Translator of Italian books said a lot more needs to be done to render Persian works into world languages given the fact that “even our Turk and Arab neighbors do not fully understand our literature.”

IBNA: The Iranian Fiction; World Markets session was held on Friday, (May 4, 2012) at the stall of the House of the Literati at the 25th Tehran International Book Fair in the presence of expert translators of works into other languages like Arman Goudarzi (translator of French texts) and Gholamreza Imami (translator of Italian texts).

A range of topics like introduction and promotion of Iranian literature in world markets and mechanisms for getting to foreign audience were discussed in the session.

In his opening address, Arman Goudarzi provided the audience with some numbers about the Iranian works rendered into French and published in France. “Formerly, things were not that good for the French version of Iranian works in France; however, nowadays, it is getting better for the works provided that some publication obstacles are resolved as soon as possible.”

Later in the session, Mohammad Jafari Aghdam remarked some of the issues in introduction of Iranian works in world arenas stating that “our greatest concern in international arenas is that foreign publishers have never heard of many of our works in Iran. Recently, I saw this publisher who expressed surprise to hear that Iranians have begun writing novels in the past few years!”

He went on to say that “we Iranians do not know the business vernaculars for corresponding with foreign publishers and there remains a lot that we still have to learn about it.”

Later in the gathering, Gholamreza Imami said, “Our first priority is making our works known to our Turk and Arab neighbors who share many cultural commonalities with us.”

He stated that Iran and Italy have a lot in common in cultural matters. “Italy is the most eastern country in the west and Iran’s cultural presence in the country is visible in many parts of Italy,” he asserted.

He further added that treasures of Persian Taziyeh are still being kept in Vatican. “Italians have cared about Iranian culture since the Vatican rule. We enjoy the best examples of Persian taziyeh in Vatican while many Iranians are ignorant of this art of theirs. Moreover, there are over 6,000 book volumes in Italian libraries on Iranian literature and culture. The Blind Owl (by Sadegh Hedayat) was the first work of contemporary Persian literature to be rendered into Italian.”

The 25th Tehran International Book Fair is being held at Tehran's Grand Imam Khomeini Prayer Ground and will run through May 12, 2012.

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