Volume 16 Issue 1, 2022

Cover page | Editorial | Contents | Contributors
 

Articles

  1. Translation and Beyond: Re-thinking Interdisciplinary Research in the Humanities1
Author(s): Chandrani Chatterjee ORCID logo      Pages: 1-20       Published: 2022
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Translation and Beyond: Re-thinking Interdisciplinary Research in the Humanities1
Chandrani Chatterjee ORCID logo
Received 09.01.22, Accepted 28.06.22
Abstract
Translation Studies is still a discipline in the making. Having undergone several transitions and transformations since the last decades of the twentieth century, the field is ever receptive to newer enquiries and experimentations. The present article attempts to explore several emerging trends and approaches in the field to suggest the possibility of identifying Translation Studies as an enabling space for interdisciplinary research in the humanities and social sciences. Increasingly, research in the social sciences and humanities programs worldwide is waking to the fact that it is impossible to work in isolation while protecting strict disciplinarian boundaries. The paper identifies Translation Studies as an inclusive space that can harbour research interests across disciplines. However, to enable such a possibility there are some basic reconfigurations that are necessary for understanding and defining the scope of Translation Studies as a discipline in particular and translation as a concept in general. The present paper attempts to lay the field for similar investigations for interdisciplinary research.
Keywords: Translation Studies, Translation, Discipline, Interdisciplinary, Social Sciences and Humanities.
Cite this work
Chatterjee, Chandrani. 2022. Translation and Beyond: Re-thinking Interdisciplinary Research in the Humanities. Translation Today, Vol. 16(1). 1-20. DOI: 10.46623/tt/2022.16.1.ar1
  2. Linguistic and Aesthetic Constraints in Literary Translation: Phonic Considerations in Translating Śabda-śakti-mūla dhvani
Author(s): Amrutha Mk     Pages: 21-48       Published: 2022
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Linguistic and Aesthetic Constraints in Literary Translation: Phonic Considerations in Translating Śabda-śakti-mūla dhvani
Amrutha Mk
Received 09.02.22, Accepted 29.07.22
Abstract
By outlining two features of language termed ‘lexical drift’ and ‘linguistic clogging’ and employing certain explanatory concepts of classical Indian aesthetics, this study addresses the question of how phonic elements of language constrain or smooth the ways of translation. Linguistic clogging, the study argues, constraints translation of expressions with śabda-śakti-mūla dhvani, SSMD (phonic-based suggestion) , in two ways. As a semantic constraint, the presence of SSMD in source expressions impedes translation if unsatisfied with target expressions. Secondly, as an aesthetic constraint, it curtails the aesthetic pleasure for readers even if the semantic constraint is satisfied by paraphrasing the source expressions. This study, analysing verses in English, Sanskrit, and Malayalam languages with SSMD, illustrates that if the constraints are not satisfied in the target expressions, they bring down the quality of translation. Nonetheless, satisfying both these constraints, by recovering the literal and suggested meanings where possible, can improve the quality of translation.
Śabda-śakti-mūla dhvani (SSMD) is a sub-variety of dhvani where a figure of speech is suggested because of the inherent power of words. The meaning that is different from literal and metaphorical is termed “dhvani” (suggested meaning). Around the ninth century CE, Ānandavardhana articulated the philosophy of aesthetic suggestion and systematically theorised the concept of dhvani (suggestion) in his magnum opus Dhvanyāloka (Light on the Doctrine of Suggestion). He argues that the significative power of words is of two types, vācya (literal) and pratīyamāna (suggestive). SSMD is generally translated as “word-based suggestion”. In this paper, the author has translated SSMD as “phonic-based suggestion”, as sound elements distinguish SSMD from other varieties of dhvani.
Keywords: Indian Aesthetics, Śabda-Śakti-Mūla Dhvani (SSMD), Linguistic Clogging, Lexical Drift, Homonymy.
Cite this work
Amrutha Mk. 2022. Linguistic and Aesthetic Constraints in Literary Translation: Phonic Considerations in Translating Śabda-śakti-mūla dhvani. Translation Today, Vol. 16(1). 21-48. DOI: 10.46623/tt/2022.16.1.ar2
  3. On Some Aspects of Translating Children’s Literature in Contemporary India
Author(s): Umesh Kumar ORCID logo      Pages: 49-72       Published: 2022
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On Some Aspects of Translating Children’s Literature in Contemporary India
Umesh Kumar ORCID logo
Received 12.04.22, Accepted 27.07.22
Abstract
For the last two and a half decades, translation research has witnessed a boom. Beginning with the ‘cultural turn’ in the 1990s, translation research is now characterized by an informed cultural and political awareness supplemented by a host of deconstructionist methodologies. As a result, quite a sizeable quantity of insightful and controversial studies on translation is being published regularly. Riding on the back of conceptual advancements in the structure and function of language; aided by theoretical insights such as poststructuralist, feminist, and system theory approaches and so on, translation research today has created a niche for itself in (re)interpreting and (re)directing the prevailing value systems across disciplines. Following this trail, again from the early 1990s onwards, a few scholars began to create a specialized field of inquiry within translation research called translating children’s literature. This article focuses on this evolving field. However, most of the research on translating children’s literature is being undertaken in the west. Translation scholars in South Asia and more particularly in India have not paid the required attention to this growing field. The neglect is startling for the region continues to produce a significantly high quantity of children’s books across different languages. Therefore, the primary aim of this article is to encourage research on translating children’s literature in the Indian context. The article exemplifies and substantiates its call by providing a theoretical account of translating Marathi children’s literature into Hindi. For its material and discussion, the article draws from Kisson Ki Duniya: Marathi Baal Kahaniyon Ka Pratinidhi Sankalan (2019) (The Landscape of Tales: Selections from Marathi Children's Stories), which this author has co-translated and edited.
Keywords: Children’s Literature, Children’s Literature in Translation, Translation Challenges and Strategies, Collaborative Translations.
Cite this work
Kumar, Umesh. 2022. On Some Aspects of Translating Children’s Literature in Contemporary India. Translation Today, Vol. 16(1). 49-76. DOI: 10.46623/tt/2022.16.1.ar3
  4. Transcreating the Bard: A Case Study of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in Hindi Celluloid
Author(s): Glenis Maria Mendonça     Pages: 73-98       Published: 2021
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Transcreating the Bard: A Case Study of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in Hindi Celluloid
Glenis Maria Mendonça
Received 26.03.22, Accepted 29.07.22
Abstract
William Shakespeare’s drama has been the staple for many Indian filmmakers who have ‘transcreated’ his plays to suit the Indian regional context and still managed to retain the plot frame, essence and themes of this brilliant Bard. This article will begin with understanding and defining the term ‘transcreation’, a popular term used in inter-semiotic translation studies and then argue to show how the varied adaptations of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in Hindi celluloid are not mere adaptions but rather transcreations by creative minds. The article will offer a case study of a few transcreations of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in Hindi cinema. Bobby (1973), Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981), Sanam Teri Kasam (1982), Qayamat se Qayamat Tak (1988), Saudagar (1991), Ishaqzaade (2010), and the most recent Sanjay Leela Bansali’s Goliyon Ki Rasleela’ Ram-Leela (2013). These films will be re-looked from the lens of ‘transcreation’ to assess their adaptability to the Indian region-specific milieu. These Hindi films made over the last five decades will be seen as creative renditions which harmoniously blend music, characters, tragic elements, camera techniques, local metaphors, and rustic locales and culturally amalgamate these myriad elements while still managing to balance the essence of Shakespeare’s source play to appeal to the target audience. The paper will present a literature review of various articles previously published on the topic. It will further discuss how the play allows itself to be transcreated in the regional target space it occupies. The transition from stage to screen will be critiqued to see if justice has been done to the original text. The paper will appreciate the efforts and creativity of filmmakers who ‘transcreate’ to make the sixteenth-century tragedy of ‘star-crossed lovers’, relevant and loved by Hindi film audiences, from the seventies till present times.
Keywords: Transcreation, Shakespeare, Hindi Cinema, Renditions.
Cite this work
Mendonça, Glenis Maria. 2022. Transcreating the Bard: A Case Study of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in Hindi Celluloid. Translation Today, Vol. 16(1). 77-94. DOI: 10.46623/tt/2022.16.1.ar4

Notes

  1. Translatology: What Hobbles It
Author(s): P. P. Giridhar     Pages: 73-98       Published: 2021
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Translatology: What Hobbles It
P. P. Giridhar
Received 31.05.22, Accepted 14.08.22
Abstract
Noting that man hasn’t as yet awakened fully rationally to the life-giving life-enhancing power and life-refreshing life-sourcing civilization-deepening beauty of literary translation, the Note argues that the possible anodynity of (Literary) Translation Sciences as they obtain today cry out for a good deal of rationally illuminating rigorisation. Part of the anodynity is linguistic (and cultural) naiveté, as we argue. See Giridhar 2005 for a rational elucidation. Lexicalisations like the Sanskrit word dharma for example have been subjected to unacceptably naïve, irrational and supremacist, and hence glaringly unscientific, treatment. This has been demonstrated (See Giridhar op cit). We will talk about it here as well. Part of the problem is the waffly kind of demagoguery that sustains itself over the years. For example, people talk(ed) of eco-translation. Has any piece been translated with eco-translation in mind? If not, what is its status? It, as seems to be the case, exists in the air as cerebral gymnastics? Is there a translation precept which has no conceivable relation to translation praxis? Following Ramayana’s several regional avatars, there was some piquant and fashionably exultant buzz about originals undergoing several forms in response to the narrativisation requirements of target cultures. I know of no modern literary piece which has had such avatars because apparently, the translator doesn’t know what to do! Does it mean these different avatars, however nebulously defined, are theoretically optional? Adaptation, I rationally assume, is technically different from translation. Essentially, there is no ‘adaptation’, for example, for discursive or scientific discourse.
Keywords: Translation Sciences, Lexicalisations, Word-to-Word Translation, Narrativisation Requirement, ‘Whole Quality’, Non-Self-Identicality, Legal Validity, Fidelity, Subjectivities, Rational Rigorisation.
Cite this work
Giridhar, P. P. 2022. Translatology: What Hobbles It. Translation Today, Vol. 16(1). 97-109. DOI: 10.46623/tt/2022.16.1.no1
  2. Kavya and Anuvad in the Age of Bhasha: Reading History of Bangla Literature
Author(s): Mrinmoy Pramanick     Pages: 73-98       Published: 2021
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Kavya and Anuvad in the Age of Bhasha: Reading History of Bangla Literature
Mrinmoy Pramanick
Received 03.05.22, Accepted 14.08.22
Abstract
This essay discusses translation as the primary factor in the creation of Indian literature in general and Bangla literature in the medieval period. The term "translation" that was used to describe the accommodation of numerous literatures after reception, adaption, influence, and translation in mediaeval Bangla was liberal. We discover several facets and definitions of translation while reading mediaeval Bangla literature, despite the word translation not being used. However, identical actions took place while disguising them as resistance and social welfare. This study does not investigate the original mediaeval texts; instead, it surveys Bangla-language literary histories of Bangla literature and traces how the literary historian(s) viewed the process of mediaeval translation. In order to support the idea of the Indian school of translation, this study incorporated diverse objectives, strategies, and conceptions of the poets involved in translating a book from Sanskrit, Persian, or any other language into Bangla. The focus of this essay is on issues like the origin of language, linguistic and cultural identity, resistance, and the function of translation in relation to all these elements. It also reads mediaeval translation as a component of a larger literary, political, and cultural system.
Keywords: Anuvad, Bhasha, Payar, Lokabhasha, Devabhasha, Desh, Bengali Translation, Indian Translation Theory, Translation as Resistance.
Cite this work
Pramanick, Mrinmoy. 2022. Kavya and Anuvad in the Age of Bhasha: Reading History of Bangla Literature. Translation Today, Vol. 16(1). 111-132. DOI: 10.46623/tt/2022.16.1.no2

Book Review

  1. Obed Ebenezer .S ORCID logo, (2022). Eye-Tracking Processes and Styles in Sight Translation

Translation

  1. Translated by Pratixa Parekh ORCID logo, (2022). Spark Tankho by Himanshi Shelat in Gujarati
  2. Translated by Shubhada Deshpande, (2022). The Land Bhoomi by Milind Bokil in Marathi

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