Background and Purposes: Translation criticism, as a scientific discipline, has always sought objective and systematic criteria for evaluating the process of transferring a text from one language to another. In this regard, the theory of Antoine Berman (1924-1991), the prominent French critic and translator, has provided a new and influential framework through his concept of “distorting tendencies.” He believes that in the translation process, a set of unconscious yet powerful tendencies are activated in the translator that inherently operate to erase or reduce the “strangeness” and “otherness” of the source text. In other words, these tendencies try to “absorb” and assimilate the alien, unfamiliar, and cultural elements of the original text into familiar, smooth, and consistent formats that meet the expectations of the target language and culture. Berman lists these destructive tendencies in the form of thirteen items, the most important of which are quantitative impoverishment, qualitative impoverishment, the destruction of syntactic structures, rationalization, clarification, refinement, and ennoblement. This framework provides the critic with a powerful tool to describe and analyze the “deviations” of the translation from the original text in an objective and documented manner, instead of subjective judgments. According to this theoretical framework, the translation of outstanding literary works requires precise analysis. In this regard, the main purpose of this research is to analyze and evaluate Mohammad Reza Marashipour's Persian translation of the story collection al-Nowm by Naguib Mahfouz, based on Antoine Berman's theory of distorting tendencies. Naguib Mahfouz possesses a realist, symbolic, and often complex style whose faithful transfer into a language such as Persian is considered a great challenge. Marashipour is a veteran and respected translator of Arabic literature, and his translation of this work is considered a significant text in Persian literature. However, the main issue of this research is the question of the extent and quality of the influence of those unconscious tendencies of Berman in this particular translation. In other words, this research seeks to answer the following questions: Does a comparative rereading of the Arabic text of al-Nowm and its Persian translation reveal signs of tendencies such as quantitative or qualitative impoverishment, destruction of syntactic structures, or rationalization? How and with what consequences have these distortions affected fidelity to the source text, preservation of the unique style, and correct transmission of narrative concepts and nuances? Furthermore, which of these tendencies appear more prominently and which less prominently in Marashipour's translation? Answering these questions not only leads to the evaluation of this particular translation, but also tests the effectiveness of Berman’s theory in the context of literary translation from Arabic to Persian.
Methodology: The method of this research is descriptive-analytical and based on Antoine Berman’s theory. Data were purposefully extracted from the original Arabic text of the novel al- Nowm by Naguib Mahfouz and Mohammad Reza Marashipour’s Persian translation. Equivalent samples were selected and subjected to comparative analysis focusing on seven salient tendencies identified by Berman. In this process, each identified deviation was first described and then its causes and consequences on fidelity, style, and concept transfer were analyzed based on a theoretical framework.
Results and Discussion: Based on Antoine Berman’s analytical framework, this research has investigated seven distorting tendencies in Mohammad Reza Marashipour’s translation of Naguib Mahfouz’s al-Nowm collection of stories. The analysis of ten short stories based on these axes revealed clear results that indicate the dominant orientation in this translation. Among the components examined, two tendencies were remarkably frequent: “qualitative impoverishment” and “destruction of expressive structures.” Qualitative impoverishment appeared mainly in the form of toning down language games, reducing the intensity of the impact of symbolic expressions, and smoothing out specific reserved expressions. For example, novel similes or metaphors that carry emotional or cultural weight in the Arabic text have been reduced to simpler and more direct expressions in the translation. At the same time, the destruction of expressive structures was clearly observed in the breaking up of long and syntactically complex Arabic sentences. By dividing these sentences into shorter and independent units, the translator, although making the text more fluent for the Persian reader, has destroyed the distinctive rhythm, specific emphases, and sometimes logical continuity of Mahfouz’s text that is inherent in the sentence structure. Together, these two tendencies have inflicted the greatest damage to the “literary weight” of the original text and reduced the overall level of fidelity of the translation. In contrast, some tendencies such as rationalization and ennoblement were less prominent. As observed in the analysis of the story “The Tavern of Black Cat”, the translator has largely avoided adding artificial verbal beauties or decorative interventions. This shows that Marashipour's approach has not been one of excessive simplification or obvious popularization. Nevertheless, tendencies such as clarification and expansion are also seen to a limited extent, where the translator has added explanations to the text to remove ambiguity or, conversely, sometimes omitted details for the sake of brevity.
Conclusion: The results of the comparative analysis show that Marashipour's translation of the al -Nowm collection has clearly been influenced by Berman's distorting tendencies. The qualitative impoverishment and destruction of the syntactic and expressive structures of the Arabic text are the most frequent deviations that led to a reduction in the literary and stylistic weight of the original work. In contrast, tendencies such as rationalization or ennoblement are less frequently observed. Overall, these unconscious tendencies have largely impoverished the “strangeness” and distinctive identity of the source text in favor of smoothing and conformity with the expectations of the Persian-era reader. Thus, the translator’s often language-oriented and non-academic approach, although making the reading easier, has come at the cost of distancing oneself from stylistic authenticity and strict fidelity to the original text. The application of Berman’s framework objectively revealed this conflict between the fluency of translation and the preservation of the “otherness” of the text.