An Emic-Etic Approach to Translating Cultural Expressions between Arabic and English

In this paper, an emic-etic approach to translating culture-specific expressions is introduced and followed. The purpose is to work out an approach to translating literary texts charged with cultural issues between Arabic and English. Data analysis shows that translators need to probe the deep symbolic levels of the language in the source text (ST) in order to capture the cultural implications meant by the author. This can be achieved only by approaching the text from an insider perspective.