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The Allure of Untranslatability: Shafiʿi-Kadkani and (Not) Translating Persian Poetry

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Aria Fani
Aria Fani*
Affiliation:
University of Washington, Seattle
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Abstract

How could one translate into any European language a Persian poem as culturally and aesthetically embedded as this hemistich by Hāfez: beh may sajjādeh rangin kon garat pir-e moghān guyad. This is the central question Mohammad-Rezā Shafiʿi-Kadkani addresses in his essay titled “On Poetic Untranslatability.” For Shafiʿi, translation is primarily a function of cultural—and not linguistic—affinity. Therefore, he argues that Hāfez’s poem is all but untranslatable in European languages given their fundamental cultural difference from Persian. This article critically engages Shafiʿi’s essay by outlining and analyzing the set of problematic assumptions embedded in its rubric of untranslatability. It places Shafiʿi’s view on translation in conversation with theorists of untranslatability in comparative literature and translation studies. Ultimately, it outlines why untranslatability is not a useful conceptual framework for the analysis of linguistic and cultural difference.

Keywords

UntranslatabilityPersian poetryShafiʿi-KadkaniEmily Apter
Type
Narration and Translation
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 54 , Issue 1-2 , March 2021 , pp. 95 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2021

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