Sufi terms and their translation from Arabic to English. Diwân al-hallâ? as a case study

Abstract

The translation of Sufi poetry is a relatively unexplored topic. This paper examines the challenges a translator may encounter when translating Sufi terminology into English, covering the formation of Sufi terms, their nature, and how they function in context. A textual approach to terminology is envisaged, where Sufi concepts are analyzed along with their translation. We analyze terms extracted from the collection of poems by the Sufi mystic al-Ḥallâž (Diwânal-Ḥallâž) and consider their translations by the British scholar Martin Lings in his book Sufi Poems:A MedievalAnthology (Arabic and English ed.).