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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 April 2009
Ever since the Persian intelligentsia first discovered French literature in the 19th century, it has remained fascinated with its various genres: first with the writings of the Philosophe, then with the Romantics, the roman aventure, the realists, and, in the mid-20th century, with the existentialists and the thèâtre absurde. Moliere's comedies, in particular, were the subject of great interest and the source of many adaptations in the secularizing Iran of the Constitutional period (1905–19) and the Reza Shah era (1921–41). These comedies, often staged with the government's blessing in the newly built playhouses in Tehran and other major cities, had a great impact on the ethos of the growing urban middle classes, who viewed theater-going as a chic habit with a moral essence.
Author's note: I especially thank the anonymous reviewer for the helpful comments on the final draft this article.
1 For Persian translations and adaptations of Moliere, see among other sources: Browne, E. G., A Literary History of Persia, 4 (Cambridge, 1959): 458–64;Google Scholar and Encyclopaedia Iranica, s.v. “Drama” (by Ghanoonparvar, M.).Google Scholar For the development of theater in Iran, see also Āryanpūr, Y., Az Ṣabā ta Nīmā, 2 vols. (Tehran, 1971), 1:322–66;Google ScholarBayẓāʾī, B., Namāyish dar Iārn (Tehran, 1965)Google Scholar; Chelkowski, P., “Popular Entertainment, Media, and Social Change in Twentieth-Century Iran,” in Avery, P. et al. , The Cambridge History of Iran, 7 (Cambridge, 1991), 776–92Google Scholar; ʿAṭāʾī, A. Jannatī, Bunyād-i Namāyish dar Īrān (Tehran, 1954);Google Scholar and Malikpūr, J., Adabiyāt-i Namāyishī dar Īrān, 2 vols. (Tehran, 1984), 1:303–82;Google Scholar and Meisami, J., “Iran,” in Modern Literature in the Near and Middle East, 1850–1970, ed. Ostle, Robin (London, 1991), 45–62.Google Scholar
2 Browne, , A Literary History, 4:459Google Scholar, based on Muḥammad ʿAlī Tarbīyat's unpublished survey of modern Persian literature. All references to Le Misanthrope and other works by Moliere in Mushār, K. (Fihrist-i Kutub-i Chāppī-yi Fārsī, 3 vols. [Tehran, 1973])Google Scholar are to the 20th-century translations. For a new translation of Le Misanthrope into Persian by Hidāyat, Maḥmūd (Mardum-gurīz, Tehran, 1957)Google Scholar and a comparison with Mirza Habib's translation, see Malikpūr, , Adabīyāt, 1:324–35Google Scholar.
3 Consisting of 125 pages of 20 lines each, the printed text employs a combination of two typefaces of naskh and nastaʿaliq, the latter being a rare typeface that was abandoned in later Persian publications in favor of lithographic printing.
4 H. Nāṭiq has recently stated that a copy of Mardum-gurīz in the library of the Institut des Langues Orientales in Paris bears Mirza Habib Isfahani's name on the cover as the translator, though she does not specify whether this is a manuscript or a printed copy. No further information has been provided (Kārnāmih-yi Farhangī-yi Farangī dar Īrān [Paris, 1996], 57, n. 65)Google Scholar.
5 Browne, , A Literary History, 4:459–64Google Scholar. Browne's source for the history of drama in Iran is Tarbīyat's unpublished survey. Tarbīyat also provided the English Orientalist with much of his data for modern literary trends and press in Iran (p. 458). Given the fact that both authors were keenly familiar with the dissident milieu of Qajar Iran, it is puzzling that neither made any speculations as to the identity of the translator.
6 This assertion appears in Jamālzādih's Introduction to his translation of Moliere's, l'Avare as Khasīs (Tehran, 1957), 20Google Scholar.
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12 Some of Mirza Aqa's plays were attributed to Mirza Malkum Khan. They were published by Baron Rosen in 1921 in Berlin as Sī Qiṭʿa Tiʾātr Mansūb bi Mīrzā Malkum Khān Nāzim al-Dawla.Google Scholar For Mirza Aqa, see Āryanpūr, , Az Ṣabā, 1:358–66Google Scholar.
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15 Raʿīsnīyā, R., Īrān va ʿUsmānī dar Astānih-yi Qarn-i Bīstum, 3 vols. (Tehran, 1995), 1:499Google Scholar.
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20 Pirzādih, Ḥājjī, Safar-nāmih, ed. Farmānfarmāīyān, H., 2 vols. (Tehran, 1963–1965), 2:97Google Scholar.
21 Malikpūr, , Adabīyāt, 1:319Google Scholar.
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23 For Malkum's works, see in addition to Algar's Mirza Malkum Khan the Introduction by Ṭabāṭabāʾī, M. Muḥīṭ to Majmūʿih-yi Āsar-i Mīrzā Malkum Khān (Tehran, 1948)Google Scholar, alifnaj. His Shaykh va Vazīr appears in H. Rabīʿzādih, Kullīyāt-i Rasāʾil-i Mīrzā Malkum Khān (Tehran, n.d.).
24 See Muʿīn, M., Farhang-i Muʿīn(Tehran, 1982), 3:4004–6Google Scholar.
25 Mardum-gurīz, 2.Google Scholar The Qajar usage dar-i khānih (or sometimes darb-i khānih) exclusively denotes royal presence and royal court.
26 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, bilingual edition, English rendering by H. Van Laun (New York, 1968), 8.Google Scholar
27 Mardum-gurīz, 7.
28 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 10.Google Scholar
29 Mardum-gurīz, 8.
30 Ibid. This is a quotation from Hafīz, (Dīvān, ed. Qazvīnī, M. and Ghanī, Q. [Tehran, 1941], 32, ghazal no. 44)Google Scholar, presumably inspired by Nizami's verse (see Saʿdī, , Gulistān, ed. Yūsufī, G. [Tehran, 1989], 488).Google Scholar
31 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 12.Google Scholar
32 Mardum-gurīz, 10. The quote is the second hemistich from Hafīz's famous verse: Fadā-yi pīrhan-i chāk-i māhrūyān bād/hizār jāmih-yi taqvā u khirqih-yi parhīz (Let it be sacrificed for the slit in the gowns of the beauties/A thousand garbs of virtue and robes of abstinence).
33 Ibid., 13, cf. Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 17.Google Scholar
34 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 32.Google Scholar
35 Mardum-gurīz, 26.
36 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 32.Google Scholar
37 Mardum-gurīz, 27. Also quoted by Browne, , A Literary History, 4:459–60.Google Scholar
38 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 66.Google Scholar
39 Mardum-gurīz, 53.
40 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 86.Google Scholar
41 Mardum-gurīz, 74.Google Scholar
42 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 86'88.Google Scholar
43 Mardum-gurīz, 74'75.Google Scholar
44 Ibid.
45 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 86.Google Scholar
46 Mardum-guīz, 75.Google Scholar
47 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 86.Google Scholar The English translator, Van Laun, renders it as: “When not at court, one has not, doubtless, that standing, and the advantage of those honorable titles which it bestows nowadays.”
48 Mardum-gurīz, 75.Google Scholar
49 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 128–32,Google Scholar cf. Mardum-guīz, 114–17.Google Scholar
50 Mardum-gurīz's prose is even inferior to Qarajadaghi's translation from Azerbaijani Turkish into Persian of Akhundzadih's Tamsīlāt. His familiarity with the Tamsīlāt's theme and language is decidedly more obvious than the translation of Mardum-gurīz with Moliere's comedy.
51 Nāṭiq, , Kārnāmih-yi Farhangī, 57.Google Scholar
52 No reference to Mardum-gurīz could be found in any of the Iranian libraries' published catalogs. Mushār, Khānbābā (Muʾallifln-i Kutub-i Chāppī-yi Fārsī va ʿArabī 2 [Tehran, 1961]: 469–70)Google Scholar gives a short biography of Mirza Habib and a list of his published works, but this list, which is based on, among other sources, Khān Malik Sāsānī's unpublished Tazkirih-yi Madīnal al-Adab, does not include Mardum-gurīz.
53 For general discussions of translation techniques, see Bassnet-McGuire, S., Translation Studies, revised ed. (London, 1988), 58–72, 120–32,Google Scholar and Barnstone, W., The Poetics of Translation, History, Theory, Practice (New Haven, 1993), 226–62.Google Scholar For the use of various techniques in Middle Eastern translations, see Cachia, , An Overview, 29–42, 123–36 (esp. 36–38);Google ScholarMeisami, , “Iran“ (45–62, esp. 54–57);Google Scholar and Paker's, S. “Turkey,” in Modern Literature, 17–32.Google Scholar Concerning Mirza Habib's Mardum-gurīz, Meisami notes: “intense artificiality and lack of relevance to the Iranian scene, despite the efforts of its translator to make it meaningful to its Iranian audience.” An intimate reading of the text in question, as attempted in the earlier pages, may help modify such a criticism. Moreover, it is fair to point out that, if and when performed, Mirza Habib's translation may prove to be at least in most instances a far more performable play than its present textual form suggests. Further on, Meisami briefly though accurately summarizes the stylistic and literary strictures of European plays in translations.
54 A. Jannatī ʿAṭāʾī, Bunyād-i Namāyish, also cited in Āryanpūr, , AzṢabā,1:334.Google Scholar
55 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 116.Google Scholar
56 Mardum-gurīz, 101.Google Scholar
57 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 118.Google Scholar
58 Mardum-gurīz, 103.Google Scholar
59 Moliere, , Le Misanthrope, 140.Google Scholar
60 Mardum-gurīz, 124–25.Google Scholar
61 Pīrzādih, , Safar-nāmih, 2:96.Google Scholar
