Literary Translation and Cultural Integration

 

DR. RAVI S. VARMA

 

Introduction

 

            Literary translation is a text in a target language that represents other pre-existing text in some other language. It is an inter­pretation by enactment and like its original strives to be a verbal object whose value is inseparable from the particular words used. It attempts to give the reader the same image and the same delight which the reading of the work in original language would afford any reader who is familiar with the foreign language while it yet always remains foreign to him.

 

            Let us clear the erroneous impression that a good literary work defies translation and that translation is something inferiors to the original and fails to delight the reader. Forest Smith says that the translation of a literary work is as tasteless as a stewed berry True. The prospects of translating literature may often be daunting, but we all know that literary translation is almost as old as original authorship and has a history as honourable and as complex as that of any other branch of literature.

 

            A good translation should have all the ease of original composition, give no clue to the language from which it was translated or that a comparison between the original and the trans­lation provide no evidence as to which is which. A literary translator is truly a recreator, a co-author and must penetrate the original to its depth, absorb its contest and form and feel and live it in all its specific references. He must have a flair or inspi­ration for interpreting it in another language.

 

            A good translation faithfully conveys the feelings of the original and ensures the flow of energy from the culture to another both past and present. It reveals the power and limitations of our own language and enables us to enjoy the poetic styles and literary genres of which we are totally ignorant.

 

            A good translation must serve as a substitute for the original. The translator, however, is free to choose the literary and cultural conventions either of the original or those of the new audience. It must absorb the spirit of and establish a union with the original. Indiscreet translation leads to great creative misunderstanding and has elicited the remark that literary translation is something impossible and absurd. But social and cultural importance of literary translation is indubitable and a good translation takes us a very long way.

 

            Literary translation has become the need of the day in the present century as more and more countries, especially the newly ­independent ones, are coming closer to each other and have to depend on translation for the communication in the fields of political, economic and cultural relations. No language is perfect, it develops gradually. So, the underdeveloped nations need it for enriching their literature and the countries like the U. S. S. R., India and Switzerland need it for protecting and preserving their multilingual character. Growing International co-operation in the field of culture, education and literature is also responsible for extensive translations.

 

            During the colonial rule of expansionist powers native languages, literatures and cultures of the enslaved countries remained suppressed and stifled. Their development and evolution could not take place with changing times. The selected few who were educated naturally leaned towards literary translation to make good this deficiency.

 

            The developments in the fields of technology, e.g., transport, means of communication, etc., have contributed to stormy develop­ments of international literary contacts, extensive exchanges of literary contexts and views. Translation is one of the main channels of this inter-literary flow. It is a link that joins two cultures and facilitates cross-cultural transference.

 

            We all know that for the cultural development of a connois­seur the enjoyment of his own literature is not enough; he needs to know how other people live and behave, act and react, think and enjoy. Literary translation opens this vision before him.

 

            This choice of original for translation depends on the aesthetic or ideological proclivities, favourable disposition of the translator search for stimulus or impetus so that it could get a boost in its own development. The literature in translation palpably offers immense evolutionary potential for the target literature; it often helps great works to be created. The duty of a translator is to bring before the nation the best that other nations have. He should select only the classics or the works that are representative and thought-provoking.

 

            No doubt, a translator ought to be faithful, but it does not mean that he should slavishly copy the faults of the original. The peculiar genius of a language appears best in the process of trans­lation and the translation can often excel the original because here two creative powers, one of the author and the other of his translator work jointly.

 

Literary Translation: A Bird’s-eye View

 

            The tradition of literary translation is very old. Prolonged contact between the speakers of two languages prompts the speakers of the underdeveloped language, culture to translate works from the developed language of high culture. The Ramayana, the Mahabharata, the Upanishads and the works of Kalidasa have reached all corners of the world in translation. Literary translation has preserved cultural tradition and given a new lease of life to classical languages. It has rescued several authors from falling into oblivion and made them world figures. Examples are: Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Goethe, Omar Khayyam, Kalidasa and Tagore.

 

            The Chinese Tripitaka contains translation of 3360 Sanskrit texts and Huen-Tsang collected his translations from Sanskrit into 600 volumes of Mahaprajnaparmita. 4569 Sanskrit texts were translated into Tibetan between the 9th and the 13th centu­ries. Besides the translations of Kanjoor (113 volumes) and Tanjoor (226 volumes), Mongolian translations of Amarkosh, Kavyadarsh and Meghdoot are still extant. Indonesian translations of the Ramayana and the Mahabharata have left an indelible mark on their life and literature, society and culture.

 

            The Arabs were the pioneers of civilization and culture between the 8th and the 13th centuries. They had established contact with India way back in 836 A. D., but when the Caliphate passed into the hands of the Abbasis cultural exchange between the two started on a large scale. The Arabs were keen observers and lovers of learning; they were eager to grasp the achievements of the Hindus in the fields of religion and culture, science and literature. They drew out an extensive plan of translation and had most of the Sanskrit works on astronomy, medicine, chemistry, logic, ethics, poetics and prosody, etc., translated into Arabic. Panchatantra was translated under the title of Kalila and Dimna and the story of Sindbad is an adaptation from India. Indian folk tales and mythological stories were also translated into Arabic. A Persian work Mujmal-ut-Twarikh which contains mythological tales from the Mahabharata is a translation of an Arabic work by Jibilli which he himself had translated from the Sanskrit.

 

            These Arabic translations reached Europe and Africa via Spain and left an impress on their literature and culture. They roused interest of the Europeans in Indian culture, religion, philosophy and learning and opened new vistas before them. This account of Arab contact will not be complete unless we mention the name of Alberuni, a great scholar of medieval times who spent 13 years in India studying Indian philosophy and literature.

 

            Although translation is responsible for the diffusion of Greek and Sanskrit works, cultural prestige and national superiority often prevent the intrusion of foreign elements through translation. Sanskrit did not translate from Arabic and Persian on account of its chauvinistic arrogance and supercillious superiority complex.

 

            The Upanishads have a long history of translation. Dara Shikoh, the Mughal prince, translated them into Persian and opened communication between Hinduism and Islam on the spiritual level. Anquetil Du Porron, a French scholar, translated Dara Shikoh’s manuscript into Latin and attracted the attention of all Europe to India. A German translation appeared in 1853 and Hume brought out his English translation of 13 Upanishads in 1921. The Upanishadic philosophy has greatly influenced Schopenhauer, Kant, Hegel, Nietze and Sartre. It also inspired T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land.

 

            Sir Monier Williams translated Kalidasa’s Abhijnana Shakuntalam into English (1798), which greatly impressed Goethe. It opened a new direction and more and more Sanskrit classics were translated into English. Schiller, Byron, Swinburne and a host of romantics imbibed Indian influence through these translations.

 

            Besides English, Sanskrit classics have been translated into other European languages also. In Hungarian translations of the works of Kalidasa, Gita Govinda, Panchatantra, Hitopadesa and Kathasaritsagara etc., were brought out. Verse has been translated in verse and prose in prose and an attempt has been made to preserve the original Sanskrit metre.

 

            There have been and there are men of genius among the moderns who have furnished us with excellent translations both of the ancient classic and of the modern productions of foreign writers of our own and former ages. Bharatendu Harishchandra had realized the importance of literary translations and underlined the need for translating from English, Persian, Arabic and other languages. He himself translated several Sanskrit plays and Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. He favoured free translation or adaptation rather than literal translation because he believed that the spirit of the original should in no case be sacrificed. Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi translated works of Kalidasa and Bacon’s Essays. Shreedhar Pathak translated Goldsmith’s The Hermit, The Deserted Village and The Traveller. Acharya Ramachandra Shukla rendered philosophy and learning and opened new vistas before them. This account of Arab contact will not be complete unless we mention the name of Alberuni, a great scholar of medieval times who spent 13 years in India studying Indian philosophy and literature.

 

            Although translation is responsible for the diffusion of Greek and Sanskrit works, cultural prestige and national superiority often prevent the intrusion of foreign elements through translation. Sanskrit did not translate from Arabic and Persian on account of its chauvinistic arrogance and supercillious superiority complex.

 

            The Upanishads have a long history of translation. Dara Shikoh, the Mughal prince, translated them into Persian and opened communication between Hinduism and Islam on the spiritual level. Anquetil Du Porron, a French scholar, translated Dara Shikoh’s manuscript into Latin and attracted the attention of all Europe to India. A German translation appeared in 1853 and Hume brought out his English translation of 13 Upanishads in 1921. The Upanishadic philosophy has greatly influenced Schopenhauer, Kant, Hegel, Nietze and Sartre. It also inspired T. S. Eliot’s The Waste Land.

 

            Sir Monier Williams translated Kalidasa’s Abhijnana Shakuntalam into English (1798), which greatly impressed Goethe. It opened a new direction and more and more Sanskrit classics were translated into English. Schiller, Byron, Swinburne and a host of romantics imbibed Indian influence through these translations.

 

            Besides English, Sanskrit Classics have been translated into other European languages also. In Hungarian translations of the works of Kalidasa, Gita Govinda, Panchatantra, Hitopadesa and Kathasaritsagara etc., were brought out. Verse has been translated, in verse and prose in prose and an attempt has been made to preserve the original Sanskrit metre.

 

            There have been and there are men of genius among the moderns who have furnished us with excellent translations both of the ancient classics and of the modern productions of foreign writers of our own and former ages. Bharatendu Harishchandra had realized the importance of literary translations and underlined the need for translating from English, Persian, Arabic and other languages. He himself translated several Sanskrit plays and Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice. He favoured free translation or adaptation rather than literal translation because he believed that the spirit of the original should in no case be sacrificed. Mahavir Prasad Dwivedi translated works of Kalidasa and Bacon’s Essays. Shreedhar Pathak translated Goldsmith’s The Hermit, The Deserted Village and The Traveller. Acharya Ramachandra Shukla rendered Edwin Arnold’s The Light of Asia into Brijbhasha under the title of Buddha Charita. Dinakar has translated Portuguese, Spanish, German, Polish and Chinese poems in his Sipi aur Shankh but they are more of free adaptations than translations.

 

            Modern Hindi prose style has developed through translations of the Bible and other missionary tracts. The other works which shaped it in early nineteenth century are Premsagar (Lallulal). Nasiketopakhyan (Sadal Mishra) and Sukhsagar (Sadasukhla). They are all translations from Brij and Sanskrit.

 

            In our own day Rangeya Raghava and Bachan have translated a number of Shakespeare’s plays into Hindi. Prem Chand, a great creative writer, translated three plays of Galsworthy: Justice, Silver Box and Strife. Almost aJl Bengali novels of Sharad, Bankim, Tagore, Bimal Mitra and Banaphool, etc., are available in Hindi. Bharati Vidyarthi has translated three novels of Thakszhi Siva Sankara Pillai into Hindi under the titles: Chunauti, Do Ser Dhan and Machaare Vamsa Vriksha and Godhuli (from Kannada), Bhikshuni and Sukhe Vriksha ki kahani (from Marathi), Rakta Gulab (from Gujarati) and Shikhar aur Shunya and Laxma Rekha (both from Punjabi) have opened new perspectives of rural India in its vast variety. Sad plight of the Santhal life has been revealed to us thro ugh Jangal ke Davedar and Aklant Kauraya. Translation of all these works of fiction from one Indian language into another has paved way for cultural integration within the country. Some Hindi translations became so popular that further translations into other languages were made from them. Thus Hindi has functioned as a clearing ­house for cultural and literary exchange.

 

            Hindi translations of Kannada (by B. R. Narain), Marathi (by Vasant Dev), and Malayalam plays have given us a useful insight into the life and culture of the speakers of these languages.

 

            Urdu has also enriched itself with translation. Progressive writers such as Manto, Aziz Ahmed, Sajjad Zahir, Anwar Azim, etc., have made a valuable contribution in this direction through translations from English, Russian, French, Turkish, Italian and Chinese, etc.

 

            This cursory survey of literary translations will remain incomplete unless we make a mention of the translations of Fitzgerald’s The Rubaiyats of Omar Khayyam. Fitzgerald had a partial knowledge of Persian, yet his translation has the force and beauty of an original work. This work inspired 16 translations into Hindi and the translators include such well known and reputed poets as Maithilisharan Gupta, Sumitranandan Pant, and Harivansh Rai Bachchan whose translation excels them all. These translations provided an escape from the hard realities of life and the feeling of despondency that had overpowered Indian mind during the period between 1930-1940 and set in a literary movement known as Halavad, though ephemeral. Khayyam met wide acceptance in India because his Rubaiyats reveal an imprint of the philosophy of the Upanishads.

 

            Three translations of Khayyam appeared in Urdu and the best among them is by Adam, a Pakistani poet.

 

            Let us make a passing reference to translations from other European languages also. The Russian literary giants admired and devoured avariciously in India are Pushkin, Dostoevsky, Turgenev, Tolstoy, Chekhov, Gorky, Sholokhov, Mayakvsky, etc. They have been translated into many Indian languages, but translations have been made not from Russian but from English.

 

            Bulgarian poet Nikolai Vaptasarov has been translated into Punjabi and Bengali by Amrita Pritam and Subhash Mukho­padhyaya respectively. Some Bulgarian short stories have appeared in Malayalam. Balakrishna Pillai translated works of Balzac and Maupassant into Malayalam.

 

            The tradition of translating world poetry into Hindi has been taking roots slowly for the past few years. Girdhar Rathi, Asad Zaidi, Waryan Singh, Kunwar Narain, Raghuvir Sahai, Saeed Shekh and Satya Bhushan Varma have made a valuable contribution by translating Chilean, Polish, Yugoslav, French, Russian, Greek, Hungarian, African, Rumanian, Italian, Ctinese, Argentinean and Japanese poems into Hindi.

 

Cultural Integration

 

            Culture is the sum total of social experience and every language has a culture of its own which manifests itself through its literature. The translation of a literary work results in a synthesis of two cultures: the culture of the original and the culture of the target literature. It expands the horizon of knowledge, conveys new cultural modes and fosters understand­ing and goodwill between them.

 

            Through literary translation man shares his inheritance with others. This develops a sympathetic attitude towards the people living in other parts of the world and speaking a different language. In the absence of translation a nation remains secluded from the rest of the world. Therefore, all languages favour translation of well-known works of other languages. Thus great literature transcends the boundaries of its own particular culture and becomes a universal property. The sublime thoughts that percolate through translation often act as catalyst for the receptor language. We all know the infiltration of the ideas of Marx, Rousseau. Darwin and Tolstoy initiated a renaissance in our country and gave birth to neo-intellectualism.

 

            Different cultures and literatures of the world have been coming closer with every passing day. This is a clear manifesta­tion of a closer contact that the peoples of the world have been experiencing and has strengthened our confidence in the comity of nations. Literary translation is the most important and powerful instrument for bringing about a cultural integration between the nations with diverse literary conventions, languages and linguistic cultures and art forms.

 

Conclusion

 

            The above overview of literary translations in various Indian languages is sufficient evidence to prove that no culture and no language (as well as their fulfilment in literature) develops in isolation. The universal, the international is necessarily present in them. The first is stipulated by the uniform direction of mankind’s development; the second by mutual exchange and influence. Literary translation facilitates the acceleration of the development of national culture and national literature on the basis of their mutual enrichment. Any attempt to remain isolated from external influences in the name of originality leads to the formation of narrow parochialism and national chauvinism which adversely affects the development of both spiritual culture as a whole and language.

 

            It is important to remember that the process of cultural integration which has been set in through literary translations in the present day can neither be stopped nor reversed. In every nation there is going on now an acute struggle between the democratic forces and those of the orthodox traditionalism; a new consciousness is awakening among the people and they are tearing asunder the harrowing bonds imposed on them by the colonial powers; they are assessing their literary and cultural heritage in the light of freedom which has dawned on them and filled them with pride in their identity. Literary translations supply them the pulsating and vibrating material for thought and action and activate cultural integration.

 

            Summing up, we can say that literary translation is a necessary and ongoing activity and in spite of its inadequacy remains one of the most important and worthiest concern in the totality of world affairs. Human feelings and emotions are the same all over the world, and this enables us to enjoy literature in other languages in translation. Literary translations have bridged the cultural gulf between the East and the West and made us citizens of the world in the true sense. We are now drawing nearer realizing the ideal of a global family.

 

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