Abstract

Throughout the history, translation has played an important role in conveying thoughts and knowledge from one nation to other nations. Apart from this importance, the act of translating is not simply changing a message from the source language into the target one; translation is an act of problem–solving. Sometimes it is difficult to solve problems existing in translation, and so the notion of untranslatability emerges. Regarding the text–types, this problem is more prominent in the translation of literary texts like poems. This study attempts to investigate untranslatable elements in a poem, and for this purpose it concentrates on the story of Rustam & Sohrab selected from Shahnameh by Firdowsi and its equivalent translation by Warner & Warner. Then it focuses on the relation of untranslatablility in the story of Rustam & Sohrab with the semantic translation of Warner & Warner and the style of Firdowsi. Further research is required in this direction to answer questions concerning the notion of untranslatability and other related matters like the purpose of translation and untranslatability.

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