Da prompts intl cultural agreement
9 April 2012
Paul Sprachman:
The American translator of Sacred Defense books into English says he has so far finished the work on half of Das English translation and the rest, expected to be prepared during the coming summer, will be released next fall.
IBNA: A session of Sacred Defense writers was held yesterday (March 13, 2012) at Howzeh Honari in the presence of Azam Husseini (Das writer), Paul Sprachman (the books English translator), Mohsen Momeni (director of Howzeh Honari), and Mohsen Kazemi (an active writer of revolution topics).
In his remarks, Sprachman stated that books like Journey to the Bearing 270 Degrees and Chess with the Resurrection Machine have become references for studies on the Middle East and Irans contemporary literature at New Jersey University in the US. I think the book will instill new cultural trends among the students as they read them, he said.
He went on to say that most of these students are originally Iranian or Afghan who were previously ignorant of books on Iran-Iraq war, but as they read such books on Iran and watch movies like the Night Bus, they often gain an understanding about Irans war times and its current status.
Translator of Chess with the Resurrection Machine into English further added that so far, he has finished the English translation of half of Da and that he would finish the work by summer and prepares it for publication by fall. As he said the book will be published by Mazda Publishers.
Sprachman further compared the literatures of World War and the Sacred Defense stating that words like Janbaz (injured in war, literally, surrender of ones life), sacrifice and the wars spiritual aspect as repeatedly employed in Sacred Defense books like Da which cannot be explained through World War literature. This makes translation of such works difficult for the translator.
He went on to thank Azam and Zahra Husseini for clarification of some parts for him stating that Da looks like a novel written by a female writer. Recently, a new field of study has been launched on female writers at American universities and the book can be useful for that case as well.
The English Da will be published with a lengthy introduction I have added to it which is aimed at familiarizing English readers with the books context, he added. Ill do my best to remain faithful to the books content.
The translation of the book is being sought by the translation office of the Literary Creations Office of Howzeh Honary. The original Persian version of the book has gone under 143 print-runs by making a record in the history of Irans book market for a non-religious book.
Iran Book News Agency (IBNA)
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