Ali Asghar Haddad Information

Ali-Asghar Haddad (born March 15, 1945, Rah-Kushk neighbourhood, Qazvin) is one of Iran’s most respected and prolific literary translators, renowned for his masterful Persian renderings of major German-language authors. Mehdi Sahabi (the celebrated translator and painter) was his maternal cousin’s son, and Mahmoud Haddadi (another prominent translator) is his maternal cousin.

 Life

Ali-Asghar Haddad spent his early childhood and the first years of high school in Qazvin. In the eighth grade, his family moved to Tehran, where he continued his studies. He has recounted that the rote-learning-heavy curriculum and meaningless lessons in history and geography made him disillusioned with formal education. Deeply drawn to poetry and fiction, he immersed himself in Nima Yushij (memorising Afsaneh), Hafez, Rumi, Tolstoy’s War and Peace, Romain Rolland’s Jean-Christophe, and Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath. This aversion eventually led him to drop out of school. Years later, with considerable effort, he completed his final high school years and earned his diploma. After 18 months of military service, he emigrated to West Germany in the late 1960s.

In West Berlin, he obtained a master’s degree in sociology with a focus on “developing countries.” In 1980, he returned to Iran and began teaching German and translating literary works.

 Translation Career

From the 1980s onward, Haddad devoted himself to translating German-language literature. He has published over 40 titles, primarily from 20th- and 21st-century canonical authors, including Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann, Max Frisch, Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Peter Handke, and Hermann Hesse. His translations are celebrated for their precision, fluency, and fidelity to the original texts, and many have gone through multiple reprints.

 Major Translations (selected)

– Franz Kafka: The Trial, The Castle, Amerika: The Missing Person, The Metamorphosis and Other Stories, Kafka’s Short Stories

– Thomas Mann: Buddenbrooks: The Decline of a Family

– Max Frisch: Stiller

– Friedrich Dürrenmatt and others: The Invisible Collection

– Jurek Becker: Jacob the Liar

– Peter Handke: Insulting the Audience, Kaspar, The Trial, The Ward Wants to Be Warden

– Arthur Schnitzler: Dawn Play and Dream, Frau Beate and Her Son, The Stranger, Dying

– Hermann Broch: The Sleepwalkers

– Hermann Hesse: Klein and Wagner

– Robert Walser: The Assistant

– Alfred Döblin: Berlin Alexanderplatz

– Works by Günter Grass, Rainer Maria Rilke, Joseph Winkler, and others

 Honors

– Recipient of the highest Austrian cultural decoration in 2018 in recognition of his outstanding services in introducing German-language literature to Iran.