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Paul Engle once declared rather rhetorically and with a dash of hyperbole, "As the
world shrinks together like an aging orange...the crucial sentence...may be very
simply: TRANSLATE OR DIE". The increasing phenomenon of
commercial globalization leads inevitably and inexorably to cultural globalization too and that
needs effective communication through a global medium, which happens to be English. To
keep the channels of communication among disparate racial, national and even ethnic
groups alive, translation occupies a place of cardinal importance. Most of the
technological developments taking place in any part of the world become available to the other
part only through their translations—mostly into English. For the most desirable cultural
synthesis, translation is of utmost relevance. The great treasures of the ancient Greek and
Latin literatures of the West or the Sanskrit and Chinese literatures of the East would
have remained inaccessible but for competent translations. In India the rich founts of
knowledge contained in The Mahabharata and The Ramayana and the poetic excellences of Kalidasa's Abhignana Sakuntalam would have remained limited only to Sanskrit if
it had not been for translators in almost all Indian and several western languages. And
the great masters of human psyche like Tolstoy and Dostoevsky and the peerless
storyteller like Chekhov reached world consciousness only through this activity.
But translation has ever been looked upon with suspicion and even downright
derision. A translator is sometimes called a
traitor—traducer (Italian). Robert Frost said,
"Poetry is what is lost in translation." But people read avidly translations of classical epics as
well as modern poetry and derive adequate aesthetic joy. It is often debated whether
translation is an art or a craft. While linguists would have us believe that it is a skill, many
practitioners argue that it is an inspired art and involves considerable creativity. It is generally
admitted that `functional' translation of technical documents and instructions manual is a craft
and one can be trained for a fairly lucrative career; whereas `aesthetic' translation calls
for imagination, empathy and a feeling heart, although financial returns are almost
non-existent. But the tribe of translators is happily on the increase and hope it increases further.
This "Special Issue on Translation Studies" offers educative recounting of the
wide gamut of challenges faced by the translators and the tentative solutions arrived at by
the distinguished translators themselves, apart from studies of the translations by scholars
of the Translation Studies. The academic critics, who made their observations on
the translations by others in this issue, include Vikrant Sehgal, Soumyashree Das and
A Karunaker. Four practicing translators—C L L Jayaprada, Malathi Nidadavolu,
V V B Rama Rao and S S Prabhakar Rao—share their experiences in evolving
tentative solutions for the problems in translation.
The first paper in this issue is a keynote address highlighting the centrality of
translation in the growing area of Comparative Literature studies. The author Bijay Kumar Das,
the academic, in his paper, "The Juxtaposition of Comparative Literature and
Translation Studies in the Global Context", argues that both these studies involve study of two
different languages and through the examination of cultural analogues, perform a major
service towards the development of world culture. Translation is basically an act of reading
and writing and as in the transcreation of The
Mahabharata by Prof. P Lal, it is more a cultural than a linguistic phenomenon.
C L L Jayaprada in her paper, "The Implied
Reader and Strategies of Translation", deals with the problems relating
to the imposition of the value system of the
Source Language (SL) on the Target Language (TL) and argues that the reader is
central to the strategies of translation. She
discusses her attempts to negotiate between the
demands of the original writer and those of the target reader. Vikrant Sehgal in his
paper, "Translation Studies in Postcolonial/Globalization
Era", discusses postcolonial translation as part
of globalization and the changes that the original undergoes in the process when the
target readership is the erstwhile colonial master. Condensation and deletion tend to destroy
the indigenous authenticity. The author examines the
`fidelity-betrayal syndrome' and the degrees of fidelity and freedom evident in the attempts of Sujit Mukherjee, Aruna Chakraborty
and even Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in their translations from
Bengali and argues that a translator must resist the temptation to universalize/globalize the text rooted in its sociocultural context.
Malathi Nidadavolu, drawing on her vast experience of translating Telugu short
stories for her website, thulika.net, presented in her
paper, "Dynamics of Transcultural
Transference: Translating from Telugu into
English", examines the peculiar problems of carrying
across the cultural nuances of relational terms, phrases and idioms, non-finite verbs and
personal pronouns and discussed her ways of dealing with
them. Soumyashree Das in her paper, "Translation as Transformation of
Writing: Discussing Bama and Sivakami", looks at
the transformation which occurs in the process while carrying across the marginalized voices
in Tamil novel, Sangati: Events by Bama and The Grip of Change by Sivakami. While both the novels present the
problems of caste, Bama's portrayal is largely autobiographical
and Sivakami's marginally so. The novel differs not only from mainstream but also
from `malestream' fiction.
S S Prabhakar Rao in his paper, "Translation or Transference: The Problematic
of Cultural Specifics", related his views on the issue of faithfulness and freedom for
a translator and recounts his experiences in translating short stories, classical poetry,
a modern novel and a well-known prabandha into English. He argues that the first
and foremost requirement is love for the original and to convey the spirit and feel of the
cultural specifics, transference of original terms and phrases is defensible. V V B Rama Rao
in his exhaustive Symposium by mail on "Literary Translation: Choices and Predilections",
put together the reflections and responses of over 60 academics and practicing
translators, and concluded with his own observations on the subject based on his own experiences
as a versatile translator. A Karunaker in his paper, "Subversion and Resistance in the
English Incarnation of Gurram Joshua's Gabbilam", evaluates the translation of Gurram
Joshua's Gabbilam (Bat) into English by K Madhava Rao and shows how the poet of the
original tried to subvert the symbols preferred by the elite in his use of bat as a messenger
for conveying the plight of the untouchables in the Indian Society to Lord Shiva. The
translation is lucid and faithful to the original, the author avers.
Finally, a book review of Insights into Literary Translation and Language in
Distinctive Use is presented, which deals elaborately with the issues relating to `pragmatic' and
`aesthetic' translation and the author's preference for approaching translation as basically an
artistic activity without bothering much about erudite and recondite theoretical considerations.
It is hoped that the blend of materials from the academics and practitioners in
the expanding area of Translation Studies will enthuse the aspirants and offer
optimum elucidation of persisting issues in the essential enterprise to the veterans as well.
-- S S Prabhakar Rao
Consulting Editor |
