Wrestling With Words And Meaning
Translations have been very educative for me!
My first job of translating a document was a very difficult exercise. I was translating the ‘Chairman’s speech’ at the Annual General Meeting of the shareholders, in Marathi for the Company’s magazine. The speech was characteristically very short. It stood out for two qualities – for its brevity, unlike the Chairman’s speeches of those times of companies like Hindustan Lever [as it was then] and ITC, which were very elaborate, and for its brief content loaded with a lot of meaning or message. I remember brooding over some sentences, their meaning and trying a lot of expressions and words to capture the meaning as truthfully as possible. There was no question of anybody complimenting for this effort because it wasn’t a document that was read for its literary value. Yet it was a great exercise for me, and not just that, but also very educative.
I began by transliteration and mistook it for translation till I realised that translation was a different game. Sharad Chavan, who was well known news reader on AIR’s Mumbai channel was a professional translator. I reached out to him when I was under severe time pressure to translate and publish the Chairman’s speech in Marathi. I could see the qualitative difference – his sentences were crisp, they captured the essence of the original English sentence and placed emphasis on the words in sync with the original text. There was a lot to learn from him. My acquaintance with Sharad Chavan was to grow later and he was to mentor me for developing my writing skills is a story about which I will write later. Suffice it to say, I learnt a lot from him.
It was always my desire to have a book that carried my name as the author. This was partly satisfied when I edited a book for my organisation, but it was editing credit, not writing. I decided to translate a book, and I picked up ‘No Full Stops in India’ by Mark Tully for translation in Marathi. The very first sentence presented a huge stumbling block! Here it is: ‘How do you cope with the poverty?’ That must be the question I have been asked most frequently by visitors to India.’ I found the question difficult to translate. I could not think of any appropriate expression in Marathi which could convey ‘How do you cope with the poverty.’ I tried hard but couldn’t. The first-sentence-stumbling was like the first ball wicket of a batsman! You feel ashamed, you get a terrible sense of inadequacy. I went ahead with some ‘compromise’ and translated the entire foreword. But the stumbling at the very first step prevented me from publishing it.
Later, I also translated the foreword to Rajmohan Gandhi’s ‘Understanding Muslim Mind.’ When Babri masjid was pulled down, I published it in the Company’s magazine, it was within three days of the Babri Masjid event!
After retirement, I translated a hundred page English book in Marathi. It is all about how to work effectively and build success. The format is that Michael Angelo explains ‘how to work effectively and build success’ with examples from his life, to a person who has failed in life. Translating that posed a great challenge. Yet the soothing words of Suneel Karnik, the well-known editor, that it was a good translation which deserved to be published, was a great compliment. He insists that I must translate his two recommended books, and those remain on my list.
And now I am translating the speech of a noble laureate, in Marathi. I stop at sentences which carry deep meaning, think about the message, and experiment with words and constructing sentences to catch the essence. This experience is impossible to describe. To experience what I experienced, try translating these sentences: ‘It always troubled me that the truth doesn’t fit into one heart, into one mind, that truth is somehow splintered. There’s a lot of it, it is varied, and it is strewn about the world.’ Or try this: ‘Content ruptures form. Breaks and changes it. Everything overflows its banks: music, painting – even words in documents escape the boundaries of the document.’
So much is said about the power of words. Yet words remain ‘very poor communicators.’ Words are like the ‘local trains’ at Mumbai’s overcrowded stations. They carry a lot of passengers and leave out many stranded on the platform. My understanding of that quote is now reinforced by my understanding of the meaning they carry.
Vivek Patwardhan
Dear Vivek I appreciate the topics you come out with.Translating is always a responsible act.I suppose the " Bhavarth "can not be negotiated. It's my hobby too.I too had a prvilefge to inter act with Sharad Chavan.Your write ups are always very lucid.keep it up boss.
Dear Vivek I appreciate the topics you come out with.Translating is always a responsible act.I suppose the " Bhavarth "can not be negotiated. It's my hobby too.I too had a prvilefge to inter act with Sharad Chavan.Your write ups are always very lucid.keep it up boss.
Dear Vivek,
Though translation is a skilful job requiring a degree of meticulousness in selecting the right words, which can retain, if not improve upon, the flavour of original text, it still gives me the cumbersome feeling of being too technical. There is always a temptation to enhance the flavour to make it more effective. The pure art of translation, thus, calls for stern objectivity, which I fall short of sometimes. However, I must admit that translation is an important job facilitating wider readership. Having read one of your earlier works, I must say that you have achieved mastery over the art. Looking forward to your next, which seems ambitious.
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Dear VSP, I always said this in my earlier comments you have a way with words, now I shall add you have a away of expressing yourself well, too. (come to think of it, its a superflous comment. But I shall let it be). Credit to you that you even attempt a tough job as that..Shows you are good in two(atleast) languages. I think you do a great job and strive for more perfection if any and hence come out with such open thoughts. As usual loved the way you write!
Rgds
N Muralidharan
Thanks Ajit, Ulhas and Murali for your encouraging comments.
And thanks Karnik saheb for your comment too although you have removed it now.
Gratitude!
Vivek
Very well written and comes straight from the heart. A lot of humility which leads to great leaning for you. And to simplify the whole article by comparing it with local trains and passengers is the icing on the cake and drives home the point very beautifully.
Great going!
Translating is very tough and I admire you for translating such good works. I should know, because when I translated my own book from English to Tamil, I kept slipping into the transliteration mode! All because I only think in English and not in Tamil. And when I checked myself, I began WRITING in Tamil, instead of translating! If this can happen to one's own work, how hard it must be for others' work? I am sure you will succeed with your persistence. All the best and waiting to see your name as author (not just translator) of a book!
Wonderful!!!
I tried translating the 2 statements that you wrote towards the end and failed miserably!
Translating and keeping the essence intact is quite a challenge!!!
Very well articulated Vivek ji! I too cherish the memories of my interaction, though short (and just less than a year before he expired)with Mr. Chavan alias Kunal, in the context of an urgent official assignment, that pertained to my then company's attempt to reach out to workmen's families during a period of stalemate pending a long term settlement. Secondly, I relate easily to the experience of 'labour' that one goes through while translating, as a result of which I had also experienced "the baby's day out" when my 1st (translated) book was Mehta Publishing House, in 2011.
The omitted words – "published by"
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What a thoughtful read! I do feel that one reads what they want to read and in doing that, sometimes what the author says is not what the reader reads. This makes translation a huge responsibility and a very powerful tool. Your thoughts?
Sir, it is always a pleasure to read your blogs, they always leave the reader more than what he/she was before.
Reading through your blog reminded me of an enquiry once I was expected to complete along with a colleague. The setting was truly interesting, firstly I was to do this abroad as part of a two member panel and some of content was in emails. These emails involved were not in the native language of the country as it involved colleagues from yet another country. After discarding all well meaning internal translations from in-house language experts and google seach, each of which differed from another, I decided to approach a professional translation agency/
A big invoice and few days later I had with me the translated script. It so happened that the entire outcome depended on just one word used in the email exchange. To be doubly sure I called upon the translator to check if there was no typo involved and no doubt in his mind.
To my astonishment, the translator immediately rattled off three different meanings of the same word and said it all depended on the context and what relationship was shared between the two parties exchanging the emails. When I pushed him further for greater clarity he took another hour of research and finally declared as a matter of fact that there was no correct literal English translation of this term. At this stage I had to share with him the context and the importance of getting all of this right. This however seemed to have the opposite effect as when he learnt of the possible consequences of how he translated that one word, he immediately was interested to know about the probability of him landing in the court. As if things were not complex enough now I had to deal with his fears as well which seemed to now play in his mind and affect his final translation.
After reassuring him of his indemnity, I finally got my translation on what he thought fit, given the context. The investigation was concluded, however I had learnt a valuable lesson, that each word has a ocean of meaning within it and black and white are colors found less often than grey!