Theory of Substantial Motion in Translation

This study aims to examine the applicability of Mulla Sadra’s theory of Substantial Motion in translation. To begin with, it starts with the concept of motion as the move from a state of potency into act and investigates time and motion in the tripartite categories of text, translator, and the process of translation. With a view to the theory of Substantial Motion, this study offers a definition for the source text which involves the concepts of ‘essence’, ‘substance’, and ‘motion’, by which it explores the semantics of the source text and its ontological levels and investigates the very concepts of polysemy, homonymy, and plurality of meanings and multiplicity of translations. In pursuit of meaning and gradation of the substance of the source text, it also explores the intellectual and cognitive motion in the mind of the translator, and borrowing Sadra’s methodology finds translation as a permanent process of evolution in which every translation is in a state of flux awaiting retranslation.