Mohammad Madjlessi
Mohammad Madjlessi | |
|---|---|
| محمد مجلسی | |
 Madjlessi in later life | |
| Born | 1930 Isfahan, Iran |
| Died | 3 January 2021 (aged 90–91) Isfahan, Iran |
Resting place | Bagh-e Rezvan cemetery, Isfahan |
| Alma mater | University of Tehran Aix-Marseille University |
| Occupations | Translator, writer, poet, radio scriptwriter |
| Writing career | |
| Language | Persian |
| Notable works | Persian translations of Les Misérables, Jean-Christophe, Anna Karenina |
Mohammad Madjlessi (Persian: محمد مجلسی, also romanized Mohammad Majlesi; 1930 – 3 January 2021) was an Iranian writer, poet, radio scriptwriter and translator. Over his career he translated more than 70 works of French and Russian literature into Persian, including Victor Hugo's Les Misérables.[1][2]
Life
Madjlessi was born in 1930 (1309 SH) in Isfahan.[2] He studied law at the University of Tehran. Following the 1953 Iranian coup d'état, the young communist poet was arrested at the age of 23 for his political opinions and later exiled to Kharg Island together with other political prisoners, intellectuals and worker activists of the Tudeh Party of Iran. His fellow prisoner, the translator Karim Keshavarz, recalls "Majlesi, the young poet" among the detainees from Isfahan in his prison diary published in 1984.[3]
After his release he worked as a journalist and novelist. For more than twenty years he wrote the nightly radio serial Dastan-e Shab ("Night Story"), one of the most widely followed daily programmes of Radio Iran, heard across Persian-speaking countries of the region. As early as September 1962, Radio Iran's monthly magazine pictured him at his desk among the five staff writers of the programme, then broadcast nightly at 10 p.m. with a cast of more than thirty actors.[4][2]
He completed a doctorate in law at Aix-Marseille University in Aix-en-Provence, France, defending a thesis in 1974 on Franco-Iranian relations in the era of Napoleon I, supervised by André Viala.[5] In the last years of the monarchy he emigrated to Toulouse, France, and returned to Iran after the 1979 revolution. He was one of the founding members of the Council of Writers and Artists of Iran.
Turning to translation, Madjlessi rendered into Persian more than 70 works, mainly of French and Russian literature, by authors including Victor Hugo, Romain Rolland, Leo Tolstoy, André Gide, Maxim Gorky, Stefan Zweig and Chinghiz Aitmatov.[1][6] His translations of Aitmatov are credited with introducing the Kyrgyz writer to Iranian readers. In his final days he was working on a new Persian translation of Tolstoy's War and Peace, which remained unfinished.[2]
Madjlessi died on 3 January 2021 (14 Dey 1399 SH) in his native Isfahan. A line of his own verse, in his own hand, is inscribed on his gravestone: «فردا اگر بیایی، ما نیستیم دیگر، ای آزادی!» ("If you come tomorrow, we shall be here no more, O Liberty!").[1][7] He was buried in the section reserved for renowned figures at the Bagh-e Rezvan cemetery in Isfahan.[2] Upon his death, the French Embassy in Iran paid tribute to "the eminent Iranian translator who played a considerable role in conveying French works, especially those of Victor Hugo, to Persian-speaking audiences".[8]
Selected translations
Madjlessi translated more than 70 works into Persian, most of them published by Donya-ye No. Among the best known are:
From Russian
- Anna Karenina and Resurrection – Leo Tolstoy
- The Queen of Spades – Alexander Pushkin
- Jamila, The Mark of Cassandra, The White Ship and The Day Lasts More Than a Hundred Years – Chinghiz Aitmatov[1]
From French
- Les Misérables and Ninety-Three – Victor Hugo[1]
- Jean-Christophe and Vie de Beethoven – Romain Rolland[1]
- Persian Letters – Montesquieu
- La Symphonie pastorale – André Gide[9]
- The Lady of the Camellias – Alexandre Dumas fils
- A Very Easy Death – Simone de Beauvoir[1]
- The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
From other languages
- The Royal Game and Letter from an Unknown Woman – Stefan Zweig (German)[1][9]
- Barnaby Rudge – Charles Dickens (English)
- Alamut – Vladimir Bartol (Slovene)
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 محمد مجلسی درگذشت [Mohammad Majlesi has died] (in Persian). ISNA. 3 January 2021. Retrieved 18 July 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 «محمد مجلسی» مترجم مشهور ایرانی درگذشت [Mohammad Majlesi, famous Iranian translator, has died]. Jam-e Jam Online (in Persian). Mehr News Agency. January 2021. Retrieved 18 July 2026.
- ↑ Keshavarz, Karim (1984). چهارده ماه در خارک: یادداشتهای روزانهٔ زندانی [Fourteen Months on Khark: A Prisoner's Daily Notes] (PDF) (in Persian). Tehran: Payam. pp. 219, 317. Retrieved 18 July 2026.
- ↑ "رادیو ایران در این ماه" [Radio Iran this month]. Radio Iran Monthly (in Persian). No. 73. September 1962. p. 4.
- ↑ "Les relations franco-iraniennes à l'époque de Napoléon 1er (thesis notice)". GIS Asie. Retrieved 18 July 2026. See also Sudoc record 102354693.
- ↑ محمد مجلسی مترجم آثار ویکتور هوگو درگذشت [Mohammad Majlesi, translator of Victor Hugo's works, has died] (in Persian). ILNA. 3 January 2021. Retrieved 18 July 2026.
- ↑ محمد مجلسی، مترجم پیشکسوت درگذشت [Mohammad Majlesi, veteran translator, has died]. Donya-e-Eqtesad (in Persian). No. 5077. 5 January 2021. Retrieved 18 July 2026.
- ↑ French Embassy in Iran [@FranceenIran] (5 January 2021). "محمد مجلسی، مترجم برجسته ایرانی که نقشی شایان در انتقال آثار فرانسوی به اخص آثار ویکتور هوگو به مخاطبان فارسی زبان داشت..." (Tweet) (in Persian). Retrieved 18 July 2026 – via Twitter.
- 1 2 معرفی و بررسی کتاب‌های محمد مجلسی [Introduction and review of Mohammad Majlesi's books]. Iran Ketab (in Persian). Retrieved 18 July 2026.
External links
- (in Persian) Profile and list of translations at Iran Ketab