Romanians have struck a chord with Iran’s rich culture

1394/02/21-11:42

Romanian ambassador to Tehran, Christian Teodorescu says his fellow compatriots have struck a chord with Iran’s rich culture in the course of history and that the avid desire had prompted Romanian translators to render so many Persian literary works into Romanian.

The senior diplomat made the remarks in a panel discussion on Iranian-related studies and publication in Romania held on Saturday at the 28th Tehran International Book Fair (TIBF) that is underway in the Iranian capital.

In the meantime, Teodorescu reviewed his past studies about Iran, adding Iranian-related studies have a lot of depth in his country.

The ambassador said Iran and Romania have been longtime trade partners as both were situated on the ancient Silk Road trade corridor.

According to Teodorescu, a first Romania academic department in Persian culture and language was established in 1969 in Bucharest University to appeal to a huge public interest with the university handing its first Bachelor of Art degree in Persian language and literature five years later.

As for translation of Persian literature into Romanian, the researcher-turned-diplomat said a first translation of Golestan, the masterpiece of the renowned Iranian poet Sa’adi was made in 1905 in a small Romanian city outside Bucharest.

The ambassador said the literary translation was followed by a massive translation scheme from Persian literature that covered the works of Omar Khayyam, Sa’adi, Ferdowsi, Hafiz, Baba Taher, and Shabestari among others.

Further highlighting the Romanian interest in Persian literature and culture, the senior diplomat revealed that half of the existing manuscripts in the Romanian Academy’s library are in Persian.

Next in the session, regent member of National Library and Archives Organization of Iran (NLAI), Mohsen Ja’fari Mazhab presented a brief introduction about Romanian musician, Dimitrie Cantemir who was grown up in Ottoman capital (current-time Istanbul city in Turkey) as a hostage and lived there for 17 long consecutive years.

According to the Iranian librarian, Cantemir found his way into the Ottoman palace’s library where he studied Iranian music, including the works of great musician, Abdol Qader Maraqe’i.

The long-running research helped Cantemir to identify Iranian musical keys and tonality and subsequently pass down the knowledge to Europeans, the researcher said.

Next, head of Iran-Poland friendship group, Ali Reza Dolatshahi took up the discussion and said Iranian-related studies were actually those works that embody the views of other nations about Iran’s history and culture.

The public diplomat then discussed how the Europeans came in touch with the Iranian culture, saying the culture found its way into Europe through Muslim Arabs residing in Andalusia as well as those living under the Ottoman Empire.

Dolatshahi maintained that the Ottoman culture was created through a combination of Iranian and Arab cultures, noting that Turkish music also incorporates a few divisions from Iranian and Arab music.