Translating Satire and Parenthetical Expressions as Rhetorical Devices in Opinion Pieces

Opinion articles are an integral part of journalistic texts, which are characterized by their multi-purposes and styles. Opinion writers use various rhetorical methods and devices in writing their articles, which vary according to the type of text, its purpose and the target reader, not to mention the writer’s culture, style and character that influences texts. Translation plays a crucial role in communicating and disseminating opinion articles into other languages by means of publishing them in a newspaper or medium of communication to as many readers as possible. Satirical and parenthetical expressions are intensely featured in opinion articles by the journalist Robert Fisk, who writes periodically in the English-language British newspaper, The Independent. Fisk moves from one rhetorical style to another with great ingenuity.. In translating (4) his articles into Arabic, the ST of the present study, I encountered several linguistic, cultural and syntactical challenges. As I begin to translate, I put the target audience first in mind, taking into account the preservation of the original form and content as much as possible. These challenges lie in the fact that the satirical and parenthetical expressions styles have their own structural, linguistic and cultural nature, which differ from their linguistic, cultural and formal usage in Arabic. This study highlights the translation methods of satirical and parenthetical expressions used in the political opinion articles of Robert Fisk, which - to the best of my knowledge - have not been discussed in detail by academic researchers. The research also addresses the difficulties face the process of translation. Furthermore, it highlights how certain translating strategies are utilized to help achieve a smooth, accurate and faithful transmission of the text content, as well as its satirical and parenthetical expressions style. Then, it explores how the effect and style are transferred into Arabic addressing the Arabic, the language of the target audience. Presenting the appropriate translation strategies, this study can provide guidance to translators of such essays full of satire and parenthetical expressions. The research emphasizes the relation between translation and opinions articles and the impact of journalists’ linguistic structures on conveying messages to their readership.The study draws on Simpson’s (2003) stylistic model of satirical humour for comprehending and analysing model. The findings of this study show that the extensive use of satirical and parenthetical expressions play a vital role in the meaning making potential and in signifying the voice of the opinion pieces writers. Furthermore, the study assures that the use of literal translation strategy for all satirical and parenthetical expressions fails dramatically to transmit the same affect and influence in the (TT). Thus, the use of translation compensatory strategies such as: cultural and communicative equivalence, foregrounding, down grounding, insertion and omission is an effective tool to render satirical and parenthetical expressions into the target text.The significance of this study lies in its exploration to highlight the appropriate strategies used in rendering intricate linguistic structures that pose problems to Arab translators, especially when they manage texts written by journalists who deliberately use sarcasm and parenthetical expressions to achieve rhetorical purposes and convey implicit messages to the target readers such as criticism and/or ridicule.