A critical study on the Persian Translation of Routledge History of Philosophy

In the present essay we first briefly introduce the book Routledge History of Philosophy: From the Beginning to Plato. Its Persian translation is by HasanMortazawi and published in Iran at the year 1390. AH (2011. AD) byCheshme Press.After introductory matters my study focuses on two aspects: the formal aspect of printed translation and 2- the content of Persian translation. Of course this study of the Persian translation is based on the original English text and a comparison between them. On the formal aspect I consider factors as title, order and completion or deficiency of translation. At the study on the content of the Persian translation in comparison with the original text, I consider factors as printing errors, names’ spelling in Persian, fluency and validity of the translation text. The result of this study demonstrates that the Persian translation of the first volume of Routledge History of Philosophy: From the Beginning to Plato is subjected to some unwanted deficiencies. Of them are these: 1- Sometimes the Persian spelling of the special names especially Greek names are not exact or correct. 2- Some of the philosophical terms arenot translated in uniformity. 3- The text of Persian translation is not edited by an editor that is expected to be specialist in the ancient Greek philosophy and maybe 4- Translator’s nonsufficient acquaintance with the Greek philosophy. Translation of philosophical works as other subjects in theoretical disciplines is a technical work and in addition to the skills of writing and grammar needs special information of the subject matter. I’ll be glad if this essay may include some useful points for Mr. H. Mortazawi in revising his translation at the second edition.