The Reflection of Social and Political Context on Persian Translation

Abstract
This study wanted to show the effects of social and political issues on literary translation in Iran,
focusing on the concept of self and other on translation. Three translations from three
historical periods in Iran, The Adventures of Hajji Baba, Wallace Stevens’s poems and the poems
of Mansur Ibn Hallaj were selected in order to analyze the tendency of translating in these
texts. The results show that there may be a direct relationship between the political and social
context and the tendency of translation in Iran. It was shown that a movement from the sense
of nationalism, considering self, to the respecting other cultures as considering others was
formed in the country, but what is eventually is important is the attention dedicated to self in
each discussed period.

1. Introduction
The notion of being objective in translation has long been rejected by professionals in translation
studies. Translations usually are passing through the translator’s contextual filters. Paul Ricoeur
states that the translator has two masters; the target text and the original one. So, the perfect
translation is impossible (Ricoeur, 2004). John Sallis in his elegant book about translation equates
the translation with “consciously going astray” (Sallis, 2002, p. xi). It is not possible to keep all the
aspects of a literary text; in Walter Benjamin’s term, translator should highlight the aspects s/he
determines are important (Benjamin, 1969); based on his/her literacy or background knowledge.
Friedrich Schleiermacher believes that translations are of two kinds; one is bringing the author
to the reader and the other is bringing the reader to the author (Jose Miranda Justo, 2016). What
he prefers is bringing the reader to the author. It is the same as what Lawrence Venuti means by
foriegnizing a translation so that the traces of the translator can be seen in the text (Venuti,
1995). As Paul Ricoeur believes, translation is seeing oneself as another (Ricoeur, 2004).
By keeping all these in mind I briefly point the history of translation in Iran. There were three
phases of translation in Iran before modern period; Sassanid period where the translations were
mostly from Sanskrit, Safavid period where translations were from Arabic and Qajar period
where there was a turning point in translational activities in Iran. The adventures of Hajji Baba
was translated in this period. Two important events happened in Qajar era. Iran defeated so
hardly from Russia that its national face was ruined. Those thinkers like Abbas Mirza, the war
minister, were trying to regain their lost prestige. So, *after constitution and having parliament
in the country, he ordered to build Dar al Fonun and sent students to Europe in order to learn
how to modernize the military equipment . There was such a need for renewing and reforming
the country. This caused a great deal of translations from French.
In Persian contexts, few studies work on the social and political sets as effective in seeing oneself
as another; this study tries to show this relationship.

2. Method
Materials
Searching for the different tendency in translation, we found three different ways of translating,
from three different genres of writing, in different period in Iran. One is the totally localized one,
the second totally foriegnized and the third is something in between. The adventures of Hajji
Baba, the Stevens’ poems and a translation of Quran have been chosen to be compared
respectively. The focus is on translation so there is no consistency in choosing the original texts.
The texts are written in French, Arabic and English. The French text is used by its English
translation.
To analyze data in this study, the social and political context of each translation has taken into
account.
Some parts of each translation have been randomly selected and compared with their original
texts.

3. Results
3.1 Qajar translation
3.1.1 Using localization
Mirza Habib Esfahani, the translator of 1The Adventures, was exiled from Iran and lived in
Constantine for years. He was interested in those critical books about the political system of Iran.
He chose The Adventures to show his own critical attitudes towards this system. However, his
translation of this novel contains many localizations like many other translations in Qajar period.
For example:
By the time I was sixteen it would be difficult to say whether I was most accomplished as a barber
or a scholar. Besides shaving the head, cleaning the ears, and trimming the beard, I became
famous for my skill in the offices of the bath.

1 The Adventure stands for The Adventures of Hajji Baba

،‫ در عالم تیغرانی‬.‫ به دشواری تشخیص میتوانستند داد که در تیغرانی چیرهترم یا در سخندانی‬،‫چون به شانزده سالگی رسیدم‬

‫گذشته از نرم تراشی سرو موزون نهادن خط و یمسان زدن مورچهپی و پاک برداشتن زیر ابرو و خوب پاک کردن گوش و‬

‫ در میان حمام نیر در مشت و مال و کیسه کشی و قولنجشکنی و لیف و صابون ( که در طرف مشرق‬،‫سایر آرایش بیرون حمام‬

.‫متداول است) کسی مثل من استاد نبود‬

Or as another example
My father, Kerbelai Hassan, was one of the most celebrated barbers of Ispahan.
‫پدرم کربالیی حسن یکی ا‬
.‫دّلکان مشهور شهر اصفهان بود‬

It can be seen that the offices of the bath is translated as ‫ قولنج شکنی‬and barber once as ‫دّلک‬ ‫ ا‬and
another time as ‫ تیغرانی‬which are completely domesticized. As another point, in the first example,
the text is expended in order to be easily believable in Persian as if it is written originally in that
language.
3.1.2 Attenuating the criticism
This book is written in a way to harshly criticize Iranian’s manners and conducts. What the
translator did was manipulating the original in order to make the tone of the writer as mild as
possible. The language used in the translation is simple but the use of figurative speech implies a
sense of humor which makes the sarcastic statement tolerable for Iranians.
I received him with suitable expressions of contempt, and we very soon came to blows; he so
effectually fastened my hair and I upon his beard, that we plucked out whole handfuls from each
other: we bit and spat, and fought with such fury, heedless of the sick man and the cries of the
women, that the uproar became very great, and perhaps would have terminated in something
serious….
‫ کار از آب و تاب سخنان‬.‫ من هم با جوابهای آب ندیده به مقابله پرداختم‬.‫ روی به من آورد‬،‫پس برخاست و بعد از هزار َکلَپتره‬
،‫ دستم را گزید‬،‫ آستینش را دریدم‬،‫ گریبانم را درید‬،‫ ریشش را گرفتم‬،‫ گیسوانم را گرفت‬.‫درشت به شپاشاپ سیلی و مشت کشید‬
‫ هرچه بیمار نعره زد و‬.‫ هی بر سر و مغز هم زدیم و هی ریش و گیس یکدیگر را کندیم و بر باد دادیم‬.‫صورتش را خراشیدم‬
.‫ به جایی نرسید و کم مانده بود که خونی در میان واقع شود‬،‫بیمارداران فریاد کردند‬
What is seen in this example is that the serious tone changed to humor.
In both 3.1.1 and 3.1.2, it is the author who is brought to the reader. This tendency for
domesticizing the text highlights the “self” in Persian translation of The Adventures.
3.2 Modern translation
Two types of translations have been chosen to show the modern tendency in translation in Iran.
The first one refers to a translation of poems of Mansur Ibn Hallaj by Bijan Elahi (1324-1389)
before Islamic Revolution and the second one is of after the Revolution and better to say after
the Reformist movement in Iran; it is the translation of Stevens’ poems by Omid Mehregan (1358-
).
3.2.1 Stevens’ poems
A poem of Stevens has been selected to be compared by its Persian translation. All the poems of
this collection of poems are translated in the same way. The poem titled as “Thirteen Ways of
Looking at a Blackbird” is chosen. Its counterpart translation in Persian by Omid Mehregan is
‫سیزده راه نگاه کردن به یک پرندهی سیاه‬.
The river was moving
The black bird must be flying
.‫رود متحرک است‬
.‫پرندهی سیاه باید باشد پرواز کنان‬
It was evening all afternoon.
It was snowing
And it was going to snow.
The blackbird sat
In the cedar-limb
.‫همی بعدازظهر عصر بود‬
‫برفریزان بود‬

.‫و او میرفت برف ببارد‬

‫پرندهی سیاه نشسته‬

.‫در شاخههای سدر‬

As it can be seen in these examples, all the words and phrases get the reader to the author. The

Persian words are put into English syntax and the reader’s understanding is completely ignored.
3.2.2 Mansur Ibn Hallaj
The Arabic poem:
‫اقتلونی یا ثقاتی‬
‫ان فی قتلی حیاتی‬
‫و مماتی فی حیاتی‬
‫و حیاتی فی مماتی‬
The Persian translation:
‫اقتلونی! یا ثقاتم‬
‫چیست در قتلم حیاتم‬
‫و مماتم در حیاتم‬
‫و حیاتم در مماتم‬
Another part of Hallaj poems is noted here as another example. It is a verse in Quran in the same
book which was added by the translator to the original book (Elahi, 1354):

‫ مثل نوره کمشکاًة فیها مصباح المصباح فی زجاجة الزجاجة کأناها کوکب ا‬...
‫دری یوقد من شجرة مبارکة زَ یتونة ّل شرقیة و ّل‬
...‫غربیة یکاد زَ یتها یضئ و لو کم تمسسه نار نور علی نور‬

‫ چون‬،‫نور او به مثل‬
‫چراغوارهای ست در او چراغی‬
‫ در آبگینهای همانند اختری‬،‫که‬
‫ میافروزد از زیتون بنی‬،‫تابناک‬
‫ نه هماره آفتابسو نه هماره‬،‫گوالنده‬
‫ ولو‬،‫ که برتافتنیست ِزیت او‬،‫سایهسو‬
‫ نور علی نور‬:‫بی آتش‬

As mentioned above, the translator added a part to the original text. In addition, he keeps intact
some foreign expressions like ‫ نور علی نور‬or ‫ اقتلونی یا ثقاتم‬in his translation. It is not completely
foriegnized nor domesticized. But the translator added his own poetic expression to a religious
text. Here is a combination of self and other.
Discussion
To conduct this study three translations were compared with its original texts in order to find the
tendency in each of them. With Schleiermacher’s theory of translation in mind and the notion of
selfness and otherness in translation (Ricoer, 2004), we found that each translation has its own
way of expressing itself.
Historically speaking, the Qajar period was a period of finding the lost identity of Iranians. Its
reflection on translation and literature is comprehensible. The radically localized and self-
highlighted translation of Mirza Habib is an example. It was so domesticized that hardly any one
unseen. The role of the translator should not be ignored. He tried to save the Persian language
from the weird language imposed by the Qajar court (Moddaress Sadeghi, 1379).
The opposite extreme was translation of Mehregan from Stevens’ poems. The so called post
reformist period in Iran is a chaos in the relationship with others. The lack of self-awareness about
the political and social issues can be seen easily. Mehregan translated Stevens’ poems right at
this time when he believes translation is the only way of thinking about ourselves (Mehregan,
1387). It is worth mentioning that this translation is not understandable for readers. As Benjamin
says “in the appreciation of the work of art or an art form, consideration of the receiver never
proves fruitful (Benjamin, 1968). Through this foriegnization and not understanding (other) we
can understand ourselves.
The third translation was done when there were a relative freedom in expressing one’s own idea
in the country. The society was getting polyphonic (Mosavat, 1393). The traces of the ideology of
the translator are obviously seen in his text. But despite Mehregan’s translation, that of Elahi is
completely understandable. Not totally domesticized nor foriegnized is the product of that
period.

Conclusion
The political and social contexts inevitably have effects on art works containing translation as
well. We have seen that the tendency in translation has been changed from completely localized
translation to completely foriegnized one. But what is in common in all translations noted above
is the importance of self. The political and social issues caused one translation to explicitly show
self and regain its lost image, and the other implicitly wants us to be aware of our cultural
conditions. The last one mixed self and other to have a poetic effects on self. So, regardless of
the translator’s tendency, in each period of Iran, it is self which is eventually highlighted.

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