An Investigation of Bastin’s Adaptation as a Kind of Pseudotranslation: A Case Study of A Year Amongst the Persians

For various reasons such as ideology of patronage, fear of censorial measures and specific cultural and literary plans, authors may present their original texts as translation, and sometimes translators manipulate the original text to the extent that it can not be considered as translation anymore. This research was aimed at investigating Bastin's adaptation as a kind of pseudo-translation. He considered two kinds of adaptation: local and global adaptation. In order to conduct this study, Zabihullah Mansouri's translation of A Year Amongst the Persians was compared with its original text by Edward Browne. 100 samples were extracted and investigated closely according to Bastin's procedures of adaptation. The results revealed that Bastin's procedures of adaptation were mostly applied in the selected corpus to the extent that it could be called a pseudo-translation. Intervention was so significant in the ST that out of 581 pages in the ST, 128 pages were omitted and the content of omissions was indicator of intentional intervention.Transformations, modifications and adjustments converted the book to a work that although could not be considered a text independent from its original, a considerable part of it was the translator's own writing.