Mohammad Baqaei (Makan) knew the West contemporary philosophical translations as lacking authenticity particularly since 1970s; unlike the philosophy translation movement of the early centuries of Islamic period; and said: today, anyone who is familiar with this or that Western languages and for example has spent some times in the West, without enjoying any expertise in philosophy begins to translate the most prestigious philosophical works of the West , just to the benefit of a publisher who encouraged him.

IBNA: The translator of philosophical works in a talk with Iran Book News Agency said: In my opinion the advent of Translation Movement coincident with the Mu'tazilists' efforts early in the third century. The authenticity seen in the translation of works in various including literary, philosophical and historical fields have been perfected by Mu'tazilism, since the early of the third century AH and continued until the sixth and seventh centuries. They even risked their lives and were threatened by the Persian language and culture enemies due to their effort to translate the pre-Islamic works from Pahlavi in to Dari. To do so, they had to gather the Pahlavi texts from the houses of those interested people who had kept and maintained them and then render them in to Persian or sometimes in to Arabic language as well. 

He referred to the significant and also positive consequences of the movement and said: It was through such translations that individuals like Suhrawardi could create the foundation of an independent philosophy called Hikmat-e-Khosravani or Eshragh Philosophy. Without these translations, there would never naturally appear figures like Suhrawardi for sure. 
 
Referring to the activities of Ikhwan Al Safa movement in translation; Baqaei said: this movement was active in the field of philosophy. After the publication of their writings in pamphlet form, they translated them into Arabic and distributed them among the people. Through continuation of the trend; translation of philosophical works as well as of Greek thoughts flourished among translators, and numerous works were created by those translators who had a good command of Persian and Arabic languages, including "Kalila-o Demna" in Arabic. 
 
Arabic language specialists as well as the prominent Arabic experts believe that the translation of "Kalila-o Demna" by Abdullah Ibn Moqafa' known as "Roozbeh" from Persian into Arabic is -after Qur'an- considered as the most fluent text in Arabic language. Thus, it can be concluded that to what extent the Iranian translators in the ancient time were interested in their works and were loyal to the translation techniques as well.

He added: it was through such translations that the famous figures like Farabi and Poorsina were familiar with Greek ideas, and in fact, covered them with Islamic ideas, which were then known as Islamic philosophy. 
 
The great thinkers such as Sanai objected to the Greek Philosophy after being familiar with them. His objection is well demonstrated in the bits saying: "Drink the wine of canonical wisdom within the religion sanctum / that are deprived of this pleasure those talkative cultic Greeks".

Other figures like Khaghani also opposed to the inclination towards "Greek ideas" which could be equivalent to the modern "Westernization", which is called as "Closed Science". All these impacts have taken place thanks to the Iranian's translations from Greek philosophical texts. And all that is to be concluded is that these translations had enjoyed the skill and originality.

About the Translation current of philosophical works' in the contemporary period and comparing it with the Translation Movement Baqaei said: many centuries have passed over the current and like other Islamic world's flows the philosophic one has also been covered under the dust of oblivion as well. And the noticeable figures that are comparable to the West philosophers rarely appear in the field of Islamic philosophy. Particularly when Germany was replaced with Greece in philosophy and the great philosophic celebrities such as Kant and Hegel emerged out of it to flow philosophy through a fresh way; neither the thinkers nor the philosophers of Islamic world offered a new action in this field. Thus, they merely followed the West philosophy and it was indeed under such circumstances that the modern translations of the West philosophy appeared to be the urgent to the students of philosophy and those who are interested in it as well. 
 
He added: the first translation of the West philosophical works published in Persian, was from the book " Discourse on the Method " written by René Descartes which was first translated by a Jew named "Mousaie-e- Hamedani," known as "Mullah Lalehzar" with the help of "Emile Brie» (a Member of the French Embassy at the time of Naser Al-Din Shah), entitled: "Wisdom of Nasiriya" and was printed lithographically. Thus, it can be said that translation, as it means to us /or in its modern form- began from the 13th century AH. 
 
Baqaei continued: after Mousaie-e- Hamedani, someone named "Mohammad Azarmani" known as "Afzal Ul-Molk" translated the book from the Persian in to Turkish, and published it in Persian attached with a short interpretation of Descartes's philosophy. The same book was translated for the third time by the late Mohammad Ali Foroughi and was published as part of his famous book entitled: "Sari-e-Hikmat in Europe" i.e. the evolution of wisdom in Europe.With the publication of this book- which after passage of 80 years is still considered as the most interesting one among the history of the West philosophies published in the country- the Persian minds particularly those interested in philosophy; were well familiar with the Western philosophical approaches and the attempt to expand the familiarity is still to be continued as well.

He called the years after releasing "Sari-e-Hikmat in Europe" as the soaring point in translating philosophical works in Iran and said: Since then, the philosophical works' translation flow soared and consequently, from the late era of the 1st Pahlavi, other books were published in this filed. From 1330s up to 1350s this trend became a prominent distinct figure and erupts, till the time after 1357 translation of philosophical works reaches its volcanic point, so that became the best seller among other topics.

Baqaei referred to the consequences of this sudden soaring and said: this attracted most publishers towards those philosophic works of the West that would bring them more money and it went on until even about 80% of the Thought Pages of press were devoted to the West philosophers and Iranian thinkers as well as Islamic ones were thoroughly neglected. Translations of the West philosophy published in our country, for example, some translations of Nietzsche and Descartes, despite of lacking originality, authenticity and correctness were categorized in to profitable groups.

He added: within the circumstance anyone who was somehow familiar with this or that western languages particularly with English - for instance have lived in the West just for a while and have studied given Agriculture there- without even being able to distinguish "A" from "B" in the field of philosophy or enjoying any expertise in this regard; began to translate the most prestigious western philosophical works, just because of a publisher benefit who encouraged him to do so. But when the result is compared with the original ones by the specialists, sometimes it is observed that the amateur translator has made so many sentences of oneself that is by no means related to the ideas discussed in the book .

He believes that carelessness in translation of philosophical works is the case in other fields and said: this toll dominated on the current translations of philosophy is seen not only in the philosophical works but also is totally the case in the field of literature and narrative as well. To support this claim several books can be mentioned here in which the translators- just to get the publication certificate - has added something to them which cannot be found in the original text at all. 
 
Baqaei concluded: thus, those translations in the fields of philosophy and also literature are offered to the readers do not enjoy of accurate authenticity and this claim can be obviously proved even through a casual review over some sorts of books which have neither transmitted the concept correctly nor their translators enjoy a reliable Persian language background at least.

Id : 131412