The Influence of Sa’di’s Gulistan on the Translation of Adventures of Haji Baba of Ispahan

Abstract

In the translation of Adventures of Haji Baba of Ispahan, Mirza Habib Isfahani has transferred the heritage of traditional Persian writing to the modern fiction writing. Mirza Habib method in this translation in which different texts are present is as if previous texts are playing in an orchestra in this last flame of traditional prose. Amongst such texts, Sa’di’s works, especailly Gulistan, have a prominent presence. Thus, the authors of this article aim to explore intertextual relations of this work with Gulistan on the basis of Gerard Genette theory of transtextuality in three levels of explicit intertextualit, covert intertextuality (implicit) and connotative intertextuality as well as hypertextuality. The references of this translation to Gulistan and Mirza Habib’s borrowings from this work reveal the role of Sa’di’s language and expressive style in the formation of Mirza Habib’s method of writing and style. Such an attitude is, indeed, a response to the hypothesis that whether contemporary prose can be considered as the sequence of traditional prose and linguistic and expressive links of classic texts with contemporary texts can be identified or not.

Keywords

• the translation of Adventures of Haji Baba of Ispahan
• Sa’di’s Gulistan
• Intertextuality
• Mirza Habib Isfahani