Poetry Translation as a Trope: Tarjama in Persian Poetics

Tahmasebian, Kayvan

Abstract

In classical manuals of Persian science of eloquence (balāgha), poetry translation (tarjama) is classified as a figure of speech along with other rhetorical devices, such as metaphor (istiʾāra), simile (tashbīh), and paronomasia (jinās). In this working paper, I have translated sections related to the rhetorical device tarjama from Tarjuman al-balāgha (written circa 1088-1114) by Muḥammad b. ʿUmar ar-Rādūyānī’s, Ḥadāʾiq al-siḥr fi daqāʾiq al-shiʿr by Rashīd al-Dīn Waṭwāṭ’ (d. 1182-1183), Daqāʾiq al-shiʿr by ʿAlī b. Muḥammad Tāj al-Ḥalāvī (active 15th century), Badāyiʾ al-afkār fi ṣanāyiʾ al-ashʾār by Mīrzā Ḥusayn Vāʾiẓ Kāshifī Sabzavārī (d. 1504), and Abdaʾ al-badāyiʾ by Muḥammad Ḥusayn Shams al-ʾUlamā Garakānī (d. 1927). I illustrate the significance of poetry translation for classical and modernist Persian poetry.

Citation

Tahmasebian, K. Poetry Translation as a Trope: Tarjama in Persian Poetics. Birmingham

• Working Paper Type: Working Paper
• Deposit Date: Oct 13, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Oct 13, 2023
• Pages: 1-20
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.17613/pzkk-7537
• Keywords: GlobalLit, Middle Eastern Literatures, tarjama, Islamic studies, Literary theory, Poetics and poetry, Translation of poetry
• Publisher URL: https://globallit.hcommons.org/licit-magic-working-papers/