A Paradoxical Favor of Translation: Fitz-Omar’s Ideological Manipulation in the Translation of Persian Literature

Subject Areas : Persian Language and Literature

Shilan Shafie ¹ , Helen Olyaeenia ²

1 - M.A Translation Studies
2 - Assistant professor in English Language & Literature Esfahan University

Received: 2011-09-27 Accepted : 2011-10-25 Published : 2011-11-22

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Abstract :

Translation is considered as one of the most effective means in making every nation’s literature known to the world; although, regrettably, some formal and semantic aspects of the source texts dissolve by the ideological manipulation applied by the translator, even to such an extent that it can culminate in the distortion of the writer’s philosophy and ideology. The translator's manipulation results in obliteration of the true image of the writer  presented  to  other  nations.  Hence,  a  manipulated  image  of  the writer, based on the translator’s own ideology or the dominant ideology of his time is introduced into the readership. The present study, first, seeks to investigate the Edward Fitzgerald’s rewriting of Khayyam’s Rubaiyat from a theoretical viewpoint on his ideological manipulations; and then using concrete instances in the translation of Khayyam’s Rubaiyat, illustrates the translator’s exploitations from such well-known Persian poets as Hafiz, Sa’di, Jami and Attar.