Monday, April 9, 2012

Idioms and Translations: language across cultures II

Let us consider some words that are portmanteau of the culture they emerge in. When a speaker of ‘Hindi’ calls a glass ‘succha’ or ‘jhootha’, the words may be translated as ‘ fresh’ or ‘used’ but the original words mean ‘truthful’ and ‘liar’. So, while in English the utility of the glass and the fact of it being ‘ready for use’ is stressed, in Hindi the fact of it being ‘unfit for use’ is emphasised- contamination is emphasized, the glass is to be shunned when it is ‘jhootha’ as it is equated with a vice. Also, the use of lips in drinking is made to signal the use of lips for articulating truth or falsehood.

At a recent seminar organized by an NGO RCF a debate ensued on the translation of the word ‘statesman’- could it be ‘rajnitigya’- a politician, or a diplomat. However, these words were found partially correct, even derogatory, a statesman was greater and hence ‘rajrishi’ or ‘rajneta’ were found to be more befiiting terms.

It is interesting to note that in olden days the word ‘kod’ was used to denote ‘bribe’. The word ‘kod’ stands for ‘leprosy’ in Hindi. When a person used to take bribe, he was condemned of accepting ‘kod’ a contagious disease of abominable nature. The disease itself was considered incurable and the patient was excommunicated. If today, the word is revived, people may be more ashamed of taking money underhand as ‘rishvat’ does not evoke the same feelings as ‘kod’ does.

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet says Shakespeare-but visit an Indian garden and you will know that the Indian rose is not quite like the English rose- one is subtle and the other intoxicating, a ‘Gulab’ with its wild, heady perfume would smell sweeter. A rose is a rose, is a rose but an English rose is not quite the same as Indian ‘gulab’. Translators have been transcreating for long- genetic engineers follow suite and create hybrid roses.

Rajarao in Kanthapura wrote a preamble of sorts for all ambitious translators but Harish Trivedi claims that all that has been claimed cannot be achieved. Here’s the Preface from Kanthapura:

One has to convey in a language that is not one’s own the

spirit that is one’s own. One has to convey the various shades

and omissions of a certain thought-movement that looks

maltreated in an alien language. I use the word ‘alien’, yet

English is not an alien language to us. It is the language of

our intellectual make-up-like Sanskrit or Persian was before

- but not of our emotional make-up. We are all instinctively

bilingual, many of us writing in our own language and in

English. We can not write like the English. We should not.

We cannot write only as Indians. We have grown to look

at the large world as part of us. Our method of expression

therefore has to be a dialect which will some day prove to

be as distinctive and colourful as the Irish or the American.

Time alone will justify it… (‘Preface’ to Kanthapura, 1938).

Since Raja Rao’s Kanthapura changes in India and Indians have been phenomenal. Our sense of time has come closer to what is called a New York Minute and we have been busy shedding our dialect and our idiom both. A new spirit has emerged- Indianness has been redefined as much else.

Now, consider the phenomenal song ‘Kolaveri di’ which is something like kitsch in lyrics. The popularity of the song spread like a viral epidemic as it was released on the internet. The song has words taken from English and a language from Southern India but the deliberately slang and faulty English and despite the unintelligibility of the southern Indian language the song has become as much a rage in Northern India. From where does the song get its appeal? From the rhythm- the words that best suited the rhythm were used at the right place – you had a medley within a song. But most importantly, English words were modulated to Indian music and had a pronounced South Indian accent.

The list is inexhaustive but two inferences can be made:

First, some parallels are closer, second, the parallels depend on the life-style of the native speakers.

It seems that translations can be close but it is hard to simulate the spirit of the original. Idiomatic usage, rhythm and humour cannot be translated-the resonances and the cultural baggage cannot be translated with ease. The word may drop its connotations in being translated. To summarize the argument, a translation cannot be a literal representation in another language.

Works Cited

Rao, Raja. 1989. “Foreword”. Kanthapura. Delhi : OUP

Bassnett and Trivedi. Introduction. Of colonies, cannibals and vernaculars

Deswal Rajbeer, Wit and Humour of Haryana.

Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Untranslatability

Dictionary of Literary Term & Literary Theory. Fourth edition. Ed JA Cuddon. ‘translation’ 936-937.Penguin Books.1999 England.

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