ISSN: 1579-9794
Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 - 70
The Translator-text Interaction Based on Gadamer’s
Theory of Fusion of Horizons: A Case Study of
Translations of Romantic Poetry into Persian
La interacción traductor-texto basada en la teoría de
la fusión de horizontes de Gadamer: Un estudio de caso de
las traducciones de la poesía romántica al persa
FATEMEH SARVGHADI
sarveghadi@um.ac.ir
Ferdowsi University of Mashhad
ZOHREH TAEBI NOGHONDARI
taebi@um.ac.ir
Ferdowsi University of Mashhad
Fecha de recepción: 28 de mayo de 2020
Fecha de aceptación: 8 de febrero de 2021
Abstract: Love of poetry has a long history among Iranians, so is the case
with translation of poetry in their recent attempts. Thus, the significant number
of translations has been made from Western poems. British Romantic poetry,
as one type of Western poetry, has been translated since the beginning of
poetry translation in Iran. This paper aims to investigate the translations of the
British Romantic poems diachronically, the translations published in the 20
th
century, before the Revolution of 1979, and synchronically, the Romantic
poems translated in the 21
st
century, the post-Revolutionary period. To fulfill
the purpose, Schäffner’s theory of translation competences was applied to
reveal which century met them more adeptly. For the linguistic competence,
besides the text analysis of all translations, the number of the parts of speech
of four translations attributed to a poem was counted and compared to the
number of the original poem to verify the result. The analysis of the
competences, as one of the tools of translation assessment, proves the
attainment of Gadamer’s theory on the fusion of horizons for translators. The
examination indicates that the translation competences are more developed
in the translations of the 21
st
century. Therefore, in this century, translators
achieve the fusion of horizons more effectively, and the translation trend of
British Romantic poetry has improved.
Keywords: Poetry translation, British Romantic poetry, Translation
competence, Fusion of horizons, Persian literature, The Revolution of 1979.
46 The Translator-text Interaction Based on Gadamer’s Theory […]
Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 - 70
Resumen: El amor por la poesía tiene una larga historia entre los iraníes, y
lo mismo ocurre recientemente con la traducción de poesía. Como ejemplo
de ello observamos el número tan significativo de traducciones se han
realizado a partir de poemas occidentales. La poesía romántica británica,
como tipo de poesía occidental, ha sido traducida desde los inicios de la
traducción poética en Irán. Este trabajo investiga las traducciones de los
poemas románticos británicos de forma diacrónica, las traducciones
publicadas en el siglo XX antes de la Revolución de 1979, y de forma
sincrónica, los poemas románticos traducidos en el siglo XXI, el periodo
posrevolucionario. Para ello, se aplicó la teoría de las competencias
traductoras de Schäffner, con el fin de revelar qué siglo las cumplía mejor.
Para la competencia lingüística, además del análisis del texto de todas las
traducciones, se contó el número de las partes de la oración de cuatro
traducciones atribuidas a un poema y se comparó con el número del poema
original para verificar el resultado. El análisis de las competencias, como una
de las herramientas de evaluación de la traducción, demuestra la
consecución de la teoría de Gadamer sobre la fusión de horizontes para los
traductores. Este estudio indica que las competencias de traducción están
más desarrolladas en las traducciones del siglo XXI. Por lo tanto, en este
siglo, los traductores logran la fusión de horizontes con mayor eficacia, y la
tendencia de la traducción de la poesía romántica británica ha mejorado.
Palabras clave: Traducción poética, Poesía británica romántica,
Competencia traductora, Fusión de horizontes, Literatura Persa y la
Revolución de 1979.
INTRODUCTION
In the context of Persian literature, poetry is publically acclaimed.
Hanaway (1988: 543) believes that poetry is prized as “the highest form of
literary” in Iran. Therefore, poetry translation is appreciated significantly
among Iranians. However, poetry translation is a complicated and formidable
task. It is considered as “the most difficult mode of translation” (Ray, 2008, p.
56). The figurative language, rhythm and rhyme, connotative and symbolic
meanings that are specified to the source language (SL) should be recreated
in the new world of the target language (TL). Not only linguistically, poetry is
convoluted, but also non-linguistically, it is interwoven with the source culture
and history. Therefore, poetry may be “the least translated genre” (Venuti,
2011, p. 127). Notwithstanding its tenuous position in the market, various
poetry translations are done in different countries. In Iran, there are different
poetry translations from various world literature. Even the retranslations of the
world’s literary masterpieces and well-known works are made by different
Fatemeh Sarvghadi, Zohreh Taebi Noghondari 47
Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 - 70
translators. By retranslation, they attempt to explore further and reflect the
artistic value of the source text (Zhang, 2013, p. 1412).
In Iran, there are meaningful similarities and differences among the
poetry translations of different eras. Through the examination and comparison
of the poetry translations synchronically and diachronically, the changes in
poetry translation trend are revealed. Before the Revelation of 1979 in Iran,
one of the literary schools whose poetry translations were privileged over the
other schools was Romanticism (Sarvghadi & Khazaeefarid, 2019). Likewise,
in the post-Revolutionary period, the translations of the Romantic poems have
been made, and even the retranslations have been published. In this respect,
Ma'soomi Hamedani (2006), Shafiei Kadkani (2011), and Sarvghadi and
Khazaeefarid (2019) conducted their studies on the investigation of the
translations of the Romantic poems in the pre-Revolutionary era. They
delineated the features of those translations, the translators’ characteristics,
the translation style, and the social and cultural background of that era.
However, there is not any diachronic comparison between the translations of
the Romantic poems of the pre- and post-Revolutionary epoch.
This paper aims to fill the gap, by investigating and comparing the
translations of the British Romantic poems in the pre-Revolutionary period,
approximately 1900s-1970s, and in the post-Revolutionary era, from 2000 to
the 2010s. The analysis of the translations is based on Gadamer’s theory of
hermeneutics (2004) and Schäffner’s translation competences (2000). The
poems reviewed in this study are composed by the outstanding British
Romantic poets, including William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge,
William Blake, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats, and Lord Byron. The
themes of the source poems are mostly disgruntlement with contemptible life,
the pursuit of purification, and unification with unadulterated soul. The
translations in two periods were analyzed to discover to what extent the
translation competence was accomplished in each era. In this study,
translation competence was considered as an investigation tool for achieving
Gadamer’s “fusion of horizons” (2004). Therefore, the attainment of fusion
horizons in two periods was compared to explore the translations of which era
has been more successful in interfusing the author’s horizon with the
translator’s. Moreover, this analysis shows that the trend of poetry translation
of the British Romantic poems from the pre to post-Revolutionary period. It
also sheds light on the factors that modify the translation style in the post-
Revolutionary context.
1. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
In Iran, some research was conducted on identifying the various
aspects of literary translation trend from the 20
th
to the 21
st
century. For
48 The Translator-text Interaction Based on Gadamer’s Theory […]
Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 - 70
instance, Mohammadpour et al. (2020a, 2020b) mapped the trend of the
translational habitus of Iranian translators in translating culture-specific items
(CSIs) in English romance novels from pre- to post-Cultural Revolution era
(the 1960s to 2010s). The findings revealed that the foreignization tendency
has increased among Iranian translators since the pre-Cultural Revolution
(1980). Noura and Khazaee Farid (2018) examined the usage of linguistic
norms by three generations of literary translators after the Constitutional
Revolution in Iran. Based on the translation tradition, the repertoire of the
Persian language, and capabilities of the three generations of literary
translators, the adaptation of linguistic norms has been changed since the
Constitutional revolution.
In the area of the translation of English Romantic poems into Persian,
Mirza Suzani (2018) evaluated the types and frequency of Catford’s category
shifts in Abjadian’s Persian translations of three English Romantic poems. The
analysis revealed that to produce the exact and faithful translation shifts are
inevitable. Mirza Suzani (2018) solely focused on the translations by one
translator, and he did not compare the other translators’ styles synchronically
and diachronically. Therefore, to analyze the different translators’ styles from
the 20
th
to the 21
st
century, and to indicate the poetry translation trend of the
British Romantic poems, the current study has been carried out based on
Gadamer’s theory of fusion of horizons (2004). Baradaran and Kolahi Ahari
(2019) applied Gadamer’s “fusion of horizons” (2004) to the investigation of
the Persian translation of a picaresque novel, The Adventures of Hajji Baba
of Ispahan (1824) through the structure and semantic analysis. The study did
not adopt any models for assessing the fusion of horizons of the author and
translator. Since Gadamer has not proposed any tools for evaluating the
fusion of horizons, the present study employed Schäffner’s translation
competence (2000) as an investigation tool for achieving the fusion of
horizons.
2. FUSION OF HORIZONS
Hermeneutics owes its origin to ancient Greek philosophy. It means “to
interpret, explain, narrate, clarify, translate” (Baker & Saldanha, 2011, p. 130).
Modern hermeneutics is developed by Schleiermacher’s theory approximately
in the Romantic period (p. 130). As a philosophy of modern language, it is
defined as “a theory of comprehension” (Gambier & Van Doorslaer, 2010, p.
141). Gadamer (2004), as a leading figure in this discipline, believes that
hermeneutics is associated with “understanding texts” (p. 387).
Understanding is not “a repetition of something past but the sharing of a
present meaning” (p. 394). Therefore, translation as one of the processes
dealing with understanding texts is “a re-creation of the text guided by the way
the translator understands what it says” (p. 387). In the recreation, the
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Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 - 70
meaning must be preserved and understood in the new context in which other
readers live. It should enjoy validity in the new language. Therefore, every
translation is an interpretation. In this regard, translation is “the culmination of
the interpretation” (p. 386). Every interpretation is the possible truth (p. 396).
In this view, the text is detached from its author, and considered as an
independent entity that is “free for new relationships” (p. 397). Thus, no one
can single out any interpretations as the correct one (p. 398).
According to Gadamer (2004), in the hermeneutical approach to
translation, the translator is a reader who interprets the text. In this respect,
s/he presupposes her/his vision. “The range of vision that includes everything
that can be seen from a particular vantage point” makes the translator’s
horizon (p. 301). To tackle a text, the translator faces a tension between the
horizons of past and present. The latter is formed through the translator’s
context, pre-understanding, presuppositions, prejudices, and experience
which intervene in his/her interpretation. When s/he chooses a text to
translate, s/he confronts otherness. The text and context of other languages
are considered as alienated for the TL. To understand the text, s/he should
immigrate from self to otherness. The work and its effect constitute “as a unity
of meaning” (p. 578). To understand historically, one undergoes self-alienation
and leaves his/her pre-understanding aside and think on text according to its
context and concept. To think historically is “to perform the transposition that
the concepts of the past undergo when we try to think in them. To think
historically always involves mediating between those ideas and one's own
thinking” (p. 398). It is not possible to completely estrange one’s concept and
immerse in otherness. Therefore, the translator should strive “to reach it as far
as possible” (p. 398). S/he should attempt to actualize the “unity of meaning”
of the text in his/her context (p. 578). In Gadamer’s theory, past and present
combine into “something of living value” (p. 305). In other words, the horizons
of the translator and work fuse into each other. Consequently, this fusion
produces a text that conveys the meaning and effect of the past in the form of
the target context. It is what Gadamer calls “fusion of horizons”.
To achieve the fusion of horizons, the translator should establish the
dialogical interaction with the text and implied readers, and the interaction
between past and present. Inadequate dialogical interaction between the
translator and the author, between the translator and the implied readers,
between past and present, and also the historicity and subjectivity of author,
translator, and implied readers cause retranslation (Zhang, 2013).
Translator’s historicity refers to the historical society s/he lives in or his/her
previous experiences (p. 1412). Based on the translator’s historicity and
subjectivity, different translators make different interpretations of a text, which
leads to different horizons of past and present. Since every interpretation is
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Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 - 70
conceivable, various versions of the source text are reproduced in the TL. On
the other hand, when translators enter a new period, their horizons and
readers’ expectations alter. Therefore, viewing the work from different angles
and meeting readers’ expectations, the translators retranslate the text (pp.
1413-1414).
In Iran, after the Persian Constitutional Revolution (1905-1911), the
sweeping changes pushed the society toward Modernism by the influence of
the innovative ideas borrowed from the outside of Iran and the attempt to
adopt them within the traditional structure of the society (Oroskhan &
Mahmoudi, 2020). Beyond the sociopolitical changes, the new schools of
thought transformed “the stagnant reservoir of Classical Persian literature” (p.
231). Among the poets trying to bring a change in the Persian literature was
Nima Yushij (1895-1960) “igniting the first spark of modernization in Persian
poetry” (ibid). He captured the Romanticism perspective in his works. Ja’ffari
(2007, p. 200) believes “Yushij's romanticism represents the culmination of
romanticism in Persian literary history”. He created the new path for
unchaining the Persian literature from Classicism confinement and literature
passiveness.
Likewise, the translations of the Romantic poems introduced the novel
ideas to the Persian literature, and they were acclamatory in Iran (Sarvghadi
& Khazaeefarid, 2019). The translations of the British Romantic poems were
published in literary magazines and books. After the Revolution, from 2000 to
2010s, different translations and retranslations of the British Romantic poems
have been produced in the forms of books. This paper compared the
translations in the 20
th
and 21
st
centuries. Through comparing the poetry
translations, the translators’ fusion of horizons in pre- and post-Revolution
could be evaluated. To examine the translations, Schäffner’s theory on
translation competence (2000) was applied. Translation competence is
defined as the underlying system of knowledge and skills which are required
to translate (PACTE, 2003). Schäffner (2000) introduces six translation
competences including linguistic competence, cultural competence, textual
competence, domain/subject-specific competence, (re)search competence,
transfer competence (p. 146). The translation competences were assessed in
both pre- and post- Revolutionary poetry translations to reveal the
accomplishment of the competences in both periods.
3. METHOD
The qualitative analysis was drawn primarily on the translations of the
British Romantic poems into Persian in the 20
th
century, before the Revolution
of 1979, and the ones have been published in the 21
st
century, post-
Revolutionary period. In the pre-Revolutionary epoch, the translations of the
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Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 - 70
British Romantic poems were made in the small number in the literary
magazines and books, because the focus of the literary translation was placed
predominantly on French literature, and the small number of Russian works
was likely retranslated from French into Persian (Karoubi, 2017). By the early
1950s, French, the most translated language gave way to English (Saxena &
Omoniyi, 2010; Borjian, 2013). Therefore, the provided corpus of the
translated poems before 1979 was limited. It was compromised of the British
Romantic poems translated by Lotfali Souratgar (1935) and Abolghasem Feizi
(1937) in Mehr, the famous literary magazine in Iran, and Shoja al-Din Shafa’s
books, The selection of the world poetry masterpieces (1952) and Byron’s
greatest poems (1955). Shafa (1918-2010) is one of the distinguished pre-
Revolutionary poetry translators.
In contrast to the pre-Revolutionary period, after the Revolution of 1979,
the vast majority of translations have been made from English (Karoubi,
2017). Consequently, the translations of the British Romantic poems have
increased. Hence, more translators have selected the British Romantic poetry
to translate with their personal variant styles. The corpus of the contemporary
translations was selected from the books spotlighting the British Romantic
poets’ works, including Saeed Saeedpour (2000), Hushang Rahnama (2001),
Amrollah Abjadian (2004), Moslem Zolfaghar Khani (2014). To assess the
translations, Schäffner’s six translation competences (2000) were applied to
reveal the translations of which century displayed competences more
effectively. The translators acquiring six competences produced more
qualified translations. Identifying the qualified translations paved the way for
distinguishing the ones that achieve Gadamer’s fusion of horizons. Therefore,
each competence was evaluated in every translation of the corpus.
Schäffner’s introduced competences were evaluated by the analysis of
the translation texts of the corpus and comparison with the source poems. For
examination of the linguistic competence, two methods were adopted: first,
the translations were analyzed in terms of choice of words, length of
sentences, fidelity to the poet’s form and content. Thereafter, to be assured
that the result was verified, four translations of Ode to a Nightingale by Keats
were selected to count five parts of speech including noun, verb, adjective,
adverb, and propositions. These parts of speech were chosen, since they held
the major role in sentences. Then, the number of parts of speech in each
translation was compared with the original poem. The translations of Ode to a
Nightingale were singled out, because it was the only poem of the corpus that
enjoyed two translations in the 20
th
century and two in the 21
st
century.
Therefore, the selection of these translations made the comparison between
these two centuries more meaningful.
52 The Translator-text Interaction Based on Gadamer’s Theory […]
Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 - 70
After the examination of the competences in every translation, the
demonstration of them in each century is compared. Based on the
achievement of the competences, it was proven which period attained the
fusion of horizon pre-eminently. Through this analysis, the trend of the British
Romantic poetry translation since the 20
th
century was indicated. Then, this
paper ended up with the probable factors that justified the trend in Iran.
4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Romanticism is one of the literary schools of the West in the late 18
th
and early 19
th
centuries. It features the glorification of the commonplace and
everyday language, the first-person speaker, poetic spontaneity and freedom,
the role of nature, the supernatural elements, and individualism (Abrams et
al., 1987: 1298-1303). According to Wordsworth, one of the pioneers of
Romanticism, the aspiration source of the poem is not the external world, but
the internal world of the poet. The worldly materials spontaneously provoke
and illuminate the poet’s inner passion that is reflected in the poem (Abrams
et al., 1987: 1298). Therefore, the Romantic poetry appeals to people’s hearts
of all ages. In Iran, the Romantic poems hold congruity with Iranian’s taste (
Natel-Khanlari, 1988), since there are similarities between Romanticism and
Persian Classicism (Farshidvard, 1995: 741-742). As a result, the poems of
the accomplished British Romantic poets like Wordsworth, Coleridge, Blake,
Shelley, Keats, and Byron have been retranslated repeatedly since the
beginning of poetry translation in Iran, after the Constitutional Revolution
(1905-1911). To evaluate the achievement of the fusion of horizons in the
translations of pre- and post- Revolution of 1979, first, the translation
competence was assessed. According to Schäffner (2000), the first
competence is linguistic, which is concerned with “linguistic structures and
communicative use” (p. 146). It refers to the translator's skill in transferring the
linguistic concepts of the SL like morpheme, syntax, semantics, and
pragmatics to the target linguistic system. Moreover, it evaluates the
translator's ability in the recreation of the source text function in the TL for
communicative purposes.
Linguistically, Romantic poems embrace the everyday language and
short sentences. The form of the poem is free verse. However, in the pre-
Revolutionary era of Iran, the language of translations has been lofty and
formal. The sentences have been long and verbose. The translators have
chosen the literal and magniloquent equivalence. Sometimes, Arabic words
have penetrated into the translations. In the Classical Persian poetry, Arabic
words have been permeated into poetry (Zandian, 2016, p. 80), and elevated
language has been praised. In other words, a borderline has been drawn
between literary and non-literary words; the latter has been considered
incongruous to be deployed in the Classical poetry (Aminpour, 2001, pp. 113-
Fatemeh Sarvghadi, Zohreh Taebi Noghondari 53
Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 - 70
114). Classicism has been upheld until 1920/1930; thereafter, it has given its
way to Modernism (Karimi-Hakkak, 2012). Thus, Persian literature has been
in the transition era at that time. As a result, some characteristics of Persian
Classicism, like adopting grandiloquent words have not waned away from
composing literary works (Sarvghadi & Khazaeefarid, 2019). Hanaway (1998,
p. 543) believes “modern develops out of classical and constantly contract
with it”. Ma‘soomi Hamedani (2006, pp. 8-12) claims the translations of the
Romantic poems from 1906 to nearly 1951 are a kind of Iranian interpretation
of the Western Romanticism, and the translators have employed the
techniques and vocabulary of ghazal poetry, a Persian poetry form.
Hengreaves (2007: 77) defines ghazal as a love poem of five to fifteen
couplets whose rhyme is aa ba ca and so on. The formal schema is strict and
the length of each line is the same. Emotion plays an essential role in both
ghazal and Romantic poetry; therefore, the translators have assumed the
Romantic poem as a ghazal.
The form of the selected poetry translations in that era is prose.
Sarvghadi and Khazaeefarid (2019) claim that in their corpus of translations
of foreign poems published in the famous literary magazines from 1906 to
1960 in Iran, the poems have been translated in the form of prose, the
Classical Persian poetry, and free verse. The last form contributes to 44% of
the translations. Although there are some poems translated in free verse, the
translations of the British Romantic poems in this corpus of study have been
made in prose. The translators have probably reproduced the poems in the
prose form, since the use of free verse has not prevalent in the Persian
literature.
From the semantic perspective, the content of the poems has been
preserved. Nevertheless, the reflection of the poet's passion in the source
poem has been reinforced in the target text. The translators have stirred more
emotion by three methods: 1) selecting the equivalence conveying more
strongly emotional connotations; 2) using the synonyms in the sentimental
phrases; 3) the amplification by a phrase or sentence (Sarvghadi &
Khazaeefarid, 2019). Moreover, the translators have explicitly added their
interpretations to the translations. The association of the translator's
interpretation with the content of the original poem narrow reader's horizon
and induce him/her to the translator's horizon. Therefore, in the pre-
Revolutionary period, the translator's trace is visible in the text due to the
manipulation of form, linguistic structure, and explication of the translator’s
interpretation. Since in the Classical literature, the linguistic structure has been
more weighed than the content, the translators have attempted to modify the
Romantic structure and assimilated it into the Classical structures like ghazal.
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Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 - 70
Therefore, the translations of the Romantic poems in this period are
prescribed.
After the Revolution of 1979, in the 21
st
century, the British Romantic
poems have been translated and retranslated. The language of the new
translations is common as the original ones. The equivalence is more precise
and selected according to the poet's style. The sentences are short and
concise. Semantically, the content is conveyed more accurately without any
exaggeration in expressing passion. The translator’s interpretation does not
interfere explicitly in the translation. The reader is free in the inference from
the poem. The form of the translations is free verse like the original ones.
There are some examples from both pre- and post-Revolutionary translations.
The first excerpt was selected from Ode to a Nightingale by Keats. It was
translated by four translators, the first two made by Souratgar (1935, pp. 125-
127) and Shafa (1952, pp. 52-55) before the Revolution of 1979, and two other
published by Abjadian (2004, pp. 702-705) and Zolfaghar Khani (2014, pp.
102-107) after the Revolution.
ST
'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot,
But being too happy in thine happiness,—
That thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees
In some melodious plot
Of beechen green, and shadows numberless,
Singest of summer in full-throated ease. (Abrams et al., 1987, p. 1845)
TT
Back-Translation from Persian
125
O the light-winged bird, you are a melodist
of the lawn, and among the trees and
bright shade of the leaves singing with a
clear and open throat in the adulation of
summer, I owe you this sleepy
awakening, but not because I begrudge
thee and thy voice, but rather because I
have been overjoyed from your
happiness, and enchanted by the grace of
those sweet chants.
O Nightingale, do not think that I envy your
happiness. My languor occurs because I
receive too much share of your
Fatemeh Sarvghadi, Zohreh Taebi Noghondari 55
Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 - 70
52
happiness. I am your partner, like the
forest spirit with his light wings over the
lush green and shady trees sings a lively
melody in the adulation of summer
—
702
This feeling is not because of my envy of
your good fortune, O Nightingale,
Rather, infinitely I'm happy from your
happiness—
I am happy that you, the light-winged
nymph of the trees,
In a melodious plot
In the dark green lawn and shadows
numberless,
Sing easily the spring songs with open
throat.
)102
This is not the jealousy of your
numberless joys, O Nightingale!
That is all penchant and chant, all
happiness and drunkenness.
That is you, like a nymph flying among the
woods,
In the midst of the greenery of the oak —
that melodious plot — to the numberless
shadows
And warmly and fluidly, you sing the
summer song.
Table 1: Instances of linguistic competence
Souratgar (1935, p.125) has rearranged the order of the sentences; the
first two lines have been translated at last. He has carried the content in one
long sentence in which he has used verbose equivalence with synonyms like
“a clear and open throat” instead of “full-throated ease”. The translator’s
interpretation has intervened the translation like “enchanted by the grace of
this sweet chant”, while this sentence is not found in the original poem.
Sometimes the equivalence is not accurate. For example, “a melodist of the
lawn” does not precisely correspond with “Dryad of the trees”. “Dryad” as a
female spirit living in a tree is not translated (Dryad, n.d.). Consequently, the
allusion to Greek mythology is missed. The language is literal, elevated, and
not following the poet's style, but the Classical Persian prose one. For
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Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 - 70
example, “I owe you this sleepy awakening, but not because I begrudge thee
and thy voice”, the first sentence is the translator’s interpretation in literal
language, and the poet has not mentioned “thy voice”. Overall, the translator
has deviated from the poet’s style. The translation is long-winded and replete
with emotional connotations; thus, it kindles more passion than the original
one in the target readers.
In the second translation by Shafa (1952, p. 52), the sentences are
shorter, but still the language is lofty with literal words, for instance, “languor”
is a literary word. From a semantic point of view, it voices the poet's message
more accurately than Souratgar’s, but there are still some phrases translated
imprecisely. For example, “Dryad of the trees” does not fully equal to “the
forest spirit”, and the allusion is taken for granted. The other example is “sings
a lively melody in the adulation of summer” which does not precisely
correspond to the poet’s words, “Singest of summer in full-throated ease”.
Further, the translator’s inference enters the translation explicitly and modifies
the meaning. For instance, “My languor occurs” and “I am your partner” are
not found in the source poem. The translator has just imposed his
interpretation to the readers. Although Shafa’s recreation is better than the
previous translation, the linguistic competence is not entirely qualified.
The next translation is made by Abjadian (2004, p.702). In contrast to
the previous translations, this text is reconstructed in free verse. The length of
the sentences is as short as the original one. The language is ordinary and
corresponds to the poet's style. The translator has tried to convey the meaning
precisely without any exaggeration in arousing passion. For instance, “in a
melodious plot, in the dark green lawn and shadows numberless” almost
entirely corresponds to “in some melodious plot, of beechen green, and
shadows numberless”, and “I am happy that you, the light-winged nymph of
the trees” mostly equals to “that thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees”. In the
latter example, the meaning of “Dryad” is communicated more clearly as
“nymph of the trees”. Therefore, Abjadian masters the linguistic competence
in his translation.
The last excerpt of the translation has been done by Zolfaghar Khani
(2014, p. 102). He has tried to recreate a free verse that linguistically seems
identical to the original one. Although he has not sometimes rendered the
meaning of every word, he has actualized the whole meaning and poetic effect
in the TL. For instance, “and warmly and fluidly, you sing the summer song” is
not word by word translation of “singest of summer in full-throated ease”, but
the message is articulated according to the target culture. The language is
ordinary. The sentences are short. Therefore, he has demonstrated linguistic
competence quite adeptly. The linguistic analysis reveals that before the
Revolution of 1979, the translators have not entirely met the criteria of
Fatemeh Sarvghadi, Zohreh Taebi Noghondari 57
Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 - 70
linguistic competence. They have placed more weight on the form acceptable
in the target linguistic system. Their endeavor has been not directed to re-
actualize the poem in the target culture, but to produce a text that accorded to
the Classical Persian literature in which the form has been accentuated over
the content. However, in the 21
st
century, the translators strive to reproduce a
poem that is as near as possible to the source one, since in this period the
linguistic norms of literature have changed, literature has moved to
modernization, and it has disentangled from the strict conventions of
Classicism.
To analysis the linguistic competence from the different perspectives,
five parts of speech, including noun, verb, adjective, adverb, and proposition
were counted in Ode to a Nightingale and four translations. According to table
2, in the 21
st
century, the translators use fewer verbs and adverbs like Keats.
As a result, the total number of the words is reduced in the translations.
Moreover, the findings show that in the 20
th
century, Souratgar’s translation is
verbose in comparison to the original poem. Shafa’s translation contains fewer
words than Souratgar’s, but still he has exploited more verbs and adverbs
than Keats. In the 20
th
century, the translators have inclined to consider form
more than content. Nevertheless, they have not regarded the original form,
but the Persian Classical form in which they have shaped their translations.
The Classical prose is characterized by the excessive use of Arabic words,
redundant phrases, and poetic tone (de Bruijn, 2015). Further, the rhymed
prose has been upheld in the Classical literature. Like the Classical poets and
writers, the translators have involved more in creating rhyme, rhythm and
eloquent style, and in displaying fidelity to the poet by translating word by word
rather than perceiving the poet’s style and massage. Therefore, the linguistic
competence has been disregarded in the 20
th
century, before the Revolution
of 1979, due to the translators’ adherence to the Persian Classicism.
Text
Noun
Verb
Adjective
Adverb
Proposition
Sum
Ode to a
Nightingale
by Keats
138
70
84
27
55
374
Souratgar’s
translatio
227
110
76
55
77
545
Shafa’s
translation
211
105
80
43
49
488
Abjadian’s
translation
214
90
82
29
54
469
58 The Translator-text Interaction Based on Gadamer’s Theory […]
Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 - 70
Zolfaghar
Khani’s
translation
161
87
72
25
36
381
Table 2: The parts of speech in the translations of Ode to a Nightingale
The second Schäffner’s translation competence is the cultural one. It
is defined as “general knowledge about historical, political, economic, cultural,
etc. aspects in the respective countries” (2000, p. 146). It is more pertained to
the fusion of horizons than other competences, since it detects the
presuppositions and prejudice rooted in the historical and cultural context and
the subjective experience. This competence paves the way for a translator to
encounter the otherness of foreign text, merging his/her self with otherness,
and then to reproduce a text in consonance with the target linguistic and
culture system. Some examples display how the translators' acquaintance
with historical and cultural conditions of source and target culture has affected
the translations in the pre- and post-Revolutionary period.
In the Ode to a Nightingale by Keats, the only translator who has altered
the meaning of “Singest of summer” to “the spring song” is Abjadian. He has
justified his modification that the poet portrayed April in his poem, like sonnet
18 by Shakespeare (2004, p. 702). In Persian culture, these features attribute
to spring, not summer. Therefore, Abjadian has sought to reshape the
meaning according to the target culture in order to engender the same feeling
and effect in the target readers. The next example is extracted from Ode to
the West Wind by Shelley.
In Greek mythology, “Maenad” is a woman “who danced frenziedly in
the worship of Dionysus”, a god of wine and vegetation (Abrams et al., 1987,
p. 1751). Shelley has used allusion and simile to liken the spread of clouds to
Maenad’s hair. To translate this excerpt, a translator should dominate two
cultures and mythologies to render the meaning in a way that the target
readers figure out the significance of the allusion and simile.
ST
Angels of rain and lightning: there are spread
On the blue surface of thine aery surge,
Like the bright hair uplifted from the head
Of some fierce Maenad, even from the dim verge
Fatemeh Sarvghadi, Zohreh Taebi Noghondari 59
Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 - 70
Of the horizon to the zenith's height,
The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge
(Abrams et al., 1987, p. 1751)
TT
Back-Translation from Persian
…
48
Clouds...convey rain and lightning with
themselves. The sky, like the golden and
digressed hair of the drunk goddess,
embraces the rings of the storm.
569
Clouds, the messengers of rain and
lightning, spread
On the blue surface of the sky where is
the place for your aery waves,
Like the bright and distressed hair
Of a woman who dances frenziedly at
the feast of god of wine, even from
the dim verge
Of the horizon to the zenith’s height,
The locks of the storm coming soon. O
the west wind, O dirge
66
Yea, the clouds angelically promise rain
and lightning;
The clouds over the soft and tender
waves of the indigo sky,
Like bewildered locks of the beautiful
dancer, they spin here and there,
And from the verge of the sky roof to the
zenith of sky horizon, they hang
To loop around your skirt.
Table 3: Instances of cultural competence
In Shafa’s translation (1952, p. 48), although readers can perceive the
allusion, they cannot understand the allusion refers to what story, and what
the ground of simile is. The second translation, Abjadian (2004, p. 569) has
elucidated who is Maenad in Greek mythology, and why the poet has
60 The Translator-text Interaction Based on Gadamer’s Theory […]
Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 - 70
assimilated Maenad’s locks to the clouds. Thus, the target readers can
imagine the image that the poet has portrayed in the source culture. In the
next translation example by Zolfaghar Khani (2014, p 66), although he has
clarified the point of comparison in Shelley’s simile and depicted the poet's
image for the target readers, he has lost the illusion of Greek mythology that
plays an important role in English literature. He has solely mentioned “like
bewildered locks of the beautiful dancer, they spin here and there” that does
not refer to Maenad, but to an unknown beautiful dancer. In other words, he
has tried to reproduce a poem which resembles the Persian poetry without
any visible traces of translation. For example, he has manipulated the last line
with the Persian literary cliché phrase “To loop around one’s skirt” which
means to worship somebody. He has personified the west wind in a way that
the clouds like dancers’ locks loop around the west wind and glorify it.
There is another translation instance, Love’s philosophy by Shelley,
published before the Revolution of 1979 by Feizi (1937, p. 684). Feizi has
exaggerated the poet’s passion and imitated the style of the Classical poets
composing ghazal which is a description of "love in a melancholy mood"
(Hengreaves, 2007, p. 77). Ghazal’s themes are adoring beloved’s beauty,
complaining about lover and beloved’s separation, expressing love to beloved,
and portraying of beloved’s trait (Bauer, 2006). Since the themes of this poem
are identical to ghazal’s, the translator has preferred to translate this Romantic
poem with the ghazal vocabulary and the techniques which have been more
acceptable at that time. He has used the literal and grandiloquent equivalence
like “charmingly indigo sky” and “the fresh and lush flower will be disdained
and despised”. This pompous style conforms to the Persian Classical
literature.
ST
TT
Back-Translation from
Persian
See the mountains kiss
high heaven
And the waves clasp one
another;
No sister-flower would be
forgiven
If it disdained its brother;
(Poetry foundation)
684
See the mountains are
kissing the charmingly
indigo sky, the
mountainous waves of
enormous ocean follow
each other in a natural
affection and clasp each
other tightly, Simin's
daughter, the fresh and
lush flower will be
disdained and despised if
she forgets her bedmate.
Table 4: Instance of the modification of the poet’s horizon in the TT
Fatemeh Sarvghadi, Zohreh Taebi Noghondari 61
Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 - 70
Therefore, the investigation of the translations before and after the
Revolution of 1979 reveals that in the pre-Revolutionary period, the translators
have not adequately recreated the context of the Romantic era in the Persian
literature. They could not sympathize with the poet’s horizon. In other words,
the poet’s horizon in the Romantic epoch has not interfused with the
translator's horizon who has lived in the transition era of the Persian literature
from Classicism to Modernism. During that period, the characteristics of
Classicism like archaic and literary language, strict metric schema, and
passionately description of imaginary beloved have not waned away from
literature, and the features of Modernism including a common language, free
metric forms, and the approach to the deep and real subject matters
symbolically have been in the borderline of the literary system. Therefore, the
translator’s vision has been under the impression of Classicism which is
quietly in contrast with Romanticism. On that occasion, not only the translator
has not merged the horizons of past and present, but also manipulated the
form and content of the poem in line with his present horizon. However, after
Modernism has crept into the Persian literature and defeated the Classical
conventions, the modernized literary atmosphere has paved the way for
perceiving the Romantic poet’s horizon and his/her historical and cultural
situations. Consequently, the corpus of translations of the Romantic poems
in the 21
st
century indicates that translators more successfully understand the
poet’s horizon, fusing the otherness of the poet’s Romantic horizon with their
self-horizon, and then, re-embody the poet’s vision according to the present
norms of the Persian literature. Thus, cultural competence is more
demonstrated by the translators of the 21
st
century.
The third Schäffner’s translation competence is textual which is defined
as “knowledge of regularities and conventions of texts, genres, text types”
(2000: 147). Although the form of the original poems is free verse, the
translators have changed the text type to prose with the elevated language in
the 20
th
century, before the Revolution of 1979. However, in the 21
st
century,
the translators recreate the poem in free verse like the source one. As Karimi-
Hakkak (2000) believes, free verse has been introduced to Persian literature
since the 1940s. It differs from the Classical Persian poetry in which metrics
and rigid regularity of rhyme play a significant role. At first, this form is
marginalized and modeled by the Modernist poets especially by Nima Yushij
(1897-1960) and his followers. Gradually, it prevails over the Classical one
and spreads through literature. As a result, for translators like Souratgar and
Feizi who translated in the 1930s and Shafa in the 1950s, free verse has been
regarded as an atypical poetry form that they have resisted deploying in their
translations. Nevertheless, this form is prevalent among the poets and
translators from 2000 to 2010s, and they render the poems in free verse which
proves their textual competence.
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Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 - 70
The next competence is domain/subject specific competence that
refers to “knowledge of the relevant subject, the area of expertise” (Schäffner,
2000: 147). Before the 1979 Revolution, the translators have been mostly
intellectual poets and writers (Sarvghadi &Khazaeefarid, 2019). For instance,
Souratgar (1900-1969) has held a Ph.D. in English Literature from England
and as a university professor, he has instructed Persian and English literature.
He has been also the Chancellor of Shiraz University and the professor at
Columbia University who has compiled The History of English Literature
(Elmifarhang Publication, n.d). Feizi (1906-1980) has been a writer and
translator. Shafa (1918-2010) has been a writer and translator whose field of
study is Persian Literature. He has been a deputy minister for culture in the
Ministry of Court (Shakibi, 2019: 240), and he has been one of the popular
literary translators of his time (Shafiei Kadkanii, 2011) In the 21
st
century, the
translators of the Romantic poems are veteran writers. For example, Abjadian
(1936- ) is the professor of English Literature at Shiraz University who writes
A Literary History of England in twelve volumes. Zolfaghar Khani (1973- ) is
the professor of English Literature at Hakim Sabzevari University. He
published Romanticism in 2014. Saeedpour (1956- ) attains M.A. in English
Literature from California State University. He is an official and literary
translator who instructs in Islamic Azad University of Central Tehran Branch.
Rahnama (1944- ) is a poet, literary translator, and university professor at
the University of Pennsylvania. Therefore, the translators in both pre- and
post-Revolutionary periods are versatile translators and accomplished poets
and writers who mostly enjoy expertise in English literature and Romanticism.
In both eras, the translators display domain competence. However, the
translators of the pre-Revolutionary era have taken the poet's vision for
granted and prevailed their own, while the translators of the next century strive
to exploit their knowledge of Romanticism in facilitating the fusion of their
horizons with the Romantic poets’.
Schäffner’s fifth competence is (re)search. It refers to the ability and
general strategy to “resolve problems specific to the cross-cultural transfer of
texts” (2000: 147). This competence is associated with the cultural one. If a
translator gleans insight from both cultures, s/he can find an effective strategy
to render the cross-cultural matters easier. For instance, in Ode to a
Nightingale by Keats, “Lethe-wards” bears an illusion to Lethe River in Hades
in Greek mythology in which dead people drink its water and forget everything
that occurred when they lived in the universe (Lethe: n.d.). According to table
5, Souratgar (1935) has not translated this phrase. Shafa (1952, p. 52) has
indirectly alluded that weakness like the one felt by the half-asleep man’s
frailty dominated the poet and he has not referred to Lethe River. His
translated sentence has not indicated the allusion and its significance.
Abjadian (2004, p. 702) has accurately presented an allusion and its
Fatemeh Sarvghadi, Zohreh Taebi Noghondari 63
Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 - 70
significance to the readers. Zolfaghar Khani (2014, p. 102) has solely
explained that Lethe is the River of Oblivion, and has not delineated what
beliefs are behind it. Consequently, the reader may be confused about what
is the poet's intention of using “the River of Oblivion”. Although it cannot be
claimed that the translators ignore the cross-cultural matters, it can be
declared that in the current century, translators care more meticulously about
transferring the cross-cultural issues according to the target culture.
Therefore, sometimes the translators demonstrate more effective (re)search
competence in the 21
st
century.
Table 5: Instances of (re)search competence
The last Schäffner’s competence that incorporates the other sub-
competences is transfer one. It attributes to the “ability to produce target texts
that satisfy the demands of the translation task” (2000:147). The analysis of a
linguistic, cultural, textual, domain, (re)search competence in the translations
of the British Romantic poems in the 20
th
and 21
st
centuries reveals that the
translators in the 21
st
century meet the criteria of Schäffner’s competence
more efficiently. Therefore, transfer competence is more proved in the 21
st
century.
Translation competence as one of the tools of translation assessment
can shed light on the achievement of Gadamer’s fusion of horizons. As
Gadamer (2004, p. 387) believes “mastering the language is a necessary
precondition for coming to an understanding in a conversation”. In the true
conversation “each person opens himself to the other, truly accepts his point
of view as valid and transposes himself into the other to such an extent that
he understands not the particular individual but what he says” (p. 387). In this
situation, two people come to understanding. Therefore, acquiring the
translation competence that depends significantly on the translator’s
knowledge and dominance of two languages and cultures paves the way for
a translator to achieve a true interaction with the source text and to understand
the poet’s way of thinking. The source text “must be understood within a new
ST
One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk” (Abrams et al., 1987, p. 1845)
TT
Back-Translation from Persian
…… 52
...half-asleep….
702
After a while, I have reached the River of
Oblivion in the world of the dead.
)
102
I have been immersed in the waves of
the River of Oblivion
64 The Translator-text Interaction Based on Gadamer’s Theory […]
Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 - 70
language world, it must establish its validity within it in a new way” (p. 386). In
other words, the qualified translation is the fruit of intermingling the horizons
of poet and translator. The translator should disentangle from himself/herself,
and move toward poet’s self that is alienated for the translator. S/he should
try to immerse in the poet’s world. Then, s/he can interfuse the world of self
and poet. Thereupon, the translator can cast poet’s view in the mold of the TL.
Accordingly, in this analysis, the fusion of horizons is achieved
competently in the 21
st
century. In the current century, the translators focus
on communicating the interaction with the Romantic poems. They struggle to
transpose from their historicity and subjectivity to the Romantic condition of
the 19
th
century in England. They attempt to view the world through the poet’s
spectacle. Undoubtedly, perception of poet’s view is interfused with the
translators’ perspective cultivated in the present context of Iran. They
encounter “a tension between the text and the present” (Gadamer, 2004, p.
305). Overcoming this tension, they transfer the inferred view into the TL
according to the linguistic, cultural, textual norms of the Persian literary
system. The translators of the 21
st
century do not confine themselves to the
target form. Their priority is to conceive poet’s standpoint and massage. Then,
they recreate that massage in the TL. However, the translators of the 20
th
century, before the Revolution of 1979, have circumscribed their ability by the
strict conventions of the Persian Classicism, without regarding the poet’s style
and way of thinking. Their concern has been to construct a text that has
approved in the literary system of that period.
Based on the attainment of fusion of horizons in the translations of the
21
st
century, the quality of the translations is improved. The translations are
not regarded prescriptive as the ones in the pre-Revolutionary era which have
enforced the readers to hold the translator’s imposed interpretation. Although
the translator’s interpretation permeates through his/her translation in the 21
st
century, the translated poem is open to many interpretations by the readers.
Moreover, the translation is not confined in the chain of the rigid Classical
conventions and schema. The translator is free to recreate the translation in
any form he prefers.
The findings of this study are consistent with the findings of
Mohammadpour’s et al. (2020b, p. 350) study that indicates “the increasing
efforts of Iranian translators to maintain the structure, atmosphere, and
context created by the author as well as his stylistic differences of the available
in the original text” can be seen from1960s to 2010s. Moreover, the current
paper corroborates the findings of Noura and Khazaee Farid’s (2018) study
that reveals that the transfer of the semantic and structural subtleties of the
source text and the author’s style have made greater since the Constitutional
Revolution and have risen to its peak in the 21
st
century.
Fatemeh Sarvghadi, Zohreh Taebi Noghondari 65
Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 - 70
The raised question is what factors influence the refinement of the
Romantic poetry translation trend and pave the way for achieving the fusion
of horizons in translation. One of the reasons is that Gadamer introduces his
theory of fusion of horizons in 2004, and Schäffner in 2000. Thus, translators
have not been familiar with these views theoretically beforehand. Translation
Studies is the newborn field of study which began in the second half of the
20
th
century (Monday, 2012). Therefore, the translators in the pre-
Revolutionary period have been not conversant with the translation theories.
According to Karoubi (2017), the translation programs have been
inaugurated at Iranian universities since the 1960s. Offering the academic
education of Translation Studies has been increased since the last two
decades. Therefore, developing Translation Studies drive most translators to
view translation academically. Consequently, they seek to meet the criteria of
the task of translation. In this respect, they try to cultivate the translation
competence in themselves to recreate the qualified translation that produces
the nearly same impression in the target readers as possible. Moreover, in the
pre-Revolutionary period, the readers of the poetry translations are narrow
(Azadibougar, 2010). In the 1950s, more than half of the people were illiterate,
since they mostly lived in the villages (Kamshad, 1966). Therefore, elitists
were the addressed readers of the poetry translations. Since 1976, the literacy
rate has increased significantly (Morgon, 1994). After the Revolution of 1979,
the literacy rate speeds up in a way that “93% of the age group 6-24 are
literate” (Katouzian & Shahidi, 2007, p. 88). The growth in the number of
readers makes the translators regard the readers’ expectations and satisfy
their demands. As a result, the various retranslations of the British Romantic
poems are made that each of them strives to be acclaimed by readers. The
translators think that they can view poems from various angles and produce a
translation that is more qualified. In the 21
st
century, retranslations indicate
that the translators’ horizons are changed, and they attempt to rewrite the
Romantic poems by modifying the interaction with the text. On the other hand,
the rivalry in the market gives rise to the translator’s responsibility for
recreating the qualified translation that re-portrays the poet's image in the
target readers' minds. To pursue this goal, they try to master the art of writing,
translation competence, and to acquire knowledge about the cultural,
historical, social condition of the SL in order to understand poet’s horizon and
to attain the fusion of horizons. Therefore, the translation trend of the British
Romantic poems has developed.
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Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 - 70
CONCLUSION
This study investigated the translations of the British Romantic poems
in the 20
th
century, before the Revolution of 1979, and in the 21
st
century, post-
Revolutionary era in Iran. By the examination, the achievement of Gadamer’s
fusion of horizons was compared in two periods to identify the translation trend
of the British Romantic poems in Iran. To facilitate the analysis of the
translator's achievement of fusion of horizons, Schäffner’s translation
competences including linguistic, cultural, textual, domain, (re)search, and
transfer were employed. If the translator achieves Schäffner competences,
s/he can attain the fusion of horizons more effectively. In the 21
st
century, the
translators prove the linguistic, cultural, and textual competence more
professionally. Regarding domain competence, the translators of both eras
have expertise in the art of writing and English literature. In the respect of
resolving the cross-cultural problems and acquiring research competence, the
translators of two periods try to find a proper strategy to tackle them.
Notwithstanding, the translators of the 21
st
century are more successful in
displaying this competence. The transfer competence covers the other
competences. Since the other competences are more visible in the
translations of the 21
st
century, the transfer competence is developed more in
this period.
Therefore, it can be claimed that in the current century, the translators
can identify the poem's horizon in the Romantic period and fuse it with their
historicity and subjective pre-assumptions. Then, they rewrite the poem in the
new context of the target culture. The attainment of the fusion of horizons is
weighed more in this century. Two probable factors influence the translators
to spotlight the fusion of horizons and translation competence. First,
Translation Studies has been significantly improved in the universities and
institutions after the Revolution of 1979. Second, the promotion of literacy
among Iranians requires the translators to consider the readers’ expectations.
Therefore, a rivalry grows in the market to offer more qualified translations and
to re-portray the poet’s image in the TL.
In the end, this research offered the trend of the translation of the
Romantic poetry in pre- and post-Revolution epochs. Further research is
recommended to investigate the Persian translations of other literary schools
of poetry from the 20
th
to 21
st
century to reveal the other aspects of the poetry
translation trend in Iran.
Fatemeh Sarvghadi, Zohreh Taebi Noghondari 67
Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 - 70
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