Analytical Study of "Distorting Trends" Theory of Antoine Berman in Charles Defremery’s French Translation of Golestan Saadi

The purpose of this paper was to analyze the use of “Distorting Trends” theory of Antoine Berman (1942-1999), a French traductologist, in translation of the eighth chapter of “Golestan Saadi” by Charles Defremery (1822-1883). This study investigated the conflict between source language (Persian) and target language (French) in the frame of Berman’s trends and indicates errors and changes which their balance realizes faithfulness and freedom of the translator. Lexical differences and similarities in the main and translated texts in the study of Defremery’s translation show that, according to Berman’s theory, it is necessary to pay attention to the form and meaning of target language as well as to be faithful to the source text. Based on speech-oriented viewpoint of Berman, it was tried to engage in pathology of Golestan Translation through three orientations: culturally-oriented speech, goal-oriented speech, and experience-centered speech. It was identified that ambiguities and contradictions in Defremery’s version translation originated from his misunderstanding of ethical and spiritual advices, maxims, and tales of Saadi.