One of Persia’s most popular poets ever is the fourteenth century born Hafez. The present dissertation deals with the reception of his work in France, mainly through French translations of his poetry.
The aim of the first part of this study is t ...
One of Persia’s most popular poets ever is the fourteenth century born Hafez. The present dissertation deals with the reception of his work in France, mainly through French translations of his poetry.
The aim of the first part of this study is to give a background to the study of the French translations of Hafez’ work by pointing out the cultural and historical situation of the epoch at the time the poet lived and the degree of familiarity with the author in the receptor country. After a description of the fourteenth century’s situation in France we try to find the first references and acknowledgements of Persia and Hafez in France through a study of important travellers’ journals. Thereafter we glance at the first translations into the European languages including French. Through an inter-textual study, the dissertation sets out to discover whether the themes of the translated poems have any resemblance with the themes portrayed by the French authors. This procedure permits us to recognise why a translator chose one specific poem and not another. Before Hafez found his place in French literature, the Orient and Persia had already been described in French literature. Periodicals and articles give information on the reception of the poet from the eighteenth to the twentieth century and this information is valuable for the understanding of the translations.
The second part of the dissertation gives a survey of the French translations from the eighteenth to the twentieth century. Antoine Berman’s model is used in order to obtain a clear image of the translator and his translation project. More concrete information was obtained from a questionnaire, which was sent to French contemporary translators. Finding out that none of the translators from the eighteenth to the twentieth century had translated the complete work of Hafez, we tried to find the possible reasons for this delay and to illustrate the obstacles, which prevented them from translating the entire work.
Working from a hermeneutic perspective and the analytical process proposed by A. Berman, the aim of the third part is a comparative and an evolutionary study of the two most important themes in Hafez’ work, love and wine. Our main interest is to examine thematic differences firstly between an original text and its translation and secondly between the various translations of the same text. This part of the dissertation focuses on the ten most translated poems and the variations in the translation of the themes through the centuries. We see these differences as the result of different approaches to translation.
It is obvious that an exact interpretation and translation of Hafez is only possible if the translator – and the public – understand the culture and the neo-platonic tradition which affected his work. This dissertation shows that through time, translators have come closer to the spirit of Hafez’ work. The first translation of the entire work, by C.–H. de Fouchécour, is an important step in this direction. With this progress in the interpretation and translation of Hafez’ work a new light will be projected upon the image of the fourteenth century poet leading to a greater awareness of Hafez in France.
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