AKRAM PEDRAMNIA

AUTHOR | TRANSLATOR | ACTIVIST

Iranian- Canadian Author, Translator and long time Activist against Censorship in Literature;  An Advocate for Social Justice.

ULYSSES

JAMES JOYCE

 

The first, second and third volumes of the uncensored Persian translation of Ulysses, now available in eBook format.

LOLITA

VLADIMIR NABOKOV

The uncensored Persian translation of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita in Iran’s underground market. The free eBook format is now available to download.

TRANSLATING ULYSSES

PERSONAL ESSAY | DECEMBER 2019
Pen Transmission

Iranian-Canadian novelist and translator Akram Pedramnia writes about translating James Joyce into Persian, evading the censor, and imperial co-option of resistance.

The novel Rooye Note Beman by Akram Pedramnia is a modern retelling of Sophocles’ Antigone, narrated through the voices of two sisters, Gordi and Soody.

Gordi, a specialist in obstetrics and gynecology, is determined to recover the body of her executed brother and give him a proper burial, believing he deserves a grave just like her other two martyred brothers. Her mission, however, is met with significant obstacles, including the steadfast opposition of her sister, Soody. Soody contends that the preservation of the living must take precedence over honoring the dead.

As the story unfolds, we follow the sisters’ profound struggles as they navigate their opposing beliefs amidst the immense oppression and uncertainty of their time. Despite their differences, both women, in their own ways, seek to protect life, love, and existence, even under the heavy weight of doubt and adversity.

This compelling narrative delves deeply into the enduring complexities of familial duty, moral conviction, and the resilience of the human spirit.

The Persian version of Rooye Note Beman is published by Nikaan House.

NIKAAN HOUSE PUBLISHING- 250 Pages

Latest Project

 

James Joyce

Translation By Akram Pedramnia

Ulysses (Volume IV)

Fiction, Novel

 The fourth volume of the Persian translation of Ulysses, which consists of episodes thirteen and fourteen, in 368 pages, is now available.

 The Ulysses Translation and Research Integrated Project will be published in six volumes by Nogaam Publishing in London with the support of Literature Ireland.

 The aim of this project is to translate James Joyce’s masterpiece as well as the many references, annotations, and notes surrounding this work of art into Persian. In order to remain faithful to the main source and “Not to change even a single word” the volumes are being published outside of Iran.

The Winter of Suma Hills

By Akram Pedramnia

The Winter in Suma Hills

Fiction, Novel

In the years leading to the Islamic revolution of Iran, Setareh, a young peasant woman, tries to correspond with her husband, Farhad, a political prisoner. While working in a tobacco field to pay her rent in the northern of the country, she writes regularly to the prison where, she is told, her husband is staying. In these letters, she reveals a harsh life caused by poverty and the torment she endures from her community. Her life is interrupted when she receives the replies.

‘Pleasure or pain, is it?’

 An Essay – By Akram Pedramnia

James Joyce Research Centre at University College Dublin

 Journal #10,

Pleasure or pain, is it?

Translating a work that employs inventive literary techniques is an already arduous task, however, negotiating with a system of imposed censorship makes the process of translating and publishing increasingly more intricate. The Iranian Ministry of Cultural and Islamic Guidance declared my uncensored translation of Vladimir Nabokov’s Lolita (which I had had to publish and disseminate underground) an obscene publication, prohibited further sales, and ordered its confiscation. The censorship of words, themes, and sometimes complete works is a common hazard for Persian translators and frames my current work translating Ulysses. In this essay, I explore the challenges of translating modernist works, like Lolita, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tender Is the Night, as well as Ulysses, under a system of imposed censorship and discuss the methods I employ to evade it.

The Latest

Ulysses

Ulysses is a modernist novel by Irish writer James Joyce. The Uncensored Translation of Ulysses into Persian by Akram Pedramnia.

Lolita

Lolita is a 1955 novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov.  Translated by Akram Pedramnia and is available in Iran’s Underground Markets

Tender Is The Night

Tender is the Night

The fourth and final novel completed by American writer F. Scott Fitzgerald. The Uncensored translation 0f Tender is the Night by Akram Pedramnia.

Ziggurat

Maani, an immigrant archeologist, tries to understand love, pain, and struggles of humans lived thousands of years ago in the ancient city of the Sialk.

The Cry of the Desert

The Cry of the Desert

Goli, an Afghan-Iranian six years old girl learns that she will be prohibited from ever entering school and getting an education, for the sole reason that her father is an Afghan.

News, Articles and Interviews

Pen USA for the imprisoned writers in Iran. An interview with VOA

Global support for Iranian protesters prevents the intensity of the regime’s violence

Ulysses Translation Book Review

Follow @pedramnia ON TWITTER

Ulysses Book Review from BBC Persian along with a few words from Akram Pedramnia

Ulysess on Literature Ireland

Happy #Bloomsday to Literature Ireland

Iranian-Canadian novelist and translator Akram Pedramnia translated the novel into Persian.

Ulysses Persian Translation

Reading Ulysses in Persian

Ulysses translator, Akram Pedramnia, project in @Bloomsday Macedonia FB Page.

Akram Pedramnia on her desk

The Reproduction of the Social Order in Literature

This essay is a discussion on maintaining the domination, oppression and inequality of the marginalized groups of societies

Virginia Wolf

A Letter to Virginia Woolf

Videos

Akram introduces her novel :
The Winter in Suma Hills

On Translation of Lolita into Persian and No to the hegemony of the censorship

{

One of the strongest-willed translators active today. Confronting pernicious state-sponsored censorship, watching as dubious publishers eight time zones away put her work into print without permission or payment.

- Peter O’brien, The Globe and Mail

{

Her translations are distributed as pirated or over the Internet without her earning a cent – but that does not bother Akram Pedramnia. She is even pleased. Thanks to her, Iranian readers can read Lolita or Tender Is the Night

- Angela Schader, Neue Zürcher Zeitung

Schedule an Event

General Inquiry

Contact Author