Translating from bengali into english : with particular reference to the experience of translating Jibanananda Das's poetry

incl. ref.

This paper presents a series of observations arising from the experience of translating Jibanananda Das's Bengali poetry into English. Though the emphasis is on the practice of translation the observations in question are foregrounded against the perspective of theories of translation studies. The first part of the paper demarcates the scope of the paper in theoretical terms. Several possible approaches to translations of Jibanananda Das (in terms of process, end product, and sociological connotation) are considered with a view to focusing on practical observations. In the course of this process of theoretical delimitation some sense of the linguistic and literary context within which Jibanananda worked, and which the translator must appreciate, is conveyed. The second part is guided to a large extent by Roman Jakobson's notion that the activity of translating is influenced more by what languages must convey rather than by what they can convey. Consequently, this part identifies those features of the source and target languages which pose the greatest difficulties for the translator. It is assumed throughout that the practice of literary translation is largely a decision-making process: examples from the poetry of Jibanananda Das are cited and the range of decisions facing the translator are clarified where ever necessary. Four features of the Bengali language as compared to the English language are examined at some length: neutral pronouns of Bengali as opposed to gender-specific pronouns of English; culture-specific words; sadhu and calit used in Bengali (and analogously formal and informal modes of address); and symbolic forms (or echo-type onomatopoeic words or expressives) in Bengali and English. In the third part a translator's practice with regard to the specifically poetic features, over and above the inevitable linguistic features, of texts like Jibanananda's is considered briefly.