In a rapidly changing world, translation plays a vital role. Links are forged, barriers are surmounted and new relationships are established through translations contributing immensely to the corpus of contemporary creative writing.
Translation has played an historic role in enriching Indian consciousness. The vibrant activity of translating literatures from one Indian language to another and into a global language like English has proved to be a major factor, since Independence, in developing new contacts and creating awareness about the various aspects of Indian culture and sub cultures.
Institutions like Kendra Sahitya Akademi, Central Institute of Indian Languages, National Book Trust and various universities through their national and international conferences and meetings in book exhibitions have made handsome contribution to the art and practice of translation.
The scope of this book does not permit quantitative analysis. What can be realized and deduced is through qualitative analysis only. Linguistic, as well as literary approaches have been adopted for this purpose. Numerous translators were contacted and conversations with them, at times a sort of interviews with them yielded rewarding information. Besides, some translators enlightened on the methods devised by them to translate certain expressions.
Without exception everyone agreed that it is, indeed, a difficult task to translate culture-specifics. It is, generally, accepted now that translation is not a mere linguistic or literary exercise, but is aimed at transference of culture.
The first chapter Dynamics of Translation introduces the concept of translation and the mechanics involved in it. It details how translation can be treated as a process as well as a product. The rudiments of translation along with certain examples for demonstrating structuration competence and poetic competence of the translators have been presented for critical evaluation. Diachronic criticism, employed in this chapter brings to light different modes of translation employed by reputed translators. Devices like edition, deletion, substitution are delineated with suitable examples.
The second chapter Aspects of Translation deals with diverse aspects of translation. A large number of examples culled from equally large number of translations are offered to substantiate the strategies adopted by translators. Diachronic criticism employed here and in subsequent chapters is hailed as a welcome trend by many talented and senior translators who expressed their appreciation. While this chapter presents exquisite examples of superb translations, it throws light on the process of translations as such. It also highlights the desirability of bicultural awareness as a pre-requisite of a good translator.
The third chapter Translation of Poetry-An Indian Perspective dwells at length on the theory of translation. While elucidating the "Euro-centric guidelines' it emphasizes the need to evaluate a translated text from an Indian perspective.
Taking off from the basics as enunciated by Prof. S.Kuppuswami Sastri, a careful analysis of three translations of Mahakavi Sri Sri's immortal poem Mahaa Prasthaanam is undertaken. This chapter also brings to light the need to initiate a comparative study of East West poetics. It is endeavoured to focus attention of the need to understand English texts in the light of Indian poetics, thus evolving a new paradigm in comparative poetics.
The fourth chapter Some Aspects of Post-colonial Translation deals with more details of translation studies in post colonial era. It goes on to enunciate that translation is no longer a mere linguistic or literary exercise. It deals with the emergence of transference of culture as a basic tenet in translation studies. It details how translation studies and cultural studies are inalienable. Concepts of hybridity and in betweenness are discussed in detail.
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