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LITERATURE AND TRANSLATIONS

 

 IMPORTANCE OF TRANSLATION FOR THE STUDY OF COMPARATIVE LITERATURE :

      Masterpieces have been produced in all languages. No scholar can master all the languages to master these texts. Literary translation thus becomes indispensable for the study of comparative literature. It is only through translation that many of the literary masterpieces of one country have found a bearing  and become 'naturalised' in other countries. People have been able to share the experiences and emotions expressed in foreign works. Men of letters have always been profoundly influenced by them

Source Language and Target Language 

WILL TRANSLATION SPOIL THE SPIRIT OF THE ORIGINA ?

     It is generally believed that translation will destroy the writer's precise balance of thought, feeling, written word and the sound. May be that they have been exaggerated. It is true that the punning of Thomas Hood or the alliteration of Swinburne may not be adequately translated in another language. But at the same time, the majesty of the Genesis and the intensity of the Divine Comedy have been maintained to a greater extent in translation. The name of the American poet , Bayard Taylor , is known more for his translation of Goethe's Faust, than for his own writings. He believes in utter fidelity to the sense of the original work of art , in reproducing the verse forms and even the rhyme and the rhythm  

TRANSLATION INFLUENCES WRITERS AND WORKS :

      Translation is important for the development of comparative literature. It influences writers and works. Montaigue, the famous French essayist, influence of Francis Bacon in English to produce his famous essays. Samuel Beckett inspired many  Absurd dramatists. The novel form in Italy was responsible for the development of the form in English and other languages. The English novel in turn influenced many Indian writers to create novels in various Indian languages

  

PURPOSES OF TRANSLATION :

      Translation is most essential for two purposes. (i) It introduces us to different forms of art in other languages, which otherwise would become inaccessible. For example, the sonnet form in Italy or the 'haiku' form of poetry in Japan became popular because of translation. (ii) Translation widens one's capacity for meaning and expression in one's language

TWO MAIN SOURCES OF EUROPEAN TRANSLATION :

     There are two main sources of modern European translation. The translation of the Bible served as a meditator to bring the Europeans together, into one religion. Again, the classics of Greece and Rome were translated into many European languages and this led to a great literary revolution, the Renaissance 

APPROACH THROUGH TRANSLATION OF LITERATURE:

     The ideal type of approach to translation of literature with regards to comparative literature is as follows :

      (i)            A foreign author is bought over to us and to make us read him as our own

    (ii)            We go to the foreign author through the translation to understand the working of his mind and his ways of presentation (eg) Goethe's Faust.

 Types of translation :

     There are two different types of translation - (i) up close rendering of the meaning, imagery and rhythm of the original  

(ii) taking liberties with the text and giving an undependable prejudiced version. The two different translations of "To be or Not to be" in Shakespeare's Hamlet by Schlegel and Voltaire could be cited as a good example. Both translations were made during the 18th century. the German translation of Schlegel is true to the original but Voltaire's French translation text liberties with original, introducing his own prejudices 

  

Difficulties in translating literary texts :

     Translating poetry is difficult. Novels for other narrative forms can be easily translated. A novel generally loses little of its structure and little therefore of its essential meaning. Thousands of readers without knowledge of Russian, have responded to Tolstoy's Anna Karenina or Dostoyevski's Crime and Punishment. They are often moved by them more deeply than by most novels in their own languages.

               

                At the same time, translation cannot do full justice to all that is most English in Jane Austen. A novel that is conceived  imaginatively will use language its own way and emerge the poorer in translation

Comparative study will be at its best when the writer moves freely from one language to another. But very few people have that kind of faculty. In wrong hands, the translation might prove even more dangerous  

TRANSLATION VIEWED DIFFERENTLY IN DIFFERENT AGES :

      Every age views literature through the prism of its own preoccupations. These alter in time with the changes in human history. It is the nature of a classic to present new facts in a new situation. A translation cannot truly coexist with the original. They are not one and the same. Translation belongs to a different stream in the world literature  

FOR LITERARY TRANSLATION TO SURVIVE :

     If translation has to survive, something of imitation, a controlled surrender to another poet's mode, is required from the translator. The poem he attempts must be a discovery to him, almost on par with his own experience. He has to respect the pattern, coherence and texture of the original. An excellent translator may add a new potentiality to the mother tongue.

CONCLUSION :

      Finally, translation is an instrument, without which vast areas of the world's literature would be lost to us. The translator's work has many disadvantages ; but it holds together the body of world literature, and helps us to keep language alive and supple 

 

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