Beatriz Salas, translator, said: Shahnameh is a rich source of understanding the soul and everything that humans can learn.

According to the news headquarters of the 35th Tehran International Book Fair, simultaneously with the ninth day of the Tehran Book Fair, the “Literary Exchange between Translators of Mexican and Iranian Works” session was held with the presence of Beatriz Salas (translator of Shahnameh into Spanish), Mazyar Naeimi (translator), Parviz Shahbazi (translator) and Diego Ruiz Gayol (second person of the Mexican Embassy in Iran) at the House of Nations.

Salas, referring to the Ferdowsi memorial ceremony that had been held in recent days, said: It is appropriate to remember this great Iranian epic poet on the international stage.

She continued: 12 years ago, when Ferdowsi’s millennium was held in Iran, UNESCO requested through the embassy that Shahnameh be translated into Spanish, and fate caused the book to reach me to translate it.

The Translation Took 10 Years

The translator of Shahnameh into Spanish described the translation of this work as a difficult task and said: Since Shahnameh is a great and prominent work, its translation was not an easy task and it took about 10 years.

Salas, emphasizing the need to understand culture and language in translation, continued: To translate a work, it is very important to know the culture and language of that work. For this reason, I decided to get more acquainted with Iranian culture and language.

She did not consider Ferdowsi to belong only to the borders of Iran and said: Ferdowsi belongs to the whole world, and is something beyond a usual history and myth. Even something beyond the instructions and advice it has given to kings. Shahnameh is a rich source of understanding the soul and everything that humans can learn.

Education, the Most Important Part

This translator, also as a retired teacher, considered the teaching part of Shahnameh as the most important part of it and added: Apart from the totality of Shahnameh, the most important part for me is the educational part and at the beginning of Shahnameh, Ferdowsi also starts with the discussion of education, how much education is necessary for life. Ferdowsi in Shahnameh from the beginning and at all stages orders the kings to educate their children with wise and virtuous people.

Salas considered reading Shahnameh a necessity for today’s teenagers and said: Teenagers who are now looking to use mobile phones and tablets better read books like this, because the future of the world is in the hands of these teenagers.

She considered the cultural exchange between Iran and Mexico, both of which have been the origin of great civilizations, beneficial and wished that these interactions would take place more and better.

The Poetic Look of Paz

Mazyar Naeimi and Parviz Shahbazi, translators of the book “The Labyrinth of Solitude” written by Octavio Paz, a Mexican writer, were other translators present at this meeting who explained and elaborated on this published work.

Naeimi, referring to the fact that Paz’s works are universal, said: We are faced with issues and concepts such as time, otherness, loneliness, existence, collective presence, freedom, and love in his works, and Paz does not follow the usual methods in humanities and social sciences in explaining these concepts and can be said to have a literary and poetic look.

He continued: Many of the concepts that Paz has emphasized have been redefined in Iranian relations and one of the concepts that has made Paz contemplative for me is that he asks himself: “Who are we?!”