Translating Line Breaks: A View from Persian Poetics

Main author: Tahmasebian Dehkordi, Kayvan
Other authors: Gould, Rebecca Ruth
Format: Journal Article           
Online access: Click here to view record


id eprints-41002
recordtype eprints
institution SOAS, University of London
collection SOAS Research Online
language English
language_search English
description Line breaks are arguably the defining feature of poetry, in the absence of which a text becomes prose. Consequently, the translation of line breaks is a decisive issue for every poetry translator. Classical and modern literary theorists have argued that the potential for enjambment, which we understand as the effect that makes line breaks possible in poetry, constitutes the difference between poetry and prose. Yet, the translation of line breaks is among the least studied areas of translation theory. This essay explores the challenge of translating classical and modernist line breaks through examples from Persian and European literary canons. From Shams-i Qays’s classic treatise on Persian prosody to Arthur Rimbaud and William Carlos Williams to modernist poet Bijan Elahi’s poetic rewriting of One Thousand and One Nights, we explore the options open to the translator-poet who seeks to create a new poem in and through translation.
format Journal Article
author Tahmasebian Dehkordi, Kayvan
author_facet Tahmasebian Dehkordi, Kayvan
Gould, Rebecca Ruth
authorStr Tahmasebian Dehkordi, Kayvan
author_letter Tahmasebian Dehkordi, Kayvan
author2 Gould, Rebecca Ruth
author2Str Gould, Rebecca Ruth
title Translating Line Breaks: A View from Persian Poetics
publisher Duke University Press
publishDate 2023
url https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/41002/