Kakatiya Conference
Yet another translation conference was organised, this time by the Department of English,
University Post-Graduate College, Kakatiya University, Warangal ("English Translation
of Regional Literature", 30–31 Jan 1999; conference director V Gopal Reddy). The
focus of this conference was on Telugu and English. It was puzzling that Urdu was not
represented in a conference dealing with translation of regional literatures especially
when it was being held in Warangal.
The conference brought together a linguist, a practitioner-cum-theoretician and a
writer to start the proceedings of the conference. Bh Krishnamurti talked about the
possibility of exploiting the shared structural, lexical, socio-linguistic and cultural
features of Indian languages for the purposes of translation. Even as Sujit Mukherjee felt
that translation was a very normal activity in India and had existed long before the
British had arrived, he too saw the need to train people to become competent translators.
He bemoaned the fact that even the little bit of practice of translation that used to be
part of the curriculum no longer existed. As a writer, Naveen welcomed the activity of
translation and said that many Telugu writers had benefited by translations of Indian and
other texts into Telugu.
The papers that followed were mostly by practicing translators. While D Kesava
Rao spoke specifically about problems of translating poetry, C L L Jayaprada described the
negotiations that take place between translator, writer, editor and publisher. Peddibhotla
Subbaramaiah, a short story writer, shared his feelings of being translated into English.
Vegunta Mohan Prasad, a poet and translator, detailed his experiences of translating an
ancient Telugu text into English. In their joint paper, Alladi Uma and M Sridhar argued
that the translator must necessarily be creative even as s/he is faithful to the original.
D Venkata Rao extended the scope of translation to include re-writing myths, taking Gaddar
as his main example. Of the two papers on non-literary translations, T Vinoda’s
brought out the awkwardness of some advertisements in Telugu which were a result of
unimaginative translations from English and Radhika Rani’s dealt with the role of
translation in journalism. Meenakshi Mukherjee’s presentation drew attention to the
composition of the readers of Indian Writing in English and those of Indian
Literatures in Translation. She wondered what the impact of a text would be if it is
translated many years after its first publication. M Rajeshwar felt that the translator
had the right to edit and even change the text to make it presentable to the target
audience. This generated a heated response from both the writers and translators. |
The organizers
took the opportunity to felicitate Meenakshi Mukherjee in recognition of her contribution
to Indian Writing and Translation.
Alladi Uma and M Sridhar
Transculturalism and Canada
Fifteen papers pertaining to different disciplines of the Humanities and Social
Sciences (with Literature admittedly predominant) were presented at the seminar on
"Trans-cultural Discourses: The Canadian Context" (5–6 Mar 1999), the first
major event organized by the Osmania’s Canadian Studies Programme (CSP), and
supported by the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute, New Delhi. Sherry Simon, Professor of
French, University of Concordia, Montreal stressed the newer vistas opened up by
translation studies in her keynote.
The presentations covered a range of topics: diasporic representations in the
writings of Bharati Mukherjee, Joyce Kogawa, Uma Parameshwaran, Rohinton Mistry; humour of
Leacock and Narayan; the marginalized Jewish-Canadian woman; the poetry of Atwood; and the
work of French writer Gabriella Roy.
The social scientists examined Indo-Canadian relations from the angles of trade,
politics, and education. Plenary sessions were addressed by J W Bjorkman, Rector,
International Studies at the Hague ("Trans-Border Comments by an American on
Canada"), and by Narendra Luther through a video presentation of his film on the rock
formations of Hyderabad ("Rokcumentary").
Among the forty-odd participants were Iaclals members Kalpana Wandrekar, P K
Kalyani, Neelam Trikha; and Bala Kothandaraman (Coordinator, Osmania’s CSP) was the
Director of the Seminar.
Bala Kothandaraman
Colonies, Missions
and Cultures
After Graz (1993) and Barcelona (1996), this year the triennial conference of the
European ACLALS was held in the picturesque university town of Tubingen, Germany from
6–11 April. Participants came from almost every European country, big or
small—from Scotland to Slovakia and Finland to Malta. In addition, many came from
Australia and South Africa, and a few from Singapore, Hong Kong, USA, Canada and Sri
Lanka. From India there were four participants—two of them members of Iaclals—K
Radha of the University of Kerala who spoke on German missionaries in Kerala and Meenakshi
Mukherjee whose paper was entitled "Gender and Conversion".
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