Chains of Culture

picture from Tours of Iran

Buddha, Zoroaster, Jesus and Socrates are but a few names heard repeatedly throughout history as figures of great impression on mankind. Most of them are shrouded with such vague layers of contradicting information that we might never be actually able to discover their truth and perhaps, as one famous Persian poet, Sohrab Sepehri has mentioned, maybe it’s not our job to discover the secrets of the rose, meaning all that matters is the effort not the result.

However, individuality being one of the key aspects of the Western attitude and one of its most solid pillars, specially after Renaissance, such generalization cannot be easily appreciated as a school of life and maybe that is why one particular man has been given so much credit over the centuries, even seen at some point like a savior of the West, a demi-god of sorts, when in fact he was at best, only a conquering general.

But if I have learnt one thing from the years of studying Mythology is that a god in one culture could easily be a demon in the next while neither descriptions are actually even close to the reality and truth of the character in question.

History in that perspective, is not far from mythological beliefs and concepts when a historical figure like Alexander is titled the Great in the West and the Foul in the East and the real person might actually be neither. It’s a painful jab of fact that even the famous quote “History is Written by the Victors.” is only attributed to Winston Churchill and not actually written originally by him. 

picture from World History Encyclopedia

All that being said, one of the joys of being a translator is the ability to move between those walls when you are building a bridge between the two unfamiliar territories of culture so that your readers get a closer sense of what their equals think, away from politically drawn borders. 

That was the ever present feeling I had while I was translating a play by Reza Mirzaei into English, which in a nutshell, was an argument between four historical figures about Alexander and spoiler alert, leaves the reader on the peak of its narration to ponder. 

That is actually what kept me reading in the first place. 

It’s not just a condemnation or appreciation of the historical man. It's human nature that proves to be constant throughout history and land and most definitely free from the ruins of the tower of Babel. 

picture from Wikipedia