“One Day of Life” by Manlio Argueta is a harrowing and vivid account of the struggles faced by the rural population in El Salvador during the oppressive military regime of the 1970s. The story is told through the eyes of Lupe, an elderly peasant woman, who reflects on a single day that encapsulates the fear, violence, and unyielding spirit of the Salvadoran people. Through her narrative, Argueta captures the essence of life under dictatorship, highlighting the stark realities and deep resilience of those who endure it.
Pari Mansouri’s translation of this novel into Persian is marked by her meticulous care in preserving the cultural nuances and emotional depth of the original. Known for her eloquent and faithful translations, Pari brings out the raw, evocative language of Argueta, adapting it seamlessly into Persian while retaining the novel’s rhythmic flow and intensity. Her translation effectively conveys the atmosphere of tension and resistance, allowing Persian readers to experience the powerful emotions and stark realities portrayed in the novel as vividly as in the original text.
Read the book chapter by chapter (in Persian)
Download the complete book (in Persian, 25MB )
- Author: Manilo Argueta,
- Translated by Pari Mansouri
- Publisher: Morvarid Publications, 2005
Copies of the book can be purchased from:
Review by Maliheh Tiregol
“… the language is perfectly in harmony with the character and her sociological class, time, and space. Furthermore, the language is so beautiful and smooth that not only compensates for the unfamiliar Spanish words in the text, but most of the time during the reading I felt that I was reading an original Persian text. It brought back to my memory so many idioms and expressions in my original language. These elements are almost absent in most of the translations these days…
Thank you for translating this piece of literature …”
Maliheh Tiregol (1951–2020) was a prominent Iranian literary critic, poet, and researcher specifically recognised as a leading authority on Persian literature in exile.