Comparative Literature & Translation Studies : Unit 3
Introduction : This blog is written as a response to the Thinking Activity assigned by Dr Dilip Barad concerning the third unit of the topic Comparative Literature & Translation Studies.
In this blog, I will be referring to two articles in context of the topic and will give the key highlights from the articles following the structure arranged as abstract, key points, and concluding remarks.
Article 6 : 'Translation Theory : An Indian Perspective' by Ganesh N. Devy :
In the sixth article, Devy juxtaposes Western Metaphysics and Indian Metaphysics with reference to the Translation Studies. In West, the voice of the worshipper is important as the God listens, whereas in East, the presence of the worshipper is important as the God sees.
After this, the question of "Original" and "Sequential" was discussed. What is original is respected in Indian Metaphysics whereas what is sequential or translated is respected along with original in Western Metaphysics. For instance, Rabindranath Tagore's Nobel Prize winning poetry 'Geetanjali' (1912) was originally written in Bengali by Tagore and published in 1910 which later on was translated into English by himself in 1912 which got him the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1913 making him the first Non-European to receive this honour.
The conflict between reliability and authentication of translated text was the crux of matter, especially when the aboriginal text is translated by the same author who has written it. General notion is that if the same author of selected text translates it into another language, it will always be better, but we have to remember that perhaps the author may try to bridge the gap remained in already written text and that is what makes the self-translation somewhat unreliable and disloyal to the original text, even if it is translated by the same author of the selected text.
In further discussion, the importance of Comparative Literature was discussed; when we juxtapose two literary texts for comparison, the compared text/s gets illumined, if one text is having low exposure to readers, and when it is compared to the famous texts, the slightly famous text gets light on it as students will study and analyze it as much as they study and analyse the famous one. As Derrida said that "Difference gives the definition."
The focus on Source Language and Target Language can also be seen while analysing translated version of the original texts. The translator is highly expected to be the proficient scholar of both the Source Language and the Target Language, for the Source Language refers to the original language in which the text is written and Target Language refers to the language in which a translator wants the original work to be translated.
While the language was being referred, the importance of English Language - due to its global appeal in matter of its worldwide use - was also highlighted. The question comes that why English alone survived the criterion of becoming a global language despite being originated for a few or thousands years to the time? The answer contains many facets from which one most important facet is that the flexibility of English Language. English is a constantly changing language, just as water it shapes itself into the pot of diverse cultures it is filled into. This flexibility saves it from becoming rigid and thus limited to one culture only. Many literary authors of English Language have claimed that the Modern English they find lucid for their writings has its root into King James Version of the Bible which was published in 1611. On this ground, English language has become the base of Translation.
Devy quotes Joseph Hillis Miller : "Translation is a wandering existence of a text in a perpetual exile."
Hell or 'Patal' (The Inferno) => Southern Part of the region
Sea => End of the World
So, the world narrated in such mythologies were limited by the lack of scientific approach and the fearfulness of voyaging out from the land.
The claim that in occidental part of the world, the God secures individual position as the God whereas in oriental part of the world, God is thought be many different entities who help humans in their various worldly pursuits, but these may be taken aback as getting the Christian and Indian ideas of God/s as examples representing occidental and oriental parts of the world respectively :
Christianity :
Indian Idea of God :
Sahitya Akademi has opened the space for translated works and their nominations since 1989.
Further the myth of Tower of Babel was referred as in relation with original as well as translated texts.
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The way Yahweh confounded the language and scattered the Babylonians all around the world by decentralizing them can be seen as the need of translation for the people residing in the world who are curious since birth wanting to know the whole. Thus the study and analysis of Translation thrived to the point becoming the academic discipline in all the lodestar universities in of the world.
The Structuralist argument may come when discussing the problem of synonyms. Synonym of any word may signify the nearby meaning to that word but it is a bit away from the meaning generated by the word, so the same analogy can be applied to the relational problem of Original and its translated text/s.
During the 19th century, the world can be distinguished into three categories :
Europe => Comparative Studies 》Diverse Point of View Towards the World 》Broad-Mindedness
Orient => Orientalism 》In Quest of Identity and Culture 》Narrow-Mindedness
Rest of the World => Anthropology
If the language is ordered and systematic, then translation may also be same.
The difference between Comparison and Translation is that Comparative Consciousness is natural in Humans whereas Translation Consciousness is something for which one needs to travail if willing.
At the end, the difference between the Western Thought and Eastern - here Indian - Thought was discussed. The western world is seen thriving only for the end result where process in achieving the result is subsidized unlike Indian Thought where process is given more importance over the product. The metaphysical connection is also something which ties both the major part of the world to each other, that is the concept of soul, body, heaven, and hell; in West, soul seeks destination throughout the journey while living in the world, thus sole goal of soul is to achieve the heaven, the home and focuses only on fulfilling the goal taking worldly things for granted which makes it fanatic, whereas in Indian Thought, soul is left with will to attain to Mukti or Moksha (Liberation) from the world and become Jeevanmukta (One who is free from the repetitive cycle of birth and death) which allows soul to be selective on when to engage and when not to, this willingness is left on soul making it free.
Article 7 : 'On Translating a Tamil Poem' by Attipate Krishnaswami Ramanujan :
The seventh presentation on the topic 'On Translating a Tamil Poem' was presented on 16th December, 2022 wherein I - Nirav Amreliya - and Himanshi Parmar cooperatively presented the article.
Here is the board-work done by sir while lecturing the article in the classroom, in order to visit, please click here.
Conclusion : The Translation Studies is indeed the need of the hour as its main focus lays upon the very process of translation rather than doing the practice of translation itself. The loopholes and positive effects of translation or translated texts are equally expected to be analyzed by the scholars who pursue Translation Studies as academic research project.
Thank you!
In this blog, I will be referring to two articles in context of the topic and will give the key highlights from the articles following the structure arranged as abstract, key points, and concluding remarks.
Article 6 : 'Translation Theory : An Indian Perspective' by Ganesh N. Devy :
The sixth presentation on the topic 'Translation Theory : An Indian Perspective' was presented on 15th December, 2022 wherein Nilay Rathod and Emisha Ravani cooperatively presented the article.
The conflict between reliability and authentication of translated text was the crux of matter, especially when the aboriginal text is translated by the same author who has written it. General notion is that if the same author of selected text translates it into another language, it will always be better, but we have to remember that perhaps the author may try to bridge the gap remained in already written text and that is what makes the self-translation somewhat unreliable and disloyal to the original text, even if it is translated by the same author of the selected text.
In further discussion, the importance of Comparative Literature was discussed; when we juxtapose two literary texts for comparison, the compared text/s gets illumined, if one text is having low exposure to readers, and when it is compared to the famous texts, the slightly famous text gets light on it as students will study and analyze it as much as they study and analyse the famous one. As Derrida said that "Difference gives the definition."
The Creative Writing and Translation breaks parallel of writing on the point of one being intellectual and imaginative pursuit, whereas another being mechanical or clerical pursuit respectively. In Translation, there may be the use of imagination for selecting words and proper situation, but it may not go to the peak of imaginative skills which in Creative Writing serves as one of the must-have skills.
While the language was being referred, the importance of English Language - due to its global appeal in matter of its worldwide use - was also highlighted. The question comes that why English alone survived the criterion of becoming a global language despite being originated for a few or thousands years to the time? The answer contains many facets from which one most important facet is that the flexibility of English Language. English is a constantly changing language, just as water it shapes itself into the pot of diverse cultures it is filled into. This flexibility saves it from becoming rigid and thus limited to one culture only. Many literary authors of English Language have claimed that the Modern English they find lucid for their writings has its root into King James Version of the Bible which was published in 1611. On this ground, English language has become the base of Translation.
Devy quotes Joseph Hillis Miller : "Translation is a wandering existence of a text in a perpetual exile."
With the aforementioned idea, the interpretation of the connection between guilt and exile can also be seen. We know how guilt gets consciously or unconsciously infused in the mind of the person who is exiled; similar thing may be felt by the original text which is translated signifying the original text as person and its translations as the exile from its original meaning, for translations miss out to describe the original meaning as it is there in the original text which is translated.
The ancient narrative styles which are bereft of science were also discussed. The very ideas of heaven and hell in certain myths were limited as follow due to lack of science and technology as well as insular approach towards looking at the worlds by the narrators of such mythologies :
The ancient narrative styles which are bereft of science were also discussed. The very ideas of heaven and hell in certain myths were limited as follow due to lack of science and technology as well as insular approach towards looking at the worlds by the narrators of such mythologies :
Heaven => Himalayan Mountain Ranges
Hell or 'Patal' (The Inferno) => Southern Part of the region
Sea => End of the World
So, the world narrated in such mythologies were limited by the lack of scientific approach and the fearfulness of voyaging out from the land.
Christianity :
The claim that in occidental part of the world, the God secures individual position as the God whereas in oriental part of the world, God is thought be many different entities who help humans in their various worldly pursuits, but these may be taken aback as getting the Christian and Indian ideas of God/s as examples representing occidental and oriental parts of the world respectively :
Christianity :
Indian Idea of God :
Sahitya Akademi has opened the space for translated works and their nominations since 1989.
The Structuralist argument may come when discussing the problem of synonyms. Synonym of any word may signify the nearby meaning to that word but it is a bit away from the meaning generated by the word, so the same analogy can be applied to the relational problem of Original and its translated text/s.
During the 19th century, the world can be distinguished into three categories :
Europe => Comparative Studies 》Diverse Point of View Towards the World 》Broad-Mindedness
Orient => Orientalism 》In Quest of Identity and Culture 》Narrow-Mindedness
Rest of the World => Anthropology
If the language is ordered and systematic, then translation may also be same.
The difference between Comparison and Translation is that Comparative Consciousness is natural in Humans whereas Translation Consciousness is something for which one needs to travail if willing.
At the end, the difference between the Western Thought and Eastern - here Indian - Thought was discussed. The western world is seen thriving only for the end result where process in achieving the result is subsidized unlike Indian Thought where process is given more importance over the product. The metaphysical connection is also something which ties both the major part of the world to each other, that is the concept of soul, body, heaven, and hell; in West, soul seeks destination throughout the journey while living in the world, thus sole goal of soul is to achieve the heaven, the home and focuses only on fulfilling the goal taking worldly things for granted which makes it fanatic, whereas in Indian Thought, soul is left with will to attain to Mukti or Moksha (Liberation) from the world and become Jeevanmukta (One who is free from the repetitive cycle of birth and death) which allows soul to be selective on when to engage and when not to, this willingness is left on soul making it free.
Here is the video on the authentic meaning of the word 'Soul' in Hebrew language :
Article 7 : 'On Translating a Tamil Poem' by Attipate Krishnaswami Ramanujan :
The seventh presentation on the topic 'On Translating a Tamil Poem' was presented on 16th December, 2022 wherein I - Nirav Amreliya - and Himanshi Parmar cooperatively presented the article.
Here is the board-work done by sir while lecturing the article in the classroom, in order to visit, please click here.
Conclusion : The Translation Studies is indeed the need of the hour as its main focus lays upon the very process of translation rather than doing the practice of translation itself. The loopholes and positive effects of translation or translated texts are equally expected to be analyzed by the scholars who pursue Translation Studies as academic research project.
Thank you!
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