©inTRAlinea & Abbas Mehrpooya (2018).
"Arash the Archer". Translation from the work of Siavash Kasra'i.
Stable URL: https://www.intralinea.org/translations/item/2324
inTRAlinea [ISSN 1827-000X] is the online translation journal of the Department of Interpreting and Translation (DIT) of the University of Bologna, Italy. This printout was generated directly from the online version of this translation and can be freely distributed under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
Arash the Archer
Translated by: Abbas Mehrpooya
آرش کمانگیر، سروده¬ی سیاوش کسرایی by Siavash Kasra'i
Kasra’i, Siavash (2005) Āraŝ-e Kamāngīr/Arash-e Kamangir, Ketab-e Nader Publishing. Tehran, Iran.
Translation | Source Text |
It is snowing; The door they opened. “...I told you life is beautiful. The flowers peeping up through the snow; To work and work; To shepherd the sheep to the mountain at dawn; From time to time, Or to sit by the fire flames, The old man serenely smiling, “Life must have burning flames; A forest you are! O man! Forest, O freely grown, “Life wants flames” Amoo Nowruz thundered, There was a time; Zeal in the shackles of slavery bound; The seasons all had turned to winter, Fear it was and the wings of death; Like the unbound frontiers of the mind, No breast held hate. The gardens of hope were leafless; Foes held councils, Eyes fearfully strayed here and there in their sockets; Each mouth related this news; The old man sadly rubbed hand on hand. “Morn was coming,” –The old man quietly went on – The sky had lost its diamond stars. (136) The muted murmur it rose to a crescendo. “Arash am I, – Seek not my roots, – As a meteor that flees the night, Hallowed be the armor worn in war; My heart I hold in hand May I in a feast drink to your triumph; In this battle, The arc of the heavens in my hand Yet, Then he turned his head heavenward, “Salute, O Last morn! Farewell, O Dawn! The earth knows this, so do the heavens, He stopped then and said no word awhile. “Before me Death, My heart loathes Death; Thousands of telling eyes ‘n’ silent lips With human charms I adorn my heart and soul. He knelt in prayer, As I’ve got my foot in the mouth of ireful Death, Yea, O the rebel peaks of silence, The earth still and the sky silent was. Arash calmly threw a look at the land beyond. His foes in a mocking silence gave way. Arash, yet silent, Closed his eyes a wink Amoo Nowruz, “At night, Yea, yea, The arrow of Arash Sunlight, Moonlight, By the mouths of the stones on the mountain It’s snowing outside the hut. Saturday, March 14, 1959 Notes[1] Regarding the lexical innovation thorn-stone (khäräsang: khär + ä + sang: khär/thorn/خار + sang/stone/سنگ), an old yet inventive example of applying a similar constructive pattern to create a relationship of equivalence in translation can be found between Persian and German wherein the Persian ‘خرمالو’ (khoromäloo: khoromä + älu: date/khoromä/خرما + plume/älu/آلو) and the German dattelpflaume (date/dattel + plume/pflaume) both meaning persimmon are placed in a relationship of lexical equivalence, as provided in the Faramarz Behzad’s Deutsch-Persisches Wörterbuch (2012). [2] In Persian Culture, Amoo Nowruz, meaning Uncle Nowruz, is responsible for giving gifts to children. He makes their wishes come true and ensures that they are happy and healthy for many years to come. (See: Persian Mirror, 2004, ©2004 PersianMirror, Inc., [url=http://www.persianmirror.com]http://www.persianmirror.com[/url]) [3] According to DehKhoda Encyclopedia of Persian Language, Jeyhun River was the border between Khorasan and Transoxiana, Amuy near Balkh. Dr. Mansur Rastegar Fasaie quotes Tabari in his Dictionary of Shahnemé’s Names that Jeyhun River was called ‘the stream of Balkh’ which was the border between Iran and Turan (DehKhoda 1998). [4] According to DehKhoda Encyclopedia of Persian Language, Turan was the name of the land of Transoxiana, beyond Amuy, which was the kingdom of Tur, Fereydoon’s eldest son, and named after him (DehKhoda 1998). |
برف می بارد؛ برف می بارد به روی خار و خاراسنگ. بر نمی شد گر ز بام کلبه ها دودی، در گشودندم. «...گفته بودم زندگی زیباست. گفته و ناگفته، ای بس نکتهها کاینجاست. سر برون آوردن گل از درون برف؛ کار کردن، کار کردن؛ گوسفندان را سحرگاهان به سویِ کوه راندن؛ گاه گاهی، یا، شب برفی، آری، آری، زندگی زیباست. پیر مرد، آرام و با لبخند، « زندگی را شعله باید برفروزنده؛ شعله ها را هیمه سوزنده. جنگلی هستی تو، ای انسان! جنگل، ای روییده آزاده،
« زندگانی شعله میخواهد »، صدا سر داد عمو نوروز، روزگاری بود؛ غیرت اندر بندهایِ بندگی پیچان؛ فصلها فصل زمستان شد، در شبستانهای خاموشی، ترس بود و بالهایِ مرگ؛ مرزهای مُلک، هیچ سینه کینهای در بَر نمیاندوخت. باغهای آرزو بیبرگ؛ انجمنها کرد دشمن، چشمها با وحشتی در چشمخانه، هر طرف را جست و جو می کرد؛ وین خبر را هر دهانی زیرِ گوشی بازگو میکرد: هر دهانی این خبر را بازگو میکرد؛ پیرمرد، اندوهگین، دستی به دیگر دست میسایید. «صبح میآمد- پیرمرد آرام کرد آغاز،- آسمان الماساخترهای خود را داده بود از دست. لشکرِ ایرانیان در اضطرابی سخت دردآور، کم کََمک در اوج آمد پچپچِ خفته. مَنَم آرش،- مجوییدم نسب،- گریزان چون شهاب از شب، مبارک باد آن جامه که اندر رزم پوشندش؛ دلم را در میان دست میگیرم که تا نوشم به نامُ فتحتان در بَزم؛ در این پیکار، کمانِ کهکشان در دست، و لیکن چاره را امروز زور و پهلوانی نیست. پس آنگه سر به سوی آسمان بَر کرد، درود، ای واپسین صبح، ای سحر بدرود! زمین میداند این را، آسمانها نیز، درنگ آورد و یک دم شد به لب خاموش. «ز پیشم مرگ، دلم از مرگ بیزار است؛ هزاران چشمِ گویا و لبِ خاموش
پیش میآیم. نیایش را، دو زانو بر زمین بنهاد. چو پا، در کامِ مرگی تندخو دارم، شما، ای قلههای سرکشِ خاموش، «زمین خاموش بود و آسمان خاموش. «نظر افکند آرش سوی شهر، آرام. دشمنانش، در سکوتی ریشخندآمیز، آرش، اما همچنان خاموش، بست یک دم چشمهایش را عمو نوروز، «شامگاهان، آری، آری، جان خود در تیر کرد آرش. تیر آرش را سوارانی که میراندند بر جیحون،
آفتاب، ماهتاب، با دهانِ سنگهایِ کوه آرش میدهد پاسخ. در برون کلبه میبارد. شنبه 23 اسفند 1337 |
Comment
An Arrow Yet to Land.[*] A Commentary on the Poem ‘Arash the Archer’ in Translation
‘Arash, the Archer’ or ‘Āraŝ-e Kamāngīr’ is a poem which has its roots in the age-old Persian legend of ‘Arash-é Shipak-teer’, what can be roughly paraphrased as ‘Arash (of) the Swift Arrow’. The story is first told in the New Avesta, the religious book of Zoroastrians, which most probably dates back to 900 or 800 BC (Boyce 1992). Here is the account of the legend of ‘Āraŝ-e Kamāngīr’, as it appears in the Encyclopedia Iranica (the text is abridged):
His feat occurred in these circumstances: After Afrasyab had surrounded the Pisdadian king, Manucehr, in Tabarestan, both agreed to make peace. Manucehr requested that the Turanian return to him a piece of land the width of a bow-shot, and Afrasyab assented. An angel (in Biruni it is “Esfanddrmad,” i.e., the Beneficent Immortal Spanddrmad) instructed Manucehr to prepare a special bow and arrow; wood, feather, and iron point were taken from a special forest, eagle, and mine (Gorar, p. 133). The skilled archer Araš was commanded to shoot. According to Biruni, Araš displayed himself naked and said: “Behold! my body is free of any wound or sickness; but after this bowshot I will be destroyed.” At dawn he shot and was immediately torn to pieces. (… A later tradition has him survive and become head of the archers…) God commanded the wind to bear the arrow as far as the remote regions of Khorasan, and in this way the boundary between the Iranian and Turanian kingdoms was established.(Tafazzol & Hanaway 1986)
Though the legend of ‘Arash the Archer’ has been re-casted almost equally ingeniously by different Iranian authors in different genres – e.g. the dramatic piece by Bahram Beyzai (1977), the eminent Iranian playwright and movie director, and the classical versified rendition by Mehrdaad Avesta (1996), the modern Persian poet − yet Kasra’i’s version is the one whose seriousness of textual and stylistic matter has appeared to encourage the translator to make an investment of ‘trust’, to use Steiner’s (1975) hermeneutic notion, in favour of rendering a ‘foreign’ translation of it, ‘foreign’ in the sense Berman (1985) had given credence to Heidegger. Arriving at such a conclusion has first and foremost been due to the narratological adherence with which the poet has re-framed the original legend’s main plot while exploiting certain elements of modern narrative-poetry. In the second place, the poet’s attempt at putting to use certain creative features of form and structure has as well appeared to offer a challenge to the translator, what has made the whole endeavor of translating such a literary piece objectivally virtuous. As such, the belief in the fact that there exists “something there” to be comprehended and transferred has appeared to offer sufficient justificatory grounds in favour of finding the labour of transversifying such a long poem all worth it while.
On the Translation
Shunning a translation that ‘reads smoothly’, to use Nabokov’s (1955/2012) phraseology, the translator of the present work has adopted what might be termed a ‘literal approach’ in translation, following Nabokov’s clue that ‘anything but [a literal rendition] is not truly a translation but an imitation, an adaptation or a parody (ibid., p.119). Thus, in rendering a translation of the poem ‘Arash the Archer’, it has been tried to remain as consistent as possible with the original work’s syntactico-semantic content, while trying to keep up as much as possible with the expressive voice of the author and at the same time attempting to make the poetic language of the original as visible in the target rendition. To substantiate such a claim, there follows a brief commentary on three critical points:
1. To begin with, in line 107, there is the neologistic phrase ‘روسپی نامردمان’ (rüspi-nämærdomän), literally meaning: whorish non-people, which poses another major problem:
O: روسپی نامردمان در کار...
G: … work at non-people whore
T: Whorish fiends held the reins...
O = original
G = gloss
T = Translation
To start, the expression ‘the friendless’, used by P. B. Shelly, as provided by The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (1973) is defined as ‘unfriendly’, what can be perceived to be a translational equivalent for the word ‘نامردمان’ (nä-mardomän), meaning: non-people or non-friends. However, to give a target item which remains more consistent with the original text, perhaps the word ‘unman’, defined in the same dictionary as ‘a being below the status of man’, is found to be more appropriate semantically; what stands in a closer relationship of equivalence with the source word in terms of its semantico-morphological content. Yet, to make a more poetically adequate decision, the equivalent ‘fiend’, defined ibidem as ‘foe’ and ‘an enemy of mankind’, was decided upon for a more fitting poetic import to be permitted in the English rendition, what may well accord with the legendry world of the poem. This way, the existence of similar sound patterns in both fiends and friends – the latter to appear only further in the expression: the friend’s army − turns to more relevantly season the poetic flavor of the ultimate rendition.
2. In line 136, there is also an adjectival phrase where a noun, diamond, modifies another noun star:
O: آسمان الماس اخترهای خود را داده بود از دست
G: Hand from had-given its stars-of diamond sky
T: The sky had lost its star diamonds.
In such a case, in lieu of an adjective imputing an attribute to a noun, a noun is opted for by the poet which appears to modify another noun. This phenomenon is not rare in Persian literary and everyday discourse, yet seemingly it has been looked into by few, if not no, language scholars. In English, M. L. Larson (1998), appears to bring a similar phenomenon under study by referring to it as lexical skewing. However, in the instances of lexical skewing which Larson provides these are nouns which appear to modify adjectives; while in the Persian case, a noun, a THING at deep-structure level, diamond, appears to be used as an, adjective, an ATTRIBUTE, to modify another noun, star. In the Persian text, such an attributive compound can manifest itself as both diamond stars (stars as diamond) as well as star diamonds (diamonds as star), of which the former has been chosen by the original poet. As it can be seen, there is a change of point of view in choosing the latter where star appears to modify diamond resulting in the conventional choice star diamonds, a construction which is likely to appear to ring more familiarly to an English ear and corresponds with the general proposition: diamonds that shine as star(s). It is while the Persian poet is telling of the stars that shine as diamonds in the dark velvety sky, what paves the ground for a decision in favour of the former case resulting in the novel construction of ‘diamond stars’. Therefore, though the conventional TL construction appears to be more convenient and handy, the point is that equivalence is equivalence and thus it should not be compromised as far as possible. Notwithstanding the fact that such a skewed adjectival phrase can also be de-skewed or paraphrased only to contain a translational modulation, such as starry diamonds, gemmy stars, jeweled stars, brilliant stars etc., it is clear that mere retaining of the skewed pattern ‘diamond stars’ not only guarantees the well-rendered transfer of the message in its original totality, but also attests the latent potential capacity of SL and TL to accommodate the ideal of supra-lexical equivalence.
3. In line 187, the author has created a rhyming pattern between two adjectival items imputing two contrasting attributes to a noun that is the ‘arrow’.
O: بر این پیکان هستی سوز سامانساز
G: To make boundary to burn existence arrow this on
T: On this very life-taking and home-making arrow
Here, the mere presence of a formal similarity in the form of parallel adjectival patterns does not prevent a case of semantic conflict between the two. In the phrase in question, an arrow takes life while at the same time making home, that is marking out the home frontiers. In the original, the second of the two modifying items ‘ساز/سوز’ (süz/säz: burn/make) form a minimal pair with a para-rhyming pattern, wherein ‘the last stressed vowels differ, but the following sounds are identical (Cuddon, 2013: 608).’ To bring such a formal alignment into being, a parallel construction was used in the target text by using the TL minimal pairs take/make in -ing form to provide for a rhyming pattern: life-taking and home-making, while at the same time taking care of transferring the semantic content as closely as possible.
In fine, suffice it to say that though the translational points worthy of explanation in this work far exceed the few examples included above, yet, due to space limitation, let’s bring this commentary to a close here and read the poem as it has appeared in translation.
Bibliography
Behzad, Faramarz (2012). Deutsch-Persisches Wörterbuch (German-Persian Dictionary). Kharazmi Publishing, Tehran.
Berman, Antoine (1985/2012). Translation and the Trials of the Foreign. In: The Translation Studies Reader, Lawrence Venuti (Ed.), Third Edition, New York: Routledge, pp. 240-253.
Boyce, Mary (1992). Zoroastrianism, Costa Mesa, New York, California, USA.
Cuddon, John Anthony B. (2013). A Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. Fifth edition, Revised by M. A. R. Habib, Wiley and Blackwell: A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication.
DehKhoda, Ali Akbar (1998). DehKhoda Encyclopedic Dictionary of Persian Language, Vol. 5, New Edition, 15 Volumes, Tehran: Tehran University Press: DehKhoda Encyclopedic Dictionary Institute in Cooperation with Rouzaneh.
Kasra’i, Siavash (2005). Āraŝ-e Kamāngīr/Arash-e Kamangir, Ketab-e Nader Publishing. Tehran, Iran.
Larson, Mildred L. (1998). Meaning-Based Translation: A Guide to Cross-Language Equivalence. (2nd Edition). University Press of America, Lanham, Maryland.
Nabokov, Vladimir (1955). Problems of Translation: Onegin in English. In L.Venuti, (Ed.), (2012). The Translation Studies Reader, Third Edition, New York: Routledge, 113-125.
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Steiner, George (1975/2012). The Hermeneutic Motion. In: L. Venuti (Ed.) (2012), The Translation Studies Reader. Third Edition, New York: Routledge, 156-161.
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Digital Sources
Abedi, Kamyar (2009). KASRA’I, Siavash. Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, April 20, 2009, http://www.iranica.com/articles/kasrai- siavash- marxist- poet.
Loghat-nameye Deh-Khoda (Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Persian Language) Kingroid Digital Version 1.0.0.
Oxford Collocations Dictionary CD-ROM (2009). First Edition, © Oxford University Press 2008 and its licensors. Database right Oxford University Press (maker).
Persian Mirror (2004). ©2004 PersianMirror, Inc., [url=http://www.persianmirror.com]http://www.persianmirror.com[/url].
Tafazzol, A. and Hanaway, Jr., W. L. (1986). ARAS. Encyclopaedia Iranica, Online Edition, December 15, http://www.iranica.com/articles/aras-avestan-erexsa.
[*] The title given to this commentary was inspired by a statement made by my late father, Ali Mehrpooya, upon my first reciting of the poem Arash the Archer in Persian: “If it was not for the walnut tree, the arrow had still a long way to fly!” he said.
©inTRAlinea & Abbas Mehrpooya (2018).
"Arash the Archer". Translation from the work of Siavash Kasra'i.
Stable URL: https://www.intralinea.org/translations/item/2324
inTRAlinea [ISSN 1827-000X] is the online translation journal of the Department of Interpreting and Translation (DIT) of the University of Bologna, Italy. This printout was generated directly from the online version of this translation and can be freely distributed under Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.