Exploring Translatability of Hafez's Poems based on the Translation of Fouché Coure

Translating poetry has been one of the most important topics in translation studies that has always attracted the attention of scholars of this field. The mixing of the language of poetry with the poet's feelings along with the ambiguity and complexity of the poem's structure and its association with elements such as literary arrays, imaginative forms and music of poetry have made it so special that its translation  seems to be impossible. Some translation experts consider translating poetry to be impossible, and translation of Hafiz’s poems, with all the features of poetry and the intertwining of form and meaning, and especially Hafez's "illusions", is virtually impossible. The purpose of this paper, which used a descriptive-analytical approach, was to investigate the translation of Hafez's poems into French by the French knowledgeable, Charles Henri de Fouchécoure, to examine the difficulties and shortcomings of this translation, and to identify different aspects of the translation. The features of the two sonnets of Hafiz were examined and Fouchécoure’s translation were analyzed. It was indicated that some textual and paratextual features of the poems have been neglected and this has impeded transmission of the textual message, because the message and content of the Hafiz's poems are interwoven well with its form.