Making hay while the sun shines, desi style
English is taught differently in a Hindi or Punjabi medium school than in an English medium school. In the English language course curriculum of Classes 6 and 7 at my Hindi medium school, Hindi to English translation is an important topic. Routine Hindi to English translation using appropriate tenses was logical and understandable. However, to translate Hindi idioms into English was beyond my comprehension.
For instance, the English version of Hindi idiom Dobi ka kuta na ghar ka na ghat ka is a rolling stone gathers no moss. I still wonder why the translated verse is without using the expression ‘washerman’s dog’ or what is moss or what is the relationship between a stone and moss.
The reason was that our English teacher never felt the need to explain what idioms are as a concept. Her concern was that every student should cram and remember the English translation by heart.
Thanks to her untiring
efforts and frequent revisions, I crammed several idioms such as Bandar kya jaane adrak ka swad as meaning the same as ‘Don’t cast your pearls before swine’, Jiski lathi uski bains (might is right), chor chor
mosarai bhai (Birds of the same feather flock together), Oont ke muh me jira (A drop in the ocean) and performed well in my exams without a clue what they actually meant.
I’m still not sure whether other students had similar conflicts in their mind.
Many years later, I was in the United Kingdom for my doctoral research (PhD). I was staying at a field station with meadows on the mountain slopes in Wales. One day, during a visit to the nearby farm, I asked a farmer, “What do you grow in your field?” “Grass”, he replied.
I couldn’t digest the answer as I was expecting he’d say something such as wheat or maize. Back in India, I had not seen any farmer growing grass in his field. To my mind, grass is something that grows wild in the wasteland and the poor cut it to feed their lactating or draft animals. Then he showed me his field where grass was grown and there was a grass-cutting machine. He said that over a period of time, different cuttings of the grass were obtained and dried to make hay. Good quality hay will be ready only when there is plenty of sunshine. Finally, with the help of machines, bales of hay are made and packed in plastic sheets and kept for feeding the animals in winter. This incident made me understand the meaning of ‘Make hay while the sun shines’. It’s the English version of my school time Hindi idiom, ‘Behti Ganga me hath dhona’.
ROUTINE HINDI TO ENGLISH TRANSLATION USING APPROPRIATE TENSES WAS LOGICAL. HOWEVER, TO TRANSLATE HINDI IDIOMS INTO ENGLISH WAS BEYOND MY COMPREHENSION