Difficulties in Translating Pan Tadeusz by Adam Mickiewicz into Arabic on the Basis of my Translation of Book One

My task of translating Pan Tadeusz was accompanied by various complications which concerned not only the form (metrics, rhythm, and rhymes), but also the proper rendering of the meaning of individual words and intricate idioms. Book One of Pan Tadeusz in my translation has not yet been published, as I am working on subsequent books. Due to various difficulties, the translation of this work is a very complex process that requires much care and a huge investment of time. Polish and Arabic are separate crucibles of very different cultures and social environments. There is no doubt that the language of poetry has specific rhythmic and morphological features. This increases the complexity of translation, since apart from mastering the language and understanding precisely the meaning of phrases and expressions, the translator needs to grasp the sense of metaphors and preserve the form of a poem to a lesser or greater extent. As for the form, I initially used eight feet in each verse. However, this method turned out to be imperfect, because the use of eight-foot verse significantly lengthens the text compared to the original. That is why I finally used the format of a thirteen-syllable poem, as in the work of Mickiewicz. However, this is a very difficult task and a huge challenge because Arabic words very often contain more syllables than their Polish counterparts, and unfortunately in most cases they cannot be translated into words with fewer syllables. Despite the difficulties of searching for rhymes and at the same time rendering the content of the verse, the rhymes have been kept in the same order as in the original, i.e. even rhymes (aabb). The abundance of synonyms in the Arabic language made this matter much easier.

My task of translating Pan Tadeusz was accompanied by various complications which concerned not only the form (metrics, rhythm, and rhymes), but also the proper rendering of the meaning of individual words and intricate idioms. Book One of Pan Tadeusz in my translation has not yet been published, as I am working on subsequent books. Due to various difficulties, the translation of this work is a very complex process that requires much care and a huge investment of time. Polish and Arabic are separate crucibles of very different cultures and social environments. There is no doubt that the language of poetry has specific rhythmic and morphological features. This increases the complexity of translation, since apart from mastering the language and understanding precisely the meaning of phrases and expressions, the translator needs to grasp the sense of metaphors and preserve the form of a poem to a lesser or greater extent. As for the form, I initially used eight feet in each verse. However, this method turned out to be imperfect, because the use of eight-foot verse significantly lengthens the text compared to the original. That is why I finally used the format of a thirteen-syllable poem, as in the work of Mickiewicz. However, this is a very difficult task and a huge challenge because Arabic words very often contain more syllables than their Polish counterparts, and unfortunately in most cases they cannot be translated into words with fewer syllables. Despite the difficulties of searching for rhymes and at the same time rendering the content of the verse, the rhymes have been kept in the same order as in the original, i.e. even rhymes (aabb). The abundance of synonyms in the Arabic language made this matter much easier.