Re: Telugus writing in English (:
Bapa Rao (brao@tis.com)
Wed, 27 Aug 1997 15:28:45 -0700 (PDT)
* Take Subrahmanya Sastry's "kalupu mokkalu" for instance. The
* main theme isn't just the social and economic exploitation of
* the poor and helpless by the powerful and rich, but the
* humiliation of a simple minded soul in a system that forgot
* the distinction between what's right and what's wrong. The
* humiliation comes neither from an action nor from an isolated
* word. It emerges due to the deep rooted cultural references
* the characters make in the process of negotiating their space.
*
* Anyone who reads this story, _just_ as a person who knows how
* to read Telugu, but never lived a Telugu life, would miss the
* theme by atleast 1000 miles. It's just another story of
* curruption and exploitation for such a reader. So, why would
* anyone attempt to translate this story into English, exposing
* it to millions of non-Telugus as just another corruption story,
* when we knew before hand that any non-Telugu would miss the
* point for sure?
Couple of points:
I don't think that the issue is as clear-cut as "every non-Telugu will
absolutely miss the cultural nuances." Surely the degree to which
such nuances can be successfully conveyed is a function of the
subject matter, the quality of the original writing, and the
quality of the translation.
Another point is that we should avoid "essentializing" Telugu
experience. What I mean is that there is no a priori
reason to believe that the Telugu experience is inherently less
translatable than say the American, Colombian or Russian
experiences. Of course, this doesn't mean that we ignore the
"loss" factor during translation between any two languages, just
that we shouldn't attribute to the Telugu essence something
that may rightly belong to quality of artistic experession or
skill of translation.
My personal views.
Bapa Rao