Translation Flow from Persian to Russian: A Time Series Approach

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

• Mehrnoosh Fakharzadeh
• Malihe Amini

Department of Foreign Languages, Sheikhbahaee University, Isfahan, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22067/lts.v51i2.70483

Abstract

The international circulation of translation has a core-periphery structure, where literary texts travel mostly from the core to the periphery. The unequal literary translation flows between linguistic groups result from the position a linguisitc group occupies at world level. While various studies have attempted to examine this unequal flow of translation from the central languages to the peripheral ones, few have dealt with the flows in the opposite direction. This study aimed to examine the literary translation flow from Persian to Russian as a semi-central language with a time series approach. This approach is sophisticated enough to reveal hidden patterns in a timed series of data. The data which were derived from the Index Translationum produced by UNESCO, were related to a time span of 30 years, starting in 1979 and ending in 2010. The total number of books translated from Persian to Russian was about 210. Time series analysis revealed a general downward trend in the number of books translated from Persian to Russian over the time span. Another downward trend was found in 1990s, and a cyclical component emerged between 2003 and 2009. A decline in the cultural relations between two countries as a result of the Iranian Revolution and adopting an anti-imperialism view towards Russia, the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 with its socioeconomic consequences, the revival of the Russian literary tradition, and having access to the Western literary movements could be responsible for the downward trends in the data. The cyclical pattern can be attributed to Russia’s Eurasian perspective in the late 1990s and also the constructive diplomatic relations with other states during the presidency of Khatami.

Keywords

• Translation Flow
• Persian
• Russian
• Time Series

20.1001.1.22285202.1397.51.2.2.0

References

ایرنا. (1392، 12 مرداد). خلاصة دستاوردهای دولت احمدی‌نژاد. برگرفته از http://yon.ir/qUIPl

بصیری، م. ع.، و احمدی‌نژاد، ح. (1395). تبیین دیپلماسی فرهنگی سید محمد خاتمی و محمود احمدی‌نژاد در نظام بین‌الملل. فصل‌نامۀ رهیافت‌های سیاسی بین المللی، ۷(۴۶)، ۹-۴۷.

دونایوا، ا. (1389). روابط فرهنگی ایران و روسیه: امکانات و موانع. ایراس، ۵(۶)، 69-80.

قانون‌پرور، م. ر. (1394، 10 آبان). مشکل ادبیات ایران برای جهانی شدن، بازاریابی است نه ترجمه. برگرفته از https://www.mehrnews.com/news/2953814/

گلکار، آ. (1396، 21 مرداد). متولیان جهانی کردن ادبیات فارسی، انتخاب آثار را بلد نیستند. روزنامه ابتکار. برگرفته از http://yon.ir/RG9v8

متقی، ا. (1387). دامنه تغییر و تداوم سیاست خارجی ایران. برداشت دوم، ۵(۷)، ۴۵-۶۴.

محمدی بدر، ن. (1387). نقش ترجمه در تعاملات فرهنگی ایران و روسیه. پژوهش‌های زبان‌های خارجی، ۱۳(43)، 121-139.

 

Bassnett, S., & Lefevere, A. (1990). Translation, history and culture. London: Printer Publishers.

Bielsa Mialet, E. (2010). The sociology of translation: Outline of an emerging field. Mon TI, 2, 153-172.

Casanova, P. (2004). The world republic of letters. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press.

Cronin, M. (2013). Globalization. In M. Baker, & G. Saldanha (Eds.), Routledge encyclopedia of translation studies (pp. 126-130). New York: Routledge.

De Swaan, A. (2001). Words of the world: The global language system. Cambridge: Polity Press.

Giddens, A. (2003). Runaway world: How globalization is reshaping our lives. New York: Routledge.

Heilbron, J. (1999). Towards a sociology of translation: Book translations as a cultural world system. European Journal of Social Theory, 2(4), 429–444.

Heilbron, J., & Sapiro, G. (2007). Towards a sociology of translation: Current issues and future prospects. In M. Wolf, & A. Fukari (Eds.), Constructing a sociology of translation (pp.93-107). Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Heilbron, J., & Sapiro, G. (2016). Translation: Economic and sociological perspectives. In V. Ginsburgh, & S. Weber (Eds.), The Palgrave handbook of economics and language (pp. 373-402). Houndmills: Palgrave Macmillan.

Mahloujian, A. (2015). Writer’s block: The story of censorship in Iran. London: Small Media.

Motlagh, A., & Nanquette, L. (2016). Translations between centre and periphery: From Iran to the West. Retrieved from https:// apps.mla.org/ program _details?prog_id=97&year=2016.

Nanquette, L. (2014). Iranian exilic poetry in Australia: Reinventing the third space. Antipodes, 28(2), 393–403.

Nanquette, L. (2016). Translations of modern Persian literature in the United States: 1979–2011. The Translator, 23(1), 49-66.

Pieta, H. (2016). On translation between (semi-)peripheral languages: An overview of the external history of Polish literature translated into European Portuguese. The Translator, 22(3), 354-377.

Post-Revolutionary literature (n.d.). Encyclopaedia Britannica. Retrieved from https://www.britannica.com/art/Russian-literature/Post-Revolutionary-literature.

Ursu, O. (2014). Literary translation flows from Romanian into English: A socio-economic perspective. In F. Boldea (Ed.), Communication, context, interdisciplinarity (pp. 396-404). Peru: Maior University Press.

Werner, C. (2009). Literary translation flow from Brazil to abroad: Six case studies. Retrieved from https:// pdfs. semanticscholar. org / .../ 5dbbc88c 72df50 f16d159 2f98864.

Wolf, M., & Fukari, A. (2007) Constructing a sociology of translation. Amsterdam & Philadelphia: John Benjamins.