Archives

The Impact of Power and Ideology on Edward FitzGerald’s Translation of the Rubáiyát

The Impact of Power and Ideology on Edward FitzGerald’s Translation of the Rubáiyát. A Postcolonial Approach. Bentolhoda Nakhaei
In: TranscUlturAl, 11 (2019) 1, p. 35-48

Abstract

This paper analyzes the issues raised by the change of ideology and the underlying meanings in five FitzGerald’s translations of Khayyám’s quatrains according to the theories of certain translation scholars such as André Lefevere and Antoine Berman. With regard to the fact that the British translator has given a harmonizing beauty and an epicurean flavor of his own to Khayyám’s Rubáiyát, could it be claimed that translator’s voice is louder than the author’s? From the transcreation point of view, one could wonder whether FitzGerald did maintain the intent, style, tone, and content of the Persian quatrains. Do FitzGerald’s translations evoke the same emotions and does it carry the same implications in English as Khayyám’s Rubáiyát does in Persian. In general, from a postcolonial perspective, FitzGerald’s five English translations could offer interesting and fertile ground for investigating the effects of power relationship between the colonizer and the colonized text during the Victorian age in England.

 

Comment la traduction des figements linguistiques et culturels influence les réseaux sémantiques des Quatrains d’Omar Khayyâm

Comment la traduction des figements linguistiques et culturels influence les réseaux sémantiques des Quatrains d’Omar Khayyâm. Bentolhoda Nakhaei.
L’imaginaire d’une vie, 2 (2015)

This study aims to investigate how fossilized linguistic forms may have been deformed in translation and how this may have had an impact on the underlying networks of signification in the first English and French translations of Omar Khayyâm’s Rubaiyat in XIX century. Antoine Berman’s theories will serve as reference to try to find out how the original linguistic and cultural balance may have been transformed through the process of translation of a major text in Persian literature towards French and English languages.

Analyse critique des transformations stylistiques dans les traductions des XIXe et XXe siècles des Robâïât d’Omar Khayyám

Analyse critique des transformations stylistiques dans les traductions des XIXe et XXe siècles des Robâïât d’Omar Khayyám. Exploration des quatrains communs chez FitzGerald, Arberry, Nicolas et Lazard. Bentolhoda Nakhaeï. Paris, 2016.
[Thèse de doctorat en Études anglophones]

Summary:

This thesis aims to carry out a meticulous analysis of the transformation of form and meaning in the rendition of the Rubáiyát in four significant 19th and 20th-century translations—two in English and two in French. The translators of the selected translations are Edward FitzGerald, Arthur John Arberry, Jean-Baptiste Nicolas, and Gilbert Lazard. The translations produced by these translators have offered opportunities of investigation within linguistic boundaries. In fact, one may wonder if the translators have transformed the meaning and the form of the Persian quatrains.

How Khayyám Got Lost in Translation. Cultural Errors and the Translators of the Rubaiyat

How Khayyám Got Lost in Translation. Bentolhoda Nakhaeï.
In: Speaking like a Spanish Cow: Cultural Errors in Translation. Clíona Ní Ríordáin, Stephanie Schwerter (eds.). Stuttgart : Ibidem Press, 2019. 368 p.
ISBN: 9783838272566.

Summary:
What is a cultural error? What causes it? What are the consequences of such an error? This volume enables the reader to identify cultural errors and to understand how they are produced. The meta-translational problem of the cultural error is explored in great detail in this book. The authors address the fundamental theoretical issues that underpin the term. The essays examine a variety of topics ranging from the deliberate political manipulation of cultural sources in Russia to the colonial translations at the heart of Edward FitzGerald’s famous translation The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám. Adopting a resolutely transdisciplinary approach, the seventeen contributors to this volume come from a variety of academic backgrounds in music, art, literature, and linguistics. They provide an innovative reading of a key term in translation studies today.