چکیده (انگلیسی):

It is a common practice for translators to make deletions or additions in a literary work due to personal cultural bias or
to avoid embarrassing their countrymen with immoral or obscene images and ideas. This paper questions the role of
translation as a critical approach and decries this source text “improvement” as a mistranslation and silencing of the
authorial voice. An incorrect translation, rather than being a means of bringing two cultures together, does a disservice
to comparative studies and harm to the author and his cultural idiosyncrasies. In addressing distortions arising from
cultural and moral bias in Arab translations of Shakespeare's Sonnet 18, the paper discusses how Bakri Al- Azzam
introduced an oriental undertone, silenced Shakespeare's voice, changed the speaker's gender, and transformed
Shakespeare into an Arab classic poet—all to align the sonnet with the cultural outlook of Arabs at the expense of
Shakespeare's identity, culture, and Western aesthetics.