TEHRAN – A Persian translator of Portuguese writer Jose Saramago’s works has lamented plagiarism in the Iranian publishing world.

In an interview published by the Persian service of MNA on Wednesday, Minu Moshiri accused a translator of plagiarizing parts of her translation in Saramago’s “Blindness”.   

Moshiri who translated Saramago’s “Blindness” into Persian in 1998 said that she was the one who introduced Saramago to Persian readers for the first time.

“A young translator has used verbatim excerpts from my translation of ‘Blindness’ for his work,” she said.

“Furthermore, the translator has also used the cover design of my version,” she added.

“I am not complaining about the lack of copyrights in the country, but I am concerned about the lack of morals in our publishing community,” Moshiri lamented.  

The 21st edition of the Persian translation of “Blindness” by Moshiri has recently been published the Elam publishing company.

“Blindness” has been translated into Persian by many Iranian literati, including Asadollah Amrai and Mehdi Ghabrai.

The latest Persian translation of the novel by Termeh Shadan was published by Honar Parineh in 2014.

MMS/YAW