From Don Quixote to Zorba, madness and revolt as an ideology in Mohammad Ghazi’s translations

Abstract

The present article investigates the role of madness in the translated work of a Kurd translator, Mohammad Ghazi (1914–1998) who translated from 1940 to 1998. The aim of the author is discussing the poetics of madness or Revolt in a man who “speaks truth to power” in the guise of madness. Ghazi translated more than 60 books from different authors into Persian. His translations in general construe what we consider as his poetics of madness. What we mean here by “madness” is what Camus calls Revoltè. Most of the main characters of his translated fiction are characters who act like Bohlool, a man looks mad, but is a true sage indeed. In this regard, the article attempts to find an answer that why Ghazi has selected such books, and from an epistemological viewpoint, how is his own life affecting his choices of translation and what the role of circumstances, including the different episteme such as the historical, political, social, and literal contexts is in his decision making and the way he has translated the books.

Keywords

• mohammad ghazi
• poetics
• madness
• revolte
• foucault
• camus
• don quixote
• zorba