Use of Translations of Classic Persian Poems in the Study of Persian

Abstract

This chapter begins with a discussion of the sorts of Persian classes—language, literature, literature in translation, and Iranian culture—in which Persian poetry together with translations of that poetry can play a part. The use of Persian poems in Persian literature courses needs no discussion. As for their use in Persian language courses, the rationale is twofold. First, they are authentic texts and, all other things being equal, the use of authentic texts in Persian instructional materials seems obviously and generally preferable to the use of prompted and artificial texts. Second, Persian poetry plays a distinctively significant role in Persian Iranian culture and everyday discourse. The bulk of the chapter illustrates various roles that translations of texts can play in Persian language and literature courses, among them as Persian vocabulary learning aids with respect to texts under discussion, as illustrations of specific features of Persian morphology and syntax, as commentaries on texts, as vehicles for highlighting relevant rhetorical and poetic features in texts, and as devices for highlighting poetic features of texts that may not survive translation. The texts discussed in the chapter are classic Persian texts by Rudaki (d. 940/1), Rabe‘eh (10th c.), Ferdowsi (940–1020), ‘Omar Khayyam (1048–1131), Faridoddin Attar (d. ca. 1220), Jalaloddin Rumi (1207–73), Nima Yushij (1895–1960), Nader Naderpur (1929–2000), Forugh Farrokhzad (1934–67), and Ahmad Shamlu (1925–2000). Parenthetically, the chapter neither critiques the appeal of published translations cited and quoted therein nor addresses the issue of the appropriateness of the use of translations in foreign language courses, but merely illustrates how they have been and can be used in Persian courses.