Polysystem Theory

This article was written based on the key concept of polysystem theory which, in translating any literary text, emphasizes the transference of the social systems in which a text is embedded. As stated by Tynjanov (1978a), polysystem theory saw translated literature as a system operating in the larger social systems of the target text. Thus, the task of understanding as well as transferring such systems in their translations, which can certainly affect the readers’ adequate understanding of texts, is a challenging job for most of the literary translators. After identifying three main social systems in The Great Gatsby as the corpus which was ranked second in the lists of the 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century, the source and the target texts were studied attentively, to study the way the respective systems were translated by the Iranian literary translators. Therefore, the prominent element of Nord’s textual analysis (1991), macrostructure, was focused throughout data collection procedure. Then, it was demonstrated that especially through an appropriate transference of the major conflict between the two predominant classes in the novel, the translator has managed to suitably convey most of the text’s social systems in his translation. Finally, it could be deduced that most of the literary translators in Iran, somehow transferred the concerned systems into some significantly adequate equivalents in their works.

The aim of the present study was to investigate the acceptability of two Persian translations of Rowling's Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by finding the position of each Persian translation in the literary polysystem of Iran. It also aimed to identify the most/least used translation strategies applied by each Persian translator, Morteza Madaninejad (2000) and Hamideh Ashkannezhand (2004), for translating culture-specific items (CSIs) from English into Persian. To do so, CSIs were extracted from the novel and classified based on Espindola and Vasconcellos's (2006) classification of cultural items. Then, Pederson's (2005) taxonomy of translation strategies was used to analyze the two Persian translations. The results indicated that Madaninejad preferred to use source oriented strategies. Thus, the translation he produced occupied the primary position in the literary polysystem. By contrast, Ashkannezhand had an interest in the use of target -oriented strategies. The findings have implications for translators of literary texts.

Translation of the Holy Qur’ān has always been a challenging and contentious issue due to the presence of cultural terms. While some translators advocate for a literal word-for-word translation, there have been numerous interpretational versions of the Holy Qur’ān in various languages. This study examines the Persian and English translations of cultural-specific terms in the Holy Qur’ān from the perspective of accurate translation to compare them with the original Arabic version. Additionally, two interpretational books and a Qur’ānic dictionary were consulted to support the research. Seventy cultural terms were randomly selected from different parts of the Holy Qur’ān for analysis and comparison. The findings suggest that when translating such significant texts into a target language, the dominant language (Arabic) does not significantly influence translators’ strategies; rather, it is the cultural context that plays a crucial role in determining translation strategies. Furthermore, the study revealed that both Persian and English translators tended to prioritize accurate translation over non-adequate translation, indicating their commitment to remaining faithful to the original text.