Translators to the rescue: Bridging cultures, one text at a time
Asiddhi.jain@hindustantimes.com t a time when people around the world are isolated by the pandemic, the art of translation can bridge the gap and bring readers of different tongues together. On International Translation Day today, three translators tell us about the pivotal role they play in facilitating cultural exchange.
For Delhi-based poet and translator Anamika,
translating “is the most intimate act of befriending a culture”. The Delhi University professor recalls reading out her Hindi translations of poets from the world over in her classroom. “My joy knew no bounds when I noticed students responding to the lesser-known poets from the Middle East, the Sub-Sahara region, South East Asia, and Latin America. It dawned upon me that mother tongue is a great blotting paper that helps us absorb nuances of literature and the tones of lives in regions unknown,” she shares. Joining the league of Sahitya Akademi awarded translators this year, is Srinath Perur, who received the honour for his translation of Vivek Shanbag’s Ghachar Ghochar. Detailing his approach, he says, “I did the first few pages over and over until I thought I had a voice that would carry me through the book”, adding that he had to find a part of himself that resonated with the narrator.
Calling literary works “living organisms”, translator and writer Ranjit Hoskote, says a translator must “let the text breathe in that new language”, while finding equivalents. “Too many translators yield to the temptation of weighing the text down with explanatory expansion. They should instead use the rest of the apparatus such as a glossary, annotations,” he opines.