The Structure of Proust's Sentences in Translation

Abstract

The book "In Search of Lost Time" is considered as one of the most important myths of the contemporary era and among the foundations of today's world literature. The characteristics of its writing style and the issues discussed in it are still objects for many researches from different aspects of linguistics. The findings of such researches have made the meanings between the lines of this book shine more vividly. The Persian reader who begins to read the Persian translation of this masterpiece, too, expects to reach the depth of the author's message beyond Persian words. This requires utilization of the findings of those linguistic researches. Here, the role of the translator is raised as the one who introduces the author. Her knowledge of the source language is a vehicle that guides her to the next step. The translator should be able to transfer the author's style and organization of writing. This is a very difficult task for the translator of Marcel Proust's great work. The structural differences between French and Persian on the one hand and Proust's unique style on the other hand make the translation task accompany with a lot of extra researches. But how should we put this book into Persian? What we intend to deal briefly in this article is first to study some features of writing in this ever-lasting work that include length of sentences, variety of verb tenses and moods, use of metaphors and the author's annotations. Then a method will be offered for their translation. The introduction of the characteristics of Proust' writing style can lead to a closer faithfulness to the author of the novel and clarifies the meanings that are hidden within sentences through structural analysis of the book.