Lost in Translation: The Fine Art of It - First in a series of columns in Swarajya on Indian language literature and how its best works can be reached to a larger audience. swarajyamag/columns/lost-in-translation-the-fine-art-of-it/ My comments: Very good points. English translations would give a national attention and sometimes world attention too, if marketed well. But one cultural risk in making native literature fully available in English is that it becomes a kind of first choice for the excessively English fed current generation. We already see people reading Shlokas or devotional hymns from English print outs in temples in big cities, instead of their native language scripts. We are in a phase when a person will choose to read English translation of a literary work of his/her own language, because (s)he is not sufficiently comfortable reading that work in the original (no vocabulary, difficulty in understanding phrases and metaphors, disconnect with cultural nuances etc). What they have is only basic literacy in the native language enough to manage everyday affairs, but proficiency, erudition, thinking are all in English only. This is not a good trend at all. Reading in native languages should also become widespread. Cross translations between Indian languages need equal or even more attention than translations into English. At present, only Sahitya Akademi and a handful of publishers are involved in this. Many published translations of Akademi are either out of print or inaccessible, for lack of demand. Govt. should infuse funds into this and create good market for such works so that more skilled and enthusiastic translators will get involved. Looking forward to the series.
Posted on: Sat, 22 Nov 2014 03:17:58 +0000