Manifestation of the Translator’s Voice in the Kurdish Translation of Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye

The concept of the translator’s voice has not been developed in translation until the late twentieth century. This study is an attempt to explore the voice of the translator in the Kurdish translation of Toni Morrison’s novel The Bluest Eye . For this purpose, the source text (ST) and the target (TT) were compared thoroughly to identify instances that manifest the translator’s interference at both textual and paratextual levels. The study employs Millan-Varela’s (2004) three-phase model of th e translator’s voice. In the data analysis, the study adopts a mixed method of qualitative and quantitative. In its qualitative method, the concepts and theories about the translator’s voice are discussed. On the other hand, the quantitative method is used to analyze the translation procedures/techniques used that indicate the voice of the translator at both textual and paratextual levels. Based on the findings of the study, it was revealed that the translator has a predominant presence throughout the novel. At the textual level, it is unearthed that the voice of the translator is manifested through three specific procedures, namely: addition, expansion and paraphrase. The perceived purposes behind the additions are dramatization, expressiveness, explication and the translator’s idiosyncrasy. At the paratextual level, the translator’s introduction and the footnotes are two main domains where the voice of the translator is manifested. In the translator’s introduction, essential facts concerning the life of the author and her novels are included. In the footnotes, however, the voice of the translator is manifested in two categories: they either give information about the linguistic items in the TT or they present cultural details related to the characters and terms solely related to the ST. In almost all cases, the translator’s voice is impartial both at textual and paratextual levels.


Introduction
) claims that in some cases it is impossible to detect the voice of the translator in the translated text, it may be manifested in the paratextual elements, such as the footnotes of the translator. It appears that voice is a ubiquitous element that is present in translation at all levels. Throughout the study, the concept of voice is used metaphorically to refer to the stance and attitudes of the translator manifested in their translation products. The discursive presence of the translator could be manifested in the footnotes and introductions written by the translator. O'Sullivan assumes that the translator's voice can be displayed at the paratextual level and the translator is the author of the paratextual elements in the TT, these elements are presented as explanations such as footnotes or introductions (O'Sulllivan, 2003). Labels that are written on the front cover, as well as the blurb, by some translators are part of paratexts. Gerard Genette was one of the leading scholars who considered paratexts in translation. He (1997, p. xviii) defines paratexts as "liminal devices and conventions, both within the book (peritext) and outside it (epitext), that mediate the book to the reader: titles and subtitles, pseudonyms, forewords, dedications, epigraphs, prefaces, intertitles, notes, epilogues, and afterwords". As such, the voice of the translator is sensed in different ways and at various places inside and outside the main body of a written work. This study specifically aims to seek answers to the following questions: 1-How is the translator's voice manifested in the English-Kurdish translation of Tony Morrison's The Bluest Eye, both at textual and paratextual levels? 2-What can the perceived factors be behind the presence of the translator's voice?
3-To what extent has the translator been impartial in displaying his voice? With regard to the study of the translator's voice, there is no comparative study available between English and Kurdish. This research is a starting point to fill in this gap. The research results will be expected to offer insights into various aspects of the translator's intervention. This will help would-be translators to better understand how and when to intervene in the translation process and how to remain impartial and professional in their translation practices. The concept of voice in translation was not paid much attention to in translation studies until the 1990s when Venuti addressed the issues of 'visibility' and 'subjectivity' in translation. Hermans (1996, p. 27) affirms that in any translated discourse the "second voice" is always present. The voice of the translator could be manifested in the form of paratexts, such as the introduction or preface of the translator, footnotes, book cover and endnotes (Genette, 1997).

Literature Review
Revealing the translator's voice is one of the ways to find out traces of the translator's interference in translation. Different terminologies are used to refer to the concept of voice in translation. Voice has sometimes been utilized for the complex inclinations of particular translators (Munday, 2008). In some cases, it is used for displaying the translator's discursive presence in translated texts (Hermans, 1996;Schiavi, 1996) or it is addressed as "the translator's visibility" (Venuti, 2008). Venuti states that the fluency of any translated text directly depends on the invisibility of the translator, as such, the sense and sound of the ST writer are more obvious (ibid, p. 1). So the more the translator is invisible, the less his or her voice is obvious. The concept of voice is used metaphorically in the realm of translation studies, it refers to "how individual or collective conceptions and attitudes are expressed by publishers, translators, and others in both contextual material and translated texts" (Alvstad et al., 2017). Recently, the concept of voice in translation has been intensively discussed by many scholars and researchers, such as Venuti (1995); Schiavi (1996); Hermans (1996Hermans ( , 2014; O'Sulllivan (2003); Millán-Varela (2004) and Munday (2008). Although they use different terminologies to conceptualize the phenomenon, they all agree that translators leave traces of interference in their translation products. Venuti discusses the concept of the translator's voice in detail and claims that in a literary text there is always a voice that is "never quite able to shake off its foreignness to the reader" (Venuti, 2008, p. 248). The notion of the translator's voice has been further developed by Hermans (1996, p. 27), who assumes that "[the] translated narrative discourse always contains a 'second' voice". Hermans (ibid.) refers to this voice as "the Translator's voice, as an index of the translator's discursive presence". Later, the translator's voice gained currency among translation scholars and researchers and many books and articles have been written about the topic. Alvstad et al. (2017, p. 3) define the concept of voice as "marks of the tangle of subjectivities involved in textual processesconstitute the very fabric of texts in general and translations in particular". Furthermore, the voice of the translator is present everywhere in the translation, it can be complicated and partly developed "between the lines" (Kenny and Winters, 2020, p. 3). The translator rearranges the words of the author in the TL and puts them in his words in a way that his strategy or fingerprint is presented clearly. In some cases, translators may refine or modify the voices. When there is an ambiguity that needs clarification, he or she makes an evaluation (Munday, 2008, p. 17). Munday (ibid,p. 19) uses voice to refer to some abstract concepts as authorial voice, narratorial voice and translatorial voice and contends that style is interlinked with the "linguistic manifestation" of the voice. Through analyzing the language of the text, the style of the translator can be recognized and then the voice of the translator can be identified. In translatorial voice, the real concern is to hear and grasp the voice of the author and recreate it in the TL, which is determined by the lexical choice of the translator (ibid.). In The Poetics of Translation, Willis Barnstone links voice to style.
He claims that there are two possibilities: either the SL author is kept in the TT, thus the translator is "suppressed (in deference to author)", or the translator's voice prevails (Barnstone, 1993, pp. 28-29 quoted in Munday, 2008, p. 19). Mixing the voice of the author with that of the translator is preferable by Munday, who claims that the two voices can be mixed gradually and subtly without the readers' notice unless the source is compared to the TT (ibid.). Hermans (1996, pp. 28-29) recognizes three cases where the readers, despite hearing the voice of the author, can hear the voice of the translator too: 1) When the translator sees that their readers are geographically or culturally different from the reader of the ST, such a situation obliges the translator to give essential details to connect the two contexts. 2) In some specific situations the words or items are untranslatable and;

3)
In the case of "contextual overdetermination," there is an acronym in the ST and it cannot be translated directly. In order not to lose meaning, the translator can add a note in the margins.

Materials and Methods
The materials used for this study consist of Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye and its Kurdish translation ‫چاو"‬ ‫ین‬ ‫ر‬ ‫"شینت‬ by Ali Usman Yaqub, published by Ferbun Center in Arbil. The author was awarded Nobel Prize in literature and the translated book comprises numerous textual and paratextual elements that consider the voice of the translator. To conduct this study, the translation is comparatively analyzed side by side with the ST to identify instances that manifest the translator's voice at the textual and paratextual levels. A mixed method of research has been used to analyze the data. As for the qualitative method, the concepts and theories that concern the voice of the translator are examined. On the other hand, the procedures that specify the voice of the translator, at both textual and paratextual levels, are employed in the quantitative method. First, the voice of the translator at the textual level is considered. When the two texts are thoroughly compared, wherever an example of addition is found in the TT, it is designated as an instance of the translator's voice. Dickens et al. (2017 p. 21) state that whatever is added to the TT that does not exist in the ST is defined as addition. Likewise, wherever an instance of expansion is found in the TT, it is again designated as the representation of the translator's voice. Vinay and Darbelnet (1995, p. 192) define expansions, or dilution and amplification in their own term, as using more words in the TL to express the meaning of a SL term or idea. Another procedure that is accounted as part of the translator's voice is paraphrasing; any instances of paraphrase that occurred in the translation are designated as an instance of the translator's voice. In Newmark's (1988, p. 90) terms, paraphrasing is "an amplification or explanation of the meaning of a segment of the text". The instances of the translator's voice are first classified according to the procedures used to process the instances of expressing the translator's voice then the perceived reasons behind the use of the translator's voice are also identified. The findings are tabulated, with the ST segments being followed by TL segments (where the translator's voice is manifested), which are then followed by the procedures employed and finally, back-translation is also provided (see Appendix 1).
Back-translation "is a word-for-word translation of a target text, or a stretch of it, back into the source language" (Palumbo, 2009, p. 14 Table 1: Examples of additions, expansions and paraphrasing Second, the voice of the translator at the paratextual level is analyzed. The translator's introduction and footnotes are two essential elements that manifest the translator's voice at the paratextual level. The introduction is critically analyzed to present the voice of the translator and manifest the importance of the introduction in analyzing the translated text. Then, the footnotes are classified according to their purposes of use and tabulated (see Appendix 2). Since the footnotes are written in the TL (Kurdish) and back-translation is also provided.
The following is an example to illustrate an instance of the translator's voice at the paratextual level through a footnote:  The example above is classified as an instance of a footnote added for cultural purposes because the footnoted term " ‫"بۆجانگڵز‬ is a known character in the American popular culture, who is unknown to the Kurdish readership.

Data Analysis
In the analysis of the data, this study draws upon Millán-Varela's (2004) model of the translator's voice. In her model, Millán-Varela (2004, pp. 42-43) distinguishes between three kinds of voices in translating a literary work, as follows: 1) The translator's invisible presence 2) The translator's visible presence

3) The translator's audible presence
She claims that the interpretation of the ST by the translator dominates the voice in the TT. In the following, the three voices will be discussed in association with each particular technique the Kurdish translator of The Bluest Eye has implemented in the translation.

The Translator's Invisible Presence
After analyzing the novel at the textual level, it was found that some procedures used by the translator can indicate his invisible presence in the translation. Addition, expansion and paraphrase are the most frequent procedures employed by the translator. The frequent use of such procedures is an obvious indication of the translator's presence. In the following, each of these procedures will be discussed with examples taken from the translation.

Addition
At the textual level, the most frequent procedure in the translated text is addition (118 occurrences in total). Translation scholars, such as Nida (1964) In the data at hand, it was found that the translator made additions to the Kurdish translation of the novel for various perceived purposes, as presented in the table below:

Addition for Dramatization Purposes
Dramatization is one of the techniques used by the translator to amplify the effects of a description, a statement, an event or a state of affairs. The data contains 45 cases of addition for dramatization purposes, consider the following example: BT: But to be slack enough to put oneself outdoors, or heartless enough to put your child, the vein of your heart and liver, outdoors-that was an evident crime.
In the above example, the author of the novel describes the depressing situation of black people in the USA in the 1930s. She describes how people were getting outdoors easily, but putting one's child outdoors at any time, as she claims, is a crime. In the translation, the translator added the clause " ‫به‬ ‫جه‬ ‫ندی‬ ‫دڵت‬ ‫و‬ ‫رگ‬ " [lit.: the vein of your heart and liver] after the phrase to put your child to dramatize the situation and to create a picture with the reader that children resemble the vein of the heart and they should not be left outdoors.

Addition for Expressiveness Purposes
Mona Baker (2018, p. 30) states that one of the strategies used by professional translators is adding more expressive words. She explains that "[i]t is sometimes possible to retain expressive meaning by adding a modifier" (ibid). With the addition of more expressive words, the translator has been able to produce a naturalsounding translation by using many culturallyspecific Kurdish expressions. Overall, the data contains 31 cases of addition for expressiveness purposes, as in the example below: In this example, the translator has added the post-modifier ‫لحۆ"‬ ‫"ز‬ [lit.: hulking] to the Kurdish translation. This word is pejorative which adds negativity to the description of the character and creates a negatively expressive description.

Addition for Explicitation Purposes
Some important elements in the ST may sound implicit to the TT readers and the translator can make them explicit in the TT (Nida, 1964, p. 228). Thus, this kind of addition can be referred to as the technique of making explicit what seems to be implicit in the context of the ST. This specific type of addition occurred 12 times in the data, as in the following example: In this example, the translator has added the clause " ‫كه‬ ‫له‬ ‫كردبوو‬ ‫دروستم‬ ‫بسكویت‬ " [lit.: which I made of biscuits] after the word volcano, because, based on the context, he has realized that the volcano is made of biscuits. The translator's awareness of the context of the situation has made him add an explanatory detail to the TT. Therefore, the explicitation of contextual information can be the main reason behind the addition.

Addition Due to the Translator's Idiosyncrasy
This refers to those cases that cannot be interpreted in terms of dramatization, expressiveness and/or explicitation, but rather can be ascribed to the translator's personal preferences. The data contains 29 cases of this kind of addition, as the example below: BT: Mama took the tail of the broom, hit him with the head of the groom and told him not to dare to utter the Lord's name out of his mouth….
The addition of the noun ‫"كلیك"‬ [lit.: the tail of] by the translator can have different interpretations. One can suppose that the translator has seen the film of the novel, in which the character used the tail of the broom, or he has read different translations in different languages, in which this detail is mentioned. Whatever the reason might be the addition of a few words or phrases to the TT as a result of the translator's preference may not distort the message as long as the addition does not affect the meaning of the utterance.

Expansion
Expansion is the second most frequently occurred procedure in the data (94 occurrences in total). Through expansion, the translator extends the TT, establishing in it the semantic repetition that is not present in the original text

Binomials
Toury (2012, p. 134) states that binomials are "conjoint phrases" that combine freely, the combination of these phrases to a higher degree is visible in translation. Toury also adds that "the semantic difference between their constitutive elements is often much smaller, sometimes virtually nil" (ibid.). He confirms that this phenomenon was introduced into translation in the last quarter of the twentieth century. The main feature of these phrases is that they are near-synonymous. In the Kurdish translation of the novel, ‫چاو"‬ ‫ین‬ ‫ر‬ ‫,"شینت‬ almost all binomials have similar meanings and they are most likely employed for stylistic purposes.
The data contains 92 cases of binomials. The following extract contains an example of expansions based on binomials: By looking up these Kurdish binomials in the " ‫هه‬ ‫نبانه‬ ‫بۆرینه‬ " Kurdish-Kurdish-Persian dictionary (Mukryani, 1990), one can realize that the TL pairs that replace the SL individual words have the same meaning, or at least they are near-synonymous. The translator could have employed only one word to replace each SL word. However, for stylistic reasons or to emphasize the meaning of the words, he has utilized a binomial phrase instead of a single word of the SL. Moreover, binomials can also introduce alliteration and sound effects, as in the case of lowering " ‫ته‬ ‫تاڵ‬ ‫و‬ ‫ڵخ‬ ".

Trinomials
While binomials are phrases consisting of two words of more or less similar meaning, a trinomial is "a polynomial of three terms" (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, 2022). Expansions resulted in trinomials occurred only twice in the data, as in the ensuing example: BT: We raised our children and reared our crops, grains and harvests; we let infants grow and property and wealth develop.
In the example above, the SL word crops " ‫ده‬ ‫دانه‬ ‫و‬ ‫دان‬ ‫و‬ ‫غڵ‬ ‫وێڵه‬ " [lit.: crops and grains and harvests] has been expanded. The translator employed three words and two coordinating conjunctions, i.e. a trinomial, to replace the SL word. It can be argued that the trinomial is used here for stylistic purposes.

Paraphrase
Translation by paraphrase is to explain or amplify the meaning of a word in the TT (Newmark, 1988, p. 90). This technique is often employed in translating concepts or terms that are semantically complicated. Likewise, when a concept in the SL does not have a ready equivalent in the TL, the translator may resort to paraphrasing (Baker, 2011, p. 41 BT: Then she remains helpless and crippled.
In the example above, the paraphrased sentence is lengthier than the ST sentence. In almost all examples of translation by paraphrasing, the translator is dramatizing the situation or using more expressive words. This is the main reason that paphraphse in this study is deemed as an example of the translator's interference. The translator could render the sentence above literally; however, he chose to amplify the message through the paraphrase.

The Translator's Visible Presence
When reading the Kurdish translation of the novel, the translator's voice can be heard overtly in two different forms at the paratextual level. Firstly, the translator is visible in the lengthy introduction provided in the first thirteen pages of the Kurdish translation of the novel. Secondly, the translator is also evidently visible in the eighty-five footnotes incorporated in the translation. In the following, the translator's visible presence at the paratextual level will be critically analyzed.

The Translator's Introduction
The translator's introduction is the place where the translator's voice can be heard conspicuously. By writing an introduction to a translated work, the translator can be more visible (Dimitriu, 2009, p. 193). The introduction is a crucial entrance for texts that are not penetrable. They contain biographical, historical and political information about the author and the text too (Pellatt, 2013, pp. 91-92). The translator praises her novels and indicates that they are translated into other languages. Thirdly, he also refers to detailed critical comments on the novel, The Bluest Eye, indicating how the novel has been both praised and criticized by different critics. Consider the following extract from the translator's introduction which depicts the dire situation of African Americans in mid twentieth centure :

BT:
One of the most remarkable points about this novel is disclosing the hypocrisy of America. The American researcher Jennifer Gillan argues that Morrison did a crucial job when she set the time of the events between 1940-1941 because during that time the United States had finally decided to participate in World War II as a struggler against national forms of racism abroad, while it had abandoned and reduced the values of the internal conflicts of the US over racial discrimination.

The Footnotes
Footnotes are crucial paratextual elements in translated works. Through footnotes, the translator can illustrate and explain some SL and/or TL terms and expressions that seem semantically complex or unfamiliar to the target readership. These terms are usually culture-specific and they are often unknown in the target culture (Genette, 1997, p. 329).
In the Kurdish translation of The Bluest Eye, the translator has provided 85 footnotes, which are of two categories: linguistic and cultural. 44 cases address linguistic-related issues and 41 cases address culture-related issues. The following is an example of a footnote that aims to explain the meaning of the   In this example, the translator might have supposed that the actress ‫گاربۆ"‬ ‫"گریتا‬ [Greta Garbo] is unknown in the Kurdish culture. He added a footnote to explain who the character was.

The Translator's Audible Presence
Millán-Varela (2004, p. 43) emphasizes that the translator is present or visible through grammatical mistakes. She argues that only some educated readers or experts of the TL can detect such mistakes. This kind of visibility, or presence, can be named "noises" rather than voices. She also adds three main reasons behind the visibility of the translator in such cases: the effect of other languages on the translator, a lack of expertise of the translator in the TL and most significantly the final text is not carefully proofread (ibid.). The Kurdish translation of The Bluest Eye is well written and no grammatical or orthographical mistakes are detected. Therefore, it can safely be claimed that the data contains no instances of the translator's audible presence.

Discussions
At the textual level, the voice of the translator overrides the voice of the author of the ST, since an abundance of evaluative terms such as ‫لحۆ"‬ ‫"ز‬ [lit.: hulking] are inserted in the TT. One of the reasons behind such additions may be the translator's aim to intensify the message.
The additions incorporated in the target text indicate that the translator has employed his knowledge and indulged it in the translation process as a way of displaying his creativity in reproducing the TT. It can be stated that, generally, translators, as mediators, may utilize their knowledge and ideology to render the content of the source text, but their mediation has an extent, the degree of mediation is "the extent to which translators intervene in the transfer process, feeding their own knowledge and beliefs into their processing of a text" (Hatim and Mason, 2005, p. 122). In the translation of the novel, the translator has been objective and unbiased as none of the instances of addition can be seen as ideologically laden.
In terms of expansion, the cases of binomials and trinomials in various situations indicate that the translator has been able to display his professionalism and mastery of the TL. According to the clarification given in ‫هه‬ ‫نبانه‬ ‫ینه‬ ‫بۆر‬ " " Kurdish-Kurdish Persian dictionary (Mukryani, 1990), pairs in binomials such as " ‫ته‬ ‫تاریك‬ ‫و‬ ‫ڵخ‬ " [lit.: dull and dark] are synonymous. This explanation is also true for the trinomials. For instance, the three words in " ‫خده‬ ‫ئاكار‬ ‫و‬ ‫خوو‬ ‫و‬ " [lit.: manners, habits and morals] are all synonymous.
In the case of paraphrases, the translator's voice is more visibly present through dramatizing the situation and employing more evaluative terms compared to the other two procedures (addition and expansion). When the author describes Pecola in the introduction as a broken girl, the translator exaggerates in displaying her real situation by using more evaluative words to intensify how distressing her issue was.
The voice of the translator at the textual level may also relate to choices that affect the aesthetic qualities of the emerging TT, such as alliteration. The three procedures that are repeated all around the TT display the predominant voice of the translator, because they have resulted in lengthier, more expressive and/or more intensified utterances in the TL.
At the paratextual level, one of the characteristics of discursive footnotes in this study is that they illustrate the meaning of culturally specific items of the SL for the target readers. This can have pros and cons. As for the pros, firstly, the target readers can achieve the meaning of that specific footnoted item without difficulty. Secondly, no foreign and mysterious items confuse the readers, thus the culturally foreign items will be familiar to the readers. As for the cons, the large number of footnotes may impede the flow of reading for some readers.
Concerning the footnotes which are connected to linguistic items of the TT, the beneficial effect of these footnotes is that some readers may not perceive the meaning of some outdated, less common and regional-specific words. However, through the footnotes, they can comprehend the real sense of the footnoted terms in the TT. If the translator did not illustrate the meaning of a word such as " : scratched], the target readers could not easily perceive its specific sense in the TL. Nevertheless, adding footnotes in the form of a Kurdish-Kurdish gloss at the bottom of the pages may obstruct the taste of reading. Since there are educated and intellectual readers who are familiar with the vocabulary of the TL, the addition of such footnotes may sometimes be a hindrance.
The addition of 85 footnotes by the translator has given him visibility in the Kurdish translation. So he has displayed an image of himself as if he is the author rather than the translator because through his paratextual voice not only does he provide necessary background information but also directs the reader. The bulk of information displayed in the footnotes is considered the translator's awareness of the cultural and linguistic difficulties that some readers may face. If someone intends to make sense of the novel in the TL, he ought to read all paratextual additions inserted into the translation.

Conclusions
The concept of voice in translation is used metaphorically to refer to the stance and attitudes of the translator presented in the translation overtly or covertly. The English novel The Bluest Eye and its Kurdish translation " ‫ین‬ ‫ر‬ ‫شینت‬ ‫"چاو‬ were compared meticulously to identify the voice of the translator both at textual and paratextual levels. The study employed Millán-Varela's (2004) three-phased model of the voice of the translator. At the textual level, the results show that the voice of the translator has been manifested through three translation procedures, viz. addition, expansion and paraphrase. Addition has the highest frequency of occurrence among the three procedures. Several perceived purposes have been construed as reasons behind opting for addition, such as; • dramatizing the situation and intensifying the message; • making the TT more natural by using TL idiomatic expressions; • making explicit what seems to be implicit to TL readers and what is culturally specific to the SL, • employing evaluative words and more expressive terms in the TL to amplify the description of situations, characters, etc. Addition seems to be one of the characteristics of literary translation. The findings of the study indicate that, with 118 instances of addition, the voice of the translator is almost omnipresent.
As far as the data analysis is concerned, expansion has the second-highest frequency at the textual level. Expansion involves utilizing more words in the TT to render a single segment of the ST. It was also found the occurrences of expansion in the novel are predominantly based on binomials (92 cases), with two cases of trinomials. The perceived factors behind using both binomials and trinomials can be stylistic purposes, introducing idiomatic expressions, alliteration and sound effects into the TT. Checking one of the most popular Kurdish dictionaries, " ‫هه‬ ‫نبانه‬ ‫ینه‬ ‫بۆر‬ ", it was found that almost all the cases of binomials and trinomials are near-synonymous. Therefore, the use of binomials and trinomials can be ascribed to the translator's competence in employing his craftsmanship to produce a natural-sounding translation.
Paraphrase occupies the third place in terms of frequency. The procedure is used 14 times to manifest the voice of the translator. The main reasons behind paraphrasing are to dramatize the situation, employ more expressive terms and utilize more evaluative words. In some instances, the translator rendered the message with exaggeration. All these features make the use of paraphrase in this study the representation of the translator's voice.
At the paratextual level, the study found that the voice of the translator is manifested both in the footnotes and the lengthy translator's introduction incorporated in the TT. In the 13-page introduction provided by the translator, information about the life of the author, references to her other works and detailed information about The Bluest Eye are offered. On the other hand, the footnotes are found to be of two main categories: explaining linguistic items and cultural terms. The footnotes related to cultural terms are used to offer background information about SL culturally specific terms and characters in the novel that seems to be unfamiliar to TL readers.
The study also revealed that, at both textual and paratextual levels, the translator's voice is impartial and no instances of the translator's intervention/voice can be deemed ideologically loaded. All the instances of the translator's voice in the novel seem to have been used in an attempt to produce a more comprehensible, stylistically expressive and natural-sounding translation rather than imposing his beliefs or doctrines, whether they are religious, political, or ideological. This indicates the objectivity of the translator in his translation of the novel.