Semantic translation A semantically oriented translation has its main objective the rendering of the exact contextual meaning of the ST as closely as possible; loyalty to the SL culture thus remains to be a major strategic objective of the semantic translator.

Communicative translation on the other hand is primarily oriented towards the TL reader" who does not anticipate difficulties or obscurities, and would expect a general transfer of foreign elements into his own culture as well as his language where necessary.

For the purposes of illustration, consider the image Shakespeare uses in following lines of his sonnet 18: Shall I compare thee to a summer's day ? Thou art more lovely and more temperate : Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May, And Summer's lease hath all too short a date :

A communicative English-Arabic translation translator may thus find it appropriate to replace SL image of a "summer's day" by an equivalent TL one, thereby avoiding an inevitable cultural shock, as in the following example, الربيع

أأقول أشبهت الربيع طباعاً وطباعك الأحنى وحسنك كامل تذوب البراعم والغصون سراعاً فربيع ذي الدنيا قصير زائل

Those in favor of sematic translation, on the other hand, would argue that the TL reader should get a vivid impression from the content of the sonnet of the beauty of summer in England, and reading the poem should exercise his imagination as well as introduce him to English culture.

Thus a semantic English-Arabic translator would find it appropriate to retain the SL image of a "summer's day" in the TL, as can be seen in the following example.

منذ يقارن حسنك المغري بصيف قد تجلى وفنون سحرك قد بدت في ناظري أسمى وأغلى ؟ تجنى الرياح العاتيات على البراعم وهي جذلى والصيف يمضي مسرعاً إذ عقده المحدود ولى