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Mardum-gurīz: An Early Persian Translation of Moliere's Le Misanthrope

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 April 2009

Maryam B. Sanjabi
Maryam B. Sanjabi
Affiliation:
Assistant Professor in the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Carbondale, Ill. 62901–4521, U.S.A.
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Extract

Ever since the Persian intelligentsia first discovered French literature in the 19th century, it has remained fascinated with its various genres: first with the writings of the Philosophe, then with the Romantics, the roman aventure, the realists, and, in the mid-20th century, with the existentialists and the thèâtre absurde. Moliere's comedies, in particular, were the subject of great interest and the source of many adaptations in the secularizing Iran of the Constitutional period (1905–19) and the Reza Shah era (1921–41). These comedies, often staged with the government's blessing in the newly built playhouses in Tehran and other major cities, had a great impact on the ethos of the growing urban middle classes, who viewed theater-going as a chic habit with a moral essence.

Type
Articles
Information
International Journal of Middle East Studies , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , May 1998 , pp. 251 - 270
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

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References

NOTES

Author's note: I especially thank the anonymous reviewer for the helpful comments on the final draft this article.

1 For Persian translations and adaptations of Moliere, see among other sources: Browne, E. G., A Literary History of Persia, 4 (Cambridge, 1959): 458–64;Google Scholar and Encyclopaedia Iranica, s.v. “Drama” (by Ghanoonparvar, M.).Google Scholar For the development of theater in Iran, see also Āryanpūr, Y., Az Ṣabā ta Nīmā, 2 vols. (Tehran, 1971), 1:322–66;Google ScholarBayẓāʾī, B., Namāyish dar Iārn (Tehran, 1965)Google Scholar; Chelkowski, P., “Popular Entertainment, Media, and Social Change in Twentieth-Century Iran,” in Avery, P. et al. , The Cambridge History of Iran, 7 (Cambridge, 1991), 776–92Google Scholar; ʿAṭāʾī, A. Jannatī, Bunyād-i Namāyish dar Īrān (Tehran, 1954);Google Scholar and Malikpūr, J., Adabiyāt-i Namāyishī dar Īrān, 2 vols. (Tehran, 1984), 1:303–82;Google Scholar and Meisami, J., “Iran,” in Modern Literature in the Near and Middle East, 1850–1970, ed. Ostle, Robin (London, 1991), 45–62.Google Scholar

2 Browne, , A Literary History, 4:459Google Scholar, based on Muḥammad ʿAlī Tarbīyat's unpublished survey of modern Persian literature. All references to Le Misanthrope and other works by Moliere in Mushār, K. (Fihrist-i Kutub-i Chāppī-yi Fārsī, 3 vols. [Tehran, 1973])Google Scholar are to the 20th-century translations. For a new translation of Le Misanthrope into Persian by Hidāyat, Maḥmūd (Mardum-gurīz, Tehran, 1957)Google Scholar and a comparison with Mirza Habib's translation, see Malikpūr, , Adabīyāt, 1:324–35Google Scholar.

3 Consisting of 125 pages of 20 lines each, the printed text employs a combination of two typefaces of naskh and nastaʿaliq, the latter being a rare typeface that was abandoned in later Persian publications in favor of lithographic printing.

4 H. Nāṭiq has recently stated that a copy of Mardum-gurīz in the library of the Institut des Langues Orientales in Paris bears Mirza Habib Isfahani's name on the cover as the translator, though she does not specify whether this is a manuscript or a printed copy. No further information has been provided (Kārnāmih-yi Farhangī-yi Farangī dar Īrān [Paris, 1996], 57, n. 65)Google Scholar.

5 Browne, , A Literary History, 4:459–64Google Scholar. Browne's source for the history of drama in Iran is Tarbīyat's unpublished survey. Tarbīyat also provided the English Orientalist with much of his data for modern literary trends and press in Iran (p. 458). Given the fact that both authors were keenly familiar with the dissident milieu of Qajar Iran, it is puzzling that neither made any speculations as to the identity of the translator.

6 This assertion appears in Jamālzādih's Introduction to his translation of Moliere's, l'Avare as Khasīs (Tehran, 1957), 20Google Scholar.

7 Afshār, I., “Mīrzā Ḥabīb Iṣfahānī,” Yaghmā 13, no. 10 (1950): 491–97Google Scholar, and “Āsār-i Mīrzā Ḥabīb Iṣfahānī,” Yaghmā 14, no. 2 (1963): 80–82Google Scholar. Mirza Habib's list is appended to the manuscript of his Divān (collected works) in the Bāyazīd library in Istanbul. According to Afshār, Fehmī Edhim Karatāy's bibliography of Persian printed works in the library of the Istanbul University (Istānbūl Unīversitesī Kutuphānesī Fārsça Basmalar Katalogu [Istanbul, 1949])Google Scholar does not list Mardum-gurīz as one of Mirza Habib's works.

8 Āryanpūr, , Az Ṣabā, 1:337–41Google Scholar, cf. 395–405. See also Nāṭiq, H., Az Māst ki Bar-māst (Tehran, 1978), 105–6Google Scholar.

9 For Malkum Khan's early career and the Farāmūsh-khānih affair, see Amanat, A., Pivot of the Universe: Nasir al-Din Shah and the Iranian Monarchy, 1831–1896 (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1997), 358–64, 383–94Google Scholar.

10 For the Persian translation of Hajji Baba, see Āryanpūr, , Az Ṣabā, 1:395–400Google Scholar; Bāmdād, M., Tārīkh-i Rijāl-i Īrān (Tehran, 1968), 1:313–14Google Scholar; Mīnaviī, M. “Ḥājjī Bābā va Murīyih,” Pānzdah Guftār (Tehran, 1967)Google Scholar; and Nāṭiq, H., “Ḥājjī Murīyih va Qiṣṣa-yi Istiʿmār,” Az Māst, 95–142Google Scholar. Habib's, Mirza translation of Gil Bias was later plagiarized by Kafri, Muhammad Khan Kirmanshahi and was published in 1904 in TehranGoogle Scholar.

11 For Ākhūndzādih's plays, see Āryanpūr, , Az Ṣabā, 1:342–58Google Scholar, and Sanjabi, M., “Re-reading the Enlightenment: Akhundzadih and his Voltaire,” Iranian Studies 28, 1–2 (1995): 39–60CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and the cited sources.

12 Some of Mirza Aqa's plays were attributed to Mirza Malkum Khan. They were published by Baron Rosen in 1921 in Berlin as Sī Qiṭʿa Tiʾātr Mansūb bi Mīrzā Malkum Khān Nāzim al-Dawla.Google Scholar For Mirza Aqa, see Āryanpūr, , Az Ṣabā, 1:358–66Google Scholar.

13 Dar al-Funun was Iran's first modern school, founded in 1851, and was modeled after the French polytechnic. See Encyclopaedia Iranica, s.v. “Dār al-fonūn” (by Gurney, J. and Nabavi, N.).Google Scholar

14 For Muzayyan al-Dawla, see Bāmdād, , Rijāl, 2:426Google Scholar, and Tabrīzī, M. ʿA. Karīmzādih, Aḥvāl va Āsār-i Naqqāshān-i Qadīm-i Īrān, 3 vols. (London, 1984–1991), 1:377Google Scholar; Ardakānī, H. Maḥbūbi, Tārīkh-i Muassasāt-i Tamaddunī-yi Jadīd dar Īrān, 2 vols. (Tehran, 1975–1978), 1:289Google Scholar. His book of French grammar is entitled Ṣarf-i Afʿal-i Farānsih bi Fārsī (Tehran, 1886–1887)Google Scholar, and his translation of theory of music is entitled Taʿrīf-i ʿIlm-i Mūsīqī (Tehran, 1882–1883)Google Scholar. His staging of Le Misanthrope is attested by Hasan Muqaddam in Āryanpūr, , Az Ṣabā, 1:337Google Scholar.

15 Raʿīsnīyā, R., Īrān va ʿUsmānī dar Astānih-yi Qarn-i Bīstum, 3 vols. (Tehran, 1995), 1:499Google Scholar.

16 Gibb, E. J. W., History of Ottoman Poetry, 6 vols. (London, 1900–1909), 5:14Google Scholar, and Browne, , A Literary History, 4:462Google Scholar. For the Turkish translations from French in the period, see also Mardin, S., The Genesis of the Young Ottomans (New York, 1962)Google Scholar, and Lewis, B., The Emergence of Modern Turkey, 2d ed. (New York, 1968)Google Scholar.

17 For these literary figures and the Young Ottomans' contact with the Persian exiles, see Berkes, N., The Development of Secularism in Turkey (Montreal, 1968)Google Scholar; Ramsaur, E. E., The Young Turks Prelude to the Revolution of 1908 (Princeton, 1957)Google Scholar, and Raʾīsnīyā, , Īrān va ʿUsmānī, 3:56–155Google Scholar.

18 See Shaw, S. J. and Shaw, E. K., History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey, 2 vols. (New York, 1977), 2:219CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and the cited sources.

19 See Cachia, P., An Overview of Modern Arabic Literature (Edinburgh, 1990), 33–37, 124–25Google Scholar.

20 Pirzādih, Ḥājjī, Safar-nāmih, ed. Farmānfarmāīyān, H., 2 vols. (Tehran, 1963–1965), 2:97Google Scholar.

21 Malikpūr, , Adabīyāt, 1:319Google Scholar.

22 Algar, H., Mirza Malkum Khan (Berkeley, 1973), 9–28Google Scholar, and Raʾisnīyā, , Īrnā va ʿUsmāni, 1:203–5Google Scholar.

23 For Malkum's works, see in addition to Algar's Mirza Malkum Khan the Introduction by Ṭabāṭabāʾī, M. Muḥīṭ to Majmūʿih-yi Āsar-i Mīrzā Malkum Khān (Tehran, 1948)Google Scholar, alifnaj. His Shaykh va Vazīr appears in H. Rabīʿzādih, Kullīyāt-i Rasāʾil-i Mīrzā Malkum Khān (Tehran, n.d.).

24 See Muʿīn, M., Farhang-i Muʿīn(Tehran, 1982), 3:4004–6Google Scholar.

25 Mardum-gurīz, 2.Google Scholar The Qajar usage dar-i khānih (or sometimes darb-i khānih) exclusively denotes royal presence and royal court.

26 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, bilingual edition, English rendering by H. Van Laun (New York, 1968), 8.Google Scholar

27 Mardum-gurīz, 7.

28 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 10.Google Scholar

29 Mardum-gurīz, 8.

30 Ibid. This is a quotation from Hafīz, (Dīvān, ed. Qazvīnī, M. and Ghanī, Q. [Tehran, 1941], 32, ghazal no. 44)Google Scholar, presumably inspired by Nizami's verse (see Saʿdī, , Gulistān, ed. Yūsufī, G. [Tehran, 1989], 488).Google Scholar

31 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 12.Google Scholar

32 Mardum-gurīz, 10. The quote is the second hemistich from Hafīz's famous verse: Fadā-yi pīrhan-i chāk-i māhrūyān bād/hizār jāmih-yi taqvā u khirqih-yi parhīz (Let it be sacrificed for the slit in the gowns of the beauties/A thousand garbs of virtue and robes of abstinence).

33 Ibid., 13, cf. Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 17.Google Scholar

34 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 32.Google Scholar

35 Mardum-gurīz, 26.

36 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 32.Google Scholar

37 Mardum-gurīz, 27. Also quoted by Browne, , A Literary History, 4:459–60.Google Scholar

38 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 66.Google Scholar

39 Mardum-gurīz, 53.

40 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 86.Google Scholar

41 Mardum-gurīz, 74.Google Scholar

42 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 86'88.Google Scholar

43 Mardum-gurīz, 74'75.Google Scholar

44 Ibid.

45 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 86.Google Scholar

46 Mardum-guīz, 75.Google Scholar

47 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 86.Google Scholar The English translator, Van Laun, renders it as: “When not at court, one has not, doubtless, that standing, and the advantage of those honorable titles which it bestows nowadays.”

48 Mardum-gurīz, 75.Google Scholar

49 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 128–32,Google Scholar cf. Mardum-guīz, 114–17.Google Scholar

50 Mardum-gurīz's prose is even inferior to Qarajadaghi's translation from Azerbaijani Turkish into Persian of Akhundzadih's Tamsīlāt. His familiarity with the Tamsīlāt's theme and language is decidedly more obvious than the translation of Mardum-gurīz with Moliere's comedy.

51 Nāṭiq, , Kārnāmih-yi Farhangī, 57.Google Scholar

52 No reference to Mardum-gurīz could be found in any of the Iranian libraries' published catalogs. Mushār, Khānbābā (Muʾallifln-i Kutub-i Chāppī-yi Fārsī va ʿArabī 2 [Tehran, 1961]: 469–70)Google Scholar gives a short biography of Mirza Habib and a list of his published works, but this list, which is based on, among other sources, Khān Malik Sāsānī's unpublished Tazkirih-yi Madīnal al-Adab, does not include Mardum-gurīz.

53 For general discussions of translation techniques, see Bassnet-McGuire, S., Translation Studies, revised ed. (London, 1988), 58–72, 120–32,Google Scholar and Barnstone, W., The Poetics of Translation, History, Theory, Practice (New Haven, 1993), 226–62.Google Scholar For the use of various techniques in Middle Eastern translations, see Cachia, , An Overview, 29–42, 123–36 (esp. 36–38);Google ScholarMeisami, , “Iran“ (45–62, esp. 54–57);Google Scholar and Paker's, S. “Turkey,” in Modern Literature, 17–32.Google Scholar Concerning Mirza Habib's Mardum-gurīz, Meisami notes: “intense artificiality and lack of relevance to the Iranian scene, despite the efforts of its translator to make it meaningful to its Iranian audience.” An intimate reading of the text in question, as attempted in the earlier pages, may help modify such a criticism. Moreover, it is fair to point out that, if and when performed, Mirza Habib's translation may prove to be at least in most instances a far more performable play than its present textual form suggests. Further on, Meisami briefly though accurately summarizes the stylistic and literary strictures of European plays in translations.

54 A. Jannatī ʿAṭāʾī, Bunyād-i Namāyish, also cited in Āryanpūr, , AzṢabā,1:334.Google Scholar

55 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 116.Google Scholar

56 Mardum-gurīz, 101.Google Scholar

57 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 118.Google Scholar

58 Mardum-gurīz, 103.Google Scholar

59 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 140.Google Scholar

60 Mardum-gurīz, 124–25.Google Scholar

61 Pīrzādih, , Safar-nāmih, 2:96.Google Scholar