A Linguistic Perspective on Persian Literary Translation, in The Routledge Handbook of Persian Literary Translation, edited by Pouneh Shabani-Jadidi, Patricia Higgins, and Michelle Quay (original) (raw)
Related papers
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.
Abstract: Shifts are one of the universals of translation. Vinay & Darbelnet (1997) implicitly divide shifts into obligatory or nonobligatory. Obligatory shifts are the results of the inevitable systembased differences between source text (ST) and target text (TT), whereas non-obligatory shifts (NOS) are related to individual translators’ cultural, stylistic and normative choices. In this study, the NOSs of three professional Iranian translators in three translated novels were identified and their drivers and cumulative impacts were discussed and accounted for. The common NOSs were found to be (1) frequent use of nativized Arabic lexical and functional items, (2) tendency to use various doublets instead of single items (3) style-mixing (4) styleshifting and (5) frequent use of colloquial culture-specific idioms. Iran's long tradition of poetry and poetic prose (nasr-e-mosaja), leakage of contemporary author-translators' styles (their linguistic signatures) and the dominant cultural-linguistic norms of the Iranian community are thought to be the underlying causes of these NOSs
A CULTURAL AND DISCOURSAL PROSPECT TOWARD PERSIAN LITERARY TRANSLATION ASSESSMENT
THE ROLE OF DISCOURSE AND DISCOURSAL ELEMENTS IN THE FORMATION OF ANY TEXT IS VERY IMPORTANT. MANY SCHOLARS HAVE CARRIED OUT STUDIES RELATED TO THE ISSUE. TRANSFERRING THESE ELEMENTS FROM ONE LANGUAGE TO ANOTHER IS SUCH A GREAT WORK THAT TRANSLATORS FIND IT DIFFICULT TO RENDER AND TRANSFER THE ELEMENTS COMPLETELY. THE LACK OF PERFECT KNOWLEDGE OF THE DISCOURSAL ISSUES AND OTHER CONTEXTUAL ELEMENTS OF A TEXT LEADS TO SOME MISUNDERSTANDINGS AND MISTRANSLATIONS. TRANSLATORS OFTEN RESORT TO ADAPTATION IN ORDER TO DEAL WITH THE SL SITUATIONS THAT DO NOT EXIST IN THE TL BUT IN THIS PROCESS SOME DISCOURSAL AND CONTEXTUAL ELEMENTS OF THE ST COULD NOT BE TRANSFERRED. IT COULD BE CLAIM THAT A NATION’S LITERATURE IS A PART OF ITS DISCOURSE AND CULTURAL ELEMENTS ARE EMBEDDED IN THE LITERATURE. THESE TRANSLATIONAL CONFLICTS ARE MORE OBVIOUS IN CONTEMPORARY PERSIAN LITERATURE. IN THIS STUDY, THE SELECTED PARTS OF “THE GAMBLER” BY “FYODOR MIKHAILOVICH DOSTOEVSKY” WERE COMPARED WITH ITS ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS BY SALEH HOSSEINI TO FIND OUT WHETHER THE DISCOURSE AND OTHER CONTEXTUAL ELEMENTS OF THE SOURCE TEXT HAVE BEEN CONSIDERED IN THE PROCESS OF TRANSLATION.
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.
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...
Naturalness in the translation of novels from English to Persian
PhD Thesis, 2001
This thesis is about ‘naturalness’ in the translation of novels from English into Persian. It studies, describes and explains the cultural and linguistic factors determining naturalness. This thesis consists of eight main chapters, as well as Introduction and Conclusions Chapters. The Introduction Chapter sets the problem, its significance, the questions to be addressed in the thesis and the hypotheses held. Chapters 1 to 4 discuss theoretical matters: a review of translation theories, different approaches to naturalness, analysis of possible features involved in naturalness leading to a comprehensive definition of naturalness, and methodology of the study, that is, the different methods and the procedure followed in this research. The next four chapters, i.e. chapters five to eight, have looked at the problem from different perspectives. Chapter 5 analyses the historical situation and relations within and between the Persian literary and socio-political systems that gave rise to the need for translation and establishment of the new genre of the novel in Iran. Chapter 6 deals with the norms and models constraining the Persian translators’ behaviour, through an analysis of norms and their roots within the Persian literary polysystem. Chapter 7 is a cultural analysis of the period after the Islamic Revolution and compares this period with a 15-year period before the revolution. The Islamic Revolution is a very important turning point according to the cultural viewpoint and provides a very interesting opportunity for the comparison of cultural activities before and after the revolution, given the fact that this revolution is often considered to have a more cultural nature than a political one. Chapter 8 is a linguistic analysis that deals with the micro-structural level of the study, it studies the cohesive devices of reference and ellipsis and the relevant features that determine their naturalness or unnaturalness. Finally, the Conclusions Chapter gives a summary of the conclusions reached in the previous chapters, discusses the limitations of the present study and suggests some relevant topics for further studies.
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.
A Survey on Translation Techniques in Middle Persian Texts as Illustrated by Vandidad: 19 th Fargard
International Journal of English Language & Translation Studies, 2020
What are the translation principles and frameworks used for translating Avestan texts into middle-Persian language, which account for the oldest translation specimens in ancient Iran, also known as "Zand"? The main objective of the present study is to syntactically and semantically investigate chapter nineteen of Vandidad, which will ultimately allow us to reach a set of principles and rules followed by translators while translating Avestan texts into middle-Persian language. The study, which has been carried out based on a library method, has investigated chapter nineteen of Vandidad in Avestan language with regards to words and grammar. Then, its middle-Persian translation has been considered and the meaning of the words as well as their grammatical roles in the Avestan language have been compared to equivalents created by translator. Finally, principles and frameworks extracted from the text have been divided into two categories; namely lexical and grammatical principles. The results from this study can illuminate the translation rules in ancient texts, which can be used for deeper and broader scientific inquiry into Iranian ancient languages.