1.1 introduction “i see translation as the attempt to produce a text so transparent that it does not seem to be translated. a good translation is like a pane of glass. you only notice that it’s there when there are little imperfections- scratches, bubbles. ideally, there shouldn’t be any. it should never call attention to itself.” “norman shapiro” (venuti, 1995:1) edward fitzgerald is the british translator of jami’s salaman and absal and attar’s mantiq ut tair, as well as the rubaiyat of omar khayyam. the latter is by far the most famous translation ever made from persian verse into english. it had a considerable influence on the development of late victorian and edwardian british poetry as well as the awakening of a much wider interest, in english speaking countries and europe. the above- mentioned works have been translated into different languages and by several translators; but among these translations, edward fitzgerald’s translations are the high point of the 19th century and have been greatly influential. there are various factors in fitzgerald’s translations which made him a celebrated translator throughout the world. the aim of this thesis is to analyze fitzgerald’s translations by considering domestication and foreignization strategies in his renderings. 1.2 the necessity of research the growth of translation studies as a separate discipline is a success story of the 1980 (venuti, 1995: viii). one of the key issues in the recent translation theories has been on whether the translators should remain invisible or not, namely applying domesticating or foreignizing method through the translating act has taken an important place in recent studies. the term “invisibility” originated in the works of lawrence venuti (1995) to describe the translator’s situation and activity in contemporary anglo-american culture. invisibility is apparent when translations yield fluent readability and feel like originals rather than translations. invisibility requires a great deal of manipulation on the part of translator because “the more fluent the translation, the more invisible the translator and, presumably, the more visible the writer or meaning of the foreign text” (venuti, 1995:2). according to hochel (1991:41), a translation from one literary language into another one normally involves three transfers: 1. from one natural language into another one; 2. from one time into another one; 3. from one cultural milieu into another one. those transfers can result in a domesticating translation where the target text is perceived as if it was originally written in the target language within the target culture and adopted to minimize the strangeness of the original foreign text for the convenience of the target-text readers. it means making the text recognizable and familiar and thus bringing the foreign culture closer to that of the readers’. they can also result in a foreignizing translation, which makes it obvious to the reader that the original literary work belonged to a different language, age and culture, and deliberately breaks the target conventions by retaining something of the foreignness of the original (shuttle worth & cowie, 1997:59). it means to take the reader to the foreign culture and to make him or her feel the linguistic and cultural differences. among the different translations of jami’s salaman and absal, the rubaiyat of omar khayyam and attar’s mantiq ut tair (bird parliament), edward fitzgerald’s imaginative renditions are the bestselling works of poetry in the english speaking world. since fitzgerald’s translations of persian into english belong to the 1845 -1880, and most of translation theories introduced after these decades, fitzgerald’s methods of translating have been the subject of many criticisms in recent years. the debates are on fitzgerald’s reputation as a celebrated translator. there are various factors in edward fitzgerald’s translations from persian into english. he adopted both domesticating and foreignizing methods through his works which is one of the important factors in his translations. no doubt, pervasive researches have been done on fitzgerald’s translations, but none of them has done their researches from venuti’s theoretical points of view. 1.3 statement of the problem there are enough evidences that omar owes the very nature of his reputation as a poet in both the west and east to fitzgerald’s rendering. in other words, without fitzgerald’s so-called rubaiyat there would only have been omar khayyam, an astronomer and mathematician. fitzgerald found in persian poems- jami’s salaman and absal, the rubaiyat of omar khayyam and attar’s mantiq ut tair (bird parliament)- a new voice for his age, the victorian period. for expressing this new voice, he formed a pattern and adopted domestication and foreignization strategies in his works. for instance, he manipulated the original, omitted some parts and transliterated some names. now this thesis tries to find out what made fitzgerald apply both domesticating and foreignizing strategies to his works from persian into english; and to what extent fitzgerald applied these methods on his translations. this needs more discussion which will be explored in the present study. 1.4 research questions due to the above mentioned problems which relate to the domesticating and foreignizing methods on fitzgerald’s translations from persian into english-jami’s salaman and absal, the rubaiyat of omar khayyam and attar’s mantiq ut tair (bird parliament)-, and according to the aim of the study, after examining the theoretical basis and reviewing the related literature and collecting and analyzing some empirical data on domestication and foreignization strategies, the present study will raise the following research questions: 1. which factors led fitzgerald to translate rubaiyat of khayyam, jami’s salaman and absal and attar’s mantiq ut tair by a special method namely domesticating and foreignizing? 2. which factors in fitzgerald’s above mentioned renderings made him as a celebrated translator? 3. to what extent did fitzgerald adopt domesticating and foreignizing methods in his translations? 1.5 the hypothesis what is important is that fitzgerald’s persian translations are “victorian” products even if the raw materials of the poems belong to the eleventh (khayyam), twelfth (attar) and fifteenth (jami) -century persia. the first factor that caused fitzgerald to translate jami’s salaman and absal, rubaiyat of khayyam and attar’s mantiq ut tair by a special method is that he properly realized his own time and perceived the moods and interests of his age, so according to their need he knew where to apply domesticating and where to apply foreignizing method. in addition, he himself was a great poet and writer. thus, by using his poetic talent, he knew how to translate the text in order to recreate the same effect for the target readers. fitzgerald applied some tactics in his translation from persian into english which made him a successful literary translator throughout the world. fitzgerald realized his people’s needs and manipulated the original in order to make it readable for his own age. for example, he changed or transliterated the proper names, omitted some stories which were not acceptable by the victorian people. he reduced some parts of original which had repetitive theme and made it compatible with the moods and interests of his age. also, he was a great english poem so he could translate verse to verse and even recreated the “ravi” in his translation of rubaiyat of khayyam. also, for the first time, fitzgerald introduced a traditional middle eastern rhyme scheme to english which was very unusual in western poetry. fitzgerald used both strategies: domesticating and foreignizing, but his application of domesticating method is more than foreignizing one. by adopting domestication strategies, he created very free translations, especially in rendering rubaiyat of khayyam and bird parliament. he manipulated the original, omitted or paraphrased some parts and changed some of the proper names. fitzgerald attempted to give general characteristics of victorian poetry to his works and to show his works as the victorian products. his works perfectly adapted to the new conditions of time, place, custom, and habit of mind of the west. 1.6 the novelty of research jami’s salaman and absal, khayyam’s rubaiyat and attar’s mantiq ut tair (bird parliament), the famous poems in iran, have been translated into different languages and by several translators, among these translations, edward fitzgerald’s translations are the high point of the 19th century and have been greatly influential. it should be noted that, most of scholars are just familiar with fitzgerald’s translation of rubaiyat of khayyam. it seems that jami’s salaman and absal and attar’s mantiq ut tair remained anonymous for a great number of east and west literary scholars. for instance, attempting to find some sources relating to the present thesis resulted in finding only scholarly books about fitzgerald and his translations of rubaiyat of khayyam. unfortunately, there is just one book on attar’s mantiq ut tair and jami’s salaman and absal and the available translations of their books. even the single book does not talk specifically about the successes of fitzgerald’s translations or the applied methods in his renderings. the novelty of the present thesis is that, although various books, theses and papers have been written about fitzgerald and his translations from persian into english, their subjects are almost the same, i.e. they address: 1. fitzgerald’s life and his personality; 2. fitzgerald’s familiarity with persian literature, khayyam and his teacher edward cowell; 3. fitzgerald’s rendering of rubaiyat. (hassanli, hesanpour, 2009:114). they just discussed his free or literal translation; but relating his renderings to literal or free translation is a great mistake. because literary translation is much more than the language transfer between two nations, it is a cultural activity too. none of the books, theses and papers considered fitzgerald’s above mentioned works simultaneously from the venuti’s theoretical point of view neither in iran or in the world. namely, they did not analyze the application of domestication and foreignization strategies on fitzgerald’s translations from persian into english. 1.7 goals and objectives of the research edward fitzgerald’s translation of rubaiyat of omar khayyam which is supposed to be the most famous translation ever made of an oriental work has been part of english literature like shakespeare’s (emami, 1996:126). fitzgerald applied some tactics in his translations from persian into english which made him a successful literary translator throughout the world. the objective of this research is to make clear scientifically and theoretically what the reasons of his success are and how those factors were applied through translations by fitzgerald. as a result, we can present his applied tactics and strategies as a method to improve the translation of literary text especially poems from persian into english. also, this study can be used to guide future researches toward introducing fitzgerald’s translations from venuti’s theoretical point of view. giving some information about fitzgerald’s life and his career as a literary translator might be subtle, because some applied strategies in his translations related to his characteristics and personal life. layout of the thesis with regard to its layout, the thesis compromise four chapters which can be illustrated as follows: chapter one accounts for the necessity and the statement of problem among which discusses the term “invisibility” in lawrence venuti’s work. also, this chapter focuses on the importance of studying fitzgerald’s translations from persian into english- attar’s mantiq ut tair (bird parliament), jami’s salaman and absal and the rubaiyat of omar khayyam-from venuti’s theoretical point of view, namely, domesticating and foreignizing methods. after making clear the research question and hypothesis, the novelty and objective of the research are introduced. finally, it provides brief information on fitzgerald’s life and career as a literary translator and the way he learned persian language too. chapter two attempts to give the general characteristics of the victorian age toward religion and literary translation. then, it introduces the four periods of translation history and discusses the adopted strategies in 17th -20th century. then it investigates the two terms of ‘domesticating translation’ and ‘foreignizing translation’ coined by lawrence venuti (1998) in translation studies especially in the history of english translation. in addition, it tries to reveal the scholars’ opinions about these two methods. chapter three provides a brief history of mantiq ut tair, salaman and absal and the rubaiyat of omar khayyam translations, papers, theses and books written about fitzgerald’s renderings and underlies reasons for selecting fitzgerald’s translations. chapter four compares the selected examples of the persian poems- mantiq ut tair, salaman and absal and the rubaiyat of omar khayyam with their translations by fitzgerald. then, it considers the application of the domestication and foreignization strategies. also, this chapter discusses the reason of their application through fitzgerald translation. finally, based on the analysis, it represents some factors which made him a celebrated translator. chapter five reviews several concluding points about the application of domesticating and foreignizing strategies in fitzgerald’s translations from persian into english. then, it introduces some suggestion for further research.