A Socio-Historical Orientalist Approach to the European Translations of Ferdowsi's The Epic of Kings

Authors

  • Maedeh Sarlak 📧 Zand Institute of Higher Education
  • Amin Karimnia Islamic Azad University, Fasa Branch

Abstract

Orientalist translation analysis, particularly in the case of masterpieces of Eastern literature, remains underdeveloped in translation studies, and many investigations are required to address its various dimensions. A problem is that studies rarely draw on a relatively objective, model-oriented approach to Orientalism in translation. This study relies on a socio-historical model of Orientalist translation applied to a corpus of European renditions of Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh (The Epic of Kings). The model involves four elements: scholarly agency, continental translation, industrial/scientific superiority of orientalists, and the literary richness of eastern cultures. The data used in the analysis are collected from academic databases, encyclopedic resources, and conventional and electronic resources. The results suggest many of the translators are Western scholars. Moreover, many translations are based on another European translation as a mediator. In many cases, the translations advocate Western academic/investigative purposes, while relying on the advanced publication industry of their time. Finally, the appreciations/acknowledgments of the book reveal the reasons for choosing Shahnameh for translation. Besides confirming the functioning of the model, the study shows that translation is a derivative activity in many scholars’ profiles. The study also raises questions about the very definition of “translation” because the translated works analyzed represent considerably different qualities.

Keywords:

socio-historical approach, Orientalism, English translation, literary translation, Ferdowsi, The Epic of Kings

Author Biographies

Maedeh Sarlak, Zand Institute of Higher Education

Master of Translation Studies, Department of English, Faculty of Humanities, Zand Institute of Higher Education, Shiraz, Iran;

Amin Karimnia, Islamic Azad University, Fasa Branch

Associate Professor in Applied Linguistics, Department of English, Faculty of Humanities, Fasa Branch, Islamic Azad University, Fasa, Iran;

References

Arnold, M. (1916). Sohrab and Rustum. London: Longmans, Green and Co.

Bassnett, S. (2014). Translation studies (4th ed.). London & NewYork: Routledge.

Chesterman, A. (2007). On the idea of a theory. Across Languages and Cultures, 8(1), 1–16.

Cronin, M. (2013). Translation in the digital age. London: Routledge.

Davis, D. (2009). Rostam: Tales of love and war from the Shahnameh. New York: Penguin Books.

Donzé-Magnier, M. (2017). Edward Said: Orientalism. Geonum Ed.: ISRN.

Farahzad, F., &Adili, S. (2019). Translation, modernization, and enlightenment: The Qajar translation movement. Translation Studies Quarterly, 17(66) 8–23.

Hui, W. (2011). Postcolonial approaches. In M. Baker & G. Saldanha, Routledge encyclopedia of translation studies (2nd ed.) (pp. 200–204). London & New York: Routledge.

Kharmandar, M. A., &Nemattollahi, F. (2015). Elements of Orientalism as a socio-historical literary translation model: Tracing Sa’di in European renditions. Translation Studies Quarterly, 12(48), 43–60.

Lefevere, A. (1992). Translation, rewriting, and the manipulation of literary frame. London and New York: Routledge.

Lewis, F. (2015). The Shahnameh of Ferdowsi as world literature. Iranian Studies, 48(3), 313–336. DOI: 10.1080/00210862.2015.1023063

Loloi, P. (2017). English translations of Shahname (M. Hosseini. Trans.). Translator: Cultural Journal, 26(62), 93–103.

Mokhtar, S. (1998). Shah Name in French translations. Nam-e Parsi Quarterly, 3(4), 67–89.

Said, E. (1979). Orientalism. New York: Vintage Books.

Sapiro, G. (2014). The sociology of translation: A new research domain. In S. Bermann& C. Porter (Eds.), A companion to translation studies (pp. 82–94). New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.

Toury, G. (2012). Descriptive translation studies—and beyond (2nd ed.). Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Tymoczko, M. (Ed.). (2010). Translation, resistance, activism: An overview. Amherst, MA: University of Massachusetts Press.

Tyulenev, S. (2014). Translation and society: An introduction. London: Routledge.

Warner, A. G., & Warner, E. (1905). Shahnama of Firdausi. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner& Co.

Weston, S. (1815). Episodes from the Shah Nameh, or Annals of the Persian Kings by Ferdoosee. London: Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy.

Williams, J., & Chesterman, A. (2014). The Map: A beginner's guide to doing research in translation studies (2nd ed.). London: Routledge.

Wolf, M. (2007). The location of the “translation field” Negotiating borderlines between Pierre Bourdieu and HomiBhabha. In M. Wolf & A. Fukari (Eds.), Constructing a sociology of translation (pp. 109–119). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. doi:10.1075/btl.74.08wol

Yektatalab, H., and Karimnia, A. (2013). Translations of Shahnameh of Firdausi in the West. Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, 16(3), 36–52. DOI:10.578/2223-2621.2013.16.3.36

Zimmern, H. (1882). Epic of Kings: Stories retold from Firdusi. With two etchings by L. Alma Tadema, and a prefatory poem by Edmund W. Gosse. New York.

Downloads

Published

2021-10-03

How to Cite

Sarlak, M., & Karimnia, A. (2021). A Socio-Historical Orientalist Approach to the European Translations of Ferdowsi’s The Epic of Kings. Iranian Journal of Translation Studies, 19(75), 59–76. Retrieved from https://journal.translationstudies.ir/ts/article/view/893

Issue

Section

Academic Research Paper

DOR