A WORD FROM THE MODERATOR
In the absence of a specific, universally applicable 'theory', practitioners of Literary Translations would do well to find a way of interacting among themselves as a professional entity to more effectively 'convey' treasures from one language into another. The object of this Symposium by Mail is to foster the feeling of brotherhood and promote a feeling of professionalism among our practitioners cutting across languages and cultures. This is just a beginning (with Indian languages) and the success of this feature depends on free, frank and forthright expression of very personal convictions and preferences in regular practice. Feel free to interact with the Moderator also, who will make suitable editorial changes by way of additions, deletions, or other modifications to keep the discussion focused. He can be reached on e-mail vvbramarao@yahoo.com. (LANGUAGE IN INDIA is very fortunate in getting a senior scholar, author, and teacher of literature and literary translation to offer this symposium for us. We propose to publish this as a regular feature. Readers are most welcome to join this symposium. -- Editor, Language in India.)
BY WAY OF BREAKING THE ICE: LITERARY TRANSLATION
In literary translation, it should be our aim to 'transport' as much of the beauty and significance of the source text into the target text. We have to make a number of choices. In matters of style, diction, expression, etc., what the most important are appropriateness, aptness, and felicity in the target language.
BRINGING OUT THE GRANDEUR OF THE ORIGINAL
There are some basic points to bear in mind. The idea of a translation, by and large, is to present the original work to a reader from another language in a language known to him. It is obvious that every item of beauty in the text of the original language cannot fully be put across in another language. Notwithstanding the innumerable inherent limitations of translation, every effort has to be made to convey as much as possible. The reader of a translated text does not fully comprehend the grandeur of the original, but conveying something not meant, not intended, and not supposed to be intended, would be unfair both to the new reader and the writer of the original. It would be a fairly satisfactory effort on the part of the translator to give some idea of the eminence in the writing to the extent the reader wouldn't be disappointed. He has come to the translation of a text, which he feels worthwhile reading at least in translation. Literary translation is a service, and a service it remains no matter what detractors may say.
DEALING WITH METRICAL VERSE
It is not easy to render into somewhat similar metre. Many translators translate it in free verse to make their own task easy. No two languages may have the same metrical forms. Each language has its own turn of phrase and idiom and beauties in one language may not be retained when translated into another. Still, literary translation of poetry, specially, has many practitioners as well as readers. If a translator is unduly worried about negative criticism from people who happen to know both the languages well, he should have faith in sahridaya (sameness of heart, empathy). A good translator should brave even uncharitable and unholy criticism at times. He would do well to know his limitations.
MARKERS AND OTHER DEVICES
Social markers, markers of cultural levels, registers, and technical words, need to be carried into the target language with utmost caution. The translator could be faulted for taking too much for granted from his reader or, in the other extreme, underestimating the reader. Pedagogic translations may be an exception to this. Too many explanations and too many footnotes distract. And then the most important thing is the stance of the translator. The ideal thing is: be inviting, enthusing and encouraging the reader to get the feel of the original text. It is essential to be reader-friendly and the fidelity to the target reader is obviously a little more important than fidelity to the original text.
FIDELITY - FREEDOM - FINALITY
The validity of a translated text does not depend totally on one to one correspondence between the original and the translated texts. Some parts or fragments may be safely omitted; some may have to be excised in extra-ordinary situations as was done by me in translating for Sahitya Akademi Narendrapal Singh's Punjabi novel translated by himself into English as Trapped. Certain passages, which might be unsavory to Telugus describing homosexual exploits, etc., had to be passed over. Even after that the novel invited a lot of severe criticism again in Telugu. It is useful to retain some words of the original, especially terms of kinship, items of dress, words of address, interjections, expletives, items of food, clothing etc. not only in unrelated but even in cognate receptor languages. The receptor language stands to gain some loans from the original, when they eventually become familiar and popular. Translated texts can contribute to the growth of the receptor language in terms of lexis.
The best way to enjoy reading Greek Tragedy is to read it in Greek, but very few possess that ability. We all know that Greek tragedy is worth knowing about, and for that reason, we go to translations. It is for that reason that translation is necessary. No one who knows Greek would read a Greek tragedy in English translation except for some kind of a critical assessment. It is easy to pick holes in a translated text but then what is unforgettable is that without a measure of charity, empathy and sahridaya, appreciating a literary text, either in original or in translation, is not possible. On this point, it is useful to evolve some definite Do's and Don'ts while judging translated texts.
In the first instance, it would be useful for the translator to put himself or herself in the position of the target reader. The reasonable assumptions that a translator can make regarding the target reader have already been mentioned. Translators would do well first to stop under-estimating his target reader. Then, one should be clear about the purpose of the translation. Another criterion could be judging the extent of help offered in footnotes, explanations of cultural items, etc. Excess is always to be avoided. The practitioner is supposed to exercise his judgment carefully, most importantly, in this matter.
A great newspaper editor Andhra produced, C. Y. Chintamani, averred that the best school of journalism is a newspaper office. In the same way, one can sincerely say by way of offering a piece of advice, "The best way to translate is to roll up your sleeves and get down to translating, and continue the practice." I can only speak for myself in this context. Except for a compulsory question in the Part II Telugu of the B. A. examination (for which there was an hour's teaching in a week - not just in the time-table but in real practice), I had no previous experience of translating any text. The exercises in the classroom did not include literary texts. Why does one write poetry? You know the answer, which holds good for the question "Why translate?"
Having decided that we are interested in literary translation, we have to study the texts first to devise a strategy in terms of translating various features like style, grammar, syntax, vocabulary, structure, idiom, expressive devices, and so on.
In Telugu, intensive and extensive translation activity started with the translation of ancient and medieval literary/religious texts in classical Sanskrit. Right from Nannaya, this has come down, and, in most cases, it is fair to call the activity more transcreation than translation. Later, translation has been found to have immediate utilitarian aesthetic value with the advent of English education: thanks to the efforts of Orientalists like Sir William Jones, founder of Royal Asiatic Society and civil servants, and forward-looking foreigners like C.P. Brown. Translations from other European languages into English and their popularity in colleges and universities owing to the charm of English for various reasons made the elite realize the urgency of translations. It took some more time for the public, and, more importantly, scholars and educationists to widely realize the need for translations of literary texts from one bhasha literature into another.
Here are the personal views of some creative writers, practicing translators, and linguisticians eminent in their respective fields, all sharing a deep interest for literary translation. This writer contacted them by post or email for their views in brief. A study of all the opinions would make fruitful reading for prospective and practicing literary translation enthusiasts. Care has been taken to include scholars having different mother tongues and working in different languages.
DR. J. P. DAS
Dr.Jagannath Prasad Das (b.1936) is a well-known Oriya poet, playwright and fiction writer. A Ph.D. in Art History, he has authored several books on Orissan Art. Born in Orissa in 1936, he lives and works in Delhi. Paul St.Pierre is Professor of Translation at the University of Montreal, Canada. He has collaborated on translation of several Oriya literary works into English. Dr. Das's collection of poems DARK TIMES (2005) was published by Virgo Publications, L67-A Malviya Nagar, New Delhi-110017
Dr. J. P. Das writes:
Translation should ideally be done by a speaker (in case of literature, preferably a writer) of the target language. Here, unfortunately, so far as translation into English is concerned, it is usually done by a speaker of the source language.
The best way is to involve a speaker of English in such translations. I had found this collaboration with Arlene Zide very fruitful.
Some of my own Oriya books (poetry, fiction, play) have been translated by Paul St.Pierre, Professor of Translation, Montreal University. In all these cases the first translation was done by an Oriya speaker (including some by me) and it was then worked upon by St.Pierre. For the translations I did with hum, the drafts of translations went sent back and forth several times before we published them. I found the experience most satisfactory, and must say that the translation came off very well indeed.
I am afraid I have not bothered about theories of translation when I have undertaken translation work -- as I have not bothered about literary theories while doing my creative writing.
DR. E. NAGESWARA RAO
Professor E. Nageswara Rao (b.1931), is a retired Professor of English in Osmania University who worked earlier in some U.S. Universities. He is a literary critic and translator.
E. Nageswara Rao writes:
There is an Italian proverb which says: "Translators,traitors." This implies that translations misrepresent the original to some extent. Additions and deletions cause distortions. If the misrepresentation is due to ignorance of the language of the original, it is even more inexcusable.
Translations, even when they are done by polyglots and scholars, are a risky business since each language is a vehicle of the culture of the people who use it as their first language. Any piece of writing in one language is necessarily governed by the rules of that language. The phonetic, phonological, grammatical, syntactic, lexical, and semantic systems of one language are not identical with those of another language, more so when the languages happen to belong to diverse and distant cultures.
A good translation may be distinguished by four principles: economy, exactness (precision), effectiveness, and elegance.
PROFESSOR SURESH KUMAR
Prof. Suresh Kumar (b.1937) retired as Professor of Applied Linguistics at Central Institute of Hindi, Agra.
Prof. Suresh Kumar writes:
Literary translation per se is a rather complex and multi-dimensional communication from one culture system to another, in the text-operative mode, wherein the process and product dimensions are in a state of harmony. It is as literal as possible, and as free as necessary and as such it tends to be part version, part adaptation, part rendering, part interpretation in terms of translation situation as a whole.
DR. MOTILAL JOTWANI
Dr. Motilal Jotwani (b.1936) has 55 books in Sindhi, Hindi and English. He was a visiting Post-Doctoral scholar at the Centre for the Study of World Religions, Harvard, USA. He was conferred Padma Shri in the field of Literature and Education in 2003.
Dr. Motilal Jotwani writes:
Translation of poetry, if not of prose, has always been an unsatisfying exercise. One who knows a work in its original version will not in all probability like its translated one, however ably done, and one who does not have any acquaintance with the original will feel uneasy thanks to the translator's attempt at reconciling the claims of literal and literary translation. For example Ghalib's famous couplet: "ham hain mushtaq aur who bezar / ya ilahi, ye ma:jara: kya hai?", which sends lovers of Urdu poetry into raptures hardly finds a matching echo in K.N.Sud's or Yusuf Husain's version. Sud translates, "While I am pining, she remains sore / what does it all mean, O God?" And Husain does: We have great longing for her, and she is disgusted with us, / O Lord, what is the matter?" Now the ma:jara: in the original here will probably ever remain untranslatable: is it "it" of Sud's or "matter" of Husain's? Is it not something like "state of affairs"? Whatever it is, it eludes us. For translating poetry, one has to be a bit of poet himself/herself.
DR. ASHOK R. KELKAR
Dr. Ashok R. Kelkar (b 1929) has taught Linguistics at Agra, Deccan College, Poona and is a renowned professor of Linguistcs and a translator too. He is a creative writer in Marathi, Hindi, and English. He received the prestigious decoration Padma Shri in 2002.
Dr Ashok R. Kelkar writes:
Translation is a cross-language paraphrase. It calls for a complete skill: reception from source language text and reproduction as target language text. Oral translation is called interpretership. Translations differ greatly from one another according to the functional emphasis, the type of text, and the purpose and the audience readership in the target language. What is good translation in one context may not be good translation in another context. The functional emphasis may be on adequacy of reception (faithfulness to the source text) or adequacy of reproduction (faithfulness to the target language and culture); the adequacy may be global (free) or point by point (close). Translation of poetry is especially difficult if it calls for faithfulness to be the source text and faithfulness to the library culture of the target language.
Surprisingly, for a multi-lingual country with a long library translation India shows a poverty of translation both in the past and in the present. The past shows adaptations of the epic or puranic stories but few translations as such from classical languages or foreign languages of West and East Asia.
MS.NIDADAVOLU MALATHI
Nidadavolu Malathi (b. 1937) has been living the US for some decades. A Telugu fiction enthusiast, she is active in the field of literary journalism.
Nidadavolu Malathi writes:
I started translating Telugu stories into English in 2001. ... I noticed a couple of pre-existing conditions.
First, the idiom: Most of the existing English translations seem to cater to the audience familiar with our culture. In that, most of the translations used either idiom that is intelligible only to Indian readers or highly academic, which is a turn off for general readers.
In my translations, I tried to interpret our stories for people from other cultures, American, to be specific. That meant not only avoiding the idiom peculiar to Indian English, but also fixing the structure… I may not have succeeded in bringing out all the nuances in the original, nor in displaying a command of American diction to the satisfaction of American audience… From their responses, it would appear that readers felt at home with my free flowing, colloquial style.
Secondly, the lack of adequate response from our writers. I am not saying there is no response at all… I hope to see the day when Telugu writers would wake up and offer their whole-hearted support to the translators, who are committed to producing Telugu fiction in English for global audience.
DR. K.B. GOPALAM
K B.Gopalam (b 1953) is a voracious reader and a translator. A Ph.D. in Zoology, he is interested in literature and music. He was with All India Radio as Programme Executive for some decades. He now remains a freelancer.
K.B.Gopalam writes:
... Every sentence in any language conveys more than the words in it do. Usually translations suffer in bringing this untold aspect of the content. The use of words in each language is peculiar to the region, culture and other variations. The same word means a hundred things. How then one transmits the idea in another language where perhaps the idea itself sounds alien? Translation thus is love's labor not totally lost. ...
... Not all the poetry is understood completely even in the original language. Some works totally defy translation because in them there is a dimension apart from the form and the content which can never be conveyed however good the translation is. It is better to leave such works for the readers of the original language alone. ...
... I am of the strong opinion that all through the translation, every word of the work should remind the reader that the idea does not belong to the target language. The proficiency of the translator should not overshadow the expression of the original writer. Usually translators try to improve on the original. This is sacrilege.
... You are only a spoon when you are translating an idea into another language. You can never add any new taste to the dish being served. If the taste changes because of the contact with the spoon perhaps it can not be helped.
NABIR K. GHOSH
Nibir K. Ghosh (b. 1955) is a Professor of English in Agra College, Agra. An erstwhile Research associate at IIAS, Shimla and researcher in the US, he is a translator too. Hhe edits the half-yearly literary journal Re-markings.
Nibir K. Ghosh writes
... In translating creativity one must never lose track of the fact that the end product must retain the creative flavour of the original without necessarily being a word-by-word literal rendering of the original in another language. It is important to give precedence to retaining the spontaneity of the original in translation rather than being very fastidious about reproducing the original in another language. Any justifiable departure from the original must be welcome if it ensures readability….Reading the translation of Omar Khayyam by Edward Fitzgerald offers such pleasure that one doesn't give a damn to think how faithful was Fitzgerald to the original text of the poems in Persian. That is what good translation ought to aim at.
SUMMING UP
Dr J.P. Das has cited a practical instance of fruitful collaboration with a native speaker of the Target Language, which, wherever possible, could be a good procedure. In practice it is proved that native speaker collaboration would yield excellent results in the production of In Their Own Voices by Arlene Zide in 1990 and Not Far from the River by David Ray much earlier.
Professor E. Nageswara Rao has come up with four 'E's for evaluation of translations: Economy, Exactness, Effectiveness and Elegance.
Professor Suresh Kumar has steered clear of the deadly Scylla and Charybdis and emerged successfully out of the Serbonian bog, where armies whole have sunk. He has declared with conviction the Fidelity-Freedom chasm with a piece of practical advice: "It (Literary Translation) is as literal as possible and as free as necessary and as such it tends to be part version, part adaptation, part rendering, part interpretation in terms of translation situation as a whole."
Dr. Jotwani revealed truthfully the inadequacy of any translation for those who know well the languages of both the original text and the translated text.
Professor Kelkar has drawn a valid distinction between adequacy of reception and the adequacy of reproduction.
Ms. Malathi has clearly achieved something important by 'interpreting' Telugu stories to the US audience by using an idiom intelligible to the target reader.
Nibir K. Ghosh rightly feels that a translation should be able to stand on its own and as such a literary translator should care more to be reader friendly, using his freedom for a good purpose. Translation, he has in mind literary translation, is love's labour not totally lost.
You are only a spoon when you are translating an idea (read imaginative work) into another language. You can never add a new taste to the dish being served. If the taste changes because of the contact with the spoon perhaps it cannot be helped.Concluding this part, I may be permitted to cite an example of what I called Interactive Translation. In this the literary translator deals with a text by a contemporary creative artist and keeps in touch with the original writer, showing drafts of his renderings, modifying the rendered text to the satisfaction of both the original writer and the translator. One advantage of this (not always possible procedure) is the assurance of authenticity to the rendered text. There is more mail coming and let's wait for the next number.
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