The Language of the Catcher in the Rye in the Persian Translations

Mostafa Sedaghat Rostami

doi:10.7575/ijalel.v.1n.4p.205

Abstract

This study aimed at investigating whether the language of the Catcher in the Rye was conveyed in its Persian translations or not. To do so, first the language of this story (i.e. the linguistic features) was described: a description of the language of this story was provided by focusing on a famous article written on the language of the Catcher in the Rye by Donald. P Costello in 1959.Of the different elements of the language of this story mentioned by Donald .P Costello, the concepts of loosely dangling phrases , grammatical elements, repetition, slangy expressions, and swear words were considered to be investigated in the Persian translations. As far as the loosely dangling phrases were concerned, 30 examples were provided from the story and compared with their Persian translation. When it came to other concepts, 15 examples were considered for the grammatical elements,15 examples for the repetition ,15 examples for the slangy expressions ,and 15 examples for the swear words. The results of the study showed that none of the translators have done perfectly in conveying the concepts mentioned above .Even though each of these linguistic features are investigated separately, 15 examples are not enough to make a conclusion concerning which translator has done a great job in conveying a special linguistic features. Because of this, a general conclusion would be made concerning the quality of the translation, considering all the 90 examples together. However, generally speaking, it can be said that the second translator, Mohammad Najafi, has done a better job compared to other translators in conveying the language of the story .It may be possible that the two other translators have done a better job compared to Mohamad Najafi in conveying the content of the story rather than its language .Finally, it can be said that similar study can be conducted in other foreign languages considering the linguistic features mentioned by Costello.

Highlights

J.D Salinger’s famous story The Catcher in the Rye was first published in 1951.Following its publication it received a lot of praises and criticisms
Language plays an important role in conveying the content; the content of a text, written or spoken, can be hidden in the linguistic elements used for communication
Taking this fact into account, the translator should not ignore these linguistic elements and convey them perfectly .If the translator doesn’t achieve in conveying them, some contents of the texts will be lost in the translation. This made the author to carry out a study on how the language of The Catcher in the Rye was conveyed in its Persian translations

Summary

Introduction

J.D Salinger’s famous story The Catcher in the Rye was first published in 1951.Following its publication it received a lot of praises and criticisms. The first Persian translation of The Catcher in the Rye was made by Ahmad Karimi and published by cultural and scientific press in 1966( In this study, the newest edition of his translation, the eighth edition was used).Concerning this translation, it should be said that nowadays most Iranians believed Ahmad Karimi Hakak translated The Catcher in the Rye ,but it is wrong and the real translator of the first translation of The Catcher in the Rye is Ahmad Karimi, without Hakak ; speaking with Ahmad Karimi Hakak, he told the author that he hasn’t translated this story and the real translator is someone else: Ahmad Karimi , without Hakak Another translation of this story was provided by Mohammad Najafi and was published by Nila Publication in 1998(As for this translation, the newest edition of it, the eighth edition was used for the analysis).In 2010, an unknown translator named Zahra Zolghadr provided a translation of this story which was published by Gostar Publication. All these three translations were investigated to come to a conclusion concerning the quality of these translations

The language of The Catcher in the Rye

Grammatical elements

Conclusion and Discussion