A target-oriented approach to two different English translations of Omar Khayyam’s quatrains

Abstract

The present study is an attempt to read and compare two different English translations of Omar Khayyam’s Quatrains in the light of a Target-oriented Approach. The two selected translations are Edward Fitzgerald’s Translation and Peter Avery & John Heath- Stubbs’ Translation. The major intention beyond this research is to conduct a unified and comprehensive study of the mentioned translations based on Gideon Toury’s DTS (Descriptive Translation Studies). This research is composed in five chapters, an Introduction and an Appendix, a brief sketch of each is to be presented: In the Introduction, the researcher provides justifications for research, particularly Target- Oriented research, in Translation Studies. The emerging need for interdisciplinary studies in the English departments is also emphasized. The objectives and the methodology of the research are provided in the Introduction. The First Chapter elaborates on Omar Khayyam’s poetry, his philosophy of life, Sufism and Sufi poetry based on the view point of Persian scholars. Chapter Two includes the theoretical framework of the research that begins with the discipline of translation studies. James Holmes’ map of translation studies, which is the basis for Toury’s DTS (Descriptive Translation Studies), is discussed. Then, Target–oriented Approach and accordingly DTS are elaborated fully, for the methodology of the research, as well as its theoretical basis, is indebted to them. DTS is at the heart of an extended map of translation studies that was developed based on the initial map by Holmes. Toury categorizes Descriptive Translation Studies into three subdivisions: Product-oriented, Processoriented and Function- oriented translation studies from which, in the present study, the researcher is concerned with the Product and its Function. The focus of Product-oriented descriptive translation studies is the description of individual translations. A comparative analysis of different translations in the same target language of one source text, or of a source text and its translation into one or more languages, also, constitute a Productoriented model. It is a study of texts rather than the contexts. The study may be restricted to works of one historical period (synchronic), or they may cover different periods (diachronic).