Theory and practice

Irrespective of the target or the source language, all translation work inevitably involves various theories. Personally it’s not a conscious choice for me, rather automatic. Having had the opportunity of studying translation theories for different purposes, I came to realize that it’s possible to use contradictory theories in order to translate different types of texts which are not essentially contradictory in nature. The theory serves the purpose of the text in question. While doing my first M.A we had among others, courses on hermeneutic approach, which I found very useful while dealing with journalistic texts. The same method is also quite helpful in translating some texts on civil societies and socio political events, on which I am currently working.

My second Master (more of a M.S in content) dealt exclusively with scientific texts and as a result we were frequently using Skopos theory. In the months following the completion of studies, I came across texts on machining, tooling, commissioning of new machines etc. Indeed the functionalist approach is well suited to this genre.

When I started of as a junior translator in an Indo-German steel company some years back, theories were merely “academic”. Having acquired a certain level of objectivity a few springs later, today I am happy to be able to use theory in practice without being burdened by it all. But then I have miles to go before mastering the art of blending different shades of theories with texts varying in scope and style.

ফিরে দেখা ১

বহুদিন হয়ে গেলো বাংলা লিখবো লিখবো করে আর হয়ে ওঠে না। কিছুটা সময়ের অভাব আর কিছুটা কুড়েমি। কিবোর্ড নিয়ে নাস্তানাবুদ। তাহলেও হাল ছারিনি । আজ লিখতে বসে লেখার বিষয় নির্বাচন নিয়ে বেশিক্ষ্ন সময় লাগেনি। যেহেতু বাংলা আমার ছেলেবেলার সঙ্গে অঙ্গাগিভাবে জড়িত তাই অনেকগুলো ছবি ভেসে ওঠে মুহুর্তের মধ্যে।

ক্রিকেট তারমধ্যে অন্যতম। ইডেনের উন্মাদনা আর উত্তেজনা নিয়ে বড় হয়ে ওঠার বছরগুলো যে কখন প্রায় দুস্প্রাপ্য শাদা কালো ছবির দলে গিয়ে ভিড়েছে জানতেও পারিনি। আনন্দবাজারের শেষের পাতায় গৌতমের কলাম, রাত জেগে আমেরিকান ওপেনের ফাইনাল, ৯০ এর বিশ্বকাপের সেমিফাইনালে ইতালির হারের পর মন খারাপ করা বিকেলের ভিড়, ৯৬ এর উত্তাল শেষ বিকেলে শ্রীলংকার কাছে ইন্ডিয়ার হেরে যাওয়া আর গ্যালারির আগুন……

একই সঙ্গে মনে পড়ে শীতের অলস দুপুরে বারান্দায় নরম রোদের তাপ, কুলদীপ নায়ারের বিদেশের চিঠি আর কমলা লেবুর গন্ধ। টুকরো টুকরো ছবি নিয়ে তৈরি একটি নক্সিকাথা।

সাহিত্যিক নই, কবি তো নৈব নৈব চ । কিন্তু বাংলার গুনে কেমন যেনো আবেশ এসে যায়।

হঠাত ভেসে আসা সেল্টিকের সুরে চটক ভেঙ্গে ফিরে এলাম বাস্তবে। সামনে এগিয়ে চলা আর পিছনে ফিরে তাকানোর মাঝে অপুরণিয় যে ফাক্, বাংলা হয়তো বা তা পুরণ করা দেবে।

Sacred Games

I love prose, all kinds of fiction/non-fiction and admire poems from a certain distance. However, literary translation does not figure high up in the list of my favourite intellectual activities. Since childhood I insisted on reading books in all forms: novels, comics etc in their source language. I was reassured to a certain extent only during the teenage days by the English version of Asterix. The characters have such appropriate names (Vitalstatistix for example!), that till date I hesitate using the original French names (Abraracourcix). By pure irony of fate, I finally landed up with a profession which compels me to look at literary translation occasionally.
Recently I read Sacred Games by Vikram Chanda. A powerful narration of an underworld don’s life punctuated by glimpses of daily activities of a police inspector. As a translator, my attention was immediately caught by the use of Hindi, Urdu and Marathi colloquial language in the dialogues. The style and the usage add a refreshing tang to the saga. It is very easy to imagine oneself in Pune or Chandigarh when Sartaj singh (policeman) hums popular Dev Anand song from the 70s. As I read the book, almost instinctively I wanted to lay my hands on a translated version of the novel. Indian English literature is widely available in French version, though I hardly ever venture into buying them. Hence it wasn’t difficult to pick up the French translation of Sacred Games entitled “Le seigneur de Bombay”. Often one finds translator’s note or an extended introduction in such works. In this case however there’s none. Instead, there is a detailed glossaire of whopping 27 pages explaining all vernacular words with lot of care. Even the songs (yahan kaun hain tera, musafir …) have been explained well. The dialogues retain all familiar forms of addressing like “Bhai”, “Bibi” and the like. This is a common feature in translated works. Perhaps what is less common is to find some passages with original swearing (sala langra lulla). The book makes easy reading and successfully conveys the Indianness to the readers. The French version describes the Crossword Hutch Book Award (won by Vikram Chanda for Sacred Games) as the “goncourt indien”!! A curious choice of words for an award which was instituted in 1998 to encourage Indian writers in English.

Green IT

The recently held Cebit 2008 focused on Green IT. The global warming awareness has come a long way and so has the connotation of the word green. In India we often heard about green revolution in the 80’s! Getting back to Cebit, I was struck by a piece of information which circulated in the media during the fair. The commentators spoke about the enormous energy consumption by the big data stations and servers and our random internet use.  The assumption, that changing our net habit is probably a more effective way of cutting down on power consumption than using power saving computer components was frankly unsettling. It sounds mundane, but then many of us look up even the simplest of information on internet. Not to mention the degree of dependence for professional reasons! I have difficulties imagining a day at work with only traditional dictionaries. Certainly translators won’t go back to the 60’s way of working; no more than the car owners who wouldn’t go back to horse carts. Nonetheless, it is worth giving a thought to our daily net practices as responsible professionals or otherwise.

search techniques

Reactivating my blogging brain after a couple of weeks! Now and then one needs time to look back or to gather thoughts. As for me, I invest my energy simultaneously in different directions, so short breaks become a necessity.
Translators have to be sure about the accuracy/correctness of the translated term. Over the last few years, internet has become a powerful ally of translators for this purpose. During university classes and later on at work, I have used the method of co-occurrence of terms in search engines to find the right word. Undoubtedly lots of translators do the same. Technical texts require specific terms and in the absence of an established terminology, googling two terms is my favourite way to cross-check the usage. It’s even more effective during proof-reading. Once while proof-reading a text on machining and tooling, I could find by googling almost 80% of the translated terms in relevant websites. It is possible to use other search engines for the same purpose.
The method also has some disadvantages, given the fact that information on the internet cannot be checked or controlled beyond a certain point. Therefore, googling two terms (source and target) first separately and then together can limit errors. Even then it is quite normal to harbour doubts about such a method, which is often not full proof. I was happy to find an exhaustive paper on this topic, which reassured me to a certain extent. Here’s the link:
media-langues