The Discordant Purdah: A Study of Textual Manipulations in Two Persian Translations of The Play “Salomé”

Mehrpooya, Abbas; Nowroozzadeh, Negar

doi:10.30465/crtls.2023.41057.2604

Document Type : Research

Authors

Assistant Professor at Department of Foreign Languages, Hamedan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Hamedan, Iran

https://doi.org/10.30465/crtls.2023.41057.2604

Abstract

This paper is a critical study of two Persian translations of Oscar Wilde’s playscript “Salomé”, which brings under study the issue of textual manipulations in translating the mentioned playscript from a textological viewpoint. It is to be said that the selection of the two translations under study, one by Abdollah Kowsari and the other by Abolhasan Tahami, has been based on the feature of the popularity of either the translator or the publisher and the choice of the typological items included in this study has been made on the basis of comparing the texts of both Persian translations with the original English version of the playscript “Salomé” published in 1894. The central question in this study addresses the ways by which the source text of the playscript has been manipulated in the two Persian translations, a question whose answer has been sought in three overall patterns of 1) elimination of certain parts of the English text in translation 2) addition of certain parts to the translated text and 3) distorting the stylistic patterns of the text, by looking into a sample of problematic items detected in the texts of both translations. Examining the samples drawn out in this study is suggestive of translational manipulation in both translated texts, and supports the finding that the effort by the two translators at rendering this literary playscript has made the Persian versions of the work undergo a range of undue distortions in the textual level as compared with the English text; what has brought about the textual transmogrification of the work in translation.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Foreign Languages

References

بیات‌فر، فاطمه و شبیری، نجمه (2021). بررسی تطبیقیِ نظام ارزشی گفتمانِ رمانس. پژوهش‌نامه انتقادی متون و برنامه‌های علوم انسانی, 21(10)، 81-105.‎

صلح‌جو، علی (۱۳۷۷). گفتمان و ترجمه. تهران: نشر مرکز.

گنجیان خناری، علی (2018). واکاوی چالش‌های ترجمة ادبی: بررسی تحلیلی نوع متن، اجزای متن و چالش خواننده. پژوهش‌های ترجمه در زبان و ادبیات عربی، 8(18), 95-114.‎

وایلد، آسکر (۱۳۸۵). سالومه. ترجمه‌ی ع. کوثری. تهران: نشر هرمس.

وایلد، آسکر (۸-۱۳۹۶). سالومه. ترجمه‌ی ا. تهامی. تهران: نشر نگاه.

Al-Qinai, J. (2000). Translation quality assessment. Strategies, parametres and procedures. Meta: journal des traducteurs/Meta: Translators' Journal, 45(3), 497-519.

Cuddon, J. A. (2012). A dictionary of literary terms and literary theory. John Wiley & Sons.

Greenblatt, S. (Ed.). (2006). The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume 2. WW Norton & Company.

Berman, A. (1985/2012). Translation and the trials of the foreign. In L. Venuti (Ed.), The translation studies reader (pp. 240-253). London and New York: Routledge.

Even-Zohar, I. (1978/2012). The position of translated literature within the literary system. In L. Venuti (Ed.), The translation studies reader (pp. 162-167). London and New York: Routledge.

Jakobson, R. (1959/2012). On linguistic aspects of translation. In L. Venuti (Ed.), The translation studies reader (pp. 126-131). London and New York: Routledge.

Chesterman, A. (2004). Beyond the particular. In A. Mauranen and P. Kujamäki (Eds.), Translation universals: Do they exist? (pp. 33-48). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing.

Munday, J. (2009). The Routledge companion to translation studies. London and Newyork: Routledge.

Nabokov, V. (1955/2012). Problems of translation: Onegin in English. In L. Venuti (Ed.), The translation studies reader (pp. 113-125). London and New York: Routledge.

Ricoeur, P. (2007). On translation. With an introduction by Richard Kearney (E. Brennan, Trans.). New York: Routledge.

Reiss, K. (2014). Translation criticism–the potentials and limitations: Categories and criteria for translation quality (E. F. Rhodes, Trans.). London and New York: Routledge.

Schleiermacher, F. (1813/2012). On the different methods of translating. In L. Venuti (Ed.), The translation studies reader (pp. 43-63). London and New York: Routledge.

Simpson, E. O. (1975). Methodology in Translation Criticism. Meta: journal des traducteurs/Meta: Translators' Journal, 20(4), 251-262.

Simpson, E. O. (1978). Translation and Value Judgment. Meta: journal des traducteurs/Meta: Translators' Journal, 23(3), 211-219.

Steiner, G. (1975). After Babel. Aspects of Language and Translation. London and New York: Oxford University Press.

Toury, G. (2012). The nature and role of norms in translation. In L. Venuti (Ed.), The translation studies reader (pp. 168-181). London and New York: Routledge.

Venuti, L. (1995). Translator’s Invisibility: A History of Translation. London: Routledge.

Wilde, O. (1894). Salome. A tragedy in one act, translated [by Lord Alfred Douglas] from the French of Oscar Wilde. Pictured by Aubrey Beardsley. London, Elkin Mathews & John Lane.

Williams, M. (2009). Translation quality assessment. Mutatis Mutandis: Revista Latinoamericana de Traducción, 2(1), 3-23.

Pizhuhish nāmah-i intiqādī-i mutūn va barnāmah hā-yi ̒ulūm-i insāni (Critical Studies in Texts & Programs of Human Sciences)

The Discordant Purdah: A Study of Textual Manipulations in Two Persian Translations of The Play “Salomé”

References

References

Volume 22, Issue 10 - Serial Number 110
February 2023
Pages 303-328

The Discordant Purdah: A Study of Textual Manipulations in Two Persian Translations of The Play “Salomé”

References

References

Volume 22, Issue 10 - Serial Number 110February 2023Pages 303-328

Volume 22, Issue 10 - Serial Number 110
February 2023
Pages 303-328