Bridging the Gap: The Impact of Socio-Cultural Context on the English Translation of Urdu Idioms

Abstract

Urdu idioms are no mere figures of speech they are cultural artifacts that carry sociocultural wisdom, historical memories and deeply rooted local imagery. This article explores the challenges of translating Urdu idioms into English, considering the cultural context that influences their accuracy and effectiveness. It examines translation strategies to preserve the cultural essence of these idioms, drawing on theories from Nida, Baker and Newmark. A qualitative analysis of a corpus of Urdu idioms reveals that successful translations require strategies like paraphrasing, functional end cultural equivalents and annotative translation, rather than lateral renderings that risk committing cultural subtext. Six new idiomatic expressions – including “ٹیڑھا آنگن جانے نہ ناچ”,

گھر“ and ”,کھودا پہاڑ نکلا چوہا,” “چراغ تلے اندھیرا,” “سانپ مر جائے اور لاٹ نہ جائے,” “ہاتھ کنگن کو آرسی کیا“

ڈھائے لنکا بھیدی کا” – serve as case studies illustrating the multi-layered challenges of cross-cultural translation. The study argues that effective translation is linguistic and cultural mediation process with implication for language pedagogy, translator training and policy making in multilingual societies like Pakistan.