Translating ideological discourse requires certain translation skills and
effective cultural-linguistic transfer strategies. Said's (1994) Representations
of the Intellectual is problematic to translators, as he addresses crucial issues
which reflect his intermingled ideologies. This book is particularly chosen
because it explores the status of the intellectuals in their society. The style is
rich with various rhetorical devices through which his inclinations, motives
and intentions are implicated. The aim of this paper is to functionally assess
the Arabic translation of English rhetorical devices, namely hyperbole and
understatement, which indicate Said's (1994) ideologies. For that reason,
Nord's (1991, 1997) approach to functional text analysis is followed.
Comparing source text (ST) ideological extracts with its Arabic target text (TT)
highlights inaccurate lexical choices and incoherent figures of speech, which in
turn distort the author's ideologies. Therefore, the current research provides
linguistic procedures and effective translation strategies, to convey the ST
function as manifested in suggested translations.