Characterizing Venuti’s foreignizing and domesticating strategies as historically dependent, this article attempts to shed some new light on how such translations – especially the foreignizing ones – emerge in any language. After discussing the roots of Venuti’s thinking in the American context and redefining foreignization as a strategy that draws on domestic, yet marginalized, elements, we delve into the theory and practice of two Persian translators, Ahmad Shamlu and Mir Shamseddin Adib-Soltani. Although their translation practices are ostensibly domesticating, they possess underlying foreignizing qualities. The implications and intellectual origins of their practices are discussed in the Iranian context, giving rise to a theoretical perspective that allows for foreignizing in non-Anglophone cultures.
