Hope to do it here.
Hi Hengame. do you mean that you are ready to translate a text in Persian to a text in English, or you want somebody to do that for you?
To start how would you translate chon kuye dust hast be Sahra che hajat ast?
Let’s start with the literal meaning:“what need is there for desert when we are allowed to be at friend’s home?” we know that friend here has the meaning of God…It would be helpful to know that “dust”(=friend) here, in contrast with desert has most probably the connotation of later pious people who were more life-oriented than early ascetics who liked strict piety (like for example going to desert with merely an axe and a bowl…)…so…what about this one:“what need is there for the sweltering desert while friend awaits you cheerful and present?”.[doost=God manifested more beautifully than our expectations rising from our simplistic piety]This sentence would somehow convey the basic meaning but what about the literary style?is it classical enough for reflecting a postmystic 8th century Persian poet?waiting for comments before continuing the rest of the discussion.
Needless to say, translation of literary texts in an expert way requires more than what we refer to as “knowing” both languages…First, in an ideal situation you would need time…that is a period during which you “acquire” languages rather than learn;this is what happens when we acquire our mother tongue…we “live” it:we love and worship through it we hate and are disgusted through it and we live every day life and perhaps an (extraordinary one) through it.
In the specific field we have tried to work on ,that is classic poetry,keeping the rhyme is “easy but difficult”[sahl o momtane-e].Many translators give up the idea of keeping the rhyme in the target language and instead they take up their path of keeping the meaning.This crossroads does not necessarily have an road which is “good” or “bad” since the we suppose that it is the “spirit” of literature which is to be conveyed.We should remember that those who take the rhyme convertion path, after becoming familiar with the general structure of the rhymed poetry of T.language, must practice for a fairly long period to get the emotional-improvisation expertise.
This is Mr.Shahriar Shahriari’s translation of the afforesaid verse:(hafizonlove.com/divan/01/033.htm)
Since Beloved is at home, no need for pilgrimage.