?
Концепт «мар-э наг» в романе «Слепая сова» Садега Хедаята и его перевод на английский язык Десмонда Костелло
The translation of symbols in literary works is a difficult task due to their deep
rooting in the cultural and literary context. This article is devoted to the analysis of
the transformations of the image of “mar-e nag” in Sadegh Hedayat’s novel, “The
Blind Owl”, the key work of modern Persian literature, when translated into English
by Desmond Costello. “Mar-e nag” is a neologism invented by Hedayat, which is
designed to convey an important, deeply individual concept for the author. Costello
translates all words containing the word “serpent” or “nag” as either “snake”, “ser-
pent”, or “cobra”, with “cobra” being the most common. Like the symbolism of the
nagas, the symbolism of the cobra is ambivalent. On the one hand, it is a symbol of
eternal revival, protection, wealth, good luck, visionary wisdom, and fertility. On the
other hand, due to the aggressiveness and deadliness of its poison, the cobra is iden-
tified with the demonic principle and is associated with danger, threat, and death. At
the same time, the use of the image of a cobra in the translation cuts off an aspect
of the image of the nagas, who are half-snakes and half-humans, that is important
for the context of the novel. This is especially the quality indicating the dual nature,
which is important for female characters. At the same time, the word “cobra” adds
new connotations. “Cobra” in Persian culture is also the female name with associa-
tions with power and strength. The replacement of the Naga snake with a cobra has
significantly smoothed out the mystical filling of the symbolic image of poisoned
wine. The aspect related to spiritual improvement, the process of searching for the
self is released, and put forward the Freudian interpretation of the snake as a phallic
symbol, which is more understandable to Western cultures. The usage of the lexeme
“serpent” evokes for the Western reader strong associations with the Holy Scriptures
and the story of the fall of Adam and Eve. Thus, given the horizon of expectation
for the modern English-language translation, it can be assumed that the image of
the snake of Naga, which is replaced by the image of serpents, or cobras, acquires,
first of all, associations with danger, evil, cunning, deceit, and sin, from which only
divine protection can protect; servants of evil forces; deadly and threat-inspiring sa-
cred horror; the watchman of secret places and treasures, a symbol of wisdom; and,
possibly, in a symbolic way, the half-snake and half-dragon Uroboros, biting its tail,
from Gnosticism and alchemy, embodied eternity, immortality, and eternal revival.
These associations not only do not exhaust the symbolic potential of the image of the
Naga snake in the novel but also lead the reader on the false trail, not allowing them
to deeply penetrate into the intricacies of the symbolic canvas of “The Blind Owl”.