Abstract:
Translation is always perceived as a challenging process. Nonetheless, from among all types of texts, translation of poetry proves to be more exacting as it is an artistic, cultural, and elusive piece of language. As a result, the translator should try his/her best to not only convey the meaning of the poem into another language but to respect and preserve its spirit. Taking this into account, employing a descriptive-comparative methodology, the present study aimed at identifying and finding the frequency of the ‘deforming tendencies’ in the English translation of Nizami’s Haft Peykar (The Story of Seven Beauties) by Julie Scott Meisami (2015) based on the critical model of Antoine Berman. Further, the merits and demerits of the translated lines were investigated in terms of deviation from Berman’s principles. The analysis of the data revealed that almost all types of ‘deforming tendencies’, although with different frequencies, were observed in the translation of the poetry. The highest frequency went for the qualitative destruction, and the lowest one for ‘the effacement of the superimposition of languages’. In cases where no ‘deforming tendencies’ were observed, upon Berman’s idea, the translated text enjoyed the merits of a faithful translation and the translation of those parts following the ‘deforming tendencies’ is inadequate. Overall, it appears that Berman offers a model which is too strict to keep the form and content of the source text in the English translation of Haft Peykar.