When and How Were Franz Kafka's Works Translated into Persian?

Last week marked the birthday of Franz Kafka on July 4th; a writer whose works were not translated into Persian during his lifetime. However, several years after Kafka's death in 1924, some Iranian writers and translators gradually began to pay attention to his works, and now many of this great writer's works have been translated into Persian. Who were the first translators of Kafka? Hassan Qayemian and Sadegh Hedayat were the first translators of Kafka's works into Persian, but Hedayat's role in introducing Kafka to Persian speakers was much greater. Mahmoud Dowlatabadi, a writer, stated: "In our country, when we refer to Sadegh Hedayat as the midwife of modern literature in Iran, Kafka's works, which are intertwined with him, always come to mind." In 1948, Hedayat's article "The Message of Kafka" was published as a preface to the book "The Trial" by Kafka, translated by Qayemian. Hedayat wrote in the message: "There are few rare writers who introduce a new style, thought, and subject, especially a new meaning for life that did not exist before them - Kafka is considered one of the most artistic writers of this category." Two years later, in 1950, Hedayat, in collaboration with Qayemian, translated Kafka's story "The Metamorphosis" and published it in the magazine "Sokhan." Since then, this work has been translated multiple times by various translators, including Farzaneh Taheri. Were Kafka's works translated directly from German? The first translations of Kafka's works, originally written in German, were translated from other languages into Persian. Hedayat and Qayemian translated their works based on the French translations of Kafka's works, and then other translators also translated Kafka's works through English. Saeed Firouzabadi, a German translator, mentioned in a ceremony held by the Bukhara magazine in Tehran in 2014 about the translations of Kafka's works in Iran: "An interesting point regarding Kafka is that many of his works have not been translated from German into Persian. For example, we can refer to Amir Jalaleddin Alam and his translation of the novel "The Castle," "The Trial," short story collections, and letters to his father." He added: "Or the efforts of Dr. Bahram Moghadam, a professor of English language and literature at Tehran University, in introducing Kafka with the translation of Walter Zuck's book and also the Persian translation of his diary." However, in recent decades, the attention of German-speaking translators to Kafka's works has increased. In this regard, Ali-Asghar Haddad, a German-speaking translator, has attempted to provide more accurate translations of Kafka's works by translating Kafka's stories and later his novel "America." Faramarz Behzad and Ali Abdollahi have also been among the translators of Kafka's works from German into Persian. How is Kafka's language? Mahmoud Falaki, a writer and researcher, has addressed the language of the book "The Metamorphosis" and the difficulties of translating this story in his book "Alienation in Kafka's Works and the Impact of Kafka on Persian Literature." Mr. Falaki believes that careful selection of words in translation is important for understanding the structure, perspective, and themes of Kafka's stories, especially in "The Metamorphosis," but unfortunately, this precision is not observed or is given less attention in the Persian translations of this work. Siavash Jamadi, a translator of some of Kafka's works, has written: "Kafka was not a professional writer. Sometimes he would not write anything for months, and sometimes he would create a story like 'The Judgment' in a fervent state in one sitting." Mr. Jamadi emphasized that "Kafka's importance primarily lies in the thought embedded in his work, although he was also an unparalleled master in embodying and materializing thoughts and conditions." Franz Kafka was born in Prague, the current capital of the Czech Republic, but he wrote in German, and his popularity among his compatriots is not as significant as it might be imagined in Iran, at least not to the extent of some other Czech writers. With this in mind, regardless of how faithful the Persian translations of Kafka's works are to the originals, the question arises as to how Kafka's own German language was and how he employed this language in his works.