Rustam and Sohrab and Sohrab and Rustam: A Comparative Study

Rustam and Sohrab is one of the epic stories of the Shahnameh which has attracted the admiration of many intellectuals of the world. This literary masterpiece of Firdausi has made its impact on English literature through translations by William Jones, James Atkinson, J.W.Clinton and Warner Brothers. Matthew Arnold is the only poet critic who has applied his genius and introduced the Persian epic as one of the greatest tragedies in world literature. While other Orientalists just limited themselves to the translation of the story of Rustam and Sohrab, Arnold moved a step ahead of them by his art of transcreation. Refraining from simple translation, he transcreated the story of Rustam and Sohrab as Sohrab and Rustam and brought many changes into it. Nevertheless, Arnold kept the original theme of the story intact and successfully preserved the spirit of the great Persian tragedy in which a son unknowingly being killed by his own father.
The aim of this paper is to compare the poem of Sohrab and Rustam by Matthew Arnold with the original text of Rustam and Sohrab by Firdausi and present the artistic and poetic elements in the masterpiece of Arnold in English literature.