A Critique of Irony Translation in the Persian Translations of the Quran

In any language, including Arabic, ironic expressions create images which give beauty to the language and increase its effectiveness. The Holy Quran, revealed in Arabic (in plain Arabic expression; al-Shu’ra’, 195), has such a high frequency of ironic expressions that, in studies dealing with the translation of the Quran, they need to be studied independently. Since it is not possible to deal with all the translations in a single article, we analyzed four frequently-used Persian translations of the Quran, i.e. translations of Elahi Qomshe’i, Hussein Ansariyan, Abolfazl Bahrampur and Mohammad Mahdi Fuladvand, and referring to works of interpretations such as al-Mizan, Majma’ al-Bayan, Nemuneh, etc., we identified some examples of ironic expressions in the Quran and, on the basis of vocabulary sources and interpretation of the Quranic verses, criticized the ironic expressions and their translations. Our attempts revealed that the translators have not followed a unique method in translating ironic expressions. In some cases, they have utilized literal translation technique; in other cases, they have used ironic equivalents; and still in some other cases, they have resorted to explanatory translation. At the same time, some translations have not been able to convey the ironic meanings of the Quran.