The study of Proper Name Allusions in English Translations of Sa’di's Gulistan

Abstract

Translating allusion is one of the most challenging tasks to be performed by a translator. Allusions are potential problems of translation process due to the fact that they have particular connotations and implications in the source language (SL) and the foreign culture (FC) but not necessarily in the TL and the domestic culture. Taking this into consideration, the present paper aims at touching upon the rendering of proper name allusions (PNs) in the Gulistan of Sa’di (1213) in five English translations by R. Anderson (1861), E. Rehatsek (1956), Eastwick (1852), R. Burton (1842), and J. Ross (1839). The paper probes different strategies employed by the translators of Gulistan to help the TL readers to perceive the implied and associational meanings of proper names in Sa’di's masterpiece. After tracing the PNs in the Gulistan and identifying their equivalents in the five English translations, the model of Leppihalme (1997) was applied to the collected data in order to find out which strategies have been preferred by each of the translators and why. Central to the study is the analysis of the significance of "retention" as the most frequently-used strategy here for tackling such elements.