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Символ «نیلوفر کبود» (нилуфар-э кабуд) в романе «Слепая сова» Садега Хедаята и его перевод на английский язык Ираджа Башири
Translating symbols is a challenging task for translators, requiring them to capture and convey the essence of the source text through the means of another language and culture. In Sadegh Hedayat’s novel The Blind Owl, the symbol “niloufar-e kabud” is of enormous importance, as it appears in a key scene and becomes a recurring motif in different parts of the novel. The purpose of this article is to explore the transformations that the image of “niloufar-e kabud” underwent during the translation of the novel into English by Iraj Bashiri. In Hedayat’s novel, the symbolic image of “niloufar-e kabud” is ambivalent: it combines the high and the low, the beautiful and the ugly, innocence and depravity, bliss and pain, vitality and mortal threat, death and immortality, the majestic past of Iran and the suffocating present. The semantic field of “niloufar-e kabud” combines the ornaments of ancient Iranian art, the desire for an unattainable ideal, the charm of antiquity, the pain of losing touch with it, images of grief, bruises, mental wounds, handicapped hands and feet, suffocation, lifelessness, and death. Bashiri uses “black lily” as an equivalent for “niloufar-e kabud.” He inscribes the image of the lily in his interpretation of Hedayat’s complex, multi-layered novel, and his interpretation (which seems rather controversial to researchers) removes only one semantic layer of The Blind Owl. The image chosen by Bashiri largely echoes Hedayat’s concept if we take into account the symbolic content of the image of the lily in general and the black lily in particular in the Eastern and Western traditions. The lotus and the lily are both ambivalent, having many common associations and functions in rituals. However, the original “niloufar e-kabud” is a non-existent flower, which is part of the mystical image of an unearthly woman; the black lily actually exists in nature and, because of its specificity, loses part of its mystical aura. The image of the lily does not convey the connection with the art of ancient Iran, which also refers to the glorious times of Persia. In addition, the very image of the lily in the minds of the Western reader sets connotations with the Virgin Mary, the Annunciation, and the symbol of royal power, which are different from those assumed by the author of the translation, working at the junction of Western and Eastern cultures.