حسین بحری

The novel Les Miserables (Hugo, 1985) is one of the most universally translated works, and there are a number of adaptions in several languages. One recent adaption is the Persian musical play performed in Iran. In this performance, culture-specific items (CSIs) were translated differently since visual and aural elements were added to the stage. The present study aims to investigate translation strategies used in the above adaptation to indicate what translation solutions are possible when the medium changes. After watching the ninety-minute recorded play in VOD format, culture-specific items were selected purposively corresponding to those in the novel. Subsequently, they were analyzed based on Newmark's model (1988). The findings showed that the most frequent translation strategies applied were adaptation, followed by communicative translation, and literal translation. Compared with the original performance, some scenes were deleted from the recorded play. Hence, there was no exact one-to-one correspondence with the original text of the book. While instances of censorship contributed to some of these omissions, probably one reason for the issue is the publishing regulations administered in Iran for VOD formats of the plays. These results suggest that while target language-oriented strategies dominated the entire translation approach, the translator of the play tried to familiarize the audience with French culture through literal translations and with the help of visual and aural aids. Since the audience were presented with pictures and songs, it was easier for them to locate themselves in the era of the French Revolution and French customs.

Complexity of simultaneous interpreting has long attracted the interest of researchers and led them to explore different linguistic, psychological, cognitive, social, and neurological factors involved in enabling the human mind to perform such a difficult task. Within the framework of cognitive studies of interpreting, the authors of this study aimed at exploring the relationship between selective attention and interpreting performance of undergraduate students of Translation. Interpreting performance was evaluated in terms of content and presentation. A sample of 72 BA students participated in the study and completed a simultaneous interpreting and a selective attention task. Quantitative analysis of the data obtained from the participants led to the conclusion that selective attention had a direct relationship with both content and presentation of simultaneous interpreting performance in the sample as significant correlation was found to exist between the variables. The findings suggest that students with better selective attention are likely to perform better in interpreting tasks, especially in terms of the content of their performance which is concerned with completeness and accuracy of informational content of the interpreted message.