Structural adjustment in literary translation based on Nida and Taber’s framework: a case study of sa’di poem

Poetry is a subcategory of literature which contains aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language. These are the characteristics of poetry that distinguish it from other types of literature. Therefore, the question that arises in poetry translation is reliance on meaning or form. To resolve the so-called binary, some structural and semantic adjustments have been proposed. In this study, structural adjustments have been investigated in one poem of sa’di. It’s required to mention that the present paper is based on Nida and Taber’s framework (۲۰۰۳). The aim of this research is to provide an analysis of these adjustments to see whether or not they eliminate misunderstanding in the target audience. In order to do this descriptive, analytical, and qualitative investigation, Persian source text have been compared and contrasted with two English target texts (translators were Clarke (۱۹۸۵) and Wickens (۱۹۸۴)). Source text data have been obtained from Bustan Sa’di and target text data have been collected from A Study of Islamic Texts in English Translation by Manafi Anari. The results revealed that adjustment of tenses is the most commonly used strategy, the second rank is occupied by numerials, and the least frequent strategies are change in word level and passivization. These findings add substantially to our understanding of strategies adopted by translators of literary texts. Moreover, the present research is utilizable for translators and researchers in the field of translation studies as it exhibits better ways of poetic communication through translation

کلیدواژه ها:

poetry translation ، structural adjustments ، semantic adjustments ، expansion ، reduction ، Sa’di poems