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Article published In: Babel
Vol. 71:1 (2025) ► pp.1–21

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The retranslator as the propagandist of MOI

The discursive contexts of the (re-)translation of Rumi’s Divan-e-Shams in the United States

 | Sheikhbahaee University
Published online: 5 April 2024
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https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00390.afz
Abstract
Translations are reflections of their historical, social, cultural, and political contexts. Given this, the current study aimed to explore the ways Nicholson, Reynolds, A. 1898. Selected Poems from the Divani Shamsi Tabriz. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar and Arthur John, Arberry. 1967. Mystical Poems of Rumi. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar dealt with translating culture-bound terms and Quranic allusions in the translations of Rumi’s mystical poems in Divan-e-Shams-e- Tabrizi into English and then identify the textual relationships between the two. To do so, the comparative model of research and the notion of tertium comparationis was used. The strategies used by (re)translators for translating culture-bound terms and Quranic allusions were first identified and categorized in a selection of twenty poems from Divan-e-Shams-e- Tabrizi. The study’s findings showed strong filial relationships between the two versions, where both had used cultural adaptation and explicitation of cultural-bound terms by using the addition strategy used in their endnotes. However, the dissidence lay in the content of the endnotes, and the way discursive contexts of the (re)translators shaped their translation strategies was discussed.
Résumé
Les traductions sont le reflet de leur contexte historique, social, culturel et politique. C’est pourquoi la présente étude vise à explorer la manière dont Nicholson (1898) et Arberry (1967) ont traité la traduction des termes liés à la culture et des allusions coraniques dans les traductions en anglais des poèmes mystiques de Rumi dans le Divan-e-Shams-e- Tabrizi, puis à identifier les relations textuelles entre les deux. Pour ce faire, le modèle comparatif de recherche et la notion de tertium comparationis ont été utilisés. Les stratégies utilisées par les (re)traducteurs pour traduire les termes liés à la culture et les allusions coraniques ont d’abord été identifiées et classées dans une sélection de vingt poèmes du Divan-e-Shams-e- Tabrizi. Les résultats de l’étude ont montré l’existence de liens de filiation étroits entre les deux versions, qui ont toutes deux eu recours à l’adaptation culturelle et à l’explicitation des termes liés à la culture en utilisant la stratégie d’ajout utilisée dans leurs notes de fin d’ouvrage. Cependant, la dissidence réside dans le contenu des notes de fin d’ouvrage, et la manière dont les contextes discursifs des (re)traducteurs ont façonné leurs stratégies de traduction a été examinée.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Literature review
  • 3.Method
    • 3.1The corpus
    • 3.2Procedure
  • 4.Data analysis
    • 4.1Analysis of culture-bound terms
    • 4.2Analysis of (re) translation of Quranic allusions
    • 4.3Qualitative analysis of the content of Nicholson’s endnotes
    • 4.6Qualitative analysis of the content of Arberry’s endnotes
  • 5.Discussion
  • 6.Conclusion
  • References
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