A Survey on Translation Techniques in Middle Persian Texts as Illustrated by Vandidad: 19 th Fargard (original) (raw)
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The main objective of the present study was to semantically and syntactically explore translation strategies applied by translators in the translation of chapter nineteen of Vandidad from Avestan to Middle Persian for ritual purposes. To this end, the Middle Persian translation of Vandidad was studied, and the meaning of the words accompanying their syntactic roles in the Avestan language were compared to their Middle Persian equivalents. Then, the strategies applied by the translators were divided into two categories: semantic and syntactic ones. The findings of the study can shed some light on the translation strategies applied in the translation of ancient texts which can be used for deeper and broader scientific inquiry into Iranian ancient languages.
Routledge, 2022
Translation is a complex decision-making process; perfect equivalence is a “utopian dream,” especially since any two languages are asymmetrical, and most words are polysemous even in the same language (Baer 2019, 59). This chapter begins by discussing different linguistic-oriented approaches to translation, moving to textual considerations, like stylistics, followed by translation universals, then to the translation process, and finally to extraneous considerations, such as translator invisibility or visibility. Subsequently, these discussions are applied to Persian literary translation by discussing comparative linguistics of Persian and English in terms of syntax and lexico-semantics, as well as discourse analysis and pragmatics. Throughout this chapter, genuine examples from Persian literary translations are given, and different kinds of equivalences, as well as the problems that arise in finding these equivalences, are discussed.
The critical issues of translation, words and translative interpretations that are borrowed from the other languages may be considered the productions of contact among languages. Languages contact is also the production of cultures contact. Of course, the contact and bonding among languages are causes of social, scientific and technical developments of a society. Since almost all languages may be influenced by each other, the contact among cultures and languages is seen as a common and natural happening. As a matter of fact, languages may experience different types of effects (Zare Behtash, Hashemi Toroujeni & Safarzade Samani, 2017). Since the natural results of languages and cultures contact are the issues of loan words and translation, modern linguistics pays more attention to it. Some translative interpretations and expressions that are borrowed from other languages may be called loaned translative elements. Many literary, artistic, scientific, and journalistic expressions and interpretations such as direct translation of psychology and sociology that have come into Persian language are examples of this kind of loan words (as the effect of translation on language). Additionally, some texts of different areas that are translated from English to Persian have some language disorders that make them difficult to understand for everyone. These kinds of deficiencies in translation are caused by various factors such as lack of proficiency of translator in both source and target languages and his/her limited knowledge in different specialized areas. This paper examines the effect of translation on Persian grammar structure.
Investigation of Literary Translation based on historical periods in Iran
International journal of humanities and social sciences, 2016
Literary translation is the replacement or displacement concepts of literary text a language (source) with its equivalent in another language concepts (target language) as a literary work is no longer in the target language. Literary translation has its own principles, which lack a full understanding of these principles makes the translation of literary desired shape not And it should not be the result of a translation of the source language text indicates similar or close to the original text both in terms of style and what will not semantically. This study is devoted to the literary translation of Iranian literature. The main contribution of this paper is to translate Persian literatures to the other languages such as Arabic and English. The division of the source language text to the appropriate departments and units and adopt a reasonable approach to text translation It can be expected that the translation is very close to the original text and in some cases even better than the...
Translation Techniques and Exegesis in Zand of Three Gāthic Hymns of Avesta
Religious Inquiries, 2021
Zand texts or Middle Persian translations of Avestan texts are an important part of Middle Persian literature. Zoroastrians believe that Zand literature is as important as Avestan texts. Most scholars suppose that Zand literature dates back to the period when Avestan texts were compiled. According to oral traditions, even some are of the opinion that Zand texts are older than Sassanid Archetype of Avesta. In the whole, it can be said that Zand literature, probably, belongs to the period in which Sassanid inscriptions were written. In this article, general concepts regarding translation and translation techniques will be examined including communicative and semantic translation. In addition, some manners of translation like borrowing, calque, transposition will be studied. This survey is based on Zand rendering of three gāthic hymns 28-30. One of the most important doctrines of Gāthās is the role of abstract forces which are called on along with God’s name. in later Avesta, these forces are totally individuated and called Aməša Spəntas “divine immortal beings.” We also consider whether the translator was aware of that these entities were abstract forces or he considered them as individual gods.
Research Journal of Language and Literature Sciences, 2020
The works of Parvin Etesami, the 20 th century Persian poetess, are translated into Englishby a number of insiders and outsiders. This study investigated the English translations of selected poems of Parvin Etesami by Alaeddin Pazargadi, a native Persian speaker,from the book A Collection of Parvin Etesami's Poems, and the translation from the book A Nightingale's Lament by Heshmat Moayyad and Margaret Arent Madelung, a joint work by a native and a non-native Persianspeaker. The theoretical framework to analyze the translations was the translation model proposed by Vinay and Darbelnet which includes two primarystrategies for translation: the direct and the oblique (which take after literal versus free taxonomies, respectively) along with seven concrete procedures. Effort was made to examine the frequency of strategies and procedures employed by either translation. The results revealed that literal was the most frequent procedure utilized in both translations with a considerable difference compared to other procedures implying that both translators adopted a word-for-word approach rather than the free method of translation. However, Pazargadi, as a Persian native speaker, employed the literal procedure slightly more than the non-native translator, Margaret Arent Madelung.
Routledge, 2020
This paper examines linguistic and metalinguistic factors, including culture, that influence translation. First, it discusses the linguistic approaches to translation and their respective prevailing theories, including the Saussurean approach, the Systemic Functional approach, the Generative Dynamic approach, the Psycholinguistic approach, the Cognitive Linguistic approach, and the Relevance Theoretic approach. Then translational universals are explained as an offshoot of linguistic universals. Thereafter, the issue of culture in translation is discussed as per the translator becoming lost not only in translation but also in culture. I focus on the translation of poetry, in particular, because the issues faced by translators of poetry are reflective of universal issues in translation, although not so easily recognized. The essay culminates with a section on untranslatability of both linguistic and cultural kinds, as illustrated in particular in Persian to English translation.
Strategies Available for Translating Persian Epic Poetry: A Case of Shahnameh
Journal of Language and Translation, 2018
This study tried to find the strategies applied in three English translations of the Battle of Rostam and Esfandiyar. To this aim, the source text (ST) was analyzed verse by verse with each verse being compared with its English translations to determine what procedures the translators had used to render the source text. Subsequently, the frequency of usage for each procedure was measured to answer the research questions. Michele Jones's fourfold classification of poetry translation strategies and Reiss and Vermeer's skopos theory were used as the frameworks of this study; Jones introduces literal, approximation, adaptation , and imitation strategies, ranging from literal which is very faithful to the original form, to imitation that is very free and has little in common with the original. The analyses showed that, regardless of imitation not used in this corpus, the translators of this study had mostly rendered the ST using approximation, with adaptation being the least frequently used method. Translators' paratextual materials, including their fore-and afterwords, were used as the sources for identifying the reason for the application of each strategy. Moreover, we have concluded that, according to skopos theory, translators use different strategies according to the different functions target texts (TT) will have in the target context.
An Analysis of the Initial Norms in Literary Translations Published in Iran
Journal of Applied Linguistics and Language Research, 2019
Toury’s descriptive translations studies approach was taken as the present study’s theoretical framework to investigate initial norm of translation. This kind of norm, introduced by Toury (1995) is responsible for limiting translator’s choice to produce either acceptable or adequate translations. To do this, translational shifts (non-obligatory shifts) were extracted, analyzed and commented on within the corpus of the study, which was parallel and comparable involving four English noble-winning novels along with their Persian translations produced in four different decades in Iran (1350s – 1390s). Finally, the frequency and percentage of the norms which were active in each book in the corpora as well as their frequency in the entire corpora were computed. Then translation works were judged as more acceptable to less acceptable ones. It seemed that translators were inclined to produce more acceptable translations rather than adequate ones in order to make their work readable and attr...