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translation, transformation, transcendence
by Shana Sippy
I. A translation has to be true to
the translator no less than to the
originals. ~ A.K. Ramanujan
Translation is one of the most significant
and fundamental of our human human practices,
and Ranee Ramaswamy is a master translator.
The great scholar of Indian poetry A.K.
Ramanujan wrote that translation is always a
choice and an interpretation and must “be true
to the translator no less than to the originals.”
Ramanujan did not presume that there was a
single original from which a translator worked.
Even before the translator’s encounter with the
subject, it has multiple iterations—personal,
oral, musical, dramatic, textual, theological,
psychological, architectural, philosophical. The
translator seeks to convey the many valences of
these originals, all the while conscious that he or
she is creating something else altogether new: a
new original through translation. Ranee’s
language is Bharatanatyam, and she mines the
poetics and metaphors of Bharatanatyam’s
lexicon for riches.
We might understand every utterance or
gesture shared between two human beings to be
a type of translation: an attempt to convey one’s
deepest sentiments, the intricacies of a concept,
or even the simplest of commands to another in
a language that the other can understand.
While I have known Ranee for only a short time,
I have seen her move with tremendous joy and
ease as she communicates and translates. Not
only does she translate through the body of her
work as she engages and teaches the dancers in
her company, but she also translates for
communities and a range of publics.
Ranee moves, in the course of a given day,
from translating stories, emotions, and gestures
to a 12-year-old student striving to embody
her heritage through dance, to animated
collaborations with artists and scholars from
across the country and world. In a single day,
she might share her love of Indian art forms
with young children—painting pictures with rice
flour, moving her fingers back and forth with a
deceptive ease as she creates complex kolam
patterns to welcome auspiciousness—and then
move on to thoughtful study of the philosophical
texts and artistic traditions that will be
incorporated into her next piece.
II. Tamil Sangam poetry classifies
five different landscapes: mountains,
forests, fields, seashores, and
deserts. Each place is associated
with specific moods and seasons,
crops and flora, relationships and
devotion. In classical Tamil philosophy,
one’s location is significant and symbolic. The
places where one works and sings, dances and