“A New Dress”by Ruth Dallas

“A New Dress” by Ruth Dallas talks about a little girl who is sacrificing a new dress in order to remain friends with a girl who is less fortunate than she. After this poem was translated from English to Arabic and then back to English again, it lost its charm and deep meaning. The poem went from being deep and metaphorical, to a very literal piece.

Some of the words remained the same, but because of the numerous translations, the words were disarranged. For example, in the original, this was written “I don’t want a new dress, I said”. While in the translated version, this was written, “I said, ‘I don’t want a new dress”. Also the metaphors of this poem were lost among the translators. The author’s word choice in the original poem was perfectly chosen to display metaphorical and symbolic meanings, but when it was translated, it was translated into a literal sense. This is an example of a metaphor in the original, “Snip-snip. Snip-snip. The cold scissors ate quickly as my white rabbit round my arm”. But in the translated version, this is how the metaphor was ruined, “Snip, snip, snip, snip the cold scissors; ate quickly while my white rabbit was around my arms”.
The words used in the translation were very similar or the same as the ones used in the original. But the way in which they were arranged, and the way the words were directed affected the meaning of the poem. For instance, in the original, the girl was talking to herself, while in the translated version the dialogue was directed towards the reader. In conclusion, I would like to say that even though the translator translated the poem word for word, the arrangement of the words affected the meaning of the poem significantly.
Samar Al Ansari 10.3
Sep. 27, 03