Elements of the Translator’s Cultural Bias in Urdu Translation of The Alchemist

Abstract

The study aims at investigating various elements of the translator’s cultural bias in the Urdu translation of The Alchemist (in English). As culture, language, and translation are interlinked, the translator is inevitably influenced by his own culture while translating a text. This bias may exhibit itself in different forms in the target text. The study explores these various elements of cultural bias shown by the translator. It employs Al-Masri’s (2017) conceptual framework of emic-etic approach originally given by Pike (1954). Data are analysed qualitatively and various examples of the cultural bias of the translator are analysed by the researchers. It is concluded that the translator has chosen to either not translate the items at all or has altered the meanings of the source text items when translating them. His choice of preferring one strategy over the other does not seem to be following a set pattern except that he did that based on his cultural bias.