The Buddha in Muslims’ worldview: the essay-article “The Buddha” by Leo Tolstoy in Tatar and Persian translations

The article provides a comparative and contrastive analysis of Leo Tolstoy’s essay “The Buddha” in Tatar and Persian translations. We briefly describe the history of “The Buddha” creation and characterize the Tatar translation of Leo Tolstoy’s work, made at the beginning of the 20th century, as well as the Persian translation, carried out much later. In addition, in a concise form, we present creative portraits of the Tatar and Persian translators, providing their biographical data. On the one hand, the conceptual and substantive “core” of the article reflects the need to highlight, based on textual examples, the history of Tatar and Persian appeals to Leo Tolstoy; on the other hand, it seeks to understand the strategy of translation skills oriented towards the exact rendering of the Russian original. Both translations can be classified as adequate. At the same time, in some cases, there is “subjectivization” of Tolstoy’s philosophical-religious and figurative-literary wording, due to the fact that the translators belong to the area of Eastern spiritual and cultural traditions. The article identifies some particular research problems. In the Tatar part, they are associated with the importance of studying the life and work of Nazip Khalfin (1886–1937), the translator of “The Buddha” (there is still very scarce information about him). In the Persian part, similarly, it is necessary to collect and systematize information about Arbob Rukhi (1914–1973), a figure of Iranian culture, the translator of “The Buddha” (and other works of Russian and Western classics). The gaps in their biographies and oeuvre are due to the historical events. In one case, for Tatar culture, they were caused by the tragic circumstances of the October Revolution of 1917 (repressions against the Tatar intellectual elite, anti–Muslim propaganda, the change of the Tatar alphabet); in the other, by certain ideological “excesses” that arose in Iran after the Islamic Revolution of 1979 (at the same time, the attitude to social changes that it brought about is beyond any doubt).

1. Bekmetov, R. F. (2023). Ocherk L'va Tolstogo “Budda” v perevode na starotatarskii yazyk [Leo Tolstoy’s Essay “The Buddha” Translated into the Old Tatar Language]. Materialy XII Mezhdunarodnoi nauchnoi konferentsii “Lev Tolstoy i mirovaya literatura”; Materialy XVII Mezhdunarodnogo seminara perevidchikov proizvedenii L. N. Tolstogo i drugikh russkikh klassikov. Vyp. 22, pp. 89–106. Muzei-usad'ba L. N. Tolstogo “Yasnaya Pol'ana”. (In Russian)

2. Tolstoy, L. N. (1928–1958). Polnoye sobraniye sochinenii: v 90 tomakh [Complete Works: In 90 Volumes]. Moscow, Gosudarstvennoe izdatel'stvo “Khudozhestvennaya literatura”. (In Russian)

3. Nikol'ukin, А. (1991). “Eta radostnaya rabota” (Krug zhizni velikogo russkogo pisatel'a) [“This Joyful Work” (the great Russian writer’s circle of life)]. Tolstoy, L. N. Krug chteniya. Izbrannye, sobrannye i raspolozhennye na kazhdyi den' L'vom Tolstym mysli mnogikh pisatelei оb istine, zhizni i povedenii: v 2 tomakh. Vol. I (Janvar' – Avgust). Pp. 5–17. Moscow, izd-vo politicheskoi literatury. (In Russian)

4. Shifman, A. I. (1971). Lev Tolstoy i Vostok [Leo Tolstoy and the East]. 552 p. Moscow, Nauka, Glavnaya redaktsiya vostochnoi literatury. (In Russian)

5. Budda (1908) [The Buddha]. Mөkharire: graf Lev Tolstoy, mөtәrzhime: N. Kh. 12 p. Kazan', Elektrotipografiya “Urnek”. (In Tatar)

6. Tolstoy, L. N. (2023). Budda [The Buddha]. 2nche basma (tekstny R. F. Bekmetov әzerlәdе). 48 p. Kazan, “Shkola” redaktsiya-nәshriyat үzәge. (In Tatar)

7. Gil'azev Z. Z, Ainutdinov, R. А. (2018). Prizhiznennye izdaniya L. N. Tolstogo nа tatarskom yazyke v kollektsiyakh krupnykh bibliotek Kazani [Lifetime Tatar Translations of Leo Tolstoy’s Works in the Collections of Major Libraries in Kazan]. Bibliotekovedenie. Vol. 67. No 4, pp. 413–419. (In Russian)

8. Ivanov, M. S. (1982). Antifoedal'nye vosstaniya v Irane v seredine XIX v. [Anti-feudal Uprisings in Iran in the Middle of the 19th Century]. 247 p. Мoscow, Nauka, Glavnoe izdatel'stvo vostochnoi literatury. (In Russian)

9. تولستوی،سواستپول و داستان های دیگر،مترجم ارباب .9 ص379 ،9231 ،[ روحی،تهران،فراینWolestoy, Swastpol and Dastan High Deger, translated by Arbab Rouhi, Tehran, Frain, 1329, 271 pages]. (In Persian)

10. تولستوی،سواستپول و داستان های دیگر،تهران،فراین، 10. ،9211 ص379 [Swastpol and Dastan High Degree, Tehran, Frain, 1395, 271 p.]. (In Persian)

11. Krug chteniya: izbrannye, sobrannye i raspolozhennye na kazhdyi den' L'vom Tolstym mysli mnogikh pisetelei ob istine, zhizni i povedenii (1906) [Reading Circle: The Thoughts of Many Writers on the Truth, Life and Behavior, Selected, Collected and Arranged for Every Day by Leo Tolstoy]. Izdanie “Posrednika”, napechatannoe pod lichnym nabl'udeniem L. N. Tolstogo. No CXXXII. Tom pervyi. Pp. 110–115. Мoscow, Tipo-lotografiya T-vа I. N. KUSHNEREV i Kо. Pimenivskaya ulitsa, sob. dom. (In Russian)