The Translator-text Interaction Based on Gadamer’s Theory of Fusion of Horizons: A Case Study of Translations of Romantic Poetry into Persian La interacción traductor-texto basada en la teoría de la fusión de horizontes de Gadamer: Un estudio de caso de las traducciones de la poesía romántica al persa

Love of poetry has a long history among Iranians, so is the case with translation of poetry in their recent attempts. Thus, the significant number of translations has been made from Western poems. British Romantic poetry, as one type of Western poetry, has been translated since the beginning of poetry translation in Iran. This paper aims to investigate the translations of the British Romantic poems diachronically, the translations published in the 20th century, before the Revolution of 1979, and synchronically, the Romantic poems translated in the 21st century, the post-Revolutionary period. To fulfill the purpose, Schäffner’s theory of translation competences was applied to reveal which century met them more adeptly. For the linguistic competence, besides the text analysis of all translations, the number of the parts of speech of four translations attributed to a poem was counted and compared to the number of the original poem to verify the result. The analysis of the competences, as one of the tools of translation assessment, proves the attainment of Gadamer’s theory on the fusion of horizons for translators. The examination indicates that the translation competences are more developed in the translations of the 21st century. Therefore, in this century, translators achieve the fusion of horizons more effectively, and the translation trend of British Romantic poetry has improved.


INTRODUCTION
In the context of Persian literature, poetry is publically acclaimed. Hanaway (1988: 543) believes that poetry is prized as "the highest form of literary" in Iran. Therefore, poetry translation is appreciated significantly among Iranians. However, poetry translation is a complicated and formidable task. It is considered as "the most difficult mode of translation" (Ray, 2008, p. 56). The figurative language, rhythm and rhyme, connotative and symbolic meanings that are specified to the source language (SL) should be recreated in the new world of the target language (TL). Not only linguistically, poetry is convoluted, but also non-linguistically, it is interwoven with the source culture and history. Therefore, poetry may be "the least translated genre" (Venuti, 2011, p. 127). Notwithstanding its tenuous position in the market, various poetry translations are done in different countries. In Iran, there are different poetry translations from various world literature. Even the retranslations of the world's literary masterpieces and well-known works are made by different Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 -70 translators. By retranslation, they attempt to explore further and reflect the artistic value of the source text (Zhang, 2013(Zhang, , p. 1412. In Iran, there are meaningful similarities and differences among the poetry translations of different eras. Through the examination and comparison of the poetry translations synchronically and diachronically, the changes in poetry translation trend are revealed. Before the Revelation of 1979 in Iran, one of the literary schools whose poetry translations were privileged over the other schools was Romanticism (Sarvghadi & Khazaeefarid, 2019). Likewise, in the post-Revolutionary period, the translations of the Romantic poems have been made, and even the retranslations have been published. In this respect, Ma'soomi Hamedani (2006), Shafiei Kadkani (2011), and Sarvghadi and Khazaeefarid (2019) conducted their studies on the investigation of the translations of the Romantic poems in the pre-Revolutionary era. They delineated the features of those translations, the translators' characteristics, the translation style, and the social and cultural background of that era. However, there is not any diachronic comparison between the translations of the Romantic poems of the pre-and post-Revolutionary epoch.
This paper aims to fill the gap, by investigating and comparing the translations of the British Romantic poems in the pre- Revolutionary period, approximately 1900s-1970s, and in the post-Revolutionary era, from 2000 to the 2010s. The analysis of the translations is based on Gadamer's theory of hermeneutics (2004) and Schäffner's translation competences (2000). The poems reviewed in this study are composed by the outstanding British Romantic poets, including William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Blake, Percy Bysshe Shelley, John Keats, and Lord Byron. The themes of the source poems are mostly disgruntlement with contemptible life, the pursuit of purification, and unification with unadulterated soul. The translations in two periods were analyzed to discover to what extent the translation competence was accomplished in each era. In this study, translation competence was considered as an investigation tool for achieving Gadamer's "fusion of horizons" (2004). Therefore, the attainment of fusion horizons in two periods was compared to explore the translations of which era has been more successful in interfusing the author's horizon with the translator's. Moreover, this analysis shows that the trend of poetry translation of the British Romantic poems from the pre to post-Revolutionary period. It also sheds light on the factors that modify the translation style in the post-Revolutionary context.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
In Iran, some research was conducted on identifying the various aspects of literary translation trend from the 20 th to the 21 st century. For Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 -70 instance, Mohammadpour et al. (2020aMohammadpour et al. ( , 2020b mapped the trend of the translational habitus of Iranian translators in translating culture-specific items (CSIs) in English romance novels from pre-to post-Cultural Revolution era (the 1960s to 2010s). The findings revealed that the foreignization tendency has increased among Iranian translators since the pre-Cultural Revolution (1980). Noura and Khazaee Farid (2018) examined the usage of linguistic norms by three generations of literary translators after the Constitutional Revolution in Iran. Based on the translation tradition, the repertoire of the Persian language, and capabilities of the three generations of literary translators, the adaptation of linguistic norms has been changed since the Constitutional revolution.
In the area of the translation of English Romantic poems into Persian, Mirza Suzani (2018) evaluated the types and frequency of Catford's category shifts in Abjadian's Persian translations of three English Romantic poems. The analysis revealed that to produce the exact and faithful translation shifts are inevitable. Mirza Suzani (2018) solely focused on the translations by one translator, and he did not compare the other translators' styles synchronically and diachronically. Therefore, to analyze the different translators' styles from the 20 th to the 21 st century, and to indicate the poetry translation trend of the British Romantic poems, the current study has been carried out based on Gadamer's theory of fusion of horizons (2004). Baradaran and Kolahi Ahari (2019) applied Gadamer's "fusion of horizons" (2004) to the investigation of the Persian translation of a picaresque novel, The Adventures of Hajji Baba of Ispahan (1824) through the structure and semantic analysis. The study did not adopt any models for assessing the fusion of horizons of the author and translator. Since Gadamer has not proposed any tools for evaluating the fusion of horizons, the present study employed Schäffner's translation competence (2000) as an investigation tool for achieving the fusion of horizons.

FUSION OF HORIZONS
Hermeneutics owes its origin to ancient Greek philosophy. It means "to interpret, explain, narrate, clarify, translate" (Baker & Saldanha, 2011, p. 130). Modern hermeneutics is developed by Schleiermacher's theory approximately in the Romantic period (p. 130). As a philosophy of modern language, it is defined as "a theory of comprehension" (Gambier & Van Doorslaer, 2010, p. 141). Gadamer (2004), as a leading figure in this discipline, believes that hermeneutics is associated with "understanding texts" (p. 387). Understanding is not "a repetition of something past but the sharing of a present meaning" (p. 394). Therefore, translation as one of the processes dealing with understanding texts is "a re-creation of the text guided by the way the translator understands what it says" (p. 387). In the recreation, the meaning must be preserved and understood in the new context in which other readers live. It should enjoy validity in the new language. Therefore, every translation is an interpretation. In this regard, translation is "the culmination of the interpretation" (p. 386). Every interpretation is the possible truth (p. 396). In this view, the text is detached from its author, and considered as an independent entity that is "free for new relationships" (p. 397). Thus, no one can single out any interpretations as the correct one (p. 398).
According to Gadamer (2004), in the hermeneutical approach to translation, the translator is a reader who interprets the text. In this respect, s/he presupposes her/his vision. "The range of vision that includes everything that can be seen from a particular vantage point" makes the translator's horizon (p. 301). To tackle a text, the translator faces a tension between the horizons of past and present. The latter is formed through the translator's context, pre-understanding, presuppositions, prejudices, and experience which intervene in his/her interpretation. When s/he chooses a text to translate, s/he confronts otherness. The text and context of other languages are considered as alienated for the TL. To understand the text, s/he should immigrate from self to otherness. The work and its effect constitute "as a unity of meaning" (p. 578). To understand historically, one undergoes self-alienation and leaves his/her pre-understanding aside and think on text according to its context and concept. To think historically is "to perform the transposition that the concepts of the past undergo when we try to think in them. To think historically always involves mediating between those ideas and one's own thinking" (p. 398). It is not possible to completely estrange one's concept and immerse in otherness. Therefore, the translator should strive "to reach it as far as possible" (p. 398). S/he should attempt to actualize the "unity of meaning" of the text in his/her context (p. 578). In Gadamer's theory, past and present combine into "something of living value" (p. 305). In other words, the horizons of the translator and work fuse into each other. Consequently, this fusion produces a text that conveys the meaning and effect of the past in the form of the target context. It is what Gadamer calls "fusion of horizons".
To achieve the fusion of horizons, the translator should establish the dialogical interaction with the text and implied readers, and the interaction between past and present. Inadequate dialogical interaction between the translator and the author, between the translator and the implied readers, between past and present, and also the historicity and subjectivity of author, translator, and implied readers cause retranslation (Zhang, 2013). Translator's historicity refers to the historical society s/he lives in or his/her previous experiences (p. 1412). Based on the translator's historicity and subjectivity, different translators make different interpretations of a text, which leads to different horizons of past and present. Since every interpretation is Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 -70 conceivable, various versions of the source text are reproduced in the TL. On the other hand, when translators enter a new period, their horizons and readers' expectations alter. Therefore, viewing the work from different angles and meeting readers' expectations, the translators retranslate the text (pp. 1413-1414).
In Iran, after the Persian Constitutional Revolution (1905)(1906)(1907)(1908)(1909)(1910)(1911), the sweeping changes pushed the society toward Modernism by the influence of the innovative ideas borrowed from the outside of Iran and the attempt to adopt them within the traditional structure of the society (Oroskhan & Mahmoudi, 2020). Beyond the sociopolitical changes, the new schools of thought transformed "the stagnant reservoir of Classical Persian literature" (p. 231). Among the poets trying to bring a change in the Persian literature was Nima Yushij (1895-1960) "igniting the first spark of modernization in Persian poetry" (ibid). He captured the Romanticism perspective in his works. Ja'ffari (2007, p. 200) believes "Yushij's romanticism represents the culmination of romanticism in Persian literary history". He created the new path for unchaining the Persian literature from Classicism confinement and literature passiveness.
Likewise, the translations of the Romantic poems introduced the novel ideas to the Persian literature, and they were acclamatory in Iran (Sarvghadi & Khazaeefarid, 2019). The translations of the British Romantic poems were published in literary magazines and books. After the Revolution, from 2000 to 2010s, different translations and retranslations of the British Romantic poems have been produced in the forms of books. This paper compared the translations in the 20 th and 21 st centuries. Through comparing the poetry translations, the translators' fusion of horizons in pre-and post-Revolution could be evaluated. To examine the translations, Schäffner's theory on translation competence (2000) was applied. Translation competence is defined as the underlying system of knowledge and skills which are required to translate (PACTE, 2003). Schäffner (2000) introduces six translation competences including linguistic competence, cultural competence, textual competence, domain/subject-specific competence, (re)search competence, transfer competence (p. 146). The translation competences were assessed in both pre-and post-Revolutionary poetry translations to reveal the accomplishment of the competences in both periods.

METHOD
The qualitative analysis was drawn primarily on the translations of the British Romantic poems into Persian in the 20 th century, before the Revolution of 1979, and the ones have been published in the 21 st century, post-Revolutionary period. In the pre-Revolutionary epoch, the translations of the Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 -70 British Romantic poems were made in the small number in the literary magazines and books, because the focus of the literary translation was placed predominantly on French literature, and the small number of Russian works was likely retranslated from French into Persian (Karoubi, 2017). By the early 1950s, French, the most translated language gave way to English (Saxena & Omoniyi, 2010;Borjian, 2013). Therefore, the provided corpus of the translated poems before 1979 was limited. It was compromised of the British Romantic poems translated by Lotfali Souratgar (1935) and Abolghasem Feizi (1937) in Mehr, the famous literary magazine in Iran, and Shoja al-Din Shafa's books, The selection of the world poetry masterpieces (1952) and Byron's greatest poems (1955). Shafa (1918Shafa ( -2010 is one of the distinguished pre-Revolutionary poetry translators. In contrast to the pre-Revolutionary period, after the Revolution of 1979, the vast majority of translations have been made from English (Karoubi, 2017). Consequently, the translations of the British Romantic poems have increased. Hence, more translators have selected the British Romantic poetry to translate with their personal variant styles. The corpus of the contemporary translations was selected from the books spotlighting the British Romantic poets' works, including Saeed Saeedpour (2000), Hushang Rahnama (2001), Amrollah Abjadian (2004), Moslem Zolfaghar Khani (2014). To assess the translations, Schäffner's six translation competences (2000) were applied to reveal the translations of which century displayed competences more effectively. The translators acquiring six competences produced more qualified translations. Identifying the qualified translations paved the way for distinguishing the ones that achieve Gadamer's fusion of horizons. Therefore, each competence was evaluated in every translation of the corpus.
Schäffner's introduced competences were evaluated by the analysis of the translation texts of the corpus and comparison with the source poems. For examination of the linguistic competence, two methods were adopted: first, the translations were analyzed in terms of choice of words, length of sentences, fidelity to the poet's form and content. Thereafter, to be assured that the result was verified, four translations of Ode to a Nightingale by Keats were selected to count five parts of speech including noun, verb, adjective, adverb, and propositions. These parts of speech were chosen, since they held the major role in sentences. Then, the number of parts of speech in each translation was compared with the original poem. The translations of Ode to a Nightingale were singled out, because it was the only poem of the corpus that enjoyed two translations in the 20 th century and two in the 21 st century. Therefore, the selection of these translations made the comparison between these two centuries more meaningful.
Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 -70 After the examination of the competences in every translation, the demonstration of them in each century is compared. Based on the achievement of the competences, it was proven which period attained the fusion of horizon pre-eminently. Through this analysis, the trend of the British Romantic poetry translation since the 20 th century was indicated. Then, this paper ended up with the probable factors that justified the trend in Iran.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Romanticism is one of the literary schools of the West in the late 18 th and early 19 th centuries. It features the glorification of the commonplace and everyday language, the first-person speaker, poetic spontaneity and freedom, the role of nature, the supernatural elements, and individualism (Abrams et al., 1987(Abrams et al., : 1298(Abrams et al., -1303. According to Wordsworth, one of the pioneers of Romanticism, the aspiration source of the poem is not the external world, but the internal world of the poet. The worldly materials spontaneously provoke and illuminate the poet's inner passion that is reflected in the poem (Abrams et al., 1987(Abrams et al., : 1298. Therefore, the Romantic poetry appeals to people's hearts of all ages. In Iran, the Romantic poems hold congruity with Iranian's taste ( Natel-Khanlari, 1988), since there are similarities between Romanticism and Persian Classicism (Farshidvard, 1995: 741-742). As a result, the poems of the accomplished British Romantic poets like Wordsworth, Coleridge, Blake, Shelley, Keats, and Byron have been retranslated repeatedly since the beginning of poetry translation in Iran, after the Constitutional Revolution (1905)(1906)(1907)(1908)(1909)(1910)(1911). To evaluate the achievement of the fusion of horizons in the translations of pre-and post-Revolution of 1979, first, the translation competence was assessed. According to Schäffner (2000), the first competence is linguistic, which is concerned with "linguistic structures and communicative use" (p. 146). It refers to the translator's skill in transferring the linguistic concepts of the SL like morpheme, syntax, semantics, and pragmatics to the target linguistic system. Moreover, it evaluates the translator's ability in the recreation of the source text function in the TL for communicative purposes.
Linguistically, Romantic poems embrace the everyday language and short sentences. The form of the poem is free verse. However, in the pre-Revolutionary era of Iran, the language of translations has been lofty and formal. The sentences have been long and verbose. The translators have chosen the literal and magniloquent equivalence. Sometimes, Arabic words have penetrated into the translations. In the Classical Persian poetry, Arabic words have been permeated into poetry (Zandian, 2016, p. 80), and elevated language has been praised. In other words, a borderline has been drawn between literary and non-literary words; the latter has been considered incongruous to be deployed in the Classical poetry (Aminpour, 2001, pp. 113-Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 -70 114). Classicism has been upheld until 1920/1930; thereafter, it has given its way to Modernism (Karimi-Hakkak, 2012). Thus, Persian literature has been in the transition era at that time. As a result, some characteristics of Persian Classicism, like adopting grandiloquent words have not waned away from composing literary works (Sarvghadi & Khazaeefarid, 2019). Hanaway (1998, p. 543) believes "modern develops out of classical and constantly contract with it". Ma 'soomi Hamedani (2006, pp. 8-12) claims the translations of the Romantic poems from 1906 to nearly 1951 are a kind of Iranian interpretation of the Western Romanticism, and the translators have employed the techniques and vocabulary of ghazal poetry, a Persian poetry form. Hengreaves (2007: 77) defines ghazal as a love poem of five to fifteen couplets whose rhyme is aa ba ca and so on. The formal schema is strict and the length of each line is the same. Emotion plays an essential role in both ghazal and Romantic poetry; therefore, the translators have assumed the Romantic poem as a ghazal.
The form of the selected poetry translations in that era is prose. Sarvghadi and Khazaeefarid (2019) claim that in their corpus of translations of foreign poems published in the famous literary magazines from 1906 to 1960 in Iran, the poems have been translated in the form of prose, the Classical Persian poetry, and free verse. The last form contributes to 44% of the translations. Although there are some poems translated in free verse, the translations of the British Romantic poems in this corpus of study have been made in prose. The translators have probably reproduced the poems in the prose form, since the use of free verse has not prevalent in the Persian literature.
From the semantic perspective, the content of the poems has been preserved. Nevertheless, the reflection of the poet's passion in the source poem has been reinforced in the target text. The translators have stirred more emotion by three methods: 1) selecting the equivalence conveying more strongly emotional connotations; 2) using the synonyms in the sentimental phrases; 3) the amplification by a phrase or sentence (Sarvghadi & Khazaeefarid, 2019). Moreover, the translators have explicitly added their interpretations to the translations. The association of the translator's interpretation with the content of the original poem narrow reader's horizon and induce him/her to the translator's horizon. Therefore, in the pre-Revolutionary period, the translator's trace is visible in the text due to the manipulation of form, linguistic structure, and explication of the translator's interpretation. Since in the Classical literature, the linguistic structure has been more weighed than the content, the translators have attempted to modify the Romantic structure and assimilated it into the Classical structures like ghazal.
After the Revolution of 1979, in the 21 st century, the British Romantic poems have been translated and retranslated. The language of the new translations is common as the original ones. The equivalence is more precise and selected according to the poet's style. The sentences are short and concise. Semantically, the content is conveyed more accurately without any exaggeration in expressing passion. The translator's interpretation does not interfere explicitly in the translation. The reader is free in the inference from the poem. The form of the translations is free verse like the original ones. There are some examples from both pre-and post-Revolutionary translations. The first excerpt was selected from Ode to a Nightingale by Keats. It was translated by four translators, the first two made by Souratgar (1935, pp. 125-127) and Shafa (1952, pp. 52-55) before the Revolution of 1979, and two other published by Abjadian (2004, pp. 702-705)  That is you, like a nymph flying among the woods, In the midst of the greenery of the oakthat melodious plotto the numberless shadows And warmly and fluidly, you sing the summer song.  Souratgar (1935, p.125) has rearranged the order of the sentences; the first two lines have been translated at last. He has carried the content in one long sentence in which he has used verbose equivalence with synonyms like "a clear and open throat" instead of "full-throated ease". The translator's interpretation has intervened the translation like "enchanted by the grace of this sweet chant", while this sentence is not found in the original poem. Sometimes the equivalence is not accurate. For example, "a melodist of the lawn" does not precisely correspond with "Dryad of the trees". "Dryad" as a female spirit living in a tree is not translated (Dryad, n.d.). Consequently, the allusion to Greek mythology is missed. The language is literal, elevated, and not following the poet's style, but the Classical Persian prose one. For Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 -70 example, "I owe you this sleepy awakening, but not because I begrudge thee and thy voice", the first sentence is the translator's interpretation in literal language, and the poet has not mentioned "thy voice". Overall, the translator has deviated from the poet's style. The translation is long-winded and replete with emotional connotations; thus, it kindles more passion than the original one in the target readers.
In the second translation by Shafa (1952, p. 52), the sentences are shorter, but still the language is lofty with literal words, for instance, "languor" is a literary word. From a semantic point of view, it voices the poet's message more accurately than Souratgar's, but there are still some phrases translated imprecisely. For example, "Dryad of the trees" does not fully equal to "the forest spirit", and the allusion is taken for granted. The other example is "sings a lively melody in the adulation of summer" which does not precisely correspond to the poet's words, "Singest of summer in full-throated ease". Further, the translator's inference enters the translation explicitly and modifies the meaning. For instance, "My languor occurs" and "I am your partner" are not found in the source poem. The translator has just imposed his interpretation to the readers. Although Shafa's recreation is better than the previous translation, the linguistic competence is not entirely qualified.
The next translation is made by Abjadian (2004, p.702). In contrast to the previous translations, this text is reconstructed in free verse. The length of the sentences is as short as the original one. The language is ordinary and corresponds to the poet's style. The translator has tried to convey the meaning precisely without any exaggeration in arousing passion. For instance, "in a melodious plot, in the dark green lawn and shadows numberless" almost entirely corresponds to "in some melodious plot, of beechen green, and shadows numberless", and "I am happy that you, the light-winged nymph of the trees" mostly equals to "that thou, light-winged Dryad of the trees". In the latter example, the meaning of "Dryad" is communicated more clearly as "nymph of the trees". Therefore, Abjadian masters the linguistic competence in his translation.
The last excerpt of the translation has been done by Zolfaghar Khani (2014, p. 102). He has tried to recreate a free verse that linguistically seems identical to the original one. Although he has not sometimes rendered the meaning of every word, he has actualized the whole meaning and poetic effect in the TL. For instance, "and warmly and fluidly, you sing the summer song" is not word by word translation of "singest of summer in full-throated ease", but the message is articulated according to the target culture. The language is ordinary. The sentences are short. Therefore, he has demonstrated linguistic competence quite adeptly. The linguistic analysis reveals that before the Revolution of 1979, the translators have not entirely met the criteria of Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 -70 linguistic competence. They have placed more weight on the form acceptable in the target linguistic system. Their endeavor has been not directed to reactualize the poem in the target culture, but to produce a text that accorded to the Classical Persian literature in which the form has been accentuated over the content. However, in the 21 st century, the translators strive to reproduce a poem that is as near as possible to the source one, since in this period the linguistic norms of literature have changed, literature has moved to modernization, and it has disentangled from the strict conventions of Classicism.
To analysis the linguistic competence from the different perspectives, five parts of speech, including noun, verb, adjective, adverb, and proposition were counted in Ode to a Nightingale and four translations. According to table 2, in the 21 st century, the translators use fewer verbs and adverbs like Keats. As a result, the total number of the words is reduced in the translations. Moreover, the findings show that in the 20 th century, Souratgar's translation is verbose in comparison to the original poem. Shafa's translation contains fewer words than Souratgar's, but still he has exploited more verbs and adverbs than Keats. In the 20 th century, the translators have inclined to consider form more than content. Nevertheless, they have not regarded the original form, but the Persian Classical form in which they have shaped their translations. The Classical prose is characterized by the excessive use of Arabic words, redundant phrases, and poetic tone (de Bruijn, 2015). Further, the rhymed prose has been upheld in the Classical literature. Like the Classical poets and writers, the translators have involved more in creating rhyme, rhythm and eloquent style, and in displaying fidelity to the poet by translating word by word rather than perceiving the poet's style and massage. Therefore, the linguistic competence has been disregarded in the 20 th century, before the Revolution of 1979, due to the translators' adherence to the Persian Classicism.  The second Schäffner's translation competence is the cultural one. It is defined as "general knowledge about historical, political, economic, cultural, etc. aspects in the respective countries" (2000, p. 146). It is more pertained to the fusion of horizons than other competences, since it detects the presuppositions and prejudice rooted in the historical and cultural context and the subjective experience. This competence paves the way for a translator to encounter the otherness of foreign text, merging his/her self with otherness, and then to reproduce a text in consonance with the target linguistic and culture system. Some examples display how the translators' acquaintance with historical and cultural conditions of source and target culture has affected the translations in the pre-and post-Revolutionary period.

Text Noun Verb Adjective Adverb Proposition Sum
In the Ode to a Nightingale by Keats, the only translator who has altered the meaning of "Singest of summer" to "the spring song" is Abjadian. He has justified his modification that the poet portrayed April in his poem, like sonnet 18 by Shakespeare (2004, p. 702). In Persian culture, these features attribute to spring, not summer. Therefore, Abjadian has sought to reshape the meaning according to the target culture in order to engender the same feeling and effect in the target readers. The next example is extracted from Ode to the West Wind by Shelley.
In Greek mythology, "Maenad" is a woman "who danced frenziedly in the worship of Dionysus", a god of wine and vegetation (Abrams et al., 1987(Abrams et al., , p. 1751. Shelley has used allusion and simile to liken the spread of clouds to Maenad's hair. To translate this excerpt, a translator should dominate two cultures and mythologies to render the meaning in a way that the target readers figure out the significance of the allusion and simile. Of the horizon to the zenith's height, The locks of the approaching storm. Thou dirge (Abrams et al., 1987, p Yea, the clouds angelically promise rain and lightning; The clouds over the soft and tender waves of the indigo sky, Like bewildered locks of the beautiful dancer, they spin here and there, And from the verge of the sky roof to the zenith of sky horizon, they hang To loop around your skirt.

Table 3: Instances of cultural competence
In Shafa's translation (1952, p. 48), although readers can perceive the allusion, they cannot understand the allusion refers to what story, and what the ground of simile is. The second translation, Abjadian (2004, p. 569) has elucidated who is Maenad in Greek mythology, and why the poet has Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 -70 assimilated Maenad's locks to the clouds. Thus, the target readers can imagine the image that the poet has portrayed in the source culture. In the next translation example by Zolfaghar Khani (2014, p 66), although he has clarified the point of comparison in Shelley's simile and depicted the poet's image for the target readers, he has lost the illusion of Greek mythology that plays an important role in English literature. He has solely mentioned "like bewildered locks of the beautiful dancer, they spin here and there" that does not refer to Maenad, but to an unknown beautiful dancer. In other words, he has tried to reproduce a poem which resembles the Persian poetry without any visible traces of translation. For example, he has manipulated the last line with the Persian literary cliché phrase "To loop around one's skirt" which means to worship somebody. He has personified the west wind in a way that the clouds like dancers' locks loop around the west wind and glorify it.
There is another translation instance, Love's philosophy by Shelley, published before the Revolution of 1979 by Feizi (1937, p. 684). Feizi has exaggerated the poet's passion and imitated the style of the Classical poets composing ghazal which is a description of "love in a melancholy mood" (Hengreaves, 2007, p. 77). Ghazal's themes are adoring beloved's beauty, complaining about lover and beloved's separation, expressing love to beloved, and portraying of beloved's trait (Bauer, 2006). Since the themes of this poem are identical to ghazal's, the translator has preferred to translate this Romantic poem with the ghazal vocabulary and the techniques which have been more acceptable at that time. He has used the literal and grandiloquent equivalence like "charmingly indigo sky" and "the fresh and lush flower will be disdained and despised". This pompous style conforms to the Persian Classical literature.

ST
TT

Back-Translation from Persian
See the mountains kiss high heaven And the waves clasp one another; No sister-flower would be forgiven  Therefore, the investigation of the translations before and after the Revolution of 1979 reveals that in the pre-Revolutionary period, the translators have not adequately recreated the context of the Romantic era in the Persian literature. They could not sympathize with the poet's horizon. In other words, the poet's horizon in the Romantic epoch has not interfused with the translator's horizon who has lived in the transition era of the Persian literature from Classicism to Modernism. During that period, the characteristics of Classicism like archaic and literary language, strict metric schema, and passionately description of imaginary beloved have not waned away from literature, and the features of Modernism including a common language, free metric forms, and the approach to the deep and real subject matters symbolically have been in the borderline of the literary system. Therefore, the translator's vision has been under the impression of Classicism which is quietly in contrast with Romanticism. On that occasion, not only the translator has not merged the horizons of past and present, but also manipulated the form and content of the poem in line with his present horizon. However, after Modernism has crept into the Persian literature and defeated the Classical conventions, the modernized literary atmosphere has paved the way for perceiving the Romantic poet's horizon and his/her historical and cultural situations. Consequently, the corpus of translations of the Romantic poems in the 21 st century indicates that translators more successfully understand the poet's horizon, fusing the otherness of the poet's Romantic horizon with their self-horizon, and then, re-embody the poet's vision according to the present norms of the Persian literature. Thus, cultural competence is more demonstrated by the translators of the 21 st century.
The third Schäffner's translation competence is textual which is defined as "knowledge of regularities and conventions of texts, genres, text types" (2000: 147). Although the form of the original poems is free verse, the translators have changed the text type to prose with the elevated language in the 20 th century, before the Revolution of 1979. However, in the 21 st century, the translators recreate the poem in free verse like the source one. As Karimi-Hakkak (2000) believes, free verse has been introduced to Persian literature since the 1940s. It differs from the Classical Persian poetry in which metrics and rigid regularity of rhyme play a significant role. At first, this form is marginalized and modeled by the Modernist poets especially by Nima Yushij (1897-1960) and his followers. Gradually, it prevails over the Classical one and spreads through literature. As a result, for translators like Souratgar and Feizi who translated in the 1930s and Shafa in the 1950s, free verse has been regarded as an atypical poetry form that they have resisted deploying in their translations. Nevertheless, this form is prevalent among the poets and translators from 2000 to 2010s, and they render the poems in free verse which proves their textual competence.
Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 -70 The next competence is domain/subject specific competence that refers to "knowledge of the relevant subject, the area of expertise" (Schäffner, 2000: 147). Before the 1979 Revolution, the translators have been mostly intellectual poets and writers (Sarvghadi &Khazaeefarid, 2019). For instance, Souratgar (1900Souratgar ( -1969 has held a Ph.D. in English Literature from England and as a university professor, he has instructed Persian and English literature. He has been also the Chancellor of Shiraz University and the professor at Columbia University who has compiled The History of English Literature (Elmifarhang Publication, n.d). Feizi (1906Feizi ( -1980 has been a writer and translator. Shafa (1918Shafa ( -2010 has been a writer and translator whose field of study is Persian Literature. He has been a deputy minister for culture in the Ministry of Court (Shakibi, 2019: 240), and he has been one of the popular literary translators of his time (Shafiei Kadkanii, 2011). In the 21 st century, the translators of the Romantic poems are veteran writers. For example, Abjadian (1936-)  Schäffner's fifth competence is (re)search. It refers to the ability and general strategy to "resolve problems specific to the cross-cultural transfer of texts " (2000: 147). This competence is associated with the cultural one. If a translator gleans insight from both cultures, s/he can find an effective strategy to render the cross-cultural matters easier. For instance, in Ode to a Nightingale by Keats, "Lethe-wards" bears an illusion to Lethe River in Hades in Greek mythology in which dead people drink its water and forget everything that occurred when they lived in the universe (Lethe: n.d.). According to table 5, Souratgar (1935) has not translated this phrase. Shafa (1952, p. 52) has indirectly alluded that weakness like the one felt by the half-asleep man's frailty dominated the poet and he has not referred to Lethe River. His translated sentence has not indicated the allusion and its significance. Abjadian (2004, p. 702) has accurately presented an allusion and its significance to the readers. Zolfaghar Khani (2014, p. 102) has solely explained that Lethe is the River of Oblivion, and has not delineated what beliefs are behind it. Consequently, the reader may be confused about what is the poet's intention of using "the River of Oblivion". Although it cannot be claimed that the translators ignore the cross-cultural matters, it can be declared that in the current century, translators care more meticulously about transferring the cross-cultural issues according to the target culture. Therefore, sometimes the translators demonstrate more effective (re)search competence in the 21 st century. The last Schäffner's competence that incorporates the other subcompetences is transfer one. It attributes to the "ability to produce target texts that satisfy the demands of the translation task" (2000:147). The analysis of a linguistic, cultural, textual, domain, (re)search competence in the translations of the British Romantic poems in the 20 th and 21 st centuries reveals that the translators in the 21 st century meet the criteria of Schäffner's competence more efficiently. Therefore, transfer competence is more proved in the 21 st century.
Translation competence as one of the tools of translation assessment can shed light on the achievement of Gadamer's fusion of horizons. As Gadamer (2004, p. 387) believes "mastering the language is a necessary precondition for coming to an understanding in a conversation". In the true conversation "each person opens himself to the other, truly accepts his point of view as valid and transposes himself into the other to such an extent that he understands not the particular individual but what he says" (p. 387). In this situation, two people come to understanding. Therefore, acquiring the translation competence that depends significantly on the translator's knowledge and dominance of two languages and cultures paves the way for a translator to achieve a true interaction with the source text and to understand the poet's way of thinking. The source text "must be understood within a new ST One minute past, and Lethe-wards had sunk" (Abrams et al., 1987, p language world, it must establish its validity within it in a new way" (p. 386). In other words, the qualified translation is the fruit of intermingling the horizons of poet and translator. The translator should disentangle from himself/herself, and move toward poet's self that is alienated for the translator. S/he should try to immerse in the poet's world. Then, s/he can interfuse the world of self and poet. Thereupon, the translator can cast poet's view in the mold of the TL.
Accordingly, in this analysis, the fusion of horizons is achieved competently in the 21 st century. In the current century, the translators focus on communicating the interaction with the Romantic poems. They struggle to transpose from their historicity and subjectivity to the Romantic condition of the 19 th century in England. They attempt to view the world through the poet's spectacle. Undoubtedly, perception of poet's view is interfused with the translators' perspective cultivated in the present context of Iran. They encounter "a tension between the text and the present" (Gadamer, 2004, p. 305). Overcoming this tension, they transfer the inferred view into the TL according to the linguistic, cultural, textual norms of the Persian literary system. The translators of the 21 st century do not confine themselves to the target form. Their priority is to conceive poet's standpoint and massage. Then, they recreate that massage in the TL. However, the translators of the 20 th century, before the Revolution of 1979, have circumscribed their ability by the strict conventions of the Persian Classicism, without regarding the poet's style and way of thinking. Their concern has been to construct a text that has approved in the literary system of that period.
Based on the attainment of fusion of horizons in the translations of the 21 st century, the quality of the translations is improved. The translations are not regarded prescriptive as the ones in the pre-Revolutionary era which have enforced the readers to hold the translator's imposed interpretation. Although the translator's interpretation permeates through his/her translation in the 21 st century, the translated poem is open to many interpretations by the readers. Moreover, the translation is not confined in the chain of the rigid Classical conventions and schema. The translator is free to recreate the translation in any form he prefers.
The findings of this study are consistent with the findings of Mohammadpour's et al. (2020b, p. 350) study that indicates "the increasing efforts of Iranian translators to maintain the structure, atmosphere, and context created by the author as well as his stylistic differences of the available in the original text" can be seen from1960s to 2010s. Moreover, the current paper corroborates the findings of Noura and Khazaee Farid's (2018) study that reveals that the transfer of the semantic and structural subtleties of the source text and the author's style have made greater since the Constitutional Revolution and have risen to its peak in the 21 st century.
Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 -70 The raised question is what factors influence the refinement of the Romantic poetry translation trend and pave the way for achieving the fusion of horizons in translation. One of the reasons is that Gadamer introduces his theory of fusion of horizons in 2004, and Schäffner in 2000. Thus, translators have not been familiar with these views theoretically beforehand. Translation Studies is the newborn field of study which began in the second half of the 20 th century (Monday, 2012). Therefore, the translators in the pre-Revolutionary period have been not conversant with the translation theories.
According to Karoubi (2017), the translation programs have been inaugurated at Iranian universities since the 1960s. Offering the academic education of Translation Studies has been increased since the last two decades. Therefore, developing Translation Studies drive most translators to view translation academically. Consequently, they seek to meet the criteria of the task of translation. In this respect, they try to cultivate the translation competence in themselves to recreate the qualified translation that produces the nearly same impression in the target readers as possible. Moreover, in the pre-Revolutionary period, the readers of the poetry translations are narrow (Azadibougar, 2010). In the 1950s, more than half of the people were illiterate, since they mostly lived in the villages (Kamshad, 1966). Therefore, elitists were the addressed readers of the poetry translations. Since 1976, the literacy rate has increased significantly (Morgon, 1994). After the Revolution of 1979, the literacy rate speeds up in a way that "93% of the age group 6-24 are literate" (Katouzian & Shahidi, 2007, p. 88). The growth in the number of readers makes the translators regard the readers' expectations and satisfy their demands. As a result, the various retranslations of the British Romantic poems are made that each of them strives to be acclaimed by readers. The translators think that they can view poems from various angles and produce a translation that is more qualified. In the 21 st century, retranslations indicate that the translators' horizons are changed, and they attempt to rewrite the Romantic poems by modifying the interaction with the text. On the other hand, the rivalry in the market gives rise to the translator's responsibility for recreating the qualified translation that re-portrays the poet's image in the target readers' minds. To pursue this goal, they try to master the art of writing, translation competence, and to acquire knowledge about the cultural, historical, social condition of the SL in order to understand poet's horizon and to attain the fusion of horizons. Therefore, the translation trend of the British Romantic poems has developed.
Hikma 20 (1) (2021), 45 -70 CONCLUSION This study investigated the translations of the British Romantic poems in the 20 th century, before the Revolution of 1979, and in the 21 st century, post-Revolutionary era in Iran. By the examination, the achievement of Gadamer's fusion of horizons was compared in two periods to identify the translation trend of the British Romantic poems in Iran. To facilitate the analysis of the translator's achievement of fusion of horizons, Schäffner's translation competences including linguistic, cultural, textual, domain, (re)search, and transfer were employed. If the translator achieves Schäffner competences, s/he can attain the fusion of horizons more effectively. In the 21 st century, the translators prove the linguistic, cultural, and textual competence more professionally. Regarding domain competence, the translators of both eras have expertise in the art of writing and English literature. In the respect of resolving the cross-cultural problems and acquiring research competence, the translators of two periods try to find a proper strategy to tackle them. Notwithstanding, the translators of the 21 st century are more successful in displaying this competence. The transfer competence covers the other competences. Since the other competences are more visible in the translations of the 21 st century, the transfer competence is developed more in this period.
Therefore, it can be claimed that in the current century, the translators can identify the poem's horizon in the Romantic period and fuse it with their historicity and subjective pre-assumptions. Then, they rewrite the poem in the new context of the target culture. The attainment of the fusion of horizons is weighed more in this century. Two probable factors influence the translators to spotlight the fusion of horizons and translation competence. First, Translation Studies has been significantly improved in the universities and institutions after the Revolution of 1979. Second, the promotion of literacy among Iranians requires the translators to consider the readers' expectations. Therefore, a rivalry grows in the market to offer more qualified translations and to re-portray the poet's image in the TL.
In the end, this research offered the trend of the translation of the Romantic poetry in pre-and post-Revolution epochs. Further research is recommended to investigate the Persian translations of other literary schools of poetry from the 20 th to 21 st century to reveal the other aspects of the poetry translation trend in Iran.