Intertextual Echoes and Translational Reading:

A Comparative Study of Persian and English Medieval Poetry

Abstract

The recent expansion of translation studies beyond purely linguistic transfer allows for the analysis of literary works as acts of cultural transformation. This paper argues that Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Parliament of Fowls can be read as a profound act of recontextualization of Attar’s The Conference of the Birds. While a direct textual link remains elusive, the poems share a core structural and thematic narrative architecture. By situating the works within Genette’s category of implicit intertextuality and applying the theoretical frameworks of Steiner and Even-Zohar, this study, which is a qualitative one, reveals that Chaucer’s poem is not a direct translation but a transmutation, demonstrating the fluid movement of narrative forms and themes along the cultural routes of the medieval world. The Parliament of Fowls by Chaucer transforms Attar’s The Conference of the Birds into something new. The researchers propose that the poem is read as a kind of ‘translation’ where the poet reinterprets and reworks existing material; this process involves reshaping the imported elements to fit the new context, while at the same time adjusting the target context accordingly.