Mehdi Sahabi; A Translator Who Transformed Language into Art

Literature Service of Iran’s Book News Agency (IBNA) – Marzieh Negahban Marvi: Mehdi Sahabi, a prominent Iranian translator, writer, painter, and sculptor, was born on February 3, 1944, in Qazvin. After incomplete studies in painting at Tehran University and then at the Academy of Fine Arts in Rome, he pursued his artistic and literary path in Italy and France. Upon returning to Iran in 1972, Sahabi worked in journalism and photography for a period before turning to translation, writing, and painting. He had complete mastery of Italian, French, and English languages and translated many works by prominent world authors into Persian. His most important literary achievement is the translation of Marcel Proust’s seven-volume collection ‘In Search of Lost Time’, published between 1990 and 1998, as well as his translations of Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s works. Sahabi translated Céline’s novels ‘Death on Credit’, ‘Castle to Castle’, and ‘Guignol’s Band’ into Persian.

‘Madame Bovary’, ‘Sentimental Education’, ‘The Baron in the Trees’, ‘The Death of Artemio Cruz’, ‘The Young Guard’, ‘Mazdak’, ‘Everybody Dies’, ‘The Seed Beneath the Snow’, ‘School for Dictators’, ‘Emergency Exit’, ‘The Great Meaulnes’, ‘Pleasures and Days’, ‘Water, Father, Master’, ‘The Re-found Friend’, ‘Monte di Dio, the Mountain of God’, and ‘The Red and the Black’ are among Mehdi Sahabi’s other translations.

In addition to translation, Sahabi also wrote stories. ‘Suddenly the Flood’, ‘The Ivy of the Paper Garden’, and ‘Margutta Street No. 110’ are his fictional works. He is also considered a prominent sculptor and painter. Sahabi held numerous painting exhibitions in Iran and abroad, and his works in painting are known for their themes of human faces and masks.

Mehdi Sahabi passed away on November 8, 2009, in Paris due to a heart attack and was buried in the Artists’ Section of Behesht-e Zahra. As previously mentioned, Sahabi’s translations of Céline’s works are among his important literary translation achievements. In addition to the three novels named, Sahabi also translated a part of Céline’s novel ‘Fairy-Like Show for Another Time’ into Persian. After his death, Asghar Nouri continued the unfinished translation, completed it, and published it through Markaz Publishing. Nouri endeavored to preserve Sahabi’s tone and style of translation in this work to ensure the book had a consistent voice.

Asghar Nouri (born 1976 in Tabriz) is a translator, playwright, and theater director. He completed his studies in French Language and Literature at Tabriz University and is considered a prominent translator of French literature into Persian.

His relationship with Mehdi Sahabi, as mentioned, was formed through the translation of Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s novel ‘Fairy-Like Show for Another Time’. For this reason, on the occasion of Mehdi Sahabi’s death anniversary, we approached Asghar Nouri to review his literary career, particularly his position and influence in the field of translation; because he is not only familiar with Sahabi’s works but also has close, practical experience in continuing one of his unfinished translations and can speak from a professional and experiential perspective about Sahabi’s language, tone, and legacy in literary translation.

The Importance of Mehdi Sahabi in the History of Iranian Translation

Asghar Nouri said regarding Mehdi Sahabi’s importance in the history of Iranian translation: “Mr. Mehdi Sahabi is one of the pinnacles of literary translation in Iran. This position is due both to his brilliant record and the translation of very important novels into Persian, including the seven-volume translation of Marcel Proust’s ‘In Search of Lost Time’, and also due to his outstanding translations of works by authors like Céline.”

The Difficulty of Translating Proust and Sahabi’s Audacity

Nouri added: “Proust’s translation, in particular, holds a special place in his career; because this massive seven-volume novel is one of the greatest works in world literary history. The complete translation of this novel, due to its complex form and difficult language, had not been attempted by other translators before Sahabi. But with his translation of this work, he left a lasting legacy in the Persian language.”

Céline’s Difficult Language and Sahabi’s Skill

The translator of ‘The Wall-Passer’ recalled: “Alongside Proust, the translation of Louis-Ferdinand Céline’s works is also a brilliant point in Mehdi Sahabi’s career. Céline was not just an ordinary novelist but one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century, with a very unique and difficult language, even for French speakers. Sahabi, in his three translations of Céline—namely ‘Death on Credit’, ‘Guignol’s Band’, and ‘Castle to Castle’—managed to recreate Céline’s language and tone in Persian.”

“Translating Céline’s works has always been among the most difficult tasks. Sahabi had even begun translating Céline’s fourth book, ‘Fairy-Like Show for Another Time’, but with his passing, the translation remained unfinished. Later, Markaz Publishing asked me to continue the translation; Sahabi had translated half of the work, and I continued the other half. This work was published in 2022 by Markaz Publishing. It was a great honor for me to be able to follow in his footsteps.”

Learning from Sahabi’s Translations

Asghar Nouri continued: “Among his translations, works like ‘Madame Bovary’ and ‘Sentimental Education’ by Flaubert also hold a special place. I previously studied Mehdi Sahabi’s works like a classroom for learning translation; I would place his translations next to the original text and go line by line. This was a very instructive experience. Of course, I have used this method for learning from great translators like Najafi, Reza Seyed Hosseini, and Manouchehr Badiyi as well.”

“However, when I was continuing Sahabi’s unfinished translation of Céline, I looked at his style with new precision and realized what a meticulous translator he was. He was always faithful to the meaning and conveyed it without omission, while also recreating the original author’s style in Persian. His translations are complete re-creations, not just literal renditions.”

Recreating the Style of Various Authors

The translator of ‘The Twins Trilogy’ added: “Another important feature in Sahabi’s career is that in all his works, we see the recreation of the author’s style. If we place his translations of various authors such as Stendhal, Flaubert, and Céline side by side, we encounter completely different Persian prose styles. He himself had said in an interview: ‘A translator has no style; a translator must recreate the author’s style in Persian.’ That is, the translator’s prose should not be similar across different works, because the original authors also have different styles. Sahabi was one of the few translators who truly implemented this principle in his work; in each book, he chose a different linguistic and syntactic approach depending on the author’s style.”

“The Persian language in Sahabi’s translations is appropriate to the author’s mood; the sentence structure, tone, and linguistic level of each book are precisely chosen to match the spirit of the original work. When we read the French text, we see how accurate and close to the author’s tone Sahabi’s linguistic choices are.”

Discovering New Authors and Works

The translator of ‘Desert of Love’ continued: “Furthermore, Sahabi was a scholarly translator. He translated not only from French but also from Italian and English. With a scholarly spirit, he searched world literature to find authors whose works had not yet been translated into Persian but possessed high literary value. Sometimes he also introduced new authors. This scholarly approach is one of the valuable aspects of his work.”

Uninterrupted and Consistent Work

Asghar Nouri added: “Sahabi worked quietly and consistently over the years, bringing great works into Persian. He was a multi-faceted artist: translator, photographer, sculptor, and painter. His artistic spirit is also evident in his translations. If we consider translation as a form of artistic re-creation, Sahabi was a complete artist in this field. His translations are not merely transfers of meaning; rather, they are performances and re-creations of the work. In all his translations, he insisted on the uniformity of language and tone of the work and was careful that this harmony was never lost.”

“In Sahabi’s translations, for example, in Flaubert’s works like ‘Sentimental Education’, we encounter a calm, classical, and harmonious language; but in Céline’s translation, we face a sharp and colloquial language. These differences show that in translating the work of each author, he created that author’s unique language in Persian.”

Sahabi’s Place in the Tradition of Iranian Translation

The translator of ‘Yesterday’ stated: “From an intellectual lineage perspective, Mehdi Sahabi followed the generation of translators who, alongside linguistic precision, had a scholarly and responsible approach to translation. Before him, such characteristics could be seen in the works of Najaf Daryabandari. Just as Daryabandari recreated the style of authors in his translations from English, Sahabi did the same in his translations from French. The translations of both are such that it seems as if the original author wrote the work in Persian.”

Mehdi Sahabi and Story Writing

Nouri added: “I have also read Mehdi Sahabi’s stories. I believe he could have been a more prolific and greater writer than we know him today. In his stories, one can see similarities with his choices in translation. However, because professional translation requires a lot of time and focus, perhaps he didn’t have the opportunity to dedicate more to writing. Nevertheless, the fictional works published by him show that he had high writing talent.”

Journalism and Other Arts

Asghar Nouri noted: “Sahabi went to Italy in his youth to study cinema but left his studies incomplete and was active in various European countries for a period. After returning to Iran, he engaged in journalism and news photography. His colleagues remember him as a bold and investigative journalist, especially during the turbulent years before and after the revolution. After some time, he withdrew from journalism and focused on translation.”

“Mehdi Sahabi, in addition to translation, was a multi-faceted artist; a photographer, painter, and sculptor. This multi-faceted nature is also evident in the spirit of his translations. His works are an example of the deep connection between art and language; translations with scientific precision and artistic brilliance.”