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The Social and Literary Context of German Translations of Saʿdi’s Golestān

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Nina Zandjani
Nina Zandjani*
Affiliation:
Area Studies and European Languages of the University of Oslo
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Abstract

Saʿdi’s Golestān has been translated into German numerous times since the seventeenth century. The purpose of this article is to examine the social and literary context of three German translations and translators: Karl Heinrich Graf, a theologian and researcher of the Old Testament, published his translation of the Golestān in 1846 during German Romanticism; Dieter Bellmann, a professor of Oriental studies, published a revision of Graf’s Rosengarten in 1982 in the German Democratic Republic, where literature was strictly regulated; Kathleen Göpel published her indirect translation from English, prepared by the Afghan translator Omar Ali-Shah, in 1997, at a time of intercultural literature, also called “bridge literature.” Through examples the article shows how the context may have influenced their translations and how the text has changed when traveling across linguistic and cultural borders.

Keywords

Saʿdi’s GolestānGerman TranslationsSocial and Literary ContextSociology in TranslationHabitus
Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 52 , Issue 5-6: Special Section: Saʿdi at Large , November 2019 , pp. 809 - 832
Copyright
Copyright © Association For Iranian Studies, Inc 2019

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