Islamic Azad University Central Tehran Branch
Faculty of Foreign Languages
English Department
A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
the Degree of Master of Arts in Translation Studies
Application of Lefevere’s Seven Strategies, in
English Translations of Sohrab Sepehri’s Poems
Advisor
Dr. Kolahi
Reader
Dr. Khanmohammad
By
Mahgol Emamian Shiraz
In the Name of God the Compassionate
the Merciful
I
To My Dear Parents and My Beloved Husband
Whose Boundless Love and Support are the Assets to My
Achievements
II
Acknowledgements
Praise to Allah who assisted me to fulfill the assignment in the most
turbulent period of my life.
I would like to thank the people who supported me with accomplishing the
present research and supported me in every step of doing this job.
First of all, my sincere thanks goes to my dear advisor Dr. Kolahi, whose
ceaseless encouragement and close supervision were the assets upon which
this study was developed to reach its status.
Secondly, I would like to appreciate my dear reader Dr. Khanmohammad
whose advantageous guidance and inspiring ideas enhanced the quality of
my thesis.
My special thanks also goes to dear external reader who gently took the
responsibility of reading my thesis.
I must express my sincere thanks to Dr. Yarandi without the help of whom
this research could not be done since he kindly took the bother of sending
Lefevere’s (1975) book which was not available in Iran.
Last but not least I would like to thank my wonderful parents and my
beloved husband who have always supported me not only with this thesis
but also with all the ups and downs of my life.
To each and every one of the above, I extended my deepest appreciation.
My supervisors have done every effort to improve the quality of this
research. I take the blame for all the uncorrected mistakes in spelling and
grammatical structures.
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Table of Contents
Dedication ……………………………………………………….……..I
Acknowledgments……………………………………………….…….II
Table of Contents………………………………….……………….….III
List of Tables…………………………………………………...…..…VI
List of Figures……………………………………………………...…VII
Abstract………………………………………………….……….…..VIII
1. CHAPTER I: Background and Purpose ……….……………... 1
1.1. Introduction…...…………………….……………………….….. . 2
1.2. Statement of the Problem……………………………….…….….. 3
1.3. Research Question ………………………………………………..6
1.4. Definition of the Key Terms..…………………..……………...… 6
1.4.1. Poetry Translation Strategies …………………….………. 6
1.4.2. Blank/Free Verse…………... ……………………….……. 7
1.5. Limitation and Delimitation……………………………….………7
1.6. Significance of the Study………………………………………..... 8
2. CHAPTER II: Review of the Related Literature…………..…… 10
2.1. Introduction…………………………………………………….....11
2.2. Features of Literary Texts………………………………………...13
2.3. Poetry Form and Meaning………………………………...…..….14
2.3.1. Form of Poetry………………………………………….....16
2.3.1.1. Denotation and Connotation…………………….….18
2.3.1.2. Meter………………………………………….….…..19
2.3.1.3. Rhythm……………………………………………....20
2.3.1.4. Rhyme……………………………………………..…21
IV
2.3.1.5. Versification …………………………………………22
2.3.2. Meaning of Poetry (Figurative Language of Poetry) ……...22
2.3.2.1. Metaphor……………………………………………...23
2.3.2.2. Imagery……………………………………………….24
2.3.2.3. Prosody……………………………………………….25
2.3.2.4. Personification………………………………………..25
2.3.2.5. Simile ………………………………………………...26
2.3.2.6. Metonymy ……………………………………………27
2.3.2.7. Irony…………………………………………………..27
2.4. Poetry Translation: Translatability and Untranslatability……...….28
2.5. Problems in Translating Poetry ………………...............................33
2.5.1. Finding Equivalence ……………………………………….34
2.5.2. Metaphorical Expressions ………………………………….34
2.5.3. Unit of Translation………………………………………….36
2.5.4. Culture Bound Items in Poetry Translation …………….…..37
2.5.5. Domestication and Foreignization……………………….….38
2.6. Strategies for Poetry Translation …………………………………..39
2.7. Lefevere’s Seven Strategies for Poetry Translation ………………..43
2.8. Sohrab Sepehri’s Life……………………………………………….49
2.9. Features of Sohrab’s Poems …………………………………….….49
2.10. English Translations of Sohrab Sepehri’s Poems……………….....51
2.11. Recent Studies on Poetry Translation ……………………………...52
3. CHAPTER III: Methodology………………………………………56
3.1. Introduction……………………………….………………………...57
3.2. Corpus…………………………….………………………………...57
3.3. Theoretical Framework……………………………………………..60
3.4. Procedure…………………………………….……………………...62
3.5. Unit of Analysis……………………………………………………..65
V
3.6. Design………………………………………………………………66
4. CHAPTER IV: Results and Discussion…………………………….67
4.1. Introduction…………………………………………………………68
4.2. Results………………………………………………………………68
4.3. Discussion…………………………………………………………..77
5. CHAPTER V: Conclusion, Implications and Suggestions for Further
Research………………………………………………………………...81
5.1. Conclusion…………………………………………………………82
5.2. Pedagogical Implications …………………………………………..84
5.3. Suggestions for Further Research…………………………………..85
References…………………………………………………………….....87
Appendix………………………………………………………………...96
VI
List of tables
Table 3.1. Corpus of the Study……………………………………………58
Table 4.1. Frequency Count of Emami's pplication of Lefevere’s
Strategies …………………………………………………………………69
Table 4.2. Frequency Count of Zahedi’s Application Lefevere’s
Strategies………………………………………………………………….72
Table 4.3. Frequency Count of Salami and Zahedi’s Application of the
Lefevere’s Strategies……...………………………………………………74
VII
List of figures
Figure 4.1. The Frequency Count of Emami’s Translation………………71
Figure 4.2. The Frequency Count of Zahedi’s Translation………………73
Figure 4.3. The Frequency Count of Salami & Zahedi’s Translation……75
Figure 4.4. Final Results………………………………………………….76
VIII
Abstract
Amid translation subjects, poetry translation is the most controversial issue
caused by the existing conflict between form and content and also high
figurative language of poetry. Poetry interested translator needs more effort
and creativity to translate the structures and the figurative language
involved in poetry (Boase Beier, 2009). The main aim of the present study
is to apply Lefevere’s seven proposed strategies for poetry translation on
the English translations of poems written by Sohrab Sepehri, a
contemporary Persian poet and the final purpose is to find out which
strategy is the most frequently used one. The corpus of the study contains
34 poems which are selected from three books translated by three
translators. After the process of data analysis and calculating the frequency
of each strategy, the researcher arrived at the conclusion that the second
strategy named literal translation was the most frequently applied strategy
(63%) by the three different translators. The results confirm that all the
three translators have translated the poems as word for word rendering.
CAHPTER I
Background and Purpose
2
1.1. Introduction
In the process of translation two languages are involved: source and target
language. The translator tries his/her best to find the best equivalents for
each word, phrase and sentence in the target language. Different scholars
define translation from different perspectives. Munday (2001) proposes
that in the translation process the translator changes an original written
message into original verbal language and then transfers the original
verbal version into a different verbal language. Hence, in Munday’s view
in the act of translation written and verbal languages of both source and
target languages are of great importance.
Bell (1993) looks at translation only as a replacement of a text in one
language by finding an equivalent text in another language.
Toury (1978) holds the view that translation is a kind of activity which
inevitably involves at least two languages and two cultural traditions
whereby an original text is rewritten by the translator into a different
language (cited in Lefevere, 1992). Accordingly, Toury's definition is a
culturally-oriented one focusing on the socio-cultural patterns of both
source and target languages. It is necessary to pay close attention to the
socio-cultural patterns especially in the act of literary translation.
Concerning the translation process, a very general view is that in
translation there are two processes involved: First, the translator analyzes
the source language form in order to find out the meaning. Second the
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translator produces, or chooses proper target language form for this
meaning (Mollanazar, 2005). Thus, in two above mentioned processes
both form and content (meaning) are of great importance.
In the act of translating literary texts specially poetry there is a great
tension between form and content and the act of literary translation is
indeed a challenging task in which a poetry translator’s main concern is
whether to prefer the form over the content or vice versa. Among different
scholars who have some words on poetry translation (see section 2.4.), the
most famous scholar is Jakobson (1959), who believes that “Poetry by
definition is untranslatable… and it requires creative transposition.” (cited
in venuti, 2000, p.118). But some other scholars (more information can be
found in section 2.4.) argue that all meanings and concepts are translatable
and what is said in one language can be conveyed in another language.
Many researches are designed to investigate the problems a translator may
face during the task of literary, especially, poetry translation.
The main focus of the present research was to investigate the most
frequently applied strategies in English translations of Sohrab Sepehri’s
poems (blank verse) according to Lefevere’s (1975) seven proposed
strategies for poetry translation.
1.2. Statement of the Problem
4
According to Manafi (2003, p.28), “the seminal problems in the process of
poetry translation are linguistic constraints, cultural barriers, literary
devices and poetic features”.
Based on Manafi (2003) since poetry has its own specific figurative
features such as rhyme, rhythm and meter, understanding the meaning of a
poem and its poetic content is a sophisticated job. The factors like style
and figurative traits which cause the poems difficult to understand make
them difficult to translate as well. In fact, figurative features make the
process of poetry translation a demanding task. Most of the translators
face great difficulty in reproducing the original style of the poems in their
translations. They should select the best equivalent which contains both
contended and figurative meaning. Generally speaking poetry translation
is a challenging task because of the special nature of poetry, different
styles of poets and difficulties in understanding poetry.
During the creative process of poetry translation, the translator may
find some words which are untranslatable due to the existing cultural and
linguistic differences among language systems. Thus, a number of poetry
translations are novel interpretations in which the creativity of the
translators plays a crucial role. Consequently, there are many different
methods and strategies employed in poetry translation proposed by
different scholars.
5
The present study deals with Sohrab Sepehri’s poems which are in the
form of blank (free) verse. This type of poetry is free of metrical
limitations and it is a flexible type of poetry which has no special meter or
rhythm. Because of the physical features of blank verse translators find it
easy to translate but in fact it causes serious difficulties for the translators
in the process of translation. Emami (2003/1382) is one of the translators
who believes that Sohrab’s poems seem to be easy to translate. Emami
(2003/1382) cites that the straightforwardness of Sohrab’s language is no
doubt one reason for the translation’s success. The poems of Sohrab easily
move from one language to another, unlike those poems that owe most of
their demand to a great amount of artifact and musicality in the original.
So, in Emami’s word the words and language of Sohrab’s poems are
simple and universal and they can be expressed in different languages.
However, it should be noted that because of Sohrab’s unique usage of
imagination and other figurative styles (more information n be found in
section 2.3.1. and the subsections), his poetry is not even easy to
understand and for sure it is difficult to be translated. The researcher
found some translations of Sohrab’s poems that are too personalized and
most of the translators have chosen word for word rendering. They have
not paid enough attention to the abstract mood of Sohrab’s poems. They
also couldn’t transfer Sohrab’s imaginative language. The main problem
that caused the current research to be initiated was the translator’s lack of
6
enough attention to Sohrab’s exclusive style, and tone as well as his
imaginative language.
So, the researcher settled on her study to examine English translations
of Sohrab’s poems according to the Lefevere’s (1975) seven suggested
strategies for poetry translation. She has attempted to find that to what
extent the English translations of Sohrab’s poems accord with Lefevere’s
strategies and which strategies are more frequently used by the translators.
1.3. Research Question
The present study was designed to answer the following research
question:
Q: What are the most frequently applied strategy(s) in English
translations of Sohrab Sepehri’s poems, concerning Lefevere’s seven
strategies for poetry translation?
1.4. Definition of the Key Terms
In this section the researcher will provide readers with definitions of the
key terms used in the present study.
1.4.1. Poetry translation strategies
In translation studies, there are different theories and methods for poetry
translation from different points of view. As an instance, Jones (1989)
discusses four different levels or types of translation of poetry: Literal
translation, Approximation, Adaptation and Imitation.
7
Another scholar is Holmes (1988, p.25), who suggests four other
different strategies to translate the verse form: Mimetic, Analogical,
Organic and Deviant/extraneous.
In the present research poetry translation is confined to Lefevere’s
(1975) proposed strategies. He proposes seven strategies for poetry
translation as follows: Phonemic translation, Literal translation, Metrical
translation, Poetry into prose translation, Rhymed Translation, Blank/free
verse translation, Interpretation (see section 2.7).
1.4.2. Blank/free Verse
Blank/free verse is a type of poetry which has special features. As Abrams
(1993, p.24) notes, blank verse is “five-stress iambic verse which is
unrhymed—hence the term "blank." Of all English metrical forms it is
closest to the natural rhythms of English speech, and at the same time
flexible and adaptive to diverse levels of discourse; as a result it has been
more frequently and variously used than any other type of versification.
Divisions in blank verse poems, used to set off a sustained passage, are
called verse paragraphs (Abrams, 1993).
In the ongoing research poetry is detained to blank/free verse
especially Sohrab Sepehri’s blank verse which is unrhymed, meter free and
imaginative poetry.
1.5. Limitations and Delimitations
8
Most of the Sohrab Sepehri’s poems are translated into English by four
famous translators named: Karim Emami, Mehdi Afshar , Abbas Zahedi
and Ismail Salami. But they have not translated all of his poems. One of
the limitations of this study was that there were not various published
English translations of Sohrab’s poems available in Iran and there were
only four at hand English translations of his poems. However, some other
people who were interested in poetry translation have translated Sohrab’s
poems into English and they have put them in their weblogs. But they are
not published and the researcher was not interested in such unpublished
works. She preferred to select the more well known and published
translations.
As a delimitation of this study the researcher selected Emami’s
(2003/1382) translation named “The Lover is Always Alone”, Salami’s and
Zahedi’s (2003/1382) Translation “The Water’s Footfall” and Zahedi’s
(2008/1387) translation entitled “The Traveler” as the corpus of her study.
The reason behind eliminating Afshar’s (2009/1388) translation was that
he had only translated some selected phrases or sentences of Sohrabs
poems.
1.6. Significance of the study
Since poetry translation is a challenging task, translators may face some
problems in finding the proper equivalence and some parts may remain
untranslated. The art of the poetry translator is to reduce these probable
9
untranslatable concepts. So, one of the main factors for such a translator is
to find a preferred translation method or strategy and also to find the
reason behind this preference.
The results of the present research may help poetry translators to have
background knowledge about different practical strategies employed in
poetry translation. Since Sohrab’s poems are in the form of blank/free
verse, translators will be persuaded to follow a specific model or strategy
in translating this specific form. Besides, the findings of the current study
may assist translation studies scholars, investigators, researchers and others
who are interested in poetry translation to have some new notions about
the methods of poetry translation.
CHAPTER II
Review of the Related Literature