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vide the reader with the finest literatures in the best oftranslations.2. The excellence of the translation in English. Thetranslations ought to be authoritative, alive to the resonanceof the original, and expressed in an English idiomthat brings home that resonance to its readers.3. The work should interest educated Indian andWestern readers alike.These simple criteria ought to guide our evaluationof translations from Indian literature. In enabling deadIndian poets to be heard in English, I am guided by EzraPound’s (1885–1972) wise counsel: “...we test a translationby the feel, and particularly by the feel of being incontact with the force of a great original ...” 2Since Wilkins’s translation of the Bhagavad-gita in1784, European scholars have been engaged in translatingfrom Sanskrit to the exclusion of other Indian languages,with some notable exceptions. The mothertongues ought not to remain tongue-tied for ever in thepresence of an overbearing father tongue, Sanskrit. Thislinguistic oppression of one language by another muststop. Alone among the peoples of India, the Tamils haveresisted the intervention of Sanskrit and more recentlythe intervention of Hindi. The Tamil language bears witnessto this resistance by successfully retaining, forinstance, its phonology.In the last fifty years or so, there has been anincreasing attempt to translate from other languages,notably Tamil and Hindi, the two Indian languages mostwidely taught in the West after Sanskrit, thereby creatinga demand for translations for use in the classroom. Thisis true of Chinese and Japanese as well. Asian Studies isno longer the odd bird it once was, an exotica to besavored by only the most discriminating palates. It isnow a legitimate academic discipline in major universitiesthroughout the world. The presence of a sizablenumber of educated Asians in Europe and the UnitedStates has also contributed to the interest in translationsfrom the Asian languages. This interest is reflected insuch major series as the “Penguin Classics” of PenguinBooks, “World’s Classics” of Oxford University Press,“Harvard Oriental Series” of Harvard University Press,and “Translations from the Asian Classics” of ColumbiaUniversity Press. The success of the expanded seventhedition of The Norton Anthology of World Masterpieces(1995) 3 in two volumes bears this out. Out of a total of5970 pages, it devotes 517 pages (8.66%) to Indian literaturein eight languages: Sanskrit (231 pages), English(156 pages), Bengali (39 pages), Hindi (32 pages), Tamil(28 pages), Kannada (14 pages), Pali (9 pages), and Urdu(8 pages). The selections, with one exception, are impeccable,but the translations are not. Kalidasa’s Abhijnanasakuntalamis included in its entirety and so is AnitaDesai’s (b. 1937) novel, Clear Light of Day (1980),which alone takes up 156 pages. Only excerpts areincluded from the other selections: the Ramayana, theMahabharata, the Bhagavad-gita, the Pancatantra,Bhartrhari, Amaru, the Kathasaritsagara, Vidyapati,Govindadasa, Candidasa, Tagore, Mahasweta Devi,Mirabai, the Ramcaritmanas, Premchand, theKuruntokai, the Purananuru, the Cilappatikaram,Basavanna, Mahadeviyakka, the Jataka, and Ghalib. TheNorton Anthology comes with a “Guide for Instructors” 4that provides background information, classroom strategies,comparative perspectives, and further reading andviewing. The “Guide” is a useful pedagogic tool. Out ofa total of 928 pages, it devotes 73 pages (7.87%) toIndian literature. There is nothing comparable to theNorton selections from Indian literature currently availablein India for use in the classroom. The only comprehensiveanthology of Indian literature in translation todate are the eleven volumes published by or forthcomingfrom the Sahitya Akademi (Indian National Academy ofLetters): Ancient Indian Literature (3 volumes),Medieval Indian Literature (4 volumes), Modern IndianLiterature (3 volumes), and an Index (1 volume). This isan extraordinary accomplishment. When completed, itcould be used as a resource for compiling a two-volumeanthology, “The Sahitya Akademi Anthology of IndianLiterature,” for use in the classroom like The NortonAnthology.These translations have created a new audience forthe Indian classics. As I see it, there are two types ofreaders for the translations:1. Indians within and outside India who are unableto read the works in their original languages but who canread them if they are in English.2. A small number of English-speaking peopleabroad with an interest in India.Because India is the third largest publisher ofbooks in English after the United States and Britain, thelargest readership for the translations is obviously withinIndia itself. With the exception of the Sahitya Akademi,no publisher in India is actively engaged in publishingtranslations either from one Indian language into anotheror from an Indian language into English. Since 1954, theSahitya Akademi has almost single-handedly sponsoredand published translations from every one of the twentytwoIndian languages, including English, that it recognizes.Considering the scope of its operations, itsTranslation Review 59
achievement is truly monumental. While universitypresses in the United States and Britain are playing aseminal role in the enterprise of translation, regrettably,Indian universities have allowed themselves to fallbehind those in the West in this important enterprise.Again, the Sahitya Akademi has established fourTranslation Centers in Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Delhi,and Shantiniketan to publish translations of Indian literaturein foreign languages. This initiative is to be welcomed,as it is a step in the right direction. BesidesEnglish, the classics of Indian literature ought to be madeavailable at least in French, German, Spanish, Russian,Arabic, and Chinese. Besides the Sahitya Akademi, theInstitut Français d’Indologie in Pondicherry has animpressive list of publications in French from Sanskritand Tamil.AWord or Two About TranslationLanguage is by nature arbitrary and imprecise. There isno one-to-one correspondence between the word (“thesignifier”) and the object (“the thing signified”). English,Tamil, Sanskrit, and Hindi use different words to denotethe same object, for example, “tree,” “maram,” “taru,”and “per.” No one of these words is more appropriatethan the other. Further, the word always falls short of theobject. It is out of such unstable material that a poem ismade. Whether a poem is in Tamil or is reborn inEnglish, the fact of the matter is that both poems areincomplete representations of experience. Poets havelong struggled with this problem. Paul Valéry(1871–1945) famously observed: “A work is never completebut abandoned.” 5 What are the implications fortranslation, then? Given the arbitrary nature of language,the concept of faithfulness to the original is no more thanan illusion. A successful translation recreates, not reproduces,as many aspects or elements of the original aspossible without doing violence to its sense of wholeness.No two languages are as foreign and distant fromone another as Tamil and English. How does the translatorcarry over into English the foreignness of a Tamilpoem that perhaps embodies what is most original anddistinctive about it? Translators often take the easy wayout and eliminate the foreignness altogether. In suchinstances, the translated poem fails to take root in the soilof English and simply withers away. We are all toofamiliar with the phenomenon. To prevent this from happening,the translator must prepare the soil of Englishcarefully to receive the seed of Tamil so that it will takeroot and grow. The coupling of languages is what translationis all about. The translated poem will then sharethe characteristics of both languages.What a translation carries across from one languageinto another is not merely information but the verybreath of the original, what animates it. The poet, perhapsmore than anyone else, is best suited to undertakethis delicate task because “words obey [his] call.” 6 Atranslated poem comes into being in much the same wayas an original poem. Poets know intuitively how to makea poem, and this makes all the difference. Ezra Pound’stranslations from the Chinese are poems in their ownright; they are unsurpassed to this day.All texts are translatable. One text may be moreresistant to translation than another. Since human beingsspeak with one voice, translation is what binds one languageto another. A translation cannot and thereforeshould not try to duplicate the original, which by definitionis unique, one of a kind without a second. It shouldcontinue the life of the original in another language. Atranslation may succeed in carrying across as many elementsof the original as possible. In the end, there willalways remain some elements that have resisted translation.The sound of a language is one such element. Itinvariably slips through the net of translation. Idioms areanother element that resist translation. They are a translator’snightmare. Poetry is especially rich in idioms thatcan only be translated by equivalent idioms in the secondlanguage. The translation functions then as one interpretationamong many. Again, a translation invariably endsup having more words than the original. In his attempt tomake clear the intention (vivaksa) of the poet, the translatoroften uses many more words, thereby diffusing thepoem’s “center of intensity.” The clarification that thetranslator had sought results only in muddying thewaters.Translation defamiliarizes a language of its apparentforeignness by stressing the commonality of all languagesrather than their singularity. Of all the elementscommon to languages, it is meaning (artha) that is at theheart of the matter. A translation may be measured by itssuccess in carrying across meaning from one languageinto another. Almost unchanged, inviolate, the meaningsteps out of one language and into another without anyloss of face. The meaning is not inherent in the language.It is offered by the poet to the language for safekeepingand may be equally offered to any other language forsafekeeping through the intervention of the translator.Thus, the translator shares with the poet the responsibilityof being the custodian of meaning.Because speech is the common denominator of all60 Translation Review
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TRANSLATION REVIEWNo. 66, 2003TABLE
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ings are for. But there are also so
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and we see how that is expressed in
Page 11 and 12: NOT GETTING IT RIGHTBy David Ferry[
Page 13 and 14: songs of the dead,” but it’s no
Page 15 and 16: oscilla ex alta suspendunt mollia p
Page 17 and 18: FROM DEAN TO DEANTREPRENEUR: THE AC
Page 19 and 20: elations and fundraising in part to
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Page 26 and 27: cially in light of the considerable
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Page 30 and 31: SAD TROPICS, OR TRISTES TROPIQUES?B
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Page 34 and 35: the first issue in autumn 1972. A y
Page 36 and 37: During the period 1989-1997 when Da
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Page 42 and 43: ON THE CATHAY TOUR WITH ELIOT WEINB
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Page 46 and 47: Chinese lady’s I or my beginningM
Page 48 and 49: It is not a bad translation, but th
Page 50 and 51: Facing SnowEnough new ghosts to mou
Page 52 and 53: likely a tea the speaker had been d
Page 54 and 55: 1945 to face trial for treason for
Page 56 and 57: METHOD OR MAESTRI: TWO APPROACHES T
Page 58 and 59: agreement than dissent. The authors
Page 60 and 61: analogy between author and SL reade
Page 64 and 65: languages, every language is potent
Page 66 and 67: (10th c.) is remarkably similar to
Page 68 and 69: eight distinct cases, whereas Engli
Page 70 and 71: tadutpreksyotpreksya priyasakhi gat
Page 72 and 73: THE MEXICAN POET HOMERO ARIDJISBy R
Page 74 and 75: THE ART OF WARSUN-TZUEdited, Transl
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Page 78 and 79: dence and bear close scrutiny wheth
Page 80 and 81: Street of Lost FootstepsBy Lyonel T
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