Translating Proverbs in The Gulistan of Sa‘di: Developing a New Taxonomy Based on Baker’s (2011) Model

Abstract

A translator needs to possess a wide socio-cultural and literary knowledge in order to be able to translate idiomatic expressions in general, and proverbs, in particular. The present study is an investigation into the Rehatsek’s (1888) English translation of proverbs of Sa‘di’s Gulistan (1258/2000), as a classical Persian masterpiece. Baker’s (2011) set of strategies for translating idioms was employed as an initial framework for data analysis. The findings indicated that Rehatsek had merely resorted to either literal translation or total omission. Moreover, it was found that Baker’s consideration of ‘paraphrasing’ as the most common way of translating idioms could not be confirmed in the case of Persian proverbs in The Gulistan. It was found that literal translation is by far the most common strategy for translating Persian proverbs into English with 98 per cent. It was found that there could potentially be some other strategies, besides those referred to by Baker, for rendering proverbs. Finally, six strategies were proposed for translating proverbs into literary texts