Translation as Metonymy: Bijan Elahi’s Persian Variation on Cyrano de Bergerac

Tahmasebian, Kayvan

Abstract

In this article, I develop a model for world literature as a patchwork comprised of translations that cross boundaries of language, genre, style and culture. Through a close reading of the modernist Iranian poet Bijan Elahi’s (d. 2010) translations of a poem by the Sufi martyr and poet al-Ḥallāj (d. 922) and the play Cyrano de Bergerac by the French playwright Edmond Rostand (1868–1918), I demonstrate how translation can be used as a comparative method to conjoin, constellate and patch texts and ideas together regardless of their similarities or differences.

Citation

Tahmasebian, K. (2024). Translation as Metonymy: Bijan Elahi’s Persian Variation on Cyrano de Bergerac. Comparative Critical Studies, 21(1), 51-75. https://doi.org/10.3366/ccs.2024.0504

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: May 25, 2023
• Publication Date: Mar 1, 2024
• Deposit Date: Mar 4, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 4, 2024
• Journal: Comparative Critical Studies
• Print ISSN: 1744-1854
• Electronic ISSN: 1750-0109
• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 21
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 51-75
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.3366/ccs.2024.0504