Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1
Persian Language and Literature, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran.
2
Persian Language and Literature, Allameh Tabataba’i University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Literary translation constitutes one of the most significant means of transferring culture, thought, and human experience across societies. Beyond conveying meaning, it carries values, stylistic features, and linguistic and cultural structures that shape the target reader’s understanding of the source text. When literary works enter the target language through an intermediary language, translational complexity increases and the potential for textual transformation and cultural adaptation expands. Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe represents a notable example of this process in Qajar-era Iran, where Mohammad Ḥasan Khan Eʿtemād al-Salṭaneh translated the novel from French into Persian under the title Robinson Sūyisi. Despite the translator’s apparent effort to convey the core themes of the original, structural, thematic, and cultural transformations bring the Persian version to the threshold between translation, rewriting, and literary adaptation, reflecting an alignment with the historical, social, and literary conditions of its Persian readership. Drawing on Antoine Berman’s theory of deforming tendencies and André Lefevere’s concept of rewriting, this study adopts a descriptive-analytical approach, comparing Eʿtemād al-Salṭaneh’s Persian text with the French version of the novel and, where relevant, with Marjan Rezaei’s Persian translation. The analysis indicates that omissions, additions, and shifts in narrative, linguistic, and cultural elements characterize the translation. Although traces of fidelity to the source text remain, the overall tendency moves toward adaptation to the expectations of Qajar readers, resulting in a form of literary rewriting rather than a strictly faithful translation.
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