Translation of Culture-specific Items from English into Persian:the Case of "Les Miserables" Persian Musical Performance

The novel 'Les Miserables' (Hugo, Les Miserables, ۱۹۸۵) is one of the mostuniversally translated works, and there are a number of adaptions in severallanguages. One recent adaption is the Persian musical play performed in Iran. Inthis performance, culture-specific items are translated differently since visual andaural elements are added on the stage. The aim of the study is to investigatetranslation strategies to indicate what translation solutions are possible when themedium changes and also to observe its effects on the audience. After watching theninety-minute recorded play in VOD format, culture-specific items were selectedpurposively corresponding to those in the novel. Subsequently, they were analyzedbased on Newmark's model (۱۹۸۸). In the present descriptive work, the findingsindicate that the most frequent translation strategies applied are 'Literal Translation'and 'Adaptation' in the second place. Further, the research reflects that despite anumber of censorship, several sections of the book are summarized. Also, somescenes are deleted from the recorded play in comparison to the originalperformance. Therefore, there is no exact one-to-one correspondence. Afterconducting the research, it became evident that one reason for the omissions is thepublishing regulations administered in Iran for VOD formats of the plays. Theseresults suggest that the translator of the play has tried to familiarize the audiencewith the French culture through foreignization with the help of visual and auralinstruments. Since the audience are represented with pictures and songs, it's easierto locate themselves in the era of French Revolution and French customs