exploring expansion and reduction strategies in two english translations of masnavi

The present study aimed to investigate the frequency of the use of two semantic adjustment strategies; namely, expansion and reduction, in the two English translations of book one of Masnavi. For this purpose, 300 lines of Masnavi by Rumi (2014) along its two corresponding English translations by Nicholson (2004) and Whinfield (2001) were critically analyzed based on Nida and Taber's (2003) theoretical framework. Based on the outcomes of the present study, both translators applied the expansion strategy more than the reduction because poems in Masnavi were so condensed and the writer of Masnavi applied classic words which were not understandable to the target language readers. Therefore, both translators used expansion strategy to explicate what was implied in the source text and to make a natural and a comprehensible translation to the target text readers. Keywords: Semantic Adjustment Strategies, Expansion, Reduction, Masnavi