's comedies,
Epsom Wells (line 42), and the Greek allusion to the legendary poet "Arion" (line 43).
First, Norwich is Shadwell's place of origin and is foreign geographical referent to Arab audience. The
translator is therefore assigned with enlightening the Arab reader about the satirical relationship between
the drugget and the English city of "Norwich" to which the word "drugget" is adjacent.
Second, line 32 and line 34 draw a parallel between the Biblical idea that Flecknoe is a forerunner of
Shadwell in the way that John the Baptist has been a forerunner of Christ, and for the parallel Dryden has
copied words from the Bible. The translator should thus provide a Arabic translation for the lines that
bear the Biblical denotation, and since the latter is used in the ST to produce an intended literary effect
(i.e. to intensify the satire on Shadwell) the translator cannot do without imparting to the Arab reader the
literary impact of the Biblical allusion. Otherwise, the attempted translation will be improper.
Third, Dryden refers to the fact that Flecknoe has had real-life relationship with the Portuguese king and
has boasted of the association, and the translator has thus to inform the Arab reader about the implied
historical fact. Fifth, that the River Thames is to be unknown to the Arab reader entails the problem that
the translator has to bridge the Arab reader's knowledge gap, but should additionally take care to find an
Arabic equivalent to the preceding word "silver" and therefore to the expression "sliver River Thames" as
a whole.
Fourth, "oars" intends the activity of rowing a boat that is associated with the oar rather than the physical
wooden structure, an associative meaning that consequently lacks Arabic lexicalization. Fifth, the word
"charge" is polysemous and the context suggests a poetic meaning that does not have direct Arabic
equivalent, namely charge signify a figure borne on a heraldic field- or in Arabic "‫"اﻟﻨﺒﺎﻟﺔ ﻟﺸﻌﺎر ﻣﻤﯿﺰ رﻣﺰ‬
(Merriam; Ba'labki, 2016, 216). The translator should then be cautious when portraying an equivalent
Arabic image.
Sixth, a more challenging problem is the reference to the scene in Shadwell's Virtuoso when Sir Samuel
Hearty is tossed in a farcical way in a blanket. In Mac Flecknoe, Dryden has on more than one occasion
referred to English dramatic works and playwrights that are foreign to the Arab reader, and the references
25
contribute to the core and main issue that will face any attempt to render the text into Arabic in particular
and foreign languages in general. Lastly, the translator has to find a way to inform the Arab reader of the
legend of the Greek poet Arion to which the ST alludes.
From line 44 to line 59, such is Shadwell's mastery of lute and the beauty of the trebles and basses that
almost all the cities of London across which the Thames flows has sensed it, especially those nearby
Pissing Alley and Aston Hall. Even a throng of little fishes is lured by the melody, as they are by toast,
i.e. food leftovers they find in the river. While orchestrating the band of fishes, Shadwell uses a threshing
hand, similar to that used for threshing grain to conduct his symphony. Then, Dryden sneers at the French
choreographer of Shadwell's opera Psyche, St. Andre, dismissing the technique of the work. Dryden also
alludes to John Singleton, a musician at the Theatre Royal. Extremely envy of Shadwell's scorned
operatic masterpiece, Singleton renounces the lute and sword which he used to play the triumphant role
of Villerius, a character in Sir William Davenant's Siege of Rhodes.
Problematic Account
A geographical image (Echoes from Pissing Alley Sh call/ And Sh they resound from Aston
Hall; line 47 and line 48 respectively), a problematic image (About thy boat the little fishes throng/ As at
the morning toast that floats along/ Sometimes, as prince of thy harmonious band; line 49, line 51 and line
52 respectively), the reference to Shadwell's operatic work "Psyche" and to the choreographer of the work
"St. Andre" (line 53 and 54), the reference to John "Singleton" (line 57) and the character of "Villerius"
(line 59) are incumbent on the translator to render into Arabic.
A challenge to the translator is the way to approach the geographical references to "Pissing Alley" and to
"Aston Hall". Moreover, Dryden depicts an image that extends from line 49 to line 52. To produce a
proper equivalent Arabic image, the translator should pay heed to the pivotal words " fishes", "throng",
"harmonious", "band", "wield'st", "threshing hand". The ST image is about fishes gathering around the
regal boat of awe-inspiring Shadwell. The fishes are then metaphorically likened to a band of orchestra
playing under the threshing hand rather than the baton of Shadwell. A culturally bound term lacking
Arabic equivalent (Doniach, 1972, p. 1265; Ba'labki, 2016, p. 1225) threshing hand is hand used to
produce rhythm of verse by hitting it in the same way a plant is hit (threshed) to separate grain from husk.
The translator as a result should first fully retain the satirical poetic meaning of the ST image before
translating into Arabic.
In connection with the image, the satired rhythm that the orchestra plays is compared to the satired
rhythm of Psyche that St Andre has composed. Accordingly, the translator faces a substantial difficulty to
give the Arab reader an idea of the implied contextual background of the comparison, including the
strategy to translate the culturally bound terms "Psyche" and "St Andre". Likewise, the translator is not
only burdened by finding a way to tell the Arab reader whom "Singleton" is but has also to face the
challenge of giving an informative account of " Villerius". After all, the proper conveyance of the
satirical conceptual basis of the reference to St Andre and Psyche on which the depicted orchestra rests
and of the reference to Singleton and his role of Villerius is precondition to any attempt at a successful
equivalent Arabic translation.
26
From line 60 to line 73, the king Flecknoe stops to weep in rapture for his heir, Shadwell, who is now to
be anointed on his coronation with dullness rather than with the oil common to coronation of English
kings. The sixty fifth line alludes to the fears excited by the Popish Plot. The coronation venue will be
near London Wall where stood a long ago a Barbican, a Roman watchtower. The watchtower is now
ruined and place for mother prostitutes and inferior actors.
Problematic Account
The main challenge is convey the situational picture that Dryden depicted about the ancient watchtower
of "Augusta" where "brothel houses" are a hallmark (from line 64 to line 73), together with a problematic
allusion "The fair Augusta much to fears inclined" (line 65).
Dryden portrays an image that evoke a situational and temporal effect: the reader is predisposed to pass in
time to imagine the place that has been situated before the present-time brothels of "Augusta", that is the
ancient watchtower "Barbican". The translator should therefore be aware that the effect to be produced by
whichever equivalent Arabic image chosen will be creating a time-traveling visual stimulus to the Arab
reader. Especially, the Arabic image after having successfully transferred the unknown English
geographical referents- "Augusta" and "Barbican"- should elicit from the Arabic reader similar reaction to
that intended from the English reader. Namely, the Arab reader will appreciate in the same way that the
English reader is expected to the esthetic satirical implications of the image (vulgarity of the place on
which Shadwell's throne is constructed)
The ST image is then expanded to evoke the scene of prostitutes taking up the vast spaces of the venue,
and the translator will be careful to render the figurative expression "polluted joys". However, the
translator will find special difficulty to deal with the pun that the expression "undisturbed by watch"
creates. To illustrate, the strumpets are turning blind eye to the watchful eyes of the soldiers occupying
the watchtower when they sleep at night, yet it is ironically known from the preceding lines that the
watchtower does no longer exist and has in the present time been a pile of rubbles. Accordingly, the
resultant irony produced by the pun is a challenge for the translator to convey to the Arab reader.
In addition to the challenging image, line 64 and line 65 uses culturally foreign terms and figurative
words to depict a subtle image. To illustrate, "fears" alludes to to those excited by the Popish Plot, a
historical event foreign to the Arab reader. Synecdochally personified, the people of London are inclined
to fear, and for this reason Augustus binds the bricks and rebuilds the constituents of the city's wall lest
the danger of the Popish plot invade the safety and peace of the city. The image is further problematic
due to the underlying satirical fact that London Wall has ceased defensive fortifications and danger alerts
before the time of Shadwell, Flecknoe and Dryden, then satire manifests itself in the subsequent
satirically nostalgic implication of the subsequent expression "of yore". Accordingly, the translator is
challenged by a visual image that evoke culturally foreign historical and geographical elements of satire.
From line 74 to line 86, in vicinity is a training school for young actors, Nursery, educating and
graduating future queens and heroes, or inept prostitutes and actors. More importantly, people
resembling Maximin- the cruel emperor in Dryden's Tyrannic Love (1669) notorious for his bombast,
27
come from the
28
Nursery. Moreover, the Nursery rejects on the one hand "Buskins" and "socks" which are the symbols of
remarkable tragedy and comedy, respectively, and John Fletcher is the playwright and collaborator with
Francis Beaumont. On the other hand, "Simkin" is the popular character in low farces who is in contrast
greatly welcomed and taught. What is more, only puns inspire the intellect-free minds of the graduates of
Nursery, as attests the celebrated punster Panton.
Problematic Account
Together with finding equivalents to the words " Nursery" (line 74) and"clinches" (line 83), a major issue
is the approach to the problematic references to the character of "Maximin" (line 78) and of "Simkin"
(line 81) and to the punster "Panton" (line 84). Also the culturally bound terms "buskins" (line 79) and
"socks"(line 80) will trouble the translator.
Once more the translator has to overcome the recurring challenge of tackling the literary characters and
real-world figures to which Dryden alludes. After all, the attempted translation should rest on the
premise that the motive behind citing the different culturally bound proper nouns will have been
comprehended whenever the referent is encountered. For instance, if the Arab reader is to know that
"Maximin" is notorious for bombasting and that "Simkin" is a popular character in low farce, then the
Arab reader will find ease to appreciate the artistic basis of line 78 and line 81 respectively.
The translator additionally will face a difficult task to find lexical equivalent to "clinches". In particular,
clinch is the terminological word for pun in Dryden's day and is foreign to the contemporary English
reader, thus the word does not ipso facto exist in the Arabic semantic field. The word "Nursery" is in fact
a geographical and historical referent rather than a lexical item, which English scholars explicate to lay
audience and as a result is all the more challenging for the translator to convey to the Arab audience.
In addition, the reference to the celebrated punster "Panton" is adjacent to the oxymoronic expression
"harmless wars". The satiric effect of the expression denotes the underlying idea that Dryden has been an
opponent of the use of puns in literary works. Hence, the Arabic translation has to produce the same
literary effect as that of English oxymoron and, above all, bear the implicit objection that the Arab reader
will deduce and comprehend. One further problem is the terminological words Buskins and socks. Buskin
is the symbol of tragedy, whereas socks symbolize comedy, and the two words even require explication to
the English reader.
From line 87 to line 101, Thomas Dekker, the play-wright whom Jonson had satirized in "The Poetaster",
has even prophesied a long ago the coronation of Shadwell nearby the Nursery; that he will write the
master plays of Misers, Humorists and Hypocrites: three of Shadwell's plays; The Hypocrite, a failure,
was not published. "Raymond" and "Bruce" are characters in The Humorists and and The Virtuoso,
respectively. Referring to the Emperor in Virgil's Aeneid, queen Dido, the emperor has spread the word
of Shadwell's coronation. The fame reverberates between the ironically distant Bunhill, and Watling
Street, and the coronation is doing without common luxuries and is hosting a number of unsuccessful
writers.
Problematic Account
29
The lines are challenging for Arabic equivalence: the reference to the dramatist Thomas "Dekker" (line
30
87), to the play " The Hypocrite" (line 92), to the character of "Raymond" (line 93) in "The Humorists"
(line 92) and of "Bruce" (line 93) in the previously referred to "Virtuoso" (line 90) and to the "Empress
Fame" (line 94). The translator will also deal with the ironic remoteness between the geographical
referents "Bunhill" and "Watling Street" (line 97), the word "Limbs" (line 99) and problematic allusion
"martyrs of pies and relics of the bum" (line)
Once the translator has adopted a strategy to transfer the foreign referents to Arabic, It should again be
noted that the resultant equivalents is to suggest to the Arab reader the reason why the respective English
referent has been cited, that is to convey the satire that underlie the reference. In the end, the Arabic
reader should know what Dryden refers to and for what reason. Furthermore, a considerable challenge is
to convey the irony of line 97. To illustrate, the Empress is a culturally bound term that alludes to queen
Dido in Dryden's Aeneid translated from Virgil. Dido has Arabic equivalent (Ba'labki, 1992, p. 195) yet
does not stand parallel to the source lexeme "Empress", hence the poetic meaning of the word will be lost
if modulation (i.e. semantic and conceptual change between the SL and the TL) is adopted. The Empress
spreads the fame of Shadwell over the real-world narrow but ironically wide area between Bunhill and
Watling Street. Rendering the geographical referents into Arabic, the translator will ensure the
conveyance of the esthetic effect of irony that Dryden adds to the referents.
On more problematic parody is the expressions "martyrs of pies" and "relics of the bum" of line 101.
More significantly, the line bears an implicit cultural practice that needs to be be clarified to English
reader before the Arab recipient. To exemplify, the unused books at the time of Dryden has been used to
line pie plates and as toilet paper, and if the Arab reader is acquainted with the ancient use then the
equivalent Arabic line will be successful. Even so, the translator will face an integral issue while
translating line 101 when in particular finding equivalent to the culturally bound term "relic". Relic is
polysemous but contextually suggests a part of the body or clothing of a holy person, or something that
they owned, that is kept after their death and respected as a religious object (Diana & Jennifer, 2020), a
meaning that lack Arabic equivalence (Ba'labki, 2016, p. 978). In addition, "Limbs" is a metonomy and
evidently lacks Arabic equivalent, namely limbs denote books and covers and pages of books.
From line 102 to line 117, Dryden adds to list of derided poets John Ogilby, a translator of Homer and
Virgil ridiculed also by Alexander Pope. Henry Herringman is the publisher of both Shadwell and Dryden
and is heading the monarch's bodyguards, "yeomen", compromising cheated publishers "Bilked
stationers". Then, the gray-haired, old prince Flecknoe sits on a throne made satirically from his own
arduously thought out works, while Shadwell sits on his father's Flecknoe's right hand in a way similar to
that of king Ascanius in Virgil's Aeneid. Ambiguity is Shadwell's prime royal trait and is Rome's other
hope; when Troy fell a "lambent" (Aeneid) flame flashed around his head to signal Ascanius' divine
selection, but for Shadwell he is chosen for his dullness. Shadwell takes oath as that of Hannibal when he
almost conquered Rome to never cease hostilities against wit and sense and always defend the kingdom
of dullness and sense.
Problematic Account
Together with the reference to John "Ogilby" (line 102) and Henry "Herringman" (line 105), the issues
that will challenge Arabic translation include the expression "Bilked Stationers" (line 104) and the word
31
"lambent" (line 111).
The expression "Bilked Stationers" is metonymic and implies book dealers or publishers who have been
bilked or cheated and therefore cannot sell the works of Shadwell. As to "lambent", the translator will in
addition bear in mind that the word is in fact a literary referent that alludes to the event of the flickering
flame, and the word is normally demanding for the English reader to understand without prior knowledge
about the literary incident. Once a proper equivalent is found, the success of equivalence will be based on
the calibre that the Arab recipient will have understood the literary denotation of the word and, always,
the esthetic rationale behind the broader allusion that the word constitutes. Similarly, the translator will
heed the same calibre of success when addressing the culturally bound proper nouns "Ogilby" and
"Herringman".
From line 118 to line 134, as King Flecknoe' s unction has been an ale, he ensures that his son Shadwell
will be anointed likewise. The priest by trade thus dispenses with the traditional scepter, orb "ball" and
sacramental oil and uses alternatively a glass of beer, the play Love's Kingdom- one of Shadwell's real
works- and a crown made from poppies, a reference to Shawdell's addiction to opium. In the meantime,
Shadwell's Psyche is filthily depicted as product of his sexual organs "loins", but an allusion to Romulus
is made: Twelve birds of night "owls" fly around him in same way twelve vultures fly over the River
Tiber in Rome to confirm to Romulus the site on which his rule will be, after which he becomes founder
and king of Rome.
Problematic Account
Mostly, the lines describe the coronation process of English kings that is culturally different to Arab
readers: { (The king himself the sacred unction made (line 118)... In his sinister hand, instead of ball, /He
plac'd a mighty mug of potent ale; /Love's Kingdom to his right he did convey, / At once his sceptre and
his rule of sway; (lines 120-123) }. Especially, the translator will address the culturally bound
paradoxical referents "ball" (line 120), the allusive paradoxical word "poppies" (line 126) and the literary
paradoxical referent "Love's Kingdom" (line 122). In addition to the lexical referent "honors" (line 134),
a problematic allusion to Romulus [ (On his left hand twelve reverend owls did fly./ So Romulus, 'tis
sung, by Tiber's brook,/ Presage of sway from twice six vultures took); lines 130-134) ] is made.
For the lines referring to Shadwell's process of coronation, the translator will deal with the likely idea that
Arab audience are unaware that scepter, orb and unction are actual objects of coronation of English
Monarchs. Besides the broader cultural peculiarity, the word "ball" incurs two-facet problem: the one is
that ball in fact metonomically refers to orb, the traditional object used during coronation- and the other is
that the poetic meaning of the word "ball" (i.e. orb) is culturally bound and lacks Arabic equivalent
(Ba'labki, 2016, p. 800). In addition, "unction" bears a cultural problem: according to Oxford Languages,
unction is the action of anointing someone with oil or ointment as a religious rite or as a symbol of
investiture as a monarch, the intended contextual meaning that lack Arabic lexicalization (Ba'labki, 2016,
p. 1279).
Moreover, even if the word "poppy" that does have an Arabic equivalent (Ba'labki, 2016, p. 894) the
Arabic word cannot deal with the problematic esthetic significance and the rhetorical allusion to
32
Shawdell's opium addiction. Also, the word "honors" is of signficant importance, for honors lexically
refers to ornaments and is lexicalized in Arabic (Ba'labki, 2016, p. 550) yet figuratively signify locks, an
appropriate meaning to the context that lacks Arabic lexicalization and is especially challenging for the
translator. Thus, to render "honors" into Arabic the translator will face the dual issue of producing an
Arabic equivalent that explicates the lexical meaning and also the poetic meaning of the word..
Another substantial challenge is the image likening the omen of Shadwell's monarchy to that of Romulus.
Despite the fact that geographical referent "Tiber" (Al-Edreesi, p. 752) and the proper noun "Romulus",
(Ba'labki, 1972, p. 212) have Arabic equivalents, the mythological incident is not referred to by either
source. Accordingly, the Arabic image will enlighten the Arab recipient of the myth of Romulus,
stimulate perception of the satirical resemblance and, above all,, ensure appreciation of the resultant
esthetic effect or poetic meaning.
From line 135 to line 150, oblivion oozes from king Flecknoe when he shakes his hair, and his dullness is
now fully ready to be inherited by his son. In a prophetic aura, the King then makes his speech and
declares that his son will be king and will rule the satirically empty Atlantic Ocean; the vast area from
Ireland to Barbados, and will deliver an even better a monarchical wonder than his play Love's Kingdom,
the people responding, "Amen". The king then invites his son to become more ignorant and impudent
than him, to ventilate unjustified pangs, and to learn to work hard to no effect, and also invites his son to
write his Virtuosos in a way that no one will suspect wit behind the work.
Problematic Account
If the lines are culturally problematic, then the satire on Shadwell's prospective vast empire (Heavens
bless my son, from Ireland let him reign/ To far Barbadoes on the western main; line 139 and line 140
respectively) will likely be the reason.
From line 151 to line 165, a brilliant writer of comedies Sir George Etherege and characters from his
plays, Dorimant, Loveit, Cully, Cockwood, and Fopling are cited and especially praised for wit then are
contrasted with those of Shadwell: they are as dull as him and in no need of outside technical intervention
from a witty author, and they are so originally dull and absurd that no one in the future will be able to
copy them. Continuing his speech, Flecknoe invites his son to even wittily create characters in the same
manner as that of his dull works, and they will be in name made of different proper nouns but in reality
made of your own; dullness. Moreover, Sir Charles Sedley is believed by Dryden to have contributed
more than the prologue to Shadwell's Epsom Wells, and line 164 alludes to Burton's Anatomy of
Melancholy: "They lard their lean books with the fat of others' works".
Problematic Account
The challenges will be the reference to Etherege-made characters Dorimant, Loveit, Cully, Cockwood
(line 151, line 152 and line 153), the allusive line 164 (To lard with wit thy hungry Epsom prose) and the
preceding referent "S—dl—y" (line 163).
33
In spite of Etherege having Arabic equivalent (Ba'labki, 1992, p. 47) lines 151, 152 and 153 will be
difficult for the Arab recipient to comprehend unless a pre-known information about the brilliant success
of the comedies of Etherege to which the cited culturally bound characters attest is available. Besides,
"George" is a subtle term of rhetorical nature: the proper noun is a synecdoche and refers to part of or the
first name of the full name of Etherege. This is why George naturally cannot have Arabic equivalent and
is a problem for the translator to convey to TT.
Likewise, if the translator provides to the English proper noun "S—dl—y" a similarly letters-less Arabic
equivalent, then the Arab recipient will definitely be in need of explanation for the reason why the proper
noun is formed in such manner, to what reference "S—dl—y" makes and for what reason. About the
same Sir Charles Sedley for which "S—dl—y" stands for, the Arab reader will also need to understand
that the expression "To lard with wit" is intertextual with a sentence by Burton (They lard their lean
books
...). Hence, the implicit understanding of the ST lines that Sedley has had a major part in the prologue of
Shadwell's Epsom Wells can then be conveyed to the Arab reader.
From line 166 to line 178, Flecknoe reminds his son that his disposition to reject the always falsely
appealing rhetoric will be the reason why he would leave his nature to undertake the burden of writing
dull substance, but never to labour to do so. For this reason, he will be rewarded with Sir Formal Trifle-
the ridiculous and dull orator in The Virtuoso- and Sir Formal will be an unwanted yet fulfilling character
in so far as he will impart Shadwell's real-world dedications to the duke of Newcastle and members of his
family. Furthermore, Shadwell is told not to arrogate the similarity of his works to that of Ben Jonson, for
he is no better than the prominent authors whom he is to emulate, Flecknoe and Ogilby. Dryden now
begins to directly contrast Shadwell with Jonson: Flecknoe also says that Ben Jonson has a different
character and artistic style from that of Shadwell, that his wit is not a reflection of learning or knowledge,
and that Jonson does not reproach the art that he does not understand.
Problematic Account
It can be easily said that the challenges will be the Arabic equivalence of "Sir Formal" (line 168), the
allusive expression "northern dedications" (line 170) and the rhetorical questions of line 176 (What share
have we in nature, or in art?), of line 177 (Where did his wit on learning fix a brand) and of line 178 (And
rail at arts he did not understand?)
If the foreign referent Sir Formal is addressed, then a further task will be assigned to the translator: to find
a strategy to render the allusive word "northern" which is a hurdle to Arabic equivalence of the broader
line 170. Another important difficulty is to find appropriate Arabic rhetorical questions to lines 176, 177
and 178 respectively. That is, the equivalent Arabic question marks will be a success when they are
understood to, as is the reasoning behind the English rhetorical interrogation, draw satirical comparisons
between Ben Jonson and his want-to-be Shadwell
34
From line 179 to line 192, Dryden now begins to directly make derisive distinction between Shadwell's
35
approach to comedy and that of Jonson: Jonson would not create a Psyche's Prince Nicander and would
not create a Virtuoso's Sir Samuel Hearty to sell bargains; to coarsely answer an innocent question, and to
use his frequent word "whip-stitch". After all, Dryden holds that Jonson cannot write a play that turns a
farce; low form of comedy that is based on situation but not on wit, satirized by Dryden and other noted
playwrights. Also, Dryden satirizes a phrase in the epilogue to The Humorists, "a humor is a bias of the
mind". More precisely, the bias is in the game of bowls the spin given to the bowl that causes it to
swerve. Intended to copy the example of the "comedy of humors", the play is hence a victim of the said
phrase and ends a ridicule.
Problematic Account
The rhetorical questions continuing, various further obstacles will test the translator: an interrogative
auditory image "swept the dust" (line 180), the foreign referent "Prince Nicander" (line 179), the
culturally challenging rhetorical question" Where sold he bargains, whip-stitch, kiss my arse" (line 181),
and most importantly the problematic word "bias" constituting the highly subtle image extending from
line 190 to line 193.
If the translator has already introduced to the Arab reader the character of Prince Nicander of Shadwell's
Psyche, then the referent will be no issue. Additionally, the auditory expression "swept the dust" which
Dryden uses to evoke a satirical image of the poor musical mechanics of Shadwell's operatic work
Psyche will be quite easier for the translator; to produce an equivalent Arabic image that evokes the same
auditory effect.
In addition, to translate the interrogative line 181, the translator has to understand that the nonsensical
word "whip-stitch" and the adjacent expression "kiss my arse" are exemplifying products of the
conceptual idea which the expression "sold he bargains" sets right before. To sell bargain is to answer an
innocent question with a coarse or indecent phrase (Greenblatt & Abrams, 2006, p. 2116), as the nonsense
word of Sir Samuel Hearty- a culturally bound proper noun- and the taboo expression "kiss my..." attest
to. Thus, the Arabic line will be based on the same conceptual structure as that of the English line.
Furthermore, the word "bias" is a specialist English word that is indeed the opening to the highly delicate
paradoxical parallel between the brain of Shadwell and the bowl. To illustrate, the brain of Shadwell
paradoxically resembles the bowl used in a bowls game. In the game, the target is a small ball at a fair
distance along which the bowl at some points of playing is spun to cause a swerve that enables the bowl
to draw nearer to the target ball. In Shadwell's case, the bowl or, more precisely, his brain is curving
(inclined) towards "dullness", yet- surprisingly, only one side of his brain is in this state.
It would then be normal for Shadwell to use the other side of his brain that is, as it is, not affected by
dullness, still he selects the dull side to be the basis on which his writings will be "leaning" or resting.
Hence, however his brain swerves or no matter how many sudden "changes" of direction his brain makes
during the game, he will always be drawing near the same target, "dullness"- albeit his will is otherwise
to avoid dullness, or, analytically speaking, to bear resemblance to Ben Jonson. For the latter analytical
implicature, it is an added challenge for the translator to remedy the cultural deficiency of the Arab
recipient of the denotative fact that the constituent word "bias" is a parody of a passage from Shadwell's
epilogue to The Humorists. One further problem is to convey the specificity of the alluded to work.
Namely, The Humorists is indeed the epitome of the failed attempt of Shadwell to create a comedy that is
36
based on the premises of Jonson's literary concept of comedy of humors and is, mostly likely, pitted
against Jonson's Every Man in His Humour (1598).
Accordingly, the translator will face an intricate four-facet culturally bound challenge: the first is the
culturally bound bowls game, the second is the resultant parody of the brain of Shadwell paralleled by the
bowl, the third is the allusion of the culturally bound, lexically problematic word "bias" to The
Humorists, and the fourth is the contextual, implicit culturally bound relationship between The Humorists
and comedy of humors. Besides, it should be noted that lines 190, 191, 192 and 193 are only
comprehensible to the English reader with sufficient information about the tension between Shadwell and
Dryden and with adequate literary sense to identify both the parody of the word and the allusive
implicature "bias" and then appreciate the resultant esthetic effect
From line 193 to line 204, while Shadwell and Jonson may be similarly corpulent, each has completely
dissimilar standard of writing; Jonson's substance is as weighty as his weight is, and Shadwell does not
produce as significant a work as his bodily size. In fact, Shadwell's sense of wit is only a Tympany, a
wind-induced swelling in some parts of the body. Shadwell and Flecknoe have likewise unimpressive
and dull verses (i.e. numbers)
Shadwell's tragedy unexpectedly makes people laugh and his comedy surprisingly sends them to sleep.
What is more, no matter how disrespectful Shadwell is, his satirical remarks will affect no one, and his
Irish pen promptly neutralizes the harm he intends to convey. Exactly put, Dryden has accused Flecknoe
and Shadwell of being Irish, and, then, Ireland has suggested poverty, superstition, and barbarity.
Shadwell is then reminded that his ingenuity is mediocre anagrams but never sharp satire, "keen iambics".
Problematic Account
The culturally bound literary term "keen iambics" (line 204), the culturally bound medical term
"Tympany" (line 196), the culturally bound referents "tun", "numbers" (line 197) and "kilderkin" (line
198), and the culturally bound discriminatory referent "Irish Pen" will pose a difficulty for the
translator.
While "keen iambics" is an English literary jargon synonymous to "sharp satire" and lacks Arabic
equivalent (Ba'labki, 2016, p. 565) and "Tympany" is culturally bound medical term (Ba'labki, 2016, p.
1271), the word "tun" is an agricultural jargon antithetical to "kilderkin". Both referring to a container in
which an alcoholic drink is stored, each is an old-use jargon that is- to be comprehensible to the English
reader, illustrated with the synonymous word "cask". In other words, tun is a small cask, whereas
kilderkin is a large cask. Thus, even if "tun" and "kilderkin" have Arabic lexical equivalents (Ba'labki,
2016, p. 1265-632 respectively), the equivalents are - in addition to "Tympany"- culturally bound and are
instances of or otherwise in need of remedial transposition (i.e. to change a part of speech or word class
without prejudice to meaning).
Moreover, prior to the referent "Irish pen", Dryden initiates a metaphoric image that climaxes in the
referent. To exemplify, the image evokes the idea that "venom" lies in the already "felonious heart" of
Shadwell but can never come out to manifest itself in his writings, for his venom is always warded of by
the irish pen with which Shadwell writes. Since the pen is made in Ireland, then the more powerful
37
offensive implications of the word Ireland and the qualifier Irish surpasses the toxicity of venom and
38
ultimately produces the desired esthetic effect of satire. Accordingly, if the translator has achieved the
milestone of conveying the discriminatory implications of being from Ireland to the Arab reader, then to
produce an equivalent Arabic referent will be significantly facilitated.
From line 205 to the final line 217, rather than plays altar-and wing-shaped poems, such as Herbert's
"Easter Wings" and "The Altar", and acrostics are recommended to Shadwell. If the alternatives are
unsatisfying then he can find pleasure in singing songs to the lute; medieval European poetic practice to
recite epic poetry. At the end of the king's declamatory speech, he falls down and disappears as he has
been trapped in the same way that The Virtuoso's Bruce and Longville has done to Sir Thomas Trifle
while he is making a speech. Alluding to the Hebrew Bible, the mantle of Flecknoe falls on Shadwell, the
same way that of prophet Elijah has fallen on his successor Elisha.
Problematic Account
Besides English jargon (i.e. "wings" and "altars" in line 207), a more significant burden is the literary
allusion to Bruce and Longville (line 212) and the Biblical allusion to the mantle of Elijah (line 216)
None of the source Arabic dictionaries provide equivalent to wing or altar, each a special poetic format.
(Ba'labki, 2016; Doniach, 1972; Wahba, 1974; and Anani, 2003)
Besides the jargons, when the characters of Bruce and Longville are evoked to do the same trap as theirs
in the Virtuoso, the intertextual intervention is unknown to the Arab recipient and is therefore a problem
for Arabic equivalence. An additional problem is the Biblical implicature of the word "mantle". To
illustrate, when Dryden uses the word the Biblical image of the mantle of the elder prophet Elijah
falling on the younger prophet Elisha to signal succession is evoked, and as such event is foreign to the
Arab reader, the "mantle" constitutes a challenge to find an Arabic equivalent to the word.
4.3.16 Results and Discussion
All in all, the problem of providing an Arabic version of Mac Flecknoe consists in various cultural
referents: lexical referents, metaphorical referents, religious referents, historical referents, geographic
referents, non-literary referent and, most importantly, literary referents. To illustrate the categorization:
1. Lexical Referent: entails review of delicate semantic structure or contractiveness structures of a word.
2. Metaphorical Referent: the referent that demonstrates a subtle application of non-literal meaning
or uncommon, figurative usage of word.
3. Historical Referent: signals an event, incident or figure that holds historical and to some
extent political significance.
4. Religious Referent: requires adequate religious or Biblical learning for comprehension.
5. Geographical Referent: refers to a place likely unknown to the reader.
39
6. Non-Literary referent: the referent about the social, political, scientific culture without which a
term, terminology or jargon cannot be within the understanding of the reader.
7. Literary Referent: comprises two types:
i. Literary-Specific Referent: suggests literature-specific implications where a writer, work,

character, contributor, choreographer, musician etc. is referred to.
ii. Literary-Cultural referent: denotes incident, practice, term or jargon that has direct connection with
literature and literary domain and holds literary significance.
According to the seven categories, the table below includes all the different rhetorical devices and
culturally bound terms explored at length in the previous problematic sections :
Lexical Referent "well-timed oars" - "honors" - "limbs" - "toast"
Metaphorical Referent "undisturbed by watch" - "genuine night"

-"celestial charge" - "binding" - "inclined" -
"polluted joys"
Historical Referent "king John of Portugal" - "to fears inclined" -

"Monarch Oak"
Religious Referent "last great prophet" - "Was sent before... To teach

the nations" - "mantle"
Geographical Referent "Norwich" - Thames" - "Pissing Alley" - "Aston

Hall" - "Augusta" - "Barbican" - "Nursery" -
"Bunhill" - "Watling Street" - "Barbadoes"
Non-Literary Referent "ball" -"Tympany" - "Tun" - "kilderkin"
Literary Referent Literary-Specific: "Flecknoe" - "Heywood" -

"Epsom blankets" - "Arion" - "Psyche" - "St.
Andre" - "Singleton" - "Villerius" - "Maximin" -
"Simkin" - "Panton" - "Dekker" - "The Hypocrite" -
"Raymond" - "The Humorists" - "Virtuoso"
-"Empress Fame" - "Ogilby" - "Herringman" -
"Etherege" - "Dorimant" - "Loveit" - "Cully" -
"Cockwood" - "Fopling" - "S—dl—y" - "Prince
Nicander" - "Bruce" - "Longville" - "Love's
Kingdom" - "Sir Formal"
Literary-Cultural: "wings" - "altars" - "pie" -

"bum" - "bias" - "threshing hand" - "whip-stitch" -
"northern dedications" - "bilked stationers" - "keen
iambics" - "lambent" - "clinches" - "buskins" -
40
"socks" - "gentle numbers"
As can be seen, literary referents expectedly dominate the problematic scene, courtesy of literary-specific
referents. With lexical, metaphorical, historical, religious and geographical referents having more or less
equal and secondary problematic significance, the result is unsurprising on the grounds that Mac Flecknoe
is a satire targeting and written with an end to mock a dramatist and his works, style, mindset, and
dramatic convictions.
Mac Flecknoe is therefore setting a literary stage on which varied references to drama and related cultural
terms and terminology is called into play, and, as a consequence, the reader is before a phenomenon of
foreign, peculiar and distinctive literary and cultural nature.
Moreover, all of the categories constitute the axis of the problematic intricacy of the poem. Such axis can
be illustrated with the graph below:
To illustrate, four principal factors contribute to determining whether a referent is problematic or not: the
referent; the original referent manifest in the line, the lexical barrier; the language barrier in general and -
at particular times- the delicate semantic lexicalization of numerous words, the cultural barrier; the
cultural deficiency precluding the Arab reader from comprehending the descriptive and poetic meaning of
th referent, the descriptive meaning (chapter 3.2), and the poetic meaning; the satire that all the referents
dynamically operate together to produce via the mechanics of mock-heroic.
41
If the literary referent "Psyche" that Dryden cites three times is applied to the graph, then the result for
that of line 54 (Psyche's rhyme) will be the following graph:
Nevertheless, if the Arab reader does have a "pre-emptive" cultural learning about English drama and
literary culture in Dryden's day, then the poetic-cultural issue of which Mac Flecknoe is the epitome will
be neutralised. That is why acquaintance with English culture (i.e drama, history and religion) and
language (i.e. general foreignness of language and particular lexical and semantic subtleties) draws the
Arab audience at equal level of poetic appreciation of Mac Flecknoe with English audience, as the
following graph illustrates:
42
5. Conclusion and Recommendation
Concluding Word
To conclude the paper, as for the content or thematic substance, it can be said that the English text is
significantly special in the way that even the English reader that do not possess, apart from Biblical
learning, adequate cultural, historical and literary acquaintance about the drama at the time of Dryden and
Shadwell will have great difficulty appreciating Mac Flecknoe. The culturally challenging nature of the
poem for the English audience entail a more challenging problem of translating the poem to culturally,
ideologically and linguistically different audience and receiving foreign appreciation.
As to the technique and technicalities, it can also be argued that the onerous task to appreciate Mac
Flecknoe whether by the English reader or the Arab audience arise from the distinctive literary technique
of mock-heroic on which the poem is premised. While the voice has subtle poetic functionality, the form
(i.e. metre and rhyme) of Mac Flecknoe is technically delicate and generates impactful poetic meaning.
That is, only when the translator forges an Arabic poetic form complying to the metrical and rhythmic
peculiarities of mock-heroic poems- then a similarly impactful Arabic poetic meaning can be generated.
Recommendation
By-Text Approach
It can be argued that cultural peculiarities are such evident in Mac Flecknoe that the translator forcibly
has no choice but to provide complete background introduction or by-text explanatory notes to pre-empt
and remedy the cultural discrepancy between the Arab and English reader. Two premises justify the
unavoidable choice:
(1) When the English reader is expected to have faced problems comprehending Mac Flecknoe on
account of prerequisite literary learning, then the natural consequence will be an even more problematic
and complicated task to produce an Arabic version. Nonetheless, it can favorably be argued that the
explanatory glosses and additions by the English scholars of literature to the lines of Mac Flecknoe so as
to aid in comprehension is a coincidental license for all translators to decisively pursue the same
strategy for translating the problematic lines.
(2) A safe number of translators have adopted the strategy for translating poetry, albeit success of the
eventual poetic product is not always guaranteed. If this fact is considered, the translator will then have a
further license- to that of source English illustrations- to use a complete historical, literary and, most
importantly, contextual introduction to the Arabic TT.
One more significant point is that Mac Flecknoe targets a single individual of specific status (i.e. the
dramatist Thomas Shadwell) and very likely a certain audience of specific intellectual nature (i.e. literary
learning). In other words, Dryden has authored Mac Flecknoe with a specific end to make the poem
intelligible to Shadwell- the target- and to an especially readied audience that has particular and adequate
learning and awareness. Namely, the audience is expected to be knowledgeable about the contextual
motive for Mac Flecknoe and then about the way such motive develops and manifests itself in the esthetic
43
literary subtleties of the content, form and technique. At that point the audience will be able to wholly
appreciate Mac Flecknoe.
For this point, it maybe accordingly said that the authorial specifications of target and audience should
shift from the English context and culture to the Arabic context and culture. The special result of this is
probably an adaptation, replace the foreign subject and poetic narrative with Arabic figure and Arabic
poetic narrative of similar conceptual basis that implies the same ST authorial specifications: that the
Arab target is specifically for example a poet and that Arab audience is particularly well-informed about
contextual and general Arabic poetry, and then no problem-solving strategies for cultural discrepancy or
introductory accounts will be required.
In-Text Approach
Concerning the possible in-text strategy for translating Mac Flecknoe, the general solving strategies are
the following:
1. Phonemic Translation: to copy the sounds of the SL into the TL while transferring the ST meaning.
(Bassnett-McGuire 1980: 81–2)
2. Literal Translation: word-for-word translation (Bassnett-McGuire 1980: 81–2).
3. Metrical Translation: to reproduce the SL meter into the TL (Bassnett-McGuire 1980: 81–2).
4. Verse-to-Prose Translation: to reproduce the SL verse into TL prose (Bassnett-McGuire 1980: 81–2).
5. Rhymed Translation: to transfer the rhyme of the ST to TL (Bassnett-McGuire 1980: 81–2).
6. Free Verse Translation: to pay little or no heed to the rhythmic and metrical patterns of the ST
(Bassnett-McGuire 1980: 81–2).
7. Version : to produce an entirely different TT form to reproduce the ST meaning (Lefevere 1975).
8. Imitation: to base a newly produced, distinct TT solely on the main point and the conceptual
premises of the ST (Lefevere 1975).
As to Mac Flecknoe four viable options to select from are available: free verse translation, verse-to-prose,
rhymed translation and imitation. The deciding factors in selection are naturally form (i.e. metre and
rhyme), content (i.e. thematic subject matter and cultural specificity) and technique (i.e. voice). As the
research has elaborated extensively, the content is the most considerable pivot of Mac Flecknoe, followed
by technique and the least challenging form. For this reason, it seems that the four strategies will be
arranged in order of preference as follows:
(1) Free Verse Translation:
A top priority for two reasons: the one is that the content is such peculiar that the translator will afford no
further obligation for metrical and rhythmic conformance to the ST, and the other is that free verse is a
poetic form that does- though insignificantly- seek to produce rhythmic effects that do not as a result
entirely renounce rhyme in verse, that do in Mac Flecknoe's case to a slight degree adhere to rhyme and
rhythm, and that do not after all negate the effects that form have on the poetic meaning of Mac
44
Flecknoe.
45
(2) Verse-to-Prose Translation:
Although the poetic meaning will be hugely impacted by discarding form and technique; namely the
metrical basis, rhythmic patterns and stylistic effects, of the ST- such is arduous the task to overcome the
rhetorical and cultural impediments of Mac Flecknoe that the translator will be justifiably forced to make
the shift from verse form to prose form, a form that accords the translator much-needed liberty to take
remedial actions on the cultural and stylistic specificities of Mac Flecknoe.
(3) Rhymed Translation:
If the ST is adapted or, in other words, the cultural foreignness is conclusively eliminated from the
content of Mac Flecknoe, then only one pivot will remain for equivalence, i.e. form. To illustrate,
technique is inseparable from content and the two are both constituents of poetic meaning, then if content
is definitively neutralized then technique is likewise nullified. Accordingly, translator will only be tasked
with providing a form; a metrical and rhyming effect, similar to that of the ST.
(4) Imitation:
The last resort when the thematic, cultural, metrical, rhythmic, tonal, stylistic and lexical bases of Mac
Flecknoe are inaccessible to Arabic equivalence and necessitates rejection and alternative sole adherence
to the conceptual and stylistic basis of mock-heroic satire. That is, to produce different poem with
different plot, figures, themes, etc.
Methodology
Methodologically speaking, it is recommended that field method be adopted to develop an integral

scientific basis for the research paper. To this end, the researcher will enlist the help of professional
literary translators well versed in rendering English verse. The translators will be each requested to
provide his/her own and particular Arabic version of Mac Flecknoe attached by an account of the
difficulties faced during translation. The researcher will then factor in the various translations and
accounts and finally present resultant findings.
46
References
Abdul-Sahib, Ali. (2013). Tarjama Adabiya Li ash-har al-Qasaid al-Engliziya, Ma'a Dirasa Tahleeliya
Lil shi'r Wa tarjamatoh (Poetic Translation of the most celebrated English poems and Analytical Study of
Poetry and its Translation). Sharjah: University of Sharjah.
Al-Idrisi, M. (2002). Nozhat Al-Mushtaaq Fi Ikhtiraaq Al-Aafaaq. Volume 1. Cairo: Maktabat

Al-Thaqafa Al-Diniya.
Anani, Muhammad. (2003). Al Tarjama al Adabiya: Bayn al Nazariya Wa al Tatbeeq (Literary

Translation: Between Theory and Practice). (2nd ed.). Cairo: The Egyptian International Publishing
Company-Longman.
Anani, M. (2003). Al-Mustalahat Al-Adabiya Al-Hadeetha. Cairo: The Egyptian International Publishing
Company-Longman.
Baker, M., & Saldanha, G. (2020). Routledge Encyclopedia of Translation Studies. (2nd ed.). London:
Routledge.
Ba'labki, M. (1992). Mu'jam A'laam Al-Mawrid. Beirut: Dar al-Ilm Lil-Malayin.
Ba'labki, M., & Ba'labki, R. M. (2016). Al-Mawrid Al-Hadeeth. Beirut: Dar al-Ilm Lil-Malayin.
Baldick, Chris. (2001). The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford: Oxford University
Press.
Bassnett-McGuire, Susan. (1980). Translation Studies. New York: Methuen & Co. Ltd.
Cruse, D. A. (1997). Lexical semantics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Doniach, N. S. (1972). The Oxford English Arabic Dictionary of Current Usage. London: Oxford
University Press.
Greenblatt, S., & Abrams, M. H. (2006). The Norton Anthology of English Literature. Volume 1. (8th
ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
Halliday, M. A. K. (1992). Language theory and translation practice. Rivista Internazionale Di Tecnica
Della Traduzione, 1 (1), 15–25.
Hassan, Bahaa-eddin. (2014). Between English and Arabic: A Practical Course in Translation.
Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Hurford, J. R., Heasley, B., & Smith, M. B. (2014). Semantics: A coursebook. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Lahlali, El Mustapha., & Abu Hatab, Wafa. (2014). Advanced English–Arabic Translation, A Practical
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Guide. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Lea, Diana., & Bradbery, Jennifer. (2020). Oxford Advanced Learner's Dictionary. (10th ed.). Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Lefevere, André. (1975). Translating Poetry: Seven Strategies and a Blueprint. Amsterdam: Van Gocum.
Palmer, F. (1981). Semantics: A new outline. London and New York: Cambridge University Press.
Quinn, A. (1993). Figures of speech: 60 ways to turn a phrase . Utah: Gibbs Smith Publisher.
Royal Oak. (2021, June 28). In Wikipedia. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Oak
Wahba, Magdi. (1974). A Dictionary of Literary Terms (English-French-Arabic). Beirut: Libraire Du

Liban.
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1.

Translation and Literary Translation: Concept and Nature

4. Hypothesis, Problem and Hypothetical Questions

A duo of hypotheses, then, can be established:

5. Method and Methodology

Chapter 4 [to be submitted on 27/November/2022]:

Ba'labki, M. (1992). Mu'jam A'laam Al-Mawrid. Beirut: Dar al-Ilm Lil-Malayin.

a- "9"‫ اﻟﻤﻔﻘﻮد اﻟﻔﺮدوس‬, John Milton's "Paradise Lost"

b- "10"‫ﺟﻮان دون‬, Lord Byron's " Don Juan"

I. Verse from Alexander Pope's "An Essay on Man"13

II. Assorted verse from Emily Dickinson's poems14

III. T.S. Eliot's "Ash Wednesday"15

IV. John Keats' "Fancy"16

V. Rudyard Kipling's "If"17

VI. Philip Sidney's sonnet "Astrophel and Stella 31"18

1. Meaning and Translation

3. Presupposed meaning: the meaning that is restricted to co-occurence, whether selectively or

4. Evoked meaning: the result of differences in dialect and register.

1.3 Meaning and Literary Translation: Poetic Meaning

2.3 Defining Characteristics

1. Definition and Concept

2.4.1.2 Mock Epic

2.4.2 Dramatic Poetry: a category of verse composition for theatrical performance.

2.5 Poetry and Poetic Meaning: Arabic Translation

2.6 Culturally Bound Terms

Culturally bound English term Culturally bound Arabic term

LGBT ‫ﺧﺎدم اﻟﺤﺮﻣﯿﻦ اﻟﺸﺮﯾﻔﯿﻦ‬

3.1 Literary Background

3.1.2 Comedy of Humors

3.2 Historical Foreground

3.3 Contextual Background

3.4 General Defining Characteristics

Type Narrative; mock-heroic

Metre Iambic pentameter feet

Rhyme End rhyme; rhymed pairs

Poetic Diction Figures (Rhetorical Devices):

Irony: "To teach the nations in thy greater

Hyperbole: "And torture one poor word ten

Metaphor: "Sh 's genuine night" (line 23)

Metonymy: "goodly fabric" (line 25)

Pun: "bias" (line 190)

Personification: "when fate summons" (line

Simile: "like Augustus, young" (line 3)

Oxymoron: "the Basses roar" (line 46)

Parallelism: "peace with wit, nor truce with

Paradox: "anointed dullness" (line 63)

Rhetorical question: "What share have we

Repetition: "Sh ll alone" (line 14, 16)

"Where queens are form'd, and future

Where unfledg'd actors learn to laugh and

Where infant punks their tender voices try"

Allusion: Augustus, Arion, fears

Proper name: Heywood, Thames, Nursery

Jargon: clinches, buskins, socks

Terminology: anointed, drugget, kilderkin

Voice Tone: formal, solemn

Point of view Omniscient third-person poetic speaker

3.5 Specific, Type-Related Defining Characteristics:

4.1 Metre and Rhyme:

All human things are subject to decay,

And when fate summons, monarchs must obey. (Heroic couplet)

This Flecknoe found, who, like Augustus, young

Was called to empire, and had governed long. (Heroic couplet)