Translation of " Radif" in Persian Poetry (A Case Study of a Translation of Divan of Hafiz)

Literary scholars of Persian literature regard “radif” as a property of Persian poetry; a property which has a clear manifestation in different types of poetry, especially the Persian Qazal, and acts as an internal rhyme for the poem. Among the great literary figures of Persian literature, Hafiz is one of those who have made an extensive use of radif in his Qazals, with a diverse linguistic structure. In this article, a translation of the Divan of Hafiz has been chosen, in which the translator (Henry W. Clarke) has committed himself in translating most of the Radifs, on one hand, and place them at the end of each line, on the other, as it is in classical Persian poetry. Considering the differences between the grammatical structures of the two languages, it seems clear that a great deal of creativity is needed, and of course the translator will face many challenges. The question of this article is what these challenges are, and how the translator has dealt with them. After reviewing the translations of Radif in this work, the challenges have been classified in 13 items, as follows: ditransitive verbs in Persian, nominalized verbs, Persian auxiliary verbs which contain their own meaning too, impersonal constructions in Persian which look like the past tense verbs, Periphrastic structures and compound verbs with the common base verbs, personal endings of Persian which do not have equivalences in English, “Common” pronouns such as xod and xiš which do not English equivalents, different word orders of the two languages, specific Persian enclitics, and the conversions of different parts of speech in Persian, which does not necessarily take place in English.