Lost in Translation

Yeah, so I attended the Jaipur Literary Festival (or is it Literature Festival? I could never remember). As usual, the event was heavily commercialised and I don't even know why some of the people were speakers at events at which they were speaking. But this can always be found in every JLF you attend. However, another thing that can also be found always in JLF are ideas. The speakers might not always be that good, but sometimes, they leave you with terrifying ideas. I attended 7 events, out of which one managed to ignite something in my brain.

On Sunday, there was a session on translation. I've had a teacher who takes translation very seriously, so I was very interested in this event. This event ended up being a disappointment in terms of its content. However, just thinking about translation got me wondering: Suppose I was writing in English about something and I'm not able to express it properly. So, my narrative has the chances of being broken, insufficient, and wanting of something. I've read texts which present this wanting in all its beauty. Now, my narrative can have this wanting deliberately or accidentally. Deliberately in the sense that I want to create this sense of wanting. Accidentally in the sense that I want to convey something to the readers but I can't because of reasons that could include me not knowing the words to describe what I want to perfectly, the words not existing in the language I'm writing in, etc. If someone was to translate my text, and they were translating it in a language that had the words to describe what I wanted to convey in my text, assuming that the translator knows those words, should the translator use those words or leave the narrative wanting?

Personally, as the author of the text, I wouldn't want to erase the sense of wanting that my text creates. However, as a translator, I'd want the text to reach its full potential, which it can if I use the words available to me in the language I'm translating in. 

What would you do? Would you capture meaning or would you let it go?

Until next time.

Yours, 

Orange