FitzGerald’s Translation of the Mantiq-Ut-Tayr: A Colonial Approach towards Metrics, Textual Rhythm, and Rhyme Translation

Abstract

The Mantiq-Ut-Tayr[1] is a collection of mystical poems composed by Farid ud-Din Attar in 1177 in Iran. He was a doctor, druggist, perfumer, and at the same time a Sufi in his ideas. In 1857, the British poet and translator, Edward FitzGerald, introduced this collection of couplets to England for the first time. As a Victorian translator, he attempted to colonize the Persian text and recreate  Attar’s rhythmic pattern in his translation. In other terms, he tried to introduce the Persian Metrics of the twelfth century into English literature of the nineteenth century.

By introducing Persian fixed metric patterns into English literature, one may wonder how FitzGerald’s invention affected the norms of the Victorian poetry. Has the British translator become successful in recreating the close correlation, which exists between rhythm and the underlying significance of the Mantiq-Ut-Tayr in his translation?

By applying the theories of scholars in linguistics and translation studies, such as Derek Attridge, André Lefevere, Antoine Berman, Susan Bassnett, and Harish Trivedi; this research seeks to investigate the way FitzGerald rendered the Persian Masnavi—rhyming couplets—and the genre in established English norms. Thus, the present study might provide an interesting research field for developing a postcolonial methodology with regard to the rendition of the Mantiq-Ut-Tayr’s rhythm and rhyme in English. In fact, this research attempts to evaluate the change of meaning, comprehension, and above all the reception between the Persian text and the English translation of Attar’s masterpiece.

Keywords: exception, metrics, rhythm, colonial approach, translation, Mantiq-Ut-Tayr.

[1] The conference of the birds.