Linguistics and Ancient Languages
Reza Amini
Abstract
Born in the second Hijri century, Jahiz is one of the most brilliant thinkers of his time who has had deep ideas about translation and meaning. It can be argued that these ideas are at the same level of importance of those of modern ideas. In this article, these ideas of Jahiz are investigated, based ...
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Born in the second Hijri century, Jahiz is one of the most brilliant thinkers of his time who has had deep ideas about translation and meaning. It can be argued that these ideas are at the same level of importance of those of modern ideas. In this article, these ideas of Jahiz are investigated, based on what he has said in his book Al-Hayavan. Therefore, after "introduction", first Jahiz and particularly his book Al-Hayavan is introduced; then his ideas about translation and meaning are analyzed. In that book, he has explained the difficulties of translation, the capabilities translators need for translation, and the severely difficult task of translating religious texts. He also believes it is imperative for translator to have the same command of the languages from which and to which he translates. For Jahiz, the knowledge a translator needs to have about the subject matter of the text in his hand must be at the same level of the knowledge the writer of the text has about it. These ideas are at the same level of clarity and exactness to the ideas provided by modern thinkers and theorists. Moreover, whatever Jahiz has said about translation, clearly indicates he has had a clear and exact understanding of meaning and the known and hidden layers of the meaning of a text.
Linguistics and Ancient Languages
Reza Amini
Abstract
This article is a critical review of The History of Translation in Iran (in Persian), written by Abdolhossein Azarang. Having fluent prose and exact editing, not having typing mistakes, and providing good information about translation in some periods of Iran’s history are among the good peculiarities ...
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This article is a critical review of The History of Translation in Iran (in Persian), written by Abdolhossein Azarang. Having fluent prose and exact editing, not having typing mistakes, and providing good information about translation in some periods of Iran’s history are among the good peculiarities of this book. And, repetition of some points in different parts of the content, relying excessively on some sources, generalization in some parts of the content, the content being deprived of a good and clear categorization, and inaccuracy of some of the historical information provided are among the shortcomings of the book. On the other hand, since about some periods of the history of translation in Iran the number of studies are more than the other periods, it is argued in this article that it was better and more useful if the focus of the book had been on those periods of the translation in Iran about which there is not any or adequate research.
