TRANSLATION STUDIES
Year:2004 | Volume:1 | Issue:4|Papers Count:6

This paper explores the practice of translation in Iran in the ancient times by seeking answers to the following questions: What were the grounds for translation? How did it develop? What were its functions? What may the answer to such questions contribute to linguistic sciences?To this end, the works by Iranian and non-Iranian Iranologists are reviewed in order to examine the effect of translation history research on pure historical researches, to find out about the emergence of "translation" then, and to work out the effect of "translation" on social life in the said eras. The paper concludes that "translation" was a major factor contributing to the survival of religion, unity, hegemony and resistance against annihilation; a factor which reflects the early stages of social evolution, and which reveals how ethnic groups experienced new developments and coexisted accordingly.The paper introduces the works as well as the languages from and into which such works were translated. A tentative table is provided at the end demonstrating the relations among the languages so studied.

The present article focuses on how to research the relationship between translation and at least one other variable, where translation is considered and discussed as either a dependent or an independent variable. One of the causes of the multiplicity of researches on translation is perhaps the fact that this variable is, by nature, subjective, or non-standard, which itself gives rise to many questions.The article attempts to examine the area of research in translation and its place within applied linguistics.

The art of translation has always influenced in a positive and constructive fashion the language of man in the course of his social, cultural and spiritual life, and in turn it has followed the dynamics and changes of language. In other words, the art of translation has adapted itself to language developments.The evolutionary trend of the "translation language" has historically proved an inevitable phenomenon; which has survived since the early inception of the art of translation among nations, and it will definitely continue to do so.Although, as a result of remarkable and landmark advancements made in the theoretical and applied sciences, the methods of translation have always undergone and will continue to undergo fundamental shifts of approach, never will nations and human societies find themselves able to do without the art of translation.This very evolutionary trend is the case and applies to the Persian language as well which, as non- Persian speakers put it, is a powerful and able means of communication.

In a function-based approach to translation quality assessment, a "good" translation is that which effectively fulfils its intended function in the target language and culture, i.e. it is "functionally adequate". The widely held notion says that the yardstick for evaluating a translation is the source text; that is, one should see whether or not the message is accurately reproduced and the lexical components and grammatical elements are correctly rendered; whereas in a function-based approach to translation, factors such as language function, text type and purpose of the translation are of prime importance and considered as decisive criteria in determining the level of adequacy in the translated text. In this approach, the original text is sometimes regarded as a mere source of information, and the translator is assumed to be an expert who depending on the text type and function or purpose of the original text, decides what role the translated text is to play in the target language and culture.

The competence and performance of bilinguals have always attracted the attention of sociolinguists and specially researchers experimenting in the field of bilingualism, as well as translatologists. Moreover, many of these researchers are on the belief that bilingualsare potentially translators. This can generally be true, for, in the eye of the layman, the bilingual individual and translators or interpreters have at least one characteristic in common.The objective of this paper is to compare the conduct of translators with that of the bilinguals within the framework of translating so as to determine what type of bilinguals with what extent/level of linguistic knowledge are best suited to be trained as translators.

This article discusses the problems of poetry translation concerning multiplicity of meaning, integration of content and form in poetic discourse, rhythm and rhyme, and musicality of poetic language. It assumes that poetry translation, i.e. a type of literary translation, is radically different from technical and even rhythmical prose translation.In technical translation- the purpose of which is communicating information in the most intelligible and fluent manner - the focus is on conveying the content, whereas in poetry translation the significance of form is not any less than, if not more than, content. In prose, the connection between form and content is rather loose compared to poetry. But in poetic language the form and content are highly interconnected and the total meaning of a piece of poetry is the result of the interaction of form and content. In translating prose, it is not difficult to separate the content of the original text from its form and cast it into a different prose form in the target language, but separating the content of poetry from its form is very difficult and causes much to be lost in translation.