"On the Art of Translation" by Shanta Gokhale

A nice short column on the importance of translation, from an Indian women's magazine. 

"On the Art of Translation" by Shanta Gokhale (in Verve Magazine, The Spirit of Today's Woman, January 3, 2018)

The whole column is accessible from the line above. Here are some excerpts:

• We translate "because we think translation is one of the worthiest forms of literature that human beings have engaged in since the birth of language.Think of how much laughter Asterix has provided the English-reading world because Anthea Bell and Derek Hockridge have alchemised French humour into English. It doesn’t matter that they have altered references that were too steeped in French culture to make it across the Channel. Their only idea has been to catch the irony and wit of the original, abandoning literal faithfulness when it has stopped serving that purpose. A translator, who thinks her only job is to reproduce an author’s work word for word, is likely to turn out a translation that is odourless, colourless and bland. We will leave such a translator out of our discussion....  The creative translator on the other hand doesn’t allow single words or phrases to trap her, although they matter and must be translated. Instead, she opens herself to what the author is doing with them. Words after all are only tools that authors use to achieve the artistic and emotional effects they desire; and the purpose of translation is to reproduce those effects."
• "Although modern translators have trashed Constance Garnett’s 1901 version of Anna Karenina (there have been three others since), that’s the one I read at age 14. It worked for me then and it works for me now. The point is, it reached me across thousands of miles. That is what makes translation a vital literary act. It cross-pollinates languages and cultures. In Susan Sontag’s telling metaphor, ‘Translation is the circulatory system of the world’s literatures’. Like blood circulation in the body, translation keeps cultures healthy and growing. Generalising, I would say that those who read only what their own cultures produce play a regressive role in their societies. I doubt if the official from Rajasthan’s education department who recommended sweeping floors, using hand-grinding mills and filling water pitchers as the perfect keep-fit regimen for women could have read anything beyond Manusmriti. If that."
• "Actually, it is not just culture but language itself that grows through translation. German philosopher and cultural critic Walter Benjamin argues that translation allows ‘a foreign tongue to influence and modify the language into which a work is being translated’. I know this from personal experience. Translating from English into Marathi, I have occasionally been compelled to dig deep into my language. Failing to find what I am looking for, I have happily gone ahead and coined a word to fit the context. I have dared to do this because I know the underlying structures of my language and am therefore certain that the word I have created is linguistically valid."