For us, the translation of a play is done with the purpose of performance

Charso Press: According to the public relations of the Association of Playwrights and Translators of Theater of Iran, the third meeting of the series of “Voice of the Playwright” meetings was dedicated to the reading of the play “The Architect and the Emperor of Assyria” written by Fernando Arabal, during which Ramin Nasernasir and Shahram Zargar, the translators of this play, They read it together with Razia Qolipour.

According to this report, in this meeting that was held on Saturday evening, the 11th of Shahrivar, in the Abbas Jovanmard Hall of the Theater House, after the reading of this play, two translators gave explanations about Arabal’s works. In the third meeting, the voice of playwright Ramin Nasernasir reminded that about 24 years ago, together with Shahram Zargar, they translated this play together.
He explained: At that time, the translation of this play was like a small executive banquet for us and we tried to play every single sentence because even though many famous translators have translated the plays beautifully, the language of their translations is not very smooth and fluent for performing a stage. .

He continued: Before translating this play, I had acted in another Arabal play, “Picnic on the Battlefield”, and I was fascinated by the discovery of this author’s world. The period in which we translated this text was not such that plays were readily available. Therefore, finding a text by this author was very interesting for us.

Naser Nasir described the play “Architect and Emperor of Assyria” as very complex and full of allegories, and referring to the impact of the world wars on the works of European playwrights, he added: The plays written after the world wars are greatly influenced by the post-war atmosphere. For the second time in a century, mankind has committed a folly, as a result of which not only countries but also all beliefs have collapsed. This play, like the works of Samuel Beckett, is affected by the consequences after the war.
The actor added: Before the Corona incident, Attila Pesiani was planning to perform Azadi’s version of this play, but the Corona epidemic did not allow him to do so.

In this meeting, Shahram Zargar, another translator of this play, who read it together with Nasir Nasir, said: Reading the play is pointless with Ramin, who is a very good actor.

Referring to the characteristics of Arabal’s works, this university professor added: Arabal’s personality is very dramatic and host to conflict. His positions have caused his works not to be translated and published in many periods.

Zargar noted: For us, the translation of a play is for the purpose of performance, not just for reading. With this view, we believe that the translator, as the first intermediary between the author and the reader, should give the best executive proposal.

This translator added: In our country, the closest person to Arabal is Sadegh Hedayat. Both of them are very frank and open, and this is the reason why their works are always and in all periods, a good option for appropriate censorship.

Referring to Arabal’s migration to France, Zargar explained: Arabal is Spanish, but he wrote all his plays in French. Of course, at the time of writing this text, his French was not very good and he wrote this text in French with the help of his French-speaking wife.
He also said about the difficulty of performing this play: this play is rarely staged in the world. In its first performance, directed by Victor Garcia, Anthony Hopkins played the role of the Emperor.

Referring to the cultural context of Andalusia region and its influence on a writer like Arabal, Zargar explained: Andalusia region is a confrontation of three religions; Judaism, Christianity and Islam have a lot of conflict. These three cultures are mixed together in this region.
In the continuation of this meeting, Ramin Nasernasir also explained in response to the question of one of the attendees about the content of the play “Architect and Emperor of Assyria”: In the works of Arabal, we are dealing with satire more than anything else. He challenges and mocks everything.

Emphasizing that in the translation of the play, some subtleties are inevitably lost, he continued: the more we move away from the original language and turn to more intermediate languages, the more things are lost. For this reason, for many years, I have been choosing the text from the original language for translation, but the translation of this play is related to our youth and ignorance. Arabal wrote all his plays in French. We translated this play from the English version and adapted it to the French version.

In this meeting, which was held by Behzad Sediqi, member of the board of directors and spokesperson of the Iranian Theater Playwrights and Translators Association and the secretary of the Voice of Playwrights series of meetings, he explained that Ahmad Sahmeh Mask (translator and university professor) wrote the play “The Architect and Emperor of Assyria” in He translated it in 1990, but the amount of criticism of this play was so high that he gave up on publishing it.

He reminded: Most Iranians know Arabal with the play “Picnic on the Battlefield”. Also, in the memory of Medea Kashigar and Nasser Hosseini Mehr, some of his plays have been translated into Farsi.

Referring to the content of Arabal’s works, Sediqi added: Mischief, sexual issues and violence are among the topics that crystallize in Arabal’s works.
In the continuation of this meeting, some points about the nuances of translating the play were raised by the audience, and Nasser Aghaei, a director and university professor who also has a hand in translation, expressed his regret: In Iran, we are weak in the field of translating classical works; For example, in Shakespeare’s works, the language of a soldier is different from that of a king, but in our translations of Shakespeare, the language of all characters is generally translated in the same way.
At the end of the meeting, a certificate of appreciation was presented to Shahram Zargar and Ramin Nasernasir by the Association of Playwrights and Translators of Iranian Theater.
It should be noted that in the third session of “Voice of the Playwright”, a number of theater artists such as Nasser Aghaei, Jamshid Jahanzadeh, Farzaneh Neshatkhah, Salma Salameh, Roya Bakhtiari, Korosh Soleimani, Shahram Abolqasmi, Rahim Rashidi Tabar, etc. were present.

Photo: Akhtar Tajik

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