Feature

A seminar was held at Independent University Bangladesh on 29th April 2009 on “Decision making in translation.”

The main speaker was Dr. Tony K Stewart a professor at North Carolina State University. His principal thesis was on how translation varies from person to person and even from translator to translator. Translation is how you want to perceive a certain language or phrase or even a poem that has been rendered from the original language.

He talked about how difficult it is to translate the art of Bangla language and how it can be divided into technical terms, stock phrases, repetitions in Bangla language and humor.

He divided the topic according to three big case studies on three books Fabulous Females and Peerless Pirs: Tales of Mad adventure in old Bengal (written by him), Bhanushingher Padabali and Chatanya Caritamrata.

Fabulous Females and Peerless Pirs: Tales of Mad adventure in old Bengal:

The mythic figure Satya Pir is widely followed by many Hindus and Muslims alike in

the Bangla-speaking regions of South Asia.He is believed to be an avatara of krisna, or a Sufi saint, or somehow both, he is worshiped for his ability to bring wealth and comfort to a family.When life gets threatened with problems women must take matters into their own hands, and they call on Satya Pir to help them right the wrongs done by their husbands or fathers.

In his book, Tony K. Stewart presents lively translations of eight closely related 18th- and 19th-century Bengali folk tales centered on Satya Pir and the people he helps. In each case the men are rescued and restored normally by resourceful women. While the worship of Satya Pir is the ostensible motivation for the tales, they are really demonstrations of the Pir's miraculous powers, which authenticate him as a legitimate object of worship. The tales are also wickedly funny, parodying Brahmins and yogis and kings and warriors. The stories happily stand alone speaking with an easily recognized if not universal voice of exasperation and amazement at what life throws at us.

Caitanya Caritamrta of Krsnadasa Kaviraja

Translated and Commentary by Edward C. Dimock, JR.

Edited by Tony K. Stewart

The Caitanya Caritamrta is an early-seventeenth-century Bengali and Sanskrit biography of the great saint and Vaisnava leader Caitanya, by the poet and scholar Krsnadasa, who has been given by Bengali tradition the title Kaviraja"Prince of Poets." The text is of interest to theologians (Caitanya was, in Krsnadasa's view, an androgyne of Krsna and Radha), philosophers (his theory was that aesthetic and religious experience are much the same in kind), historians of religion (the movement that Caitanya inspired has encompassed the great part of the eastern Indian subcontinent, and Krsnadasa has some interesting observations on his own times), and appreciators of literature (in Krsnadasa's very long poem are embedded some lyric gems).

Bhanushingher Padabali- Rabindranath Tagore

The love story of Radha and Krishna, which has been intricately woven by poems, is a constant inspiration as well as a favorite choice for all the dancers..

All the books had one thing in common: they portrayed the art of Bangla language. He expressed his point of viewpoints very lucidly in great detail and ended the seminar by asking the points of view of the audience.