Stick a Babel Fish in Your Ear

Chris Heiser, Kaiser Haq, Eliot Weinberger and David Shook (L-R) on the second day of the Hay. Photo: Prabir Das

Anurava Sinha, Photo: Prabir Das

If you are transforming something written in one language into something analogous in another, the easiest way would be to stick a Babel Fish, the imaginary universal translator in Douglas Adam's “Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy” in your ear because it can pick up 'brain wave energy' and decode it into any language.
In reality, translation is a complex task that has to look at every conceivable issue surrounding the relationship between a “source” language and a “target” language.
“It's a well-known fact that a translation is no substitute for the original,” translator David Bellos of Princeton once wrote, “It's also perfectly obvious that this is wrong. Translations are substitutes for original texts. You use them in the place of a work written in a language you cannot read with ease.” What translators actually do, argues Bellos, “is find matches, not equivalences, for the units of which a work is made, in the hope and expectation that their sum will produce a new work that can serve overall as a substitute for the source.” He believes that anything expressed in one language really can be “shared” with readers in another.
He makes perfect sense. The entire human civilisation is based on this conviction.
“The job of a translator is to create the same kind of effect as the original,” says Arunava Sinha, award winning translator of about 20 books from Bangla into English. As a translator one has to have not only the eye but also the ear for the original. Because a poem or a story is not only read with the eyes but also read with the ears even if in silence.”
Readers all over the world complain that a lot gets lost on the way of translating great works. “One has to take care that the translated texts have the same rhythm, cadences, patterns and structures as the original,” Sinha says in an interview. The Indian translator is currently translating works by Akhteruzzaman Elias and Selina Hossain. Some translators push the envelope even further. “Translation is a creative production. In a way it is liberating,” says renowned American translator David Shook. “A translator can take risks. For example, he can introduce rhymes to a poem that did not rhyme in the original language. Translation is not a mathematical equation--- words do not have one-to-one relationship.”

Niaz Zaman, Jackie Kabir  (moderator) ,Fakrul Alam, Ahmede Hussain and Anurava Sinha (L-R) on the second day of Hay.  Photo: Prabir Das

Every text is, however, to some extent, a bafflement to its translator, because every language, like every writer, has characteristics that can't be “carried across” — which is what “translate” means — into another language, another culture. “Think of words like obhimaan,” says Sinha. “An exact English word for obhimaan does not exist. So you have to give the reader the entire context. You also have to have a lot of discipline. Add nothing, take away nothing. Be loyal to the original.”
Good translators work hard to bring across the feel of the original writing. But even great translators may commit serious mistakes if they are not paying enough attention to details in the original texts. “I was translating Mario Bellatin's Shiki Nagoka,” says Shook. “I did not notice that the protagonist lover was a homosexual. That said something about my reading the text too quickly. I did a lot of soul searching after that. I was lucky I was able to fix the error before it was published.”
Some translators have a totally different approach to translating. Ahmede Hussain, writer and journalist who has written and translated many books into English believes 'translation' is not possible. “I try to stick to the premise of the reality the writer creates. And I follow that premise. For example, if I am translating Lal Shalu , I would not write the whole thing from Jamila's point of view. I would like to change certain things to make sure my reader understands it. I have a right to reinterpret the reality as I have understood. So I do not have the liability to follow the way the author has perceived things.” Hussain is currently working on his novel Fitna.
Eminent poet, essayist and translator Kaiser Haq opines that there is a lot of room for improvement as far as translating Bangla into English is concerned. “We need more skilled translators. We have established a translation centre at ULAB whose goals are to promote Bangladeshi literature and give Bangladeshi readers wider access to world literature. But we need to do more.”
Many translators feel that theirs is a thankless job. “I do not worry about little things like if my name is on the cover or if I got enough importance as a translator,” says Sinha. “I take satisfaction from the fact I am bringing to readers something that they do not have in their language.”
All said, there is more to translating than what concerns the reader of the target language. “One thing does not get talked about is translation from the point of view of the author,” says Eliot Weinberger in an interview. “When I was translating Octavio Paz, I was translating many poems from manuscripts. Sometimes he would read my translation and go ahead and change certain things in his original poem. So in a way translation gives the author a chance to read his own work from a distance.” Weinberger is a contemporary American writer and translator whose work has been published in more than 30 languages. He first gained recognition for his translation of poems by Nobel laureate Octavio Paz.
True intercultural communication can only start with a leap of faith — with the willingness to trust a stranger. “For that trust to exist, huge intellectual and emotional obstacles to taking the word of another for the word of the source have to be overcome. They can be overcome only by a shared willingness to enter a realm in which meaning cannot be completely guaranteed. That kind of trust is perhaps the foundation of all culture.
We translate because we want to connect. It comes when some human group has the bright idea that the kids on the next block or the people on the other side of the hill might be worth talking to and learning from. “Translating is a first step toward civilisation,” wrote Bellos.