What Hassan Rouhani Really Said About the Holocaust

Lost in Translation

Not so fast, CNN. Iran’s president did not denounce the Nazis. Michael Moynihan says a more accurate translation suggests he is just another Holocaust denier.

Published Sep. 26 2013 6:15AM EDT

articles/2013/09/26/what-hassan-rouhani-really-said-about-the-holocaust/130925-rohani-tease_h6jdff — Vahid Salemi/Getty Images

In a 1731 essay on Shakespeare’s “brilliant monstrosities,” Voltaire confessed to readers that he added his own stylistic flourishes to a self-translated passage from Hamlet: “Woe to the makers of literal translations, who by rendering every word weaken the meaning!”