Translation and Interpreting Research
Research Institute for Translation Studies (RITS)

Translating Culture-Specific Terms and Concepts: Edward Rehatsek’s English Translation of the Gulistan of Sa’di

Document Type : Translation Studies

Author

Vida Pirmohamadlou

PhD Candidate in Translation Studies, Department of English Translation Studies, Faculty of Persian Literature and Foreign Languages, Allameh Tabataba’i University

https://doi.org/10.22054/tir.2026.96191.1097
Abstract
This study examines the treatment of culture-specific terms and concepts in translation, focusing on the strategies used to render cultural elements in literary texts. Such elements pose significant challenges in translation, as they reflect the culture of the source text and convey it to target-text readers. The study focuses on the Gulistan by Sa’di, a major work of Persian literature, and its English translation by Edward Rehatesk. Drawing on conceptualizations of cultural words and translation strategies proposed by various scholars, particularly Newmark, Hervey, and Higgins, the study adopts two frameworks to categorize culture-specific terms and concepts and identify the strategies used to translate them. The strategies are classified as source-oriented or target-oriented to determine the translator’s orientation and the extent to which cultural elements are retained in the target text, considering text type and readership. The findings indicate that Rehatesk mainly employed equivalence, couplet, communicative translation, and explication strategies. Overall, he favored target-oriented strategies and consequently failed to convey many of the cultural elements of the Gulistan as a literary text.

Keywords

Culture-specific terms
translation strategy
the Gulistan
Edward Rehatesk

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