Analysis of Discursive Translation Strategies in the Rendition of the U.S. Image: Findings From FM Zarif’s Twitter Diplomacy

Translators are liable to leave traces of their ideological worldviews in instances of text and talk. Tapping into these entails, inter alia, the identification, and analysis of Discursive Translation Strategies, that is, devices employed (un)consciously in creating and/or maintaining certain views of reality. This study set out to explore the use of such devices in the translation of politicians’ tweets. The data in this exploratory investigation included all FM Zarif’s U.S.-related tweets and their Persian translations as archived on the website of the Iranian Foreign Ministry. A total of 137 tweets, spanned within President Trump’s term of office, were isolated to see how, if any, their translations might have contributed to the maintenance and/or construction of the U.S. image as displayed in the Source Texts. It was found the translations added yet another discursive level to the already extant diabolical image of the U.S. in the English tweets. The Discursive Translation Strategies employed included two general categories of those contributing to a smoother rendition of the image of the U.S. to the Iranian public and those showcasing such a portrayal.