CROSS-CULTURAL ANALYSIS AND ITS IMPACT ON RELIGIOUS INTERPRETATION

Abstract

The present study made an effort to analyze the effect of cross-cultural factors on interpretation by concentration on religious expressions as one of the main chal-lenges in translation of holy books and religious texts. Interpreters' strategies such as adaptation, explanation and omission to confront this difficult task were ana-lyzed as well. To conduct the study, researchers selected 50 common holy expres-sions in Iranian culture which were used by political and cultural speakers in speeches. A questionnaire, released by Supreme Council for Cultural Revolution (SCCR) in Iran, was utilized. The participants were 30 professional interpreters. The questionnaire was distributed among 30 professional interpreters; then the re-searchers classified the most common strategies for interpretation of religious ex-pressions in utterances. The result demonstrated that adaptation strategy at 60% was interpreters' priority in translation of religious expressions. This originates in the fact that explanation and omission strategies only used in 17% and 23% of orders. Moreover, it was found that religious expressions take time to interpret and that is why adaptation was chosen as the main strategy. In addition, it was found that in-terpreters are supposed to have perfect knowledge of both Iranian and American cultures to choose the most appropriate equivalent to convey the message and take the time in the interpretation.