अनुवाद – अर्थ और अनर्थ के बीच

अनर्थ हो गया है अर्थ की अभ्यर्थना में,

मनुष्य खो गया है मनुष्य की जल्पना में। 

केदारनाथ अग्रवाल की इन पंक्तियों की सच्चाई बतौर अनुवादक भले ही सभी आसानी से समझें या न समझें, लेकिन समस्या का शुभारंभ तो तभी हो जाता है जब दो भाषाओं का ज्ञाता यह मान बैठे कि वह बड़ी आसानी से अनुवादक बन सकता है। उसे शब्दकोश के सहारे केवल एक भाषा में लिखे शब्दों को दूसरी भाषा में उसी अर्थ वाले शब्द से बदलना ही तो है। लेकिन किसी ने ख़ूब कही कि यह वैसा ही है जैसे दस उँगलियों का होना हमें पियानो बजाने में माहिर बना दे।

अनुवाद कार्य से जुड़ा हर व्यक्ति जानता है कि यह कोई सरल-सुगम प्रक्रिया नहीं है। यहाँ तक कि डॉ. ज्ञानवती दरबार को 1960 में लिखे अपने पत्र में भारत के प्रथम राष्ट्रपति, डॉ. राजेंद्र प्रसाद भी कहते हैं - “Translation is a difficult art. It is more difficult than original writing in any language… A perfect translation is that which reproduces the sense of every expression of the original with due emphasis on spirit, as distinguished from mere words, which require it.” (अनुवाद एक श्रम-साध्य कला है, जो किसी भी भाषा में मौलिक लेखन की अपेक्षा अधिक कठिन है... बेहतरीन अनुवाद वह है जो शाब्दिक न होकर प्रत्येक मूल भावना को, मूल लेख के प्रत्येक कथ्य पर समुचित ज़ोर देते हुए व्यक्त करे।)

आगे अपने अभिभाषणों के अनुवाद की जटिलता का ज़िक्र करते हुए वे लिखते हैं -

“…I believe that rather the reproduction of a word for a word or a phrase for a phrase is not the true test of translation. We know from our experience how difficult and exciting the work is. …It is not so much the difficulty of translation as of the ideas contained and conveyed by one writing to be rendered into another. Have we not experienced all these in the translation of the address?” (मेरा मानना है कि अनुवाद की वास्तविक कसौटी शब्दशः या वाक्यशः अनुवाद करना नहीं है। हम अपने अनुभव से जानते हैं कि यह कार्य कितना कठिन है और रोचक भी।... कठिनाई अनुवाद की नहीं, बल्कि एक भाषा के विचारों को दूसरी भाषा में अनूदित करने की है। क्या हमने अभिभाषणों का अनुवाद करते समय इन जटिलताओं का अनुभव नहीं किया है?)

अनुवाद प्रक्रिया की शुरुआत होती है दिए गए पाठ के विश्लेषण से। यहाँ हम जिन चुनौतियों का सामना करते हैं, वे हैं मूल विषय से संबंधित ज्ञान का अभाव और लक्ष्य भाषा में उसके अनुवाद की जटिलता। अगर हम शब्द-संग्रहों का सहारा लें, तो उनमें कई बार एक शब्द के लिए कई अर्थ मिल जाते हैं। जैसे ‘Talent is one of our key differentiators’ वाक्य में differentiator के लिए शब्द हैं 'अवकलक', 'विभेदक', 'दूसरों से अलग'। अगर विषय गणित से संबंधित है और अनुवादक 'अवकलक' शब्द को चुन ले, तो यह सही है। लेकिन अकसर हम ख़ुद को अच्छा लगने वाला या भारी-भरकम पर्याय लेकर आगे बढ़ जाते हैं, जिससे अर्थ का अनर्थ हो जाता है।

ग़लत अनुवाद के उदाहरणों में इन पर भी नज़र डालें। अंग्रेज़ी में जब कहा जाता है कि पुलिस ने 'इतने round गोलियाँ चलाईं', तो आम तौर पर 'इतने चक्र गोलियाँ चलाईं' लिखा जाता है, जो अटपटा भी है और ग़लत भी। जबकि एक round का मतलब है 'एक गोली'। यही स्थिति 'जजमेंट रिज़र्व' रखने को लेकर है। अकसर कहा या लिखा जाता है -- ‘न्यायाधीश ने अपना निर्णय सुरक्षित रखा’। आजकल ख़बरों में इसका इतना ज़्यादा प्रचलन है कि पहली नज़र में यह हमें सही लग सकता है। लेकिन ज़रा सोचें, जब न्यायाधीश कहता है कि उसने अपना ‘जजमेंट रिज़र्व’ रखा है तो इसका मतलब यह नहीं होता कि फ़ैसला लिखकर कहीं सुरक्षित रख दिया है। दरअसल बात निर्णय बाद में लिखने और सुनाए जाने की है। अगर नेट पर थोड़ी छानबीन कर लें तो स्पष्ट हो जाएगा कि reserved judgments वे हैं जो आम तौर पर जटिल होते हैं और जिन पर विचार-विमर्श के लिए न्यायाधीश को और समय चाहिए।

अनुवाद प्रक्रिया का दूसरा चरण है मूल पाठ के भाव का लक्ष्य भाषा में अंतरण। यहाँ हमें शब्दकोश, थिसॉरस और अन्य सहायक सामग्री से मदद मिलती है। लेकिन यहाँ भी समतुल्य शब्द की कमी चुनौती बनकर उभरती है। कई ऐसे भी उदाहरण आपको शब्द-संग्रहों में मिल जाएँगे जहाँ दो या तीन शब्दों का एक ही हिंदी पर्याय दिया गया हो। लेकिन जब मिलते-जुलते अर्थ वाले शब्द एक ही वाक्य में एक साथ आ जाते हैं, तो स्थिति और भी विकट हो जाती है। उदाहरण के लिए, ‘We must make a distinction between gender and sex’ वाक्य में sex और gender शब्द पर ग़ौर करें, जहाँ शब्दकोश में दोनों के लिए 'लिंग' पर्याय दिया गया है। ऐसे में अनुवादक के लिए ज़रूरी हो जाता है कि वह ‘लिंग’ के अलावा कोई और पर्याय खोजे, क्योंकि sex जहाँ स्त्री-पुरुष का भेद स्पष्ट करता है वहीं gender लैंगिक पहचान को।

समृद्ध शब्दावली अनुवाद में चार चाँद लगाती है, लेकिन कुछ ऐसे भी शब्द हैं जिनका अनुवाद काफ़ी मुश्किल हो जाता है। जैसे, awkward के लिए हिंदी में सटीक शब्द नहीं है। हालाँकि 'ख़राब' जैसे शब्द से काम चला लिया जाता है, लेकिन मूल शब्द सामाजिक परिस्थितियों में शर्मिंदगी और असहजता के मिश्रित भाव की अभिव्यक्ति है।

इसी प्रसंग में ‘पूर्ण स्वराज’ शब्द को लेकर महात्मा गाँधी की एक लेखक से बातचीत का यह अंश भी विचारणीय है –

“I cannot give you a proper answer as there is nothing in English language to give the exact equivalent of Poorna Swaraj. The original meaning means ‘self-rule’, independence has no such meaning about it. Swaraj means disciplined rule from within, Poorna means complete. Not finding any equivalent we have loosely adopted the word complete independence which everybody understands.”

भाषा को बोझिल होने से बचाने, उसमें रवानगी लाने के लिए आम शब्दों का प्रयोग कभी सायास तो कभी अनायास हो जाता है। प्रवाहमान भाषा में पुराने शब्दों के अर्थ बदल जाते हैं, वे नए रूप और नए अर्थ धारण कर लेते हैं। अनुवाद की शुद्धता के लिए इन परिवर्तनों का ज्ञान भी आवश्यक है। जैसे, नशे के अर्थ में पहले प्रयुक्त dope अब cool या awesome के लिए प्रयुक्त होने लगा है, और salty अब नमकीन नहीं रह गया है बल्कि bitter, angry, agitated बन गया है। अब कोई आपको sic/sick कहे तो आप ख़ुश हो जाइए, क्योंकि आप बीमार नहीं बल्कि cool या sweet हैं।

नित नए गढ़े जाने वाले शब्दों की चर्चा के दौरान आजकल हिंदी में भ्रष्टाचार कांड से जुड़ी हर घटना के लिए प्रयुक्त ‘gate’ शब्द को भी देखें (जैसे कोलगेट) जो अमेरिकी राष्ट्रपति निक्सन को इस्तीफ़ा देने के लिए मजबूर करने वाले वॉटरगेट प्रकरण के बाद बनने वाला नया प्रत्यय है।

अनुवाद का तीसरा चरण है पुनःसंरचना। संपादन के इस चरण में यह तय करना पड़ता है कि किस समतुल्य शब्द का प्रयोग करना है या किस शैली को अपनाना है। मूल पाठ में रचयिता साधारण शब्द को भी अपने प्रयोग-कौशल से असाधारण, नए और विशिष्ट अर्थ देने में समर्थ होता है। वह भले ही अज्ञेय की तरह शब्द निरपेक्ष होकर कहे - "तुम मुझे शब्द दो, न दो फिर भी मैं कहूँगा", अनुवादक यह नहीं कह सकता। उसे अभिव्यक्ति के लिए शब्दों की – विशिष्ट शब्दों की आवश्यकता होती है।

सहज अनुवाद के लिए उसके पास मुहावरेदार अभिव्यक्ति का होना भी ज़रूरी है। It is a big deal में अगर आप 'सौदे' की बात करेंगे तो बहुत ‘बड़ी बात’ हो जाएगी। भले ही build castles in the air के लिए आप 'हवाई किले' बना’ लें और 'फूले न समाएँ' (walk on air) लेकिन अगर आप to clear the air के लिए 'ग़लतफ़हमी या संदेह दूर करने' के बजाय 'हवा साफ़ करने' लगे, तो आपका ही पत्ता साफ़ हो जाएगा। हाथ-पाँव ठंडे होना, दिल में ठंडक पड़ना, आँखों की ठंडक तक तो ठीक है, लेकिन क्या cold feet के लिए 'ठंडा पाँव' और cold shoulder के लिए 'ठंडा कंधा' लिखना ठीक रहेगा? ठंडे की बात की है, तो कुछ गरम हो जाए। गूगल महाशय के लिए hot head 'गरम सिर' है, तो hot products 'गरम सामान'। Hot potato 'विषम या विवादास्पद स्थिति' नहीं, बल्कि 'गरम आलू' है, तो hot property 'चहेता' नहीं बल्कि 'गरम संपत्ति'। निश्चित रूप से, Sky is the limit के लिए ‘आकाश ही सीमा है’ और Issues you are going to champion के लिए ‘जिन मुद्दों पर आप चैंपियन बनने जा रहे हैं’ जैसे मशीनी अनुवाद मूल अर्थ के संप्रेषण में ख़लल पैदा करेंगे।

अनुवाद में वाक्य-रचना के संदर्भ में आगत शब्दों के लिंग निर्णय की समस्या भी उभरती है। 'ई-मेल' को ही ले लें, इसका स्त्रीलिंग और पुल्लिंग दोनों रूपों में प्रयोग देखा जा सकता है। अंग्रेज़ी या अन्य भाषाओं के जो शब्द लंबे समय से हिंदी में प्रयुक्त हो रहे हैं, उनका लिंग प्रयोग से निर्धारित हो चुका है। लेकिन हिंदी में लिंग-निर्णय का कोई एक सर्वसम्मत आधार नहीं है। यही कारण है कि अनुवादक को हिंदी के शब्द-भंडार में लिंग संबंधी अव्यवस्था से भी जूझना पड़ता है।

अनुवाद प्रक्रिया में प्रूफ़रीडिंग बेहद महत्वपूर्ण चरण है। अपने काम को कई बार संपादित करने के बाद भी उपर्युक्त कारणों से हम ग़लती सुधारने में चूक जाते हैं और अनुवाद बेमज़ा हो जाता है। शब्दों के अर्थ का अनर्थ करने वाले कारकों में मशीनी अनुवाद की भूमिका भी शामिल है। इसमें कोई संदेह नहीं कि ऐसे टूल्स की सहायता से अनुवाद की गति बढ़ती है। लेकिन कंप्यूटर से तुरंत अनुवाद करने की जल्दबाज़ी में अकसर अर्थ का अनर्थ होते हुए भी हम देखते हैं। हालाँकि छोटे और सरल वाक्यों का अनुवाद सामान्यत: ठीक-ठाक ही होता है, लेकिन जब उससे 'क्या हो जाए दो-दो हाथ?' का अनुवाद करने के लिए कहा जाए, तो क्या वह What happens two-two hands? से उलट कुछ करेगा? अतः इसके प्रयोग में सावधानी और मानवीय हस्तक्षेप ज़रूरी है, वरना नज़रें हटीं, दुर्घटना घटी। 

कंप्यूटर के शुरुआती दिनों में बहुत सुना था ‘Garbage in – Garbage out’।  जब आप गूगल की सहायता से "टाँग मत अड़ाओ। पैर पर कुल्हाड़ी मार ली। पाँव फूलने लगे। चरण-स्पर्श करें।" का अनुवाद करने बैठें, तो garbage न होने के बावजूद निकलेगा "Do not put a leg. Killed the axe on the leg. The feet started blooming. Touch step." जैसा garbage ही।

CAT (Computer-aided Translation) टूल्स में NMT (Neural Machine Translation) के प्रवेश के साथ ही भ्रामक अनुवाद की तादाद भी बढ़ी है। नीचे प्रस्तुत हैं कुछ रेडीमेड अनुवाद के नमूने :

कुकीज़ आपके द्वारा दिए गए ऑनलाइन विज्ञापनों की सिलाई को सक्षम बनाती हैं। (Cookies enable the tailoring of online advertisements served to you.)

लगातार आत्म-मूल्यांकन और आत्म-प्रतिबिंब हमारे कार्यक्रम का हिस्सा हैं। (Constant self-assessment and self-reflection are part of our program.)

कमला हैरिस ने अपने भावी पति से एक अंधे तारीख़ को मुलाक़ात की। (Kamala Harris met her future husband Doug Emhoff on a blind date.)

Sleep mode (नींद मोड), name-calling (नाम पुकारना), bed time (बिस्तर का समय), foreign country (विदेशी देश), bottom line (आधार रेखा) जैसे अनुवाद भी मशीनी अनुवाद की ही देन हैं।

आर्टिफ़िशियल इंटेलीजेंस (AI) अन्य कार्यों में यद्यपि सहायक हो, लेकिन भाषा से जुड़े कार्य में इस पर पूरी तरह भरोसा नहीं किया जा सकता।

अनुवाद संपन्न होने के बाद स्वयं उसकी समीक्षा करना वर्तनी में चूक, ग़लत शब्दों के प्रयोग आदि से बचने का एकमात्र उपाय है। अपना ही लिखा दुबारा पढ़ते समय अकसर अच्छे व बेहद सटीक शब्द भी सूझते हैं। एक आलोचक की नज़र से अपने कार्य की समीक्षा करें। आपकी शब्दावली जितनी समृद्ध होगी, आपके पास अनुवाद में बेहतर शब्दों के प्रयोग के उतने ही विकल्प होंगे। शब्द-चयन पर ज़्यादा ध्यान दें। न केवल उनके अर्थ पर ग़ौर करें बल्कि देखें कि क्या शब्द-समूह में वे शब्द कारगर साबित होते हैं। वरना वाक्य में ग़लत शब्द उतना ही अखरता है जितना मधुर आलाप में गायक का स्वर बिगड़ना।

निष्कर्ष यही कि समस्याएँ तो हर क्षेत्र में मौजूद होती हैं, लेकिन उन्हें बाधा मानने के बजाय चुनौती मानकर उनका सकारात्मक उपयोग किया जा सकता है ताकि हमारे कार्य की गुणवत्ता बढ़े। जिन ग़लतियों का मैंने ज़िक्र किया है, वे मुझसे भी हुई हैं। लेकिन अपनी ग़लतियों को अनुभव मानकर उनसे कुछ सीखने में ही बुद्धिमानी है।

वैसे ‘क्या करें, क्या न करें’ से जूझते अनुवादक के बारे में भाषाविद यूजीन अल्बर्ट नाइडा (Eugene A. Nida) की यह टिप्पणी भी कितनी सटीक है :     

"The translator's task is essentially a difficult and often a thankless one. He is severely criticized if he makes a mistake, but only faintly praised when he succeeds, for often it is assumed that anyone who know two languages ought to be able to do as well as the translator who has laboured to produce a text."  

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लेखिका : आर. टी. पुष्पा 

आत्म-परिचय

विज्ञान से स्नातक की उपाधि पाने के बाद इच्छा तो थी माइक्रोबायोलॉजी में स्नातकोत्तर स्तर की पढ़ाई करने की, लेकिन परिस्थितिवश हिंदी में एमए और फिर पीएचडी की उपाधि हासिल की। कैरियर की शुरुआत प्राध्यापकी से की, लेकिन बाद में विजया बैंक में 20 वर्ष कार्यरत रहने के बाद बतौर वरिष्ठ प्रबंधक (राजभाषा) स्वैच्छिक सेवानिवृत्ति का दामन थामा। पाँच-छह भारतीय भाषाओं पर अच्छी पकड़ और अंग्रेज़ी व हिंदी में सृजनात्मक लेखन ने मीडिया संबंधी अनुसंधान कार्य से जुड़े संस्थान में बतौर भाषा विशेषज्ञ काम करने का मौक़ा दिया। यहाँ पाँच सौ से भी अधिक क्लासिक फ़िल्मों के सबटाइटल से जुड़े अनुवाद कार्य ने आगे का मार्ग प्रशस्त किया और तब से इसी राह पर सफ़र जारी है।

करियर के रूप में अनुवाद को क्यों चुनें?

      सदियों से अनुवाद ज्ञान के आदान-प्रदान का माध्यम रहा है। मानव सभ्यता के विकास में अनुवाद का विशेष महत्व रहा है। आज वैश्वीकरण के इस दौर में अनुवाद का महत्व और उसकी आवश्यकता कई गुणा बढ़ गई है। दुनिया भर में अनुवाद की बढ़ती मांग को देखते हुए यह कहा जा सकता है कि यदि कोई इसे करियर के रूप में अपनाता है तो उसके लिए काम की कभी कमी नहीं रहेगी।

      यदि आपकी भाषाओं में रुचि है, आपमें कार्य के प्रति समर्पण और जुनून है, तो आपके लिए अनुवाद का क्षेत्र असीम संभावनाएं लिए प्रतीक्षा कर रहा है। यदि आप अपनी मातृभाषा के अतिरिक्त किसी एक अन्य भाषा पर पूरा अधिकार रखते हैं, आपके सामान्य ज्ञान का स्तर अच्छा है, विभिन्न विषयों के बारे में सामान्य जानकारी है, तो आपके लिए अनुवाद क्षेत्र संभावनाओं के द्वार खोल सकता है। आइए, अनुवाद को करियर के रूप में चुनने के कारणों पर नजर डालें।

1. अपनी मर्जी के खुद मालिक: यदि आप स्वतंत्र रूप से अनुवाद करना (फ़्रीलांस) चुनते हैं, तो कार्य-स्थल और कार्य-समय अपनी मर्जी से चुन सकते हैं। अपनी सुविधानुसार बेरोक-टोक घर में रह कर काम कर सकते हैं। आप अपने अन्य जरूरी काम भी निपटा सकते हैं और जब समय मिले अनुवाद कार्य भी कर सकते हैं।

2. रोचक और ज्ञानवर्धक कार्य: यदि आपके अंदर कुछ करने की बेचैनी और कुछ नया जानने की जिज्ञासा है तो समझ लें कि अनुवाद का क्षेत्र आपके लिए सर्वथा उपयुक्त है। अनुवाद करने के लिए आपको विविध विषय मिलेंगे जिससे हमेशा रोचकता बनी रहेगी। आपका शब्द-सामर्थ्य बढ़ता जाएगा और विषयों की जानकारी में वृद्धि होती रहेगी। इसलिए कभी इस कार्य से ऊब या बोरियत नहीं होगी।

3. कार्य की स्वतंत्रता: “अनुवाद को करियर क्यों बनाएं?” का यह सबसे महत्वपूर्ण जवाब है। जो स्वतंत्र रूप से कार्य करना पसंद करते हैं, उनके लिए अनुवाद सर्वथा उपयुक्त तो है ही, साथ ही भविष्य में संभावनाओं के अनेक द्वार भी खोलता है। आपको सरकारी या निजी क्षेत्र की नौकरी के उलट पर्यवेक्षकीय नियंत्रण, समय का बंधन, टोका-टाकी, असुरक्षा जैसी किसी समस्या का सामना नहीं करना पड़ता। जो विषय आपकी रुचि का हो, आप केवल उसी को चुनने और कार्य करने के लिए स्वतंत्र हैं। किसी भी नौकरी में आपको केवल एक सीमित दायरे में कार्य करना होता है, जबकि अनुवाद के क्षेत्र में विषयों की विविधता आपको ज्ञान के खुले आकाश में विचरण कराती है। आप अपनी आवश्यकताओं और सुविधा के अनुसार अंशकालिक या पूर्णकालिक कार्य करना चुन सकते हैं। किसी विषय विशेष में आपको अच्छा ज्ञान है तो उस विषय में अनुवाद करना आपके लिए बेहतर होगा। साहित्य में रुचि है तो साहित्यिक अनुवाद, तकनीक या विज्ञान में रुचि है तो तकनीकी अनुवाद, या आजकल लोकप्रिय हो रहे वीडियो गेम में रुचि है तो उसका अनुवाद करना चुन सकते हैं। यदि आप मेरी तरह से “जैक ऑफ ऑल ट्रेड्स, मास्टर ऑफ नन” हैं, तब तो आपके लिए सारे ही विषय उपलब्ध हैं।

4. विशेषज्ञता हासिल करने का अवसर: अनुवाद करते-करते आप अपनी रुचि के विषय में विशेषज्ञता हासिल कर सकते हैं। उस विषय में जितना अधिक कार्य करेंगे उतने ही आप उस विषय के माहिर बनते जाएंगे। आपको अनुवाद के बाजार में विशेषज्ञ होने का लाभ हमेशा मिलेगा।

5. अच्छी आय के अवसर: संभवतः अनुवाद के क्षेत्र को करियर के रूप में चुनने के लिए सबसे बड़ा और महत्वपूर्ण कारण यही है कि इस क्षेत्र में कार्य करने पर आपकी आय की कोई सीमा नहीं होगी। आपके मन में एक प्रश्न उठ सकता है कि वैश्विक बाजारीकरण के इस दौर में जब कंप्यूटरों के प्रयोग से मशीनी अनुवाद बहुत तेजी से विकसित होता जा रहा है तो मानव अनुवाद के क्षेत्र में संभावनाएं कैसे बचेंगी। आपको कतई आशंकित होने की आवश्यकता नहीं है। कम से कम गैर-यूरोपीय भाषाओं में मशीनी अनुवाद कभी भी सफल नहीं हो सकता। मशीन की सहायता से एक पुतला तो बनाया जा सकता है लेकिन उसमें कभी प्राण नहीं फूंके जा सकते हैं। मशीनों का निष्प्राण अनुवाद हमारी भारतीय भाषाओँ की आत्मा को कभी व्यक्त नहीं कर सकता। मानव अनुवाद की आवश्यकता हमेशा बनी रहेगी। अपने अनुवाद की दर आप स्वयं निर्धारित करते हैं। अपनी क्षमता और योग्यता के आधार पर आप चाहे जितनी ऊंची दर प्राप्त कर सकते हैं। हमारे ही देश में हजारों अनुवादक अनुवाद कार्य से प्रति माह छह अंकों की आय अर्जित कर रहे हैं।

6. करियर की प्रगति के असीम अवसर: आप सोच सकते हैं कि भाषाओं के ज्ञान के आधार पर अन्य क्षेत्रों में भी कार्य किया जा सकता है तो अनुवाद को ही क्यों चुनें। जवाब बिलकुल सीधा है। अनुभव और कौशल में वृद्धि के साथ ही आपके करियर की भी प्रगति होती जाती है। आप स्वयं नियंत्रित करने लगते हैं कि आपको कब और कितना काम करना है, अपने काम का कितना पारिश्रमिक लेना है। यही चरम परिणति होती है कि सभी निर्णय स्वयं लेने की स्थिति में आप आ जाएं।

अंत में, याद रखिए, यदि आपके अंदर भाषाओं के प्रति रुचि है, जोश है, जुनून है तो अनुवाद से अच्छा कार्यक्षेत्र आपके लिए कोई और नहीं हो सकता।

लेखक : विनोद शर्मा

बीएसएनएल में सेवारत रहते हुए 1991 में अंग्रेजी में एमए किया, लगातार 1993 में हिंदी में एमए किया फिर 1995 में इंदिरा गांधी राष्ट्रीय मुक्त विश्वविद्यालय से अनुवाद में पीजी डिप्लोमा किया। 1995 से 1997 तक शौकिया अनुवाद कार्य किया। जुलाई 1997 से विधिवत पेशेवर अनुवादक के रूप में कार्य शुरू किया, लेकिन विकीपीडिया, रोजेटा फाउंडेशन, ट्रांलेटर्स विदाउट बॉर्डर्स आदि के लिए स्वैच्छिक अनुवाद भी चलता रहा। 2005 से कैट टूल्स से परिचय हुआ। सबसे पहले एसडीएलएक्स, फिर वर्डफास्ट पर काम करना शुरू किया। उसके बाद तो अनुवाद यात्रा चलती रही। नए-नए टूल्स शामिल होते रहे, नए-नए विषयों और क्षेत्रों में, नए-नए फाइल प्रकारों से होते हुए ये सफर जो चला तो चलता ही रहा। 2010 से 2020 तक दबिगवर्ड कंपनी के लिए गूगल रिव्यूअर के रूप में नियमित कार्य किया।

An Engineer with a passion for languages went on to complete Masters both in English and Hindi in 1991 and 1993 respectively. He did not stop here, completed a PG Diploma in Translation from IGNOU in 1995. Started with amateur translation for Wikipedia, Rosseta Foundation and Translators without Borders. Turned professional in 1997 and never stopped. Started using CAT tools in 2005 with SDLX, Wordfast, Idiom and since then no looking back. Worked as Google Reviewer through thebigword from 2010 to 2020. Specialization in Medical, Legal and Technical fields. Working mostly with foreign companies only.

अनुवादक बनाम योग्यता

इस तथ्य से सभी बखूबी परिचित हैं कि भारत में अनुवाद क्षेत्र अत्यंत पिछड़ा हुआ है। इसके अनेक कारण हैं। देश की सरकारों का अनुवाद के प्रति उपेक्षापूर्ण रवैया भी एक बड़ा कारण है। हम यह भी जानते हैं कि किसी उपाय से तत्क्षण कोई परिवर्तन नहीं लाया जा सकता। जब सामूहिक रूप से कोई कार्रवाई होना संभव नजर नहीं आ रहा हो तो हमें व्यक्तिगत स्तर पर किए जा सकने वाले उपायों के बारे में सोचना होगा।

हम यह कल्पना करके चलना चाहते हैं कि ‘अनुवादक’ का आशय पूर्णकालिक अनुवादक से है जिसकी आजीविका ही अनुवाद कार्य है। विदेशी अनुवादकों और हमारे देशी अनुवादकों के बीच एक भारी अंतर देखने को मिलता है। विशेषकर यूरोप और अमरीका में कोई भी पेशेवर अनुवादक जीवन पर्यंत अपना मूल्य-संवर्धन करता रहता है। अर्थात, सबसे पहले तो उन देशों में सामान्यतः बिना किसी तैयारी के कोई जल्दी से अनुवाद क्षेत्र में कदम नहीं रखता। एकाधिक भाषाओं में प्रवीणता रखने के साथ-साथ अनुवाद विषय में डिग्री या डिप्लोमा लेने के बाद ही वे लोग अनुवाद क्षेत्र में पदार्पण करते हैं। प्रारंभ में, कम से कम एक साल तक वे प्रशिक्षु के रूप में कार्य करते हैं, उसके बाद भी, कहीं अनुवादक के रूप में नौकरी करते हैं और साल दो साल नौकरी करने के बाद कहीं जाकर स्वतंत्र अनुवादक के रूप में अनुवाद क्षेत्र में उतरते हैं। एक बात और उल्लेखनीय है इन विदेशी अनुवादकों के बारे में कि अच्छे अनुवादक एक बार अपनी विशेषज्ञता का विषय चुन लेने के बाद उसी विषय में अनुवाद करते हैं। समय-समय पर सम्मेलनों, गोष्ठियों और वेबिनारों में भाग लेते हैं, तथा स्वयं को अनुवाद क्षेत्र में होने वाली हर गतिविधि से अद्यतित रखने का प्रयास करते हैं।

अब हम अपने देश में अनुवादकों की स्थिति पर नजर डालें तो पाएँगे कि लगभग सभी पक्षों- सरकारों, कंपनियों, एजेंसियों, संस्थाओं तथा व्यक्तियों की दृष्टि में अनुवाद एक महत्वहीन कार्य है। यहाँ एक मिथ्या धारणा घर कर चुकी है कि दो भाषाएँ जानने वाला कोई भी व्यक्ति अनुवाद कर सकता है। इस गलत धारणा के दायरे में हर पढ़ा-लिखा व्यक्ति आ जाता है। यदि हिंदी माध्यम से पढ़ाई की है तो अंग्रेजी पढ़ी ही होगी तथा यदि अंग्रेजी माध्यम से शिक्षा प्राप्त की है तो हिंदी अनिवार्य विषय के रूप में पढ़ी होगी। इस प्रकार अनुवाद के संबंध में मूलभूत जानकारी न होते हुए भी हजारों लोग अनुवाद कार्य से जुड़ जाते हैं। आजकल तो अनेक शब्दकोश और मशीनी अनुवाद उपकरण ऑनलाइन उपलब्ध हैं, जिनकी सहायता से कामचलाऊ अनुवाद कर दिया जाता है। अनुवाद करवाने वाली संस्था या व्यक्ति का उद्देश्य भी एक भाषा के दस्तावेजों को दूसरी भाषा में उपलब्ध करवाना भर होता है (भले ही इस प्रकार तैयार हुए दस्तावेजों में भयंकर त्रुटियाँ हों)। हम आए दिन देश की उच्च स्तरीय प्रतियोगी परीक्षाओं में आने वाले द्विभाषी प्रश्नपत्रों में ऐसे अनुवाद के नमूने देखते आ रहे हैं।

दोनों परिदृश्यों को प्रस्तुत करने के बाद, अब मैं एक महत्वपूर्ण बिंदु की ओर आप सब का ध्यान आकर्षित करना चाहता हूँ। यदि आप एक पेशेवर अनुवादक हैं तो अनुवाद आपकी आजीविका का साधन, आपकी रोजी-रोटी है। आपने अनुवाद क्षेत्र में कोई औपचारिक शिक्षा प्राप्त नहीं की है, कोई डिप्लोमा या डिग्री नहीं ली है। आप किसी विशेष विषय के विशेषज्ञ भी नहीं हैं, अतः आप एक निम्न अनुवाद दर पर अपना कार्य कर रहे हैं। अपने ही आस-पास कुछ अनुवादकों को ऊँची अनुवाद दरों पर कार्य करते देखते हैं तो आपके मन में कुंठा जन्म लेती है। आपको लगता है कि आप भी अनुवाद कर रहे हैं और वे थोड़े से लोग जो अच्छी दरें पा रहे हैं, वे भी अनुवाद ही करते हैं, फिर यह अंतर क्यों है?

मित्रो, जो कार्य आपकी आजीविका का साधन है, उसके प्रति संपूर्ण समर्पण की आवश्यकता होती है। स्वयं को उस कार्य के योग्य बनाने के लिए निरंतर प्रयास करने होते हैं। जिन-जिन विषयों में आपको अनुवाद करना है, उन विषयों की अच्छी जानकारी प्राप्त करना भी जरूरी होता है। यहाँ मैं कुछ ऐसे उपायों का उल्लेख करना चाहता हूँ जिनसे आप एक कुशल अनुवादक बन कर, उतने ही श्रम में अधिक धनराशि अर्जित कर सकते हैं-

1. अनुवाद कार्य को अपनाने से पहले (अपना चुके हैं तो अब भी) स्वयं का आत्म-मूल्यांकन करें कि जिन दो भाषाओं का आप उपयोग करना चाहते हैं या कर रहे हैं, उन दोनों भाषाओं में आपकी दक्षता कितनी है। वाक्य-विन्यास, शब्द-भंडार, व्याकरणिक-ज्ञान, वर्तनी की शुद्धता आदि के मामले में आप कहाँ ठहरते हैं। स्वयं अपना मूल्यांकन न कर सकें, तो एक बार अपने लिखे हुए किसी लेख, अनुवाद आदि की जाँच उस भाषा के विशेषज्ञ से करवा लें और जो परिणाम सामने आए उसके अनुसार अपनी कमजोरियों को सुधारने का निरंतर प्रयास करें। यदि आवश्यकता हो तो उस भाषा के किसी वरिष्ठ शिक्षक या व्याख्याता से कुछ महीने ट्यूशन ले लें।

2. थोड़ा सा समय अध्ययन के लिए सुरक्षित रख लें। जिन विषयों की आपको कोई जानकारी नहीं है, उनमें से किसी भी विषय पर अनुवाद कार्य मिलने पर, इंटरनेट पर उस विषय से संबंधित सामग्री का अध्ययन करें, विकीपीडिया और भारत ज्ञानकोश में आपको हजारों विषयों पर आलेख मिल जाएँगे। आज आप इंटरनेट पर हर विषय की जानकारी प्राप्त कर सकते हैं। विषय की जानकारी लिए बिना अनुवाद न करें।

3. अनुवाद क्षेत्र में प्रौद्योगिकी का प्रयोग तेजी से बढ़ रहा है। “कंप्यूटर की सहायता से अनुवाद” के अनेक साधन उपलब्ध हैं जिन्हें CAT Tool कहा जाता है। यदि अभी तक आप केवल डॉक्यूमेंट फाइलों में ही अनुवाद करते आ रहे हैं, तो इन कंप्यूटर सहाय्यित अनुवाद साधनों का उपयोग करना भी सीख लें। एक बार प्रारंभ करने की देर है, बाद में तो आपको स्वयं अनुभव हो जाएगा कि ये साधन कितने उपयोगी हैं। वास्तव में इन साधनों में एक अंतर्निर्मित स्मृति होती है (जिसे ट्रांसलेशन मेमोरी होती है), जिसे आप सुविधा के लिए एक भंडार के रूप में समझ सकते हैं। आप जितना भी अनुवाद करते हैं, उसके स्रोत और अनुवाद दोनों इस मेमोरी में संग्रहित होते जाते हैं। अगली बार जब आपके सामने वही वाक्य या वाक्यांश आता है तो मेमोरी में से उसका अनुवाद अपने आप सामने आ जाता है। इस तरह से मेमोरी की सहायता से आपके अनुवाद करने की गति भी बढ़ जाती है और सटीकता भी। हर बार एक जैसा ही अनुवाद होगा, ऐसा नहीं होगा कि आप कहीं तो कोई शब्द लिख दें और कहीं कुछ और।

4. कंप्यूटर सहाय्यित अनुवाद साधनों में अधिक लोकप्रिय हैं- वर्डफास्ट, एसडीएल ट्राडोस स्टूडियो, मेमोक्यू, ईडियम वर्ल्डसर्वर, गूगल ट्रांसलेटर टूलकिट, मेटकैट आदि। इन सबके ट्यूटोरियल यूट्यूब पर वीडियो के रूप में उपलब्ध हैं जिन्हें देख कर आप स्वयं सीख सकते हैं। यूट्यूब पर ही मेमोरी का उपयोग करने के ट्यूटोरियल भी उपलब्ध हैं।

अनुवादकों के लिए ऑनलाइन अनेक मंच हैं जिनकी सदस्यता आपको लेनी चाहिए। इनमें से कुछ प्रमुख मंच हैं –प्रोज.कॉम, ट्रांलेटर्सकैफे.कॉम, ट्रांसलेशनडायरेक्ट्री.कॉम। इनके अलावा भी कई मंच हैं। इन मंचों पर अनुवाद कार्य पोस्ट किए जाते हैं, जिनके लिए अनुवादक अपनी-अपनी बोली लगाते हैं। ग्राहक को जिसकी बोली उचित लगती है, वह उसे ही उस कार्य को आवंटित कर देता है।

यदि आप इन उपायों को अपनाते हैं तो मुझे विश्वास है कि आपकी अनुवादक के रूप में योग्यता में वृद्धि तो होगी ही, साथ में आपकी आय भी बढ़ेगी। 

शुभमस्तु।

लेखक : विनोद शर्मा

बीएसएनएल में सेवारत रहते हुए 1991 में अंग्रेजी में एमए किया, लगातार 1993 में हिंदी में एमए किया फिर 1995 में इंदिरा गांधी राष्ट्रीय मुक्त विश्वविद्यालय से अनुवाद में पीजी डिप्लोमा किया। 1995 से 1997 तक शौकिया अनुवाद कार्य किया। जुलाई 1997 से विधिवत पेशेवर अनुवादक के रूप में कार्य शुरू किया, लेकिन विकीपीडिया, रोजेटा फाउंडेशन, ट्रांलेटर्स विदाउट बॉर्डर्स आदि के लिए स्वैच्छिक अनुवाद भी चलता रहा। 2005 से कैट टूल्स से परिचय हुआ। सबसे पहले एसडीएलएक्स, फिर वर्डफास्ट पर काम करना शुरू किया। उसके बाद तो अनुवाद यात्रा चलती रही। नए-नए टूल्स शामिल होते रहे, नए-नए विषयों और क्षेत्रों में, नए-नए फाइल प्रकारों से होते हुए ये सफर जो चला तो चलता ही रहा। 2010 से 2020 तक दबिगवर्ड कंपनी के लिए गूगल रिव्यूअर के रूप में नियमित कार्य किया।

An Engineer with a passion for languages went on to complete Masters both in English and Hindi in 1991 and 1993 respectively. He did not stop here, completed a PG Diploma in Translation from IGNOU in 1995. Started with amateur translation for Wikipedia, Rosseta Foundation and Translators without Borders. Turned professional in 1997 and never stopped. Started using CAT tools in 2005 with SDLX, Wordfast, Idiom and since then no looking back. Worked as Google Reviewer through thebigword from 2010 to 2020. Specialization in Medical, Legal and Technical fields. Working mostly with foreign companies only.

State board can’t find Hindi translator for Std X ICT paper (द टाइम्स ऑफ़ इंडिया से साभार)

Even though the state board has massive academic resources at its disposal, it has been struggling to find a language expert who can translate from English/Marathi to Hindi.

Due to this bizarre fact, Class X (SSC) board exam has one subject whose question paper just cannot be printed in Hindi because of lack of a translator. Hindi medium school students have no option but to choose between an English/Marathi question paper for the compulsory Information and Communication Technology (ICT) exam.

A teacher from a government-aided school said, "I am aware of letters sent to the board apprising them of this situation wherein Hindi medium and even Urdu medium students facing huge problems, but nothing has changed. It's gross injustice to the students."

Another teacher said, "It's so weird that the board cannot print Hindi question papers. Hindi medium students are primarily from north Indian families where Marathi is just not spoken. So for them, it is almost an alien language. Also, Marathi is not spoken widely in Nagpur as compared to Mumbai and Pune. Their comfort level with English is very poor even though we teach a basic level of that subject in school."

Gangadhar Mhamane, state board chairman, told TOI that they are in the process of sorting the issue out. "The textual content for the course is not available in Hindi due to which the question paper also is in not available in that language," he said.

"However, students can answer in Hindi itself. It's just that they have to take a different language's question paper. But now, we have got a draft Hindi translation for it and the board is vetting it. I am confident that by the next board exam, this problem will be solved," he added.

A city school principal said it was very unprofessional of the board to give such excuses. "There are over a thousand highly qualified Hindi language teachers in government schools alone. Are we saying that none of them have the ability to translate content from English/Marathi to Hindi? And since ICT is a compulsory subject, the board has to ensure that it is available in all languages for which students appear," she said.

To tide over the language problem, students usually take help of invigilators, said another teacher. "As of now, Hindi medium students appearing for ICT paper get help with questions from the invigilator. Majority of them take the Marathi question paper and the questions are really not that tough and can be easily understood," he said.

The teacher said that there are quite a few students who understand majority of the questions in English. "Help is needed for a just a few questions but still, even one question is too many. It just shows that sometimes the state does not think over their plans in a hurry to implement changes," he added.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/nagpur/state-board-cant-find-hindi-translator-for-std-x-ict-paper/articleshow/57901887.cms

Conversations: Mini Krishnan and Bhanumati Mishra on Publishing Indian Translation (द क्रिटिकल फ़्लेम से साभार)

Since 2001 Mini Krishnan has served as the Publishing Consultant at Oxford University Press (India), where she sources and edits translations of Indian writing into English from fifteen languages. Krishnan has edited more than ninety such works, including fiction, drama, poetry, memoirs, and other non-fiction. Titles such as Karukku by Bama (Tamil, 2001); Astride the Wheel by Chandrasekhar Rath (Oriya, 2005); In a Forest, A Deerby Ambai (Tamil, 2007); Topi Shukla by Rahi Masoom Raza (Hindi, 2009); The Scent of the Other Side by Sarah Joseph (Malayalam, 2010); The Araya Woman by Narayan (Malayalam, 2012); and Bharathipura by U. R. Ananthamurthy (Kannada, 2016) have been awarded national prizes for translation and are prescribed reading in universities. The OUP translation program is not only one of the largest translation programs in India, but also hosts the largest number of Dalit writers in translation.

In her previous role at Macmillan India, the first project Krishnan handled was a 4000-page typescript called Comparative Indian Literature. She managed 200 contributors and seventeen language editors to produce the two-volume set. The work, edited by KM George, included a survey of all the literary forms from the recognized languages of the country. She has also published textbooks for the Indian school and college markets and edited the Modern Indian Novels in Translation series from 1993–2000.

In addition, Krishnan writes regularly about translation, peace advocacy for children, and the importance of interfaith initiatives. She contributes two columns to the prestigious Indian newspaper The Hindu, one on Translations (Literary Review) and another on Ethics (Education Plus). She has served on the Film Censor Board, the Kendra Sahitya Akademi panel for translation awards, and the panel for nominations to the Ramon Magsaysay Award. She has served as a member of the National Translation Mission and of the Indian Literature Abroad a Ministry of Culture initiative to promote Indian writers in the six UNESCO languages. She was the founding editor of the South Asia Women Writers website hosted by the British Council (2004-6) and acted as the Literary Advisor to The Hindu (1992-98).

—Bhanumati Mishra


Bhanumati Mishra: First and foremost, what does translation mean to you? What drives you to publish translations of Indian writing into English?

Mini Krishnan: I publish translations of Indian writing because in them lie our own histories, our sense of identity and belonging; because we need to breathe our native breath; because it is our historical duty in a largely illiterate country to preserve our words, our worlds, and slow their disappearance. In the indigenous writing of the subcontinent lay the memories and history of a people who are rapidly losing their languages. What better service than to retrieve and reinterpret a body of work which is emotionally important for India?



BM: Tell us about your tryst with regional languages, and also about the early influences in your life besides your father, who was the editor of the Deccan Herald in Bangalore.

MK: In the 1950s, while I was growing up in Bangalore, to function only in English was fashionable and those who didn’t were looked down upon. Gradually, Malayalam faded from my Anglo-Indian existence. No one ever suggested that I learn the Malayalam alphabet, and I must confess I wasn’t very keen either. We were coping with both Hindi and Kannada in school and trying to master another language—even if my origins lay in its culture—was not a welcome proposition. Meanwhile, I enjoyed textbook Hindi in school and sailed through the Hindi Prachar Sabha exams outside it. I was old enough to enjoy lofty and subtle poetry and something in me stirred as I studied Harivansh Rai Bacchan, Kabir, and Rahim. The melodrama and sentimentality, the lyricism and those rich overblown descriptions—it was all me.

In Standard IX, when I began to memorise English poetry, my mother often responded with a faint smile. “There is something very similar in Malayalam, only better.” Poetry in Malayalam was better than poetry in English? So I moved between two or three sides of my brain without ever reconciling them. After high school and before Pre-University I was at a loose end for six months, so my mother arranged for a tutor to visit every morning to teach me and my brother our own language. I didn’t take much interest, but the seeds were sown. It would take three decades for me to read Malayalam well enough to check translations from it without the aid of resource persons.



BM: What was the state of Indian Literature while you were growing up? What triggered your interest in translation as an academic and cultural activity?

MK: A Master’s Degree in English Literature in faraway Delhi once again distanced me from Indian languages. I watched without much enthusiasm when Prof. Vinod Sena tried to get a minimum strength for his course on Indian English writers. Meanwhile I got to read many translations from the Sahitya Akademi, Jaico, and Orient Paperbacks during my visits to the library of a newspaper. No one even wanted to review them so they lay stacked up in piles. Though most of the translations were unreadable, there was something in them that moved me and attracted me much more than any English literature I’d read or studied. It couldn’t be the language, so what was it? Why was our own writing so poorly produced and neglected? There were no answers; nor did I seek any. I dimly realized that I was one of the millions of language orphans an English-medium education had produced. A maim so deep!



BM: Could you talk a little about your first editorial project at Macmillan? How did it inspire you to take up the cause of publishing translations?

MK: The first project I handled at Macmillan India was a 4000-page typescript called Comparative Indian Literature (two volumes). It included a survey of all the literary forms from the recognized languages of the country. I was managing 200 contributors, seventeen language editors, and of course Dr K.M. George, the Chief Editor. From harbor to the high seas in a month!

As I helped Dr KMG write up synopses of work after work in all the languages, and polished the mangled drafts the editors sent up, I kept asking him where I might read the works. “You can’t. There are no translations,” was his unvarying response.

By the time both volumes were published in 1985, I had made up my mind to try and publish at least modern Indian fiction in English translation.

BM: You describe yourself as a back-room woman, an editor first and then only an occasional scribbler. Could you describe your journey?

MK: I had grandiose dreams to publish English translations of modern Indian fiction, which were met with a big dip. I experimented with V. Abdulla’s translation of Malayatoor Ramakrishnan’s novel, Verukkal (Roots, 1982) and failed. Not a single member of the sales team had any interest in promoting it. Macmillan made it quite clear that there was no money for translations. So I set about looking for funding which, after seven years and many “nos” from others, came from the MR AR Educational Society.

If ever a low-key group influenced trends and shaped tastes it was MR AR, in 1992, when they decided to sponsor the Modern Indian Novels in Translation project via Macmillan India. The late AMM Arunachalam and his daughter Valli Alagappan set aside Rs 50 lakhs for five novels each from Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, Bengali, Urdu, Punjabi, Gujarati, Oriya, and Marathi. The launch list of eleven books in 1996 made an impression, one people remember to this day. They were made available at the same time as the rise of the Katha publications prepared by Geetha Dharmarajan. No one setting out to publish translations today will ever know how difficult the terrain was twenty years ago.

The Macmillan translations are probably the most widely reviewed books of their kind (nearly 160 reviews). And that was in pre-Internet times. From 1992 to 2000, when I left Macmillan, Valli Alagappan’s unquestioned support helped me source and edit thirty-seven works of fiction and one autobiography. The publications were prepared both for the Indian market and for Macmillan’s overseas market in the UK. When I realised very painfully that Macmillan was not interested in promoting the translations list, I moved the project to Oxford University Press, where writers, translators, and I were more welcomed. Nitasha Devasar encouraged me to expand my plans, and Manzar Khan told me to go as far back as I liked and not stay with just post-Independence works.

I have, since 2001, worked with more than a hundred authors and translators, some of them part of multi-author volumes, such as the Oxford Anthology of Tamil Dalit Writingand the companion volumes in Malayalam (both 2012) and Telugu.



BM: You have edited numerous translations from Malayalam and Tamil literature into English that primarily engage with the problem of caste and untouchablity. What impact do you think it has had on the reading public?

MK: I cannot say for sure. But The Oxford India Anthology of Modern Malayalam Literature (due in October) could not be finalized without a healthy representation of Dalit writers, and that was only possible after the Oxford Anthology of Malayalam Dalit Writing was published (OUP, 2012). All of Bama’s works in translation have been prescribed for study; since academia is the last to change, I think we can tell ourselves that there is some hope. I would echo Susan Bassnett, who hoped that translation would promote a hybrid set of values rather than a single dominant ideology.



BM: Has Indian literature in English translation been able to penetrate the world market? What imprint has it left on world literature?

MK: I think India, which was once captured by the British, has now captured English, and opened up a parallel universe for its writers and translators to travel in.

Having said that, both serious studies and hastily cobbled articles based on interviews with writers and publishers over the last two years reveal that outside India, very little of our huge literary output—contemporary or otherwise—is being read anywhere in the world. We are a literary supercontinent, but we’re as dark as Krishna and as difficult to reach.

Yet one half of the literary brigade of India—in which I include myself—loves to daydream that its indigenous literature simply has to find its way to readerships outside the country. Should we worry so much about exporting our writings? Right here in our midst there are readers who could enjoy Indian writing—except that they do not know what is available out there. Millions of Indians can read, but know nothing or very little about Indian writers simply because they have not been introduced to them or trained to admire them: great, not so great, old, modern, and very new, and nearly all of them unheard of outside their regional-language islands.

Well, the picture of us with our Indian-language writers shows that the rest of the globe is fairly safe from us: our writers have not penetrated any other culture’s consciousness deeply.



BM: Why has India failed to take off on the world literary stage? India is among the few countries that doesn’t have a translation program. Is that a result of willful bureaucratic interference or a lack of national pride, or both?

MK: Indian Literature Abroad was a government of India venture, supported by Ministry of Culture. It was the brainchild of Ananthamurthy and Ashok Vajpeyi. I was on the advisory and working panel along with Namita Gokhale and other luminaries. We even prepared an exhaustive catalogue for it. But the program was shifted to Sahitya Akademi. In fact we do have a marvelous machinery in place: the Sahitya Akademi and the regional Academies. If they could collaborate with private publishers it would be a wonderful thing.



BM: You have expressed your concerns about Universities in India not being open to new ideas and not following a vigorous translation program. Do you still believe that the academy can be jolted out of its complacency and its unwillingness to change?

MK: Of course. All it takes are committed academics, and I’m sure they are around. It is up to them to negotiate the prejudices and inertia which I’m sure they fight every day. But if they do not encourage their students to think about social problems, if they allow the cry on the street to be muffled by the cry on the page from some other country, it would be a tragedy. Funding for new areas of work—marginalized writing, forgotten memoirs, and social history of different kinds—is available, but students need mentoring. How many more PhDs do we need on RK Narayan and Salman Rushdie?



BM: Translation is a solitary battle. Most publishers don’t seem to care; they just want to bring out a book.

MK: There will always be an editor who cares enough to apply the brakes and do careful checks for idiom and cultural equivalence. Publishing is finally a business and has to make money. Prestige won’t put breakfast on the table. Unless the house is committed to culture and literature and can afford to stay with a few losses, I’d say that publishing houses cannot be faulted for hesitating over translations. It’s why my program from 1992 to 2012 was funded by the MR AR Education Society.

Things are looking up though. Translations are being prescribed and there are now prizes for translation, translators are being recognized. There is a huge market of what I call “language orphans,” who know to speak their language but cannot read it. For them, well off as they might be, translation enables a return to their roots. It may be illusory, but it is a great attraction.



BM: Your indefatigable efforts in giving translators their due are well known. Has it borne fruit? Why is translating literature such a thankless job?

MK: For me, the promotion of translators has been a twenty-year mission. The most unacknowledged tribe in the publishing world, they received financial and credit equality with authors only very recently. Even today, famous translators like Gita Krishnankutty and Kalyan Raman do not always make it to the covers of the books they create. A milestone volume like No Alphabet in Sight has only a casual and cobbled note on the many translators who made the book possible. And when an important book or writer is discussed, why isn’t the translator mentioned? Translators are not recognized for the enormous effort that goes into conveying not just a text but a whole culture into another sphere.



BM: Nowadays there is a lot of talk about the political dimension of art and writing. How does that come into play in your role in the process of translation?

MK: Language is highly political! Every selection is a political choice because 200 others will not make it through the door that year. Gate-keeping is about being as fair and as vigilant as you possibly can. I lost a friend of many years when I simply could not make her understand that I could not keep on publishing her while ignoring others. I also try to bring in first-time translators as often as I can.



BM: Why is there so much emphasis on translating into English? What is the translation scenario in India today?

MK: Sadly, but truly, half of the book-reading brigade lives in English and thinks that Indian-language writers have nothing of interest to say to them. “All those sad stories of bullock-carts and rivers and caste conflicts—go get a life.” The training ground for this situation begins very early, when—to paraphrase writer and literary critic, Judith Thurman—we deprive a child of her language at the sponge-time of life, the precious learning years, and never allow her to build a bond with a past of many centuries. So it might take a decade or two before she realizes she could relearn, and rediscover what she has missed. This can happen through the only language she has: English. Now you see, why the emphasis? Even though English sets literary limits, even though it is taught imperfectly, it is still the fastest way to drill through language barriers.

Alongside that is the social change brought on by technology, which has shaped a mindset, and not just altered a change in the way life itself is viewed. What was considered valuable by a former generation may just not be that important to the present one. Perhaps here, too, translation could play a role in what many see as a no-man’s land—the space between the past and what lies ahead. Can we tackle the future if we have no understanding of our past?



BM: How do you assess the translatability of a text into English?

MK: Every translation is a re-conceptualization of some untranslatable original and every language comes with its own idiosyncrasies of grammar, syntax, and vernacular that can render translation a feat of linguistic yoga. Therefore, in order to undertake a task so daunting, one has to approach a translation with all the dexterity you one can muster. Let me give you a couple of examples:


Miriam bi stood there a minute and wondered if she should participate in the duva. But where did she have the time? She was thinking of the lamb soup that she could never once give Haseena who had just delivered. Not even an egg or a spoonful of ghee. In fact for the last two days she had not eaten even a single dry roti. A fire erupted in her stomach. Daane daane pe likha hai khaanewaale ka naam. Every grain bears the name of the person who would eat it. O what imagination! The leavings of the rich went through the sink to the gutter to mix with human waste. O God, who created the rich, why didn’t you create morsels in the names of poor like me?

(From Banu Mushtaq’s story about Miriam who waits for women in her community to die so that she might earn a fee by washing and dressing corpses is translated from Kannada by Tulasi Venugopal for Sparrow and edited by Arundathi Subramaniam.)

The agraharam reverberated with the news of Sharma’s rescue. Madiga Elli pulled Somasekhara Sharma out of the tank; she dragged him out when he was drowning; she touched him. No she dragged him by his hair; that Madiga Elli touched our boy… a massive debate ensued about the ways of cleansing a brahmin who had been touched by an untouchable — and that too a woman…

(Gogu Shyamala’s story is translated from Telugu by A. Suneetha for Navayana)

I’m glad we haven’t lost the stories of our homeland yet.



BM: In the wake of Bama’s Karrukku or Perumal’s Madhorubagan, did you notice any increased interest in Indian literature from English-speaking readers?

MK: There are spikes of interest but they tend to be only about very recent writing in the regional languages. Speaking of the human condition, an Urdu poet said that we have lost the Earth but not yet gained Heaven. There is still time. A young man named Ravi Shankar is making India’s first animated feature film in Sanskrit, based on a Kannada folktale: Punyakoti is crowd-sourced and crowd-funded by animators and people from all over the world. Interest in one’s roots can only strengthen what everyone is searching for: emotional and cultural identity.



BM: Is language the main focus of the translation editor? What else do you think gets translated besides language? What is there unique about Indian translation?

MK: U. R. Ananthamurthy said that there is a co-existence of centuries in us and that an Indian language writer might set his story in a century long gone but use very contemporary strategies and language. Precisely because of this, before us are questions which crucially define creativity, productivity, and therefore the market.

Qurratulain Hyder said nearly the same thing: “In India various epochs co-exist and intermingle freely on the sociological and psychological planes. You have to be born and bred in this land to understand the syntheses and cultural richness as well as the contradictions inherent in this situation.” Perhaps it is time to admit that someone who doesn’t share this DNA will find it difficult to enter this experience.



Interviewer Bhanumati Mishra teaches English Literature at Arya Mahila PG College, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India. She is an author whose articles, research papers, book reviews, poems, and translations have been published in various national and international research journals like TBR, Cha, Muse India, and Nether. She regularly writes for prestigious Indian newspapers like The Hindu and Hindustan Times. She has authored a book titled Amitav Ghosh and his Oeuvre. She is a keen painter and a music aficionado.

http://criticalflame.org/conversations-mini-krishnan-and-bhanumati-mishra-on-publishing-indian-translation

Lost in translation (द हिंदू से साभार)

After struggling for 16 years to keep the Sangam series alive in Orient Longman, when V. Abdulla won the first Yatra Award for translators in 1996, he was all smiles. “Time was when even typists made more money from a book than its translator! This is a nice change.” Four years later came the coveted Crossword Award for translators, which, of course, had to be shared with the author and rightly so. But to the joy of all those who toiled to make the translator visible, it was known as an award for translation. Thus, jurist Harish Trivedi’s unforgettable remark when On the Banks of the Mayyazhi (Malayalam, M. Mukundan/Gita Krishnankutty) toppled The Servant’s Shirt (Hindi, Vinod Kumar Shukla/Satti Khanna): “The better book lost to the better translation.”

Dawn broke very slowly for Indian language translations in English, speeded up partly by the onset of the Ambedkar centenary and partly the Women’s Movement, both of which called for massive representation from those who had been invisible for a long time. Kali for Women changed the world with its flood of fire; Penguin India gave us translators like S. Krishnan, Ranga Rao, Gillian Wright and Aruna Chakravarthy; Katha poured 15 outstanding stories into their annual December offerings; The Little Magazine (neither little nor a magazine) published memorable translations from all genres in their quarterlies; the M.R.A.R. Education Society made available Rs. 50 lakh to Macmillan to publish 38 literary translations from 11 languages in six years;Sahitya Akademi’s journal Indian Literature came out of its colourless past and gave us carefully compiled and researched issues on Dalit and Adivasi writing; Samya experimented successfully with Dalit writing; India’s only university press which barely issued a single translation a year opened new portals. The field widened. Centres in the U.K. collaborated with British Council and set up the Charles Wallace Award for translators (which, to everyone’s relief, did not announce an age limit) across the Atlantic, and awarded once in two years was the A.K. Ramanujan prize for translations from South Asian languages.

And then Academe came. Translators and even their publishers began to be invited to speak at this or that conference where whole sessions were devoted to translatorial experience, theory and struggles. In 2001, Gandhigram Rural University hosted the first ever three-day refresher course on translation. Anthologies, designed as textbooks, jumped over Eng-Lit patterns of teaching, and blew regional breezes into classrooms. By 2005, a publisher without a footprint in translation was the exception rather than the rule.

Despite all this, a disturbing development seen is an Indian language translation, published in India, not carrying the name of the translator on its cover. Why? Does masking the true origins of a work make for better sales? Is a work less worthy because it is a translation? Is there no originality in a translated product?

Today, when translations are shortlisted along with original writings in English for the biggest prize in the literary world — the DSC Award which aims “to raise awareness of South Asian culture around the world” — why are some publishers refusing to grant translators equal status with the authors, making it difficult for them to be remembered or even noticed? We see translators competing with blurbs and endorsements on the back cover, leading readers to say, “Ah! A great book! Translated by whatshisface… don’t remember the name.”

Can anyone deny the historic power of translators? Their work has forced massive shifts in the literary canon, cross-fertilised writing and propelled communities emerging from invisibility, besides influencing the vision that language groups have of societies other than their own.

Indeed, since we are close to both Shakespeare’s birth and death anniversaries, it might interest readers who don’t already know, that in 1889, A. Anandarao’s concluding scene of his Kannada translation of Romeo and Juliet had a surprise ending: Lord Vishnu brought Ramavarma (Romeo) and Lilavati (Juliet) back to life.

In a tradition of attribution that can be traced back to Bait al-Hikmah, the House of Wisdom in 10th century Baghdad,both author and translator should be equally honoured. Translators are real people who need to be recognised so that they might relate to the societies of the future. Point 4 of the Quebec Declaration of Translation and Translators’ Rights says: “The rights of translators must be protected. Governments, publishers, the media, employers — all must respect the status and needs of translators, give prominence to their names, and ensure equitable remuneration and respectful working conditions — in all forms of print and digital media.”

Into that dawn, when will our country awake?

Mini Krishnan is Consultant, Publishing, Oxford University Press. India.

http://www.thehindu.com/features/magazine/mini-krishnan-on-the-historic-power-of-translators/article8509070.ece

Translation catalogue of Indian language writing launched (बिज़नेस स्टैंडर्ड से साभार)

Eight works of fiction in 6 Indian languages have been curated into a new catalogue for publishers from across the world to pick up for translation and publication.

'The Global Rights Catalogue' launched at third edition of Jaipur BookMark (JBM), a publishing segment running parallel to the ongoing Jaipur Literature Festival, here seeks to expand readership of Indian writing in regional languages.

The aim, according to organisers, is to showcase best of India's regional literature and help facilitate sale and exchange of publishing rights both between regional languages and internationally.

Regional writing often does not receive the literary credit it deserves due to an overwhelming dearth in the availability of translations for such work, they said.

"We realised it was important to bring in one of the major things that makes for the writing in India, which is language writing. But, the problem is that there are not adequate good translations of writers from different languages which hampers the reach of these writers," Sanjoy Roy, Managing Director, Teamwork Arts said after the launch.

For its ongoing edition, the JBM has tied up with Daily Hunt, a distributor of Indian language e-books.

Daily Hunt, with 70,000 titles in 10 Indian languages and a regional readership of over 90 per cent, made for a suitable partner, organisers said.

"We discussed the possibility of commissioning translation of 8 to 10 works in different languages, which is where Daily Hunt came in, with publications in over 16 languages and a reach across 1000 Indian cities," Roy said.

Three books originally published in Hindi and one each in Bangla, Kannada, Assamese, Rajasthani and Gujarati are included in the global catalogue.

Yatindra Mishra's "Sur ki Baradari" and Anu Singh Choudhary's "Neela Scarf" have been translated from Hindi into "A Blessed Life" and "The Last Puff and Other stories" respectively. Mridula Behari's "Kuch Ankahi" has also been republished from Hindi as "Unspoken Things."

"Ajnatanobbana Atma Charitre" by Krishnamurthy Hanuru in Kannada has been translated as "Autobiography of an Unknown" and "Jangam" by Debendranath Acharya in Assamese has been translated as "Movement."

Rajasthani writer Nand Bharadwaj's "SamhinKhulato Magar" has been published as "Opening the Way Ahead" and Prafulla Roy's Bangla work "Akta Desh Chai" has been published as "Stateless." The translation Ila Arab Mehta's "Vaad" in Gujarati has been penned as "Fence."

Feminist author and founder of Zubaan Books, Urvashi Butalia said "In India, there is no other platform which showcases Indian languages in such a unique manner on the world stage. This year's JBM had publishers from France, Germany and Poland, expanding the scope of publication for writers," she said.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/pti-stories/translation-catalogue-of-indian-language-writing-launched-116012400419_1.html

Maharashtra govt bars employees from using Google Translate (हिंदुस्तान टाइम्स से साभार)

It’s official now. Google is not the answer to everything under the sun. Not, at least, in Maharashtra.

The BJP-led government in the state has barred its officers and employees from using Google’s popular translation tool for rendering official documents in other languages.

The ban, imposed through an official notification on Monday, comes in the wake of a major embarrassment to the state government over a faulty translation of a circular for imposing sedition charges.

The circular issued on August 27, 2015, had sparked a controversy owing to its conditions required for initiating action against a person under section 124 A of Indian Penal Code (IPC) which deals with sedition.

The Devendra Fadnavis-led government, which admitted to mistakes in the Marathi version, later withdrew the circular.

On Monday, the state Information Technology department issued a Government Resolution (GR) asking all the government departments not to use google translator facility — www.translate.google.com — for translation purpose.

“The concerned person will be held responsible for the content of the government resolution and circular uploaded on the government’s official website,” the GR pointed out.

It also said that the concerned person should be very careful while making changes or translating content of the government resolutions or circulars. Also, the same should be certified (by superiors) before uploading on the government website.

Though used by millions of users worldwide, Google’s tool is known to occasionally throw up incoherent answers, mainly due to literal translation of the words.

In the state too, it had served as a handy tool for many government employees for its time-saving and ease-of-use features.

Besides the bar, the government order has also decided to hold responsible the concerned officials for any mistake in the contents of government resolutions and circulars uploaded on the official website of the state henceforth.


http://www.hindustantimes.com/mumbai/maharashtra-govt-bars-employees-from-using-google-translate/story-TGTXYC9OLulDK6TwDLvFXJ.html

When the majority are excluded due to their mother tongues (ओपन से साभार)

“Tamil was a major factor for my fame within Tamil Nadu; but it was only after the translation in English that Salma rose to different heights,” says the Tamil poet and novelist Salma, whose Irandam Jamangalin Kathai, about the world of women in a Tamil Muslim community, was published in Lakshmi Holmström’s translation as The Hour Past Midnight. The novel was longlisted for the DSC Prize in 2011, and sold over 3,000 copies (roughly 5,000 in Tamil, says her publisher, Kannan Sundaram of Kalachuvadu). Shamsur Rahman Faruqi may have long been the brightest star of the Urdu literary world, but to the Indian reader in English, he really only appeared on the horizon with the publication of The Mirror of Beauty (2013), his own translation of his magnum opus Kai Chand Thay Sar- e-Aasmaan (2006). KR Meera’s Aarachar might have won coveted Malayalam honours like the Vayalar, Odakkuzhal and Kerala Sahitya Akademi awards, and sold close to 50,000 copies—but it was only with its translation into English as Hangwoman (2014), that the book entered literary conversation outside of Kerala, applauded for its startlingly ambitious take on life, death, sex and the media through the eyes of a young Kolkata woman appointed executioner, and for J Devika’s effervescent translation. And so it goes.

Many regional language writers have only received national recognition late in their lives, because of translation into English. “Before the award, I was known as ‘a leading writer from Kerala’... When I won the Crossword Book Award in 1999, the press qualified me as ‘a leading Indian writer’,” says M Mukundan (Crossword website), whose Kesavan’s Lamentations won in the translation category in 2006. This is, of course, testament to an unfair linguistic landscape where English has an easier claim on the national. But it warrants greater scrutiny. If, as Marathi writer Bhalchandra Nemade and Indian English novelist Aatish Taseer would have it, English has squeezed the life out of Indian languages —“English is encroaching upon the innocence of children,” Nemade said, in an interview on Scroll; ‘How English Ruined Indian Literature’ is the title of Taseer’s New York Times opinion piece—why does English publishing seem more enthusiastic than ever in directing the many streams of that literature towards us, in translation? If this were a pessimistic critical theory paper, one might argue that the very impulse towards translation is preservationist, and things can only be preserved when they’re dead. But however seductive this idea of embalming might be, literature in the other Indian languages seems anything but corpse-like. And yet, being translated into English seems to afford writers in even the most thriving of these literary languages—Bangla, Malayalam, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi—a new lease of life. Because those of us who live in India but read only in English have grown dead to these languages; translation is the jadui kathi, the magic wand through which we might awake to their pleasures. English has turned us into Sleeping Beauties, and now only English can rouse us. And because whatever Nemade might wish for, neither our history nor the market allow for a clean separation between English and regional language cultures. A dedicated and growing community of Indian readers in English—while not exactly huge yet—is keen to read regional language literature (and read about it), while Indian language readers are often influenced by the ‘buzz’ English can create around authors.

Translation lists at HarperCollins India and Penguin Books India have certainly increased both in number and variety over the last five years. Penguin brought out 22 translations in 2013, 20 in 2014, and has 23 on the 2015 publication schedule. “We now publish an average of 20 titles in translation: five contemporary fiction titles and 15 classics (a mix of fiction, drama, poetry, memoir),” says Penguin’s executive editor R Sivapriya, who heads its translations list. “The numbers must have been half that in 2012.” Minakshi Thakur, who heads the same list at Harper, concurs: “We used to do five to six titles, this year onwards we’ll have 10 to 12. Earlier most publishers would only do classics, but we want to work with writers who are working now; [build] a list of future classics.” Penguin’s recent successes include a book as contemporary as Sachin Kundalkar’s 2006 Marathi novel Cobalt Blue, which sold over 2,000 copies in Jerry Pinto’s 2013 translation, and one as grand and dastan-like as The Mirror of Beauty, which sold 5,000 copies in 1,000-page hardback.

At the more academic end of the spectrum, too, the translation list at Oxford University Press has seen 10 percent annual growth since 2009. It now stands at 125 titles from 18 languages, including less-represented literatures like Dogri (Shailender Singh’s Hashiye Par (For a Tree to Grow) and Tamil Dalit writing like Cho Dharman’s Koogai: The Owl (translated by Vasantha Surya). But this is still a niche readership, and the slow rate of growth makes publishing solely translations unsustainable. The independent Katha Books, which pioneered translations from the Indian languages, has shifted its focus to translations of children’s books.

In a country as multilingual as India, translation has often been the only medium for a Malayalee reader to read the work of a Bengali writer, or an Oriya reader to discover a Kashmiri poet. Most readers in each of these linguistic communities have historically read translations in their mother tongue. Perhaps literary flows, even then, were somewhat unidirectional: I can’t keep track of the Biharis and Malayalees I know whose literarily-inclined parents grew up reading Sarat Chandra Chatterjee and Tagore in Hindi and Malayalam translations respectively, but I would be hard put to name any Bengali readers who read Hindi or Malayalam writers (they did read Russian and English classics in Bangla). But as the Indian upper middle classes have grown more monolingual, reading almost entirely in English, it is mainstream English publishers who must take on the task of bringing a multifarious Indian literature to these readers. In SR Faruqi’s words, the rising readership for English translations is attributable to “the growth, in geometrical proportions, of Indians who... sadly enough, have no real claim to any other language”.

Sometimes an older translation in another language still serves as a route to English. Khushwant Singh and Vikram Seth had both read Sankar’s Bangla bestseller Chowringhee in a Hindi translation, and their admiration for this chronicle of life at a 50s Calcutta hotel was partially responsible for Penguin’s agreeing to publish Arunava Sinha’s English translation, according to both Sankar and Sinha. Today, while Hindi remains an important link language between readers in North India and writers elsewhere, at least some Hindi publishers’ decisions about translations may be routed through English. Aditi Maheshwari, translations head at the Hindi publishing house Vani Prakashan, stresses Vani’s commitment to translating directly from the original language, whether it be Herta Müller’s German or KS Sethumadhavan’s Malayalam. But it is hard to deny the role of English (publishing and media) in foregrounding a potentially translatable writer, such as Tamil’s Perumal Murugan.

Many Indian language writers cannot but recognise the unfortunately disproportional power English wields, knowing the only way to deal with it is to make it work for them, as much as possible. But writers from languages with a strong critical culture and a large literary readership can often experience a gulf between that vibrancy of exchange and their reception in English.

“Within Hindi, there’s a rich conversation my work and I are part of, though not without its politics and prejudices,” says Hindi writer Geetanjali Shree. “English took me to other forums [but I soon saw the] lag between the interest in English in translation and English in original.” Her 2001 novel Tirohit appears in Rahul Soni’s attentive translation as The Roof Beneath Their Feet (HarperCollins, 2013). “Some 60 people have done research on my books [before any translation], colleges have held discussions. For Katha Satisar (2005), I got ten Hindi literary prizes, including the Vyas Samman and Mahatma Gandhi Samman,” agrees the Hindi writer Chandrakanta, author of this acclaimed historical take on Kashmiri Hindus, which Zubaan publishes later this year as A Saga of Satisar. Her intimate account of life in a Srinagar neighbourhood, Ailan Galli Zinda Hai (1986), was shortlisted for the 2012 DSC Prize as Zubaan’s translation, A Street in Srinagar, but has not even sold 2,000 copies. “How is it possible that a novel that has been recognised, does not sell? Perhaps Satisar will do better.”

While Hindi’s literary universe, for example, was (and is) perfectly able to provide a launching pad for a serious writer such as herself, Shree concedes that its “being older” means it “has still to update its training in events, awards, markets”. Yet vastly more copies are sold of a successful book in most Indian languages than in English. Benyamin’s novel Aadujeevitham, a spare, arresting account of one man’s brutal experience as a labourer in the Gulf, sold over one lakh copies across a hundred editions in Malayalam, according to its author. Translated lucidly into English by Joseph Koippally as Goat Days, the book is also one of Penguin’s greatest successes— but with 10,000 copies. Even Chowringhee, with over 30,000 copies sold in English, barely compares with the 100,000 copies its author ascribes to Bengali sales (not counting the huge pirated edition sales in Bangladesh, as he reminds me). And while Hangwoman gave Aarachar and its author a new visibility, only 2,000 hardback English copies have sold till date. Of course, any comparison of sales figures must acknowledge that English books are priced much higher.

“I hope we help the writers with their ambitions, I think we do, but not as much as they deserve,” says Sivapriya. “It requires enormous effort to train the gaze of the English reader on them.” Thakur agrees, admitting, “It is still a struggle to sell out 3,000 copies of most titles”, but adding, “That’s the case with most original English [literary] fiction too.” Bhima: Lone Warrior, Gita Krishnankutty’s 2013 translation of Randamoozham, Malayalam giant MT Vasudevan Nair’s classic telling of the Mahabharata from Bhima’s perspective, has sold 6,000 copies, she says. “The epic still sells, retellings do well in our market. Translate anything [to do with] Satyajit Ray and it’ll do very well. [Take] our 14 Stories project, stories by various writers that Ray made into films—that’s the kind of book which goes on to backlist well.”

Controversy of any kind works wonders for sales, in any language. Taslima Nasreen’s Lajja, banned in Bangladesh and inciting death threats, is one of Penguin’s highest selling translations, with 30,000 copies sold till date. And in a bitter irony, Murugan’s novel One Part Woman, which became the focus of a moral censorship campaign that forced the author to give up writing, has sold nearly 10,000 copies. The independent publisher Zubaan Books sold almost 7,000 copies of Urvashi Butalia’s translation of Baby Halder’s candid memoir of life as a domestic servant, A Life Less Ordinary. Penguin’s other successes from before 2012 are all 20th century classics in their original languages: Shrilal Shukla’s Raag Darbari, Manto’s Bitter Fruit, Tagore’s stories and poems, Bhisham Sahni’s Tamas.

Often, however, English’s ripple effect bears little connection to sales. Meera’s Yellow is the Colour of Longing (2011) was long-listed for the Frank O’Connor prize and short-listed for the Crossword award, but did not sell beyond the first print run of 2,000. Being translated, however, brought Meera national exposure, with glowing reviews across the English media and speaking engagements at literature festivals, from Jaipur to Chandigarh, Odisha to Goa, held on a scale that most regional literatures cannot yet muster funds for. The publicity that an English translation receives sometimes triggers fresh interest in the original linguistic community. “If a book is awarded nationally or internationally, it gets more attention [from local readers],” says Benyamin.

Meera and Benyamin both believe the English media covers literature more than Malayalam, and Benyamin, like Sankar, thinks reviews in English are fairer. “A Malayalee reader would believe a bookshop owner more than a critic,” says Benyamin. “English reviews were well-researched and positive, maybe because my book was already famous.”

“Through English, I rediscovered my Bengali readers,” agrees Sankar, long dismissed as middlebrow by Bengali critics. “I never had any good reviews [in Bangla. But] some Bengali readers think, if it’s translated by Penguin, and getting rave reviews in London, maybe they should read it.”

For writer Uday Prakash, English translation has helped lift his work out of what he sees as Hindi’s insular, non-risk- taking, institutionally corrupt world, and made it part of ‘world literature’. “When I wrote Peeli Chattri Wali Ladki, I was attacked and abused in the Hindi world. But Jason Grunebaum’s English translation, The Girl with the Golden Parasol, got me to Penguin and then to Yale University Press.”

Yet English translation is no panacea. Much depends on quality, the publisher’s interest and distribution channels. “Older translations of my work, like Jai Ratan’s [one of India’s most prolific translators], were targeted at an Indian English reader, and could not travel abroad. Jason is young, and a fiction writer himself; his translation reflects how language in America has changed,” Prakash adds.

English translation does not guarantee exposure. Although she gained an Indian English readership as early as 2000, after academic Nita Kumar translated her 1997 novel Mai into English for Kali For Women, Geetanjali Shree insists that her writing continues to be routed through Hindi. “Serious readers of my works, such as Annie Montaut, Alessandra Consolaro, Vasudha Dalmia and Francesca Orsini are advanced scholars keen to promote Hindi literature in the West. I am known in Russia and Poland because of Hindi!”

Certainly, Euro-American academic networks have been crucial in spreading regional Indian literature, providing the focused language training and university presses needed to support high-quality literary translation. Hindi departments in the USA, for instance, have produced such wonderful translators as Grunebaum and Daisy Rockwell, who has translated the late Hindi writer Upendranath Ashk.

But how far have translations to English travelled? Over the five years that the DSC Prize has been awarded at the Jaipur Literature Festival, only six out of the 29 shortlisted titles have been translations (UR Ananthamurthy’s Bharathipura and A Street in Srinagar in 2011, Uday Prakash’s The Walls of Delhi in 2013, Anand’s Book of Destruction and Goat Days in 2014 and The Mirror of Beauty in 2015). None has won yet. All of this is not to ignore that several regional language cultures inhabit positions of superiority with regard to some others: think of Hindi with regard to Urdu, or at a very different angle, to Bhojpuri. English may not be able to speak to this (though it has brought Dalit writers like P Sivakami, Urmila Pawar and Ajay Navaria some welcome attention). But it seems to me difficult to stand either with Nemade, denying that this collective landscape has been forever altered by a flood called English, or with Taseer—taking a position higher and safer than everyone else, and then bemoaning the flood. Bilinguality—reading in at least one Indian language besides English—is one way to withstand the waters. But translation, even in English, if we do more of it and better—while acknowledging that the ground is not level—can let the monolingual reader into several languages. For many of us, it might be the most feasible way to grow some roots.

Author: Trisha Gupta

http://www.openthemagazine.com/article/books/going-mainstream