Short Stories and Memoirs
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S h o r Short Stories and Memoirs t S "Translation is not a matter of words only: it is a t of matter of making intelligible a whole culture." o r i Women Writers of Uttarakhand –Anthony Burgess e s a n "Good translations are one of the vital necessities of d our time." M –F.C. Lucas e m o i r s o Edited by : f W Jaiwanti Dimri Madhu D. Singh o m e n W r i t e * r s o f U t t a r a k h a n d ` 300/- 978-81-923430-3-7 Short Stories and Memoirs of Women Writers of Uttarakhand Translated from Hindi Edited by : Jaiwanti Dimri Madhu D. Singh Published by: Women’s Studies Centre SGRR (PG) College, Dehradun Published by: Women’s Studies Centre SGRR (PG) College, Dehradun First Edition : 2017 © Women’s Studies Centre, SGRR (PG) College, Dehradun e-mail : [email protected] All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Application for such permission should be addressed to the publisher. ISBN: 978-81-923430-3-7 300/- Printed by: Priyanka Graphic Printer 77 Govindgarh, Dehradun Mob.: 9410101023 Message It is a matter of great pleasure that Women’s Studies Centre of SGRR (PG) College is publishing the stories and memoirs of women writers of Uttarakhand which have been translated from Hindi to English. It is true that all human beings have an innate urge to hear and tell stories. It would be no exaggeration to say that story telling is as old as mankind itself. Superb stories have been written in different languages but mostly they remain confined to the language in which they were originally written. That’s the reason they need to be translated into other languages also , so that they are enjoyed and appreciated by a much larger number of readers. Undoubtedly, translation is a kind of linguistic bridge- building between two languages and cultures. In our times it has assumed ever greater significance, as in a multi-linguistic country like India, different regional literatures can reach all the people of India only through translation. By undertaking to translate the regional literature of Uttarakhand into English, the Women’s Studies Centre has fulfilled a very important requirement of our times. It is indeed a commendable effort, as it would enable a far greater number of readers to relish and appreciate, through the medium of translation, the rich panorama of literature produced by these authors. My blessings to the Women’s Studies Centre for this endeavour. (Shri Mahant Devendra Dass) Sajjada Nashin, Jhanda Sahib Shri Guru Ram Rai Darbar, Dehradun From the Principal's Desk In a multi-linguistic and multi-cultural country like India, translation helps us step beyond our narrow domestic walls and discover the literatures of other states and regions. It is only through translations that immortal works such as Ramayana, Mahabharata, Gitanjali etc. have reached not only all the regions of India but also different countries of the world. Literatures of different regions are the repository of their cultural mores and values . In them lies the innate wisdom of their people. By translating these literatures into other languages , this innate wisdom is disseminated to other regions also , thereby enriching the entire society. This is a very important contribution of translation. Translation is both an artistic process and a craft. The task of translation demands not only thorough command of both the languages - - the source language (SL) as well as the target language (TL) — but also intuition and creativity on the part of translator. He needs to have a grasp over the nuances of both the languages . He is also required to bring empathy and understanding to the work, he is translating, only then full justice can be done to the source text when its original essence and flavor is maintained in translation. By undertaking to translate the stories and memoirs of women writers of Uttarakhand from Hindi into English, the Women’s Studies Centre (WSC) of our college has made a significant contribution in expanding the reach of these stories and memoirs. I am sure that while these stories would not only entertain the readers but also unfold before them a fresh perspective of life as envisioned by their authors, the Memoirs too – experiences as they are of pioneer women of Uttarakhand—would inspire and motivate everyone. I congratulate the entire team of WSC for this initiative. (Prof. V.A. Bourai) Principal Preface One of the core areas identified by the Women’s Studies Centre of our college is translation. As per the UGC Approach Paper, the Women’s Studies Centres across the country are mandated to translate the writings of regional women writers into other languages, notably into Hindi and English, so as to reach a wider readership. Accordingly our Centre also undertook the task of translating the works of women writers of Uttarakhand. We started with the genre of poetry, under which poems of women writers— originally composed in Garhwali and Kumauni- were translated into Hindi as well as English. These translations were published under the title ‘Triveni’ which contained poems of Veenapani Joshi, Geeta Nautiyal, Beena Benjwal, Neeta Kukreti, Diwa Bhatt, Bharti Pandey, Uma Joshi, and Beena Kandari. When the process of translating the poems was still on, we had decided that our next step would be to translate short stories/ memoirs of women writers of Uttarakhand. The present anthology consists of short stories and memoirs penned by these women writers which have been translated from Hindi into English. Undoubtedly the process of selecting the stories and memoirs and then translating them into English was quite strenuous and challenging but it was also creative and stimulating at the same time. Preliminary work in this direction was started in November 2015 when those writers were identified whose stories/ memoirs were to be taken up for translation. In this process the valuable help rendered by Prof Jaiwanti Dimri (former Professor Dept. of English H P University Shimla) is really noteworthy. I am so grateful to Prof Dimri that she has taken time from her busy schedule to sit with me for long hours to select the stories and [vi] memoirs to be translated. Out of a large number of stories and memoirs, nine stories and five memoirs were finalized by us . She also helped us during the later stage of the project to fine tune the translations, besides translating some stories and memoirs herself. I am also very grateful to Prof. Uma Bhat (former Professor Kumaun University, Dept. of Hindi) who not only mailed me the contact numbers and addresses of many writers included in this book but also provided me glossary of some words mentioned in Gangotri Gabryal’s memoir. There is no doubt that the act of translation is virtually a tight- rope walking between two languages which by its very nature is fraught with potential pitfalls. All translators since the time of Cicero have faced the same dilemma: whether to translate word for word and retain fidelity to the source text or to take creative liberty with the text for the sake of conveying the essence of SLT (source language text) into TLT (target language text) through translation. The problems of translation from Hindi to English or for that matter from any Indian language to English are of a different kind. They are basically those of different socio-cultural backgrounds and different syntactical structure. We all know that English is an SVO ( subject verb object) based language, while Hindi is an SOV (subject object verb ) language. This difference in syntactical structure poses a peculiar challenge to the translator. There are other types of challenges also in a Hindi to English translation . For example, to translate Hindi words for food items such as Raita, Poori, Laddu etc. poses a challenge. Similarly it is no less problematic to translate some words or expressions which are rooted in one particular cultural context- such as ‘Haath peele karna’. Tehravi, Mundan, Namkaran, so on and so forth. Another challenge is to translate some Hindi words denoting family relationships such as Dada Dadi, Nana Nani, Chacha [vii] Chachi, Nanad Bhabhi, Mama Mami, Bua Fufa, etc. In English we do not have as many corresponding words for them. Likewise in Hindi, there are two words ‘tum’, and ‘aap’ for which there is only one word in English that is ‘You’, Similar is the case with some idioms for which corresponding idiom is not available in English. In view of the above mentioned constraints and problems encountered during the process of translation, it wouldn’t be wrong to say that the task of translation is really a challenging one. The fact of the matter is that no translation can ever be wholly perfect. Still there is no denying the fact that there is no means other than translation, if we wish to savour the literatures of different languages. Isn’t it only through translations that some of the greatest classics have been unfolded before us ? The only thing is that the translator needs to have a thorough command of both the languages- the source language as well as the target language. He should also have a deep grasp of the cultural sensibilities which form the warp and woof of the original work which has been taken up for translation. In the present book also, we have taken recourse to various devices such as literal translation, transference, cultural equivalent, functional equivalent, deletion, addition, reduction and synonymy etc as suggested by eminent translators, so that the exact sense as intended by the writer in the original text is conveyed in translation.