India: Tales and Translations

By Ellen Raven

Jos Gommans indicated in his introduction, starting from Abraham Rogerius in the seventeenth century, Dutch translators have helped to shape our dreams and images of India, and improve our understanding of Indian civilization. Translating is no sinecure, as it requires basic choices regarding methods: should a translator, for instance, aim at a strictly scholarly translation, or should he or she prefer a more literary rendering and try to cater to a broad public? Is it possible to translate a story or a poem and not lose at least part of the original's cultural identity in the process?
These were some of the aspects of translating brought to the fore by eight contributors. Hanneke van den Muyzenberg, Indologist and chief librarian at the Kern Institute, discussed the phenomenon of indirect translating: Dutch publishers publishing a secondary translation into Dutch of a German or English primary translation of the Indian original work. A relatively cheap solution, but one which is usually done at the expense of the original text, detracting from the pleasure of the reader.
The Arabist Richard van Leeuwen discussed the difficulties facing him in translating The Tales of Thousand-and-One- Nights, which have been translated into many European languages since the eighteenth century, involving repeated editing and adapting.
A.G. Menon, who teaches Dravidian languages at the Kern Institute, talked about the seventeenth century efforts by the Dutch East India Company to produce a 'Malabar'-Dutch glossary.
Hein Wagenaar, entrepreneur in muli-media hard- and software, recently compiled a transliterated Hindi-English dictionary on CD ROM. He illustrated the choices a translator has to make regarding the correct spelling of transliterated words. Indian authors frequently include transliterated Hindi words in their books. Their preference for any of a number of transliterating styles often reflects the author's social and geographical background.
Thomas de Bruijn, research fellow in training at the Kern Institute, discussed the problems which Indian authors have to face in the multi-lingual Indian society. In order to reach an audience raised with a language (and social background) different from his own, an author has to 'translate' his own work into the vocabulary of his prospective audience. Thus his work may reflect different levels of expression which a translator may find very hard to bring out satisfactorily.
Victor van Bijlert, who teaches Bengali and modern history of South Asia at the Kern Institute, discussed the area of tension between the cultural hegemony of the West and the opening-up of non-Western cultures, for instance by translations. He focused on the poems of the Bengali poet Rabindranath Tagore, who greatly supported cultural discourse based on equality and mutual respect. Even though a translation can never be more than a replica, differing in colours and material from the original, a good copy may at least evoke genuine appreciation of the original.
H. van Teylingen, founder of the Sri Chaitanya Community, spoke about his versifying of Indian devotional texts such as the Bhagavad Gita and the Krishna-lila. He endeavours to phrase his translations in the original metres, and -guided by his spiritual teachers - he tries to translate and interpret the original texts in the spiritually purest way.
Leo van Grunsven, head of the publishing division of Novib, explained how financial factors dominate policies regarding the publication of books, including translations more and more. He amplified the process of selecting new titles for the Novib series of Indian novels, which involves not only getting the opinion of experts, but also trusting a publisher's instincts for a hit novel.
Winand Callewaert, who teaches Eastern philology and history at Leuven University, concluded the programme by evaluating the various angles from which translating Indian texts had been illustrated that day. There was general consensus among those present that the meeting had been very successful and henceforward one would see translations and translating efforts in a different light. The Society of Friends of the Kern Institute is exploring the possibilities of publishing the papers of the meeting.

Dr Ellen Raven is affiliated to the Kern Institute of Leiden University