Human Translation vs. Machine Translation in the Naguib Mahfouz’s Novel "Palace Walk": A case Study

Abstract

Since the time of inventing MT, the question that always arises is "which translation is better HT or MT?" This study aims to investigate this question and the differences between HT and MT of Naguib Mahfouz’s novel “Palace Walk”. Therefore, the study will be concerned with the literary translation of humans and machines. Cultural background is an essence in the translation of any literary work. Literary translation is one of the most important tools to break the barriers between languages. The task of it is to interpret the cultural aspects and beliefs from one nation to another. Transferring such works to be equivalent to the original ones is not an essay task for humans, imagine what would happen if we shifted this task to machines! The researcher slected Naguib Mahfouz’s novel “Palace Walk” " بين القصرين "to investigate the differences between human translation and machine translation. Thus, the study is based on the comparison of human and machine translation outcomes. It also aims to dig deep down in the strategies used by both of those translations. Finally, this research will shed some light on the mistakes and problems faced humans and machines of transferring cultural expressions from Arabic into English.