I
will be teaching translation studies to the postgraduate students of English
this year and the question I asked myself was- why should an Indian student of
literature study translation? The answers I came up with are as follows: We
study translation because
1) Translation makes literary studies possible
today. Translation is the most widespread mode of accessing the key
literary and theoretical texts from all over the world. Foucault, Neruda,
Camus, Plato, Aristotle, Tagore, Marquez, Kafka, Simone de Beauvoir, Bhamaha,
Anandvardhana, Roland Barthes, Ghalib, Nietzsche, Saratchandra, Freud, Rumi, Marx,
Habermas, Mahasweta Devi, Kalidas and Gramsci are available to the students only in and because of translation. Looking
at these texts as translation can help dispel the illusion (or pretense) of an unmediated,
transparent and unproblematic transmission of such texts across cultures and
time. Hence, even if students do not take translation studies as their primary
area of research, studying translation will provide an additional critical
handle on the research projects and provide useful insights into research involving
translated texts.
2)
For the student of English in India, reading
is translating. Reading of literary texts from other cultures like English
or American for instance is an intercultural and inter-contextual process. An
Indian teenager who has never been to a Prom or not experienced the lifestyle
of a typical American teenager does not read or watch Twilight saga in the same way as an American teenager does. An
Indian youngster who dances for nine nights during Navaratri celebrating ‘Divine
Feminine’ reads Dan Brown’s Da Vinci Code
differently from his Western counterpart. An Indian student who has no idea
what ‘curtsey’ is, reads Pride and
Prejudice in a different way from her British counterpart. Serious study of
literature and art is impossible without taking into account the differences between
the source culture’s system of values and attitudes that produced these texts
and the recipient culture’s system of values, which shape the reader’s outlook
towards life. Oh, yes, the vampires-Pishachas- belong to a very low caste and are
usually ‘meat eating’ types, so while you might be infatuated with them for a
while, it is difficult for you to get married to one of them.
3)
We are translated people living in a
translated culture. Much of the cultural phenomenon in which we are
immersed- TV shows, films, fashion, music, cuisine, literature, language, arts
incorporates assimilated elements from other cultures. These processes of
global traffic of cultural forms have become incredibly accelerated in the age
of globalization. TV ‘Reality’ shows,
which have become extremely popular today, use the formats and promotional
strategies similar to those in the US, and a lot of film and popular music is ‘inspired’
and ‘remixed’. These processes are not always unilinear (from the US to non-US)
- consider the great escalation of Hindi films made for ‘overseas’ audience (Robertson
calls this process ‘glocalization’). The idioms of languages that we speak
today and hear today in media often sound ‘translated’, and hybrid. This ‘code
remixing’ is central to our cultural lives today. The Shastras say that we are what we eat. Therefore, if we eat Chinese
in the evening and continental pizzas during the day, our souls are invariably
going to be hybrid. Literary translation is part of the larger processes of ‘remixing’
and hybridization of cultures. Hence studying the poetics and politics of translation
will help us to understand these numerous processes and modalities of
intercultural traffic. Globalization is translation and translation is
globalization.
4)
Translation as a profession and vocation
is an excellent career option. While reading Keats or Yeats or studying
Judith Butler or Dalit literature may not help you to earn your bread and
butter unless you decide to become a professor or teacher, the study of
translation theory and practice can help you become proficient in translation. When
the Government of India considers Humanities and Higher Education as ‘burden’
instead of investment and reduces the granted vacancies, there are very few
chances of permanent and secure employment. On the other hand, there is a
rising demand for good quality translators and interpreters. You can study foreign languages and start your
own business. You can also work in the areas like film or TV industry where
dubbing is essential or in the areas like legal and corporate communication. Besides,
there is exciting work being done in the field of machine /computer translation
and artificial translation.
5)
You can be a literary translator.
Like me. You can make literary texts from one language available in another language.
It may not pay like technical translators. However, it is a creative act. It is
an art that is at par with ‘original’ creative activity in terms of fulfillment,
and in fact, more challenging and times more exciting the ‘original’ writing. It
reinforces and enhances your own creativity. I remember how when I was doing my
BA in the nineties, some of the passages in Macbeth
moved me so much that I translated them into Hindi. As a poet who wrote in
English and Marathi, and who is born and brought up in Gujarat and teaching
English literature, my choice to translate
Narsinh Mehta into English for my doctoral research in the late nineties was the part of my personal
quest for cultural identity. It was expression of my love for Gujarati language
and literature. Narsinh has made me spiritually richer and happier human being,
if not ‘better’ and he has become one of my closest friends. When I chose to thirty
Marathi poets of my generation into English, it was again a manifestation of my
own personal quest for my roots as a Marathi poet. Translation for me is the
act of love. The fulfillment and joy of rendering my favorite work into another
language is the act of sharing my life and passion with others. At the same time, when you make literature in
other language available for readers, you are in your own way contributing to
that culture by extending the possibilities of the target language and culture.
People
who complain of the ‘loss’ in translation or its impossibility usually have a
very limited view of the process. These people are usually people who can read
both translation and the original, and translations are not intended for such
people. For someone who cannot read Hindi, any translation, however bad, of
Kabir or Muktibodh is always a gain, because no translation is ‘complete’ any
more than the so-called ‘original’ is complete. Jorge Luis Borges said that the
original should be faithful to translation, and I agree.
Watch my lecture on contemporary translation studies with Dr. Vishal Bhadani
Watch my lecture on contemporary translation studies with Dr. Vishal Bhadani
Read my blog on using Semiotics of Culture as a Theoretical Framework for studying Indian literatures and cultures.
4 comments:
very interesting.you are requested to contribute us as much information as possible on such relevant and key issues as translations studies from very many perspectives such as modernism ,post-modernism,marxism etc.welcome.
thanks.
I found this writing a mix of knowledge and artistry well knit in words.....
Thanks and Regards,
Rima
Really outstanding
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