For A Word's Worth

But many feel far from gratified by the quality of the translations. "The unfortunate thing," as Kannada writer U.R. Ananthamurthy puts it, "is that the better a writer is in a regional language, the harder he is to translate." The reasons range from cultural differences between English and Indian languages, to the lack of competent translators, to the reluctance of English readers to make the transition from Indian English to the real thing. The real problem, point out both regional writers and translators, is not translation from one Indian language to another (a tradition that goes back over 1,000 years) but from a regional language into English. As Nirmal Verma says, "it’s impossible to transfer into English the cultural traditions and the associations of language. It’s far easier, for instance, to translate from one European language to another because of their homogeneous cultural traditions. Tagore is far more readable in Hindi than in English as the whole cultural baggage can be easily shifted from Bengali into Hindi."

It may be difficult to translate from a regional language into English, but it’s not impossible, assert translators. "We tell our translators to catch that something between words," says Geeta Dharmarajan, who started Katha one-and-half decades ago in 1988. "There are of course some differences, but it is the translator’s job to interpret creatively."

And there are a few translators, like William Radice or Gillian Wright, who’ve managed to translate regional classics into English without sacrificing either authenticity, flavour or readability. But they’re few and far between. Writers say the advantage translators like Radice or Wright have over others (mostly from university translation departments) is that they are more fluent in English than the language they’re translating from. "You have to be able to gossip in that language before you are able to translate into it," says Ananthamurthy. "The problem with our translators is that they can use it across a classroom but not across the dining table." Sadly, points out Marathi writer Balachandran Nimade, the few in India who know English well enough to gossip in it are too busy writing their own novels to have time for translating others. But it’s time, they say, to stop looking westward for approval. As Nimade says, "Translation is not our burden, it’s theirs. Let the English and French translate our work if they want to. Why should we bother?"