ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 presents the very basic linguistic challenges faced by the translator arising from the differences between the source and target linguistic codes (languages). Although Jakobson declares, “languages differ not based on what they ‘can’ say, but rather on what they ‘want’ to say,” (1971, 264) these differences result in major shifts in the way the world is semiotized by the code. These shifts have major consequences on a discourse that is based on the very structure of the linguistic systems. Mystical poetry is the quintessence of this phenomenon: the absence of gender in Persian, for instance, makes it possible to hold a deictic suspense in the discourse that can only be dissipated in the “reported speech” that is the translation, in this case into French or English. Other issues evoked in this chapter include but are not limited to the problems posed by Persian lexicological characteristics, namely the large share of foreign words.
