Day 2 - National Workshop On Translating Gujarati Literature into English: Practices and Approaches

Hello Readers, 

This is the continuation of the previous blog...

Day 2 

The refreshing day began at 10.00 Am with great zeal and energy.

·       Session 1 -

The first session was again a special one. The participants were divided into small groups as per their choice of translating poems or prose. They had to work in groups and translate the poem or prose given to them on the previous day.

My Group

I and my group had taken different poems for this task. Ms Neela Pandya and Prof.Santosh Dash helped us a lot in this task. They also checked our work and gave suggestions regarding it.

 The above poem was taken by me. This was the best session for me because in this session I was able to put into practice what I learnt.

  More about this in my next blog.

·       Session 2 -

Subject experts- Prof.Sachin Ketkar and Dr Santosh Dash shared their expert views on Translating Gujarati Literature into English in this gathering. Both the experts shared their experiences as a translator.

Dr Dash opined that Translation is a process of ‘Give’ and ‘Take’. He also talked about a quite new concept that Implementation of an Idea is also a translation. This was quite a new definition of translation. Sir has been involved in translating literature for a long time. His purpose is not only to give Gujarati Literature into another Language but also to know the people in deep.

Prof.Ketkar started his journey from his college time. He used to translate stories and poems from that time onwards. He took it as a serious profession after that. One of the most important things he talked about was ‘Sense of Failure’. Whenever he used to read his own translation he felt like it’s disastrous. According to sir this sense of failure keeps you growing over time.

People many times doesn’t like or want to translate thinking that the translation will lose the charm of the original text. As per Sir, there is no loss. There is no universal idea of loss. In this process, someone gains something but no one losses anything. This was a unique idea of loss.

Sir then shared about 3 models of translation given by the well-known Marathi translator and poet Gyaneshwar Sir in the 13^th century. Prof.Ketkar Sir’s has done much work on this poet and his work.

This session was very productive. Listening to the journey of these experts bring in vital energy for us to keep learning and growing.

·       Session 3 -

Like all the other sessions this was again a good session. In this, the participants who had done their work in this area shared their experiences.

Ms Sadhna Desai has translated many books from English into Gujarati. She said that many times when we read certain books we feel like it is for kids as the norms are attached to it, but then we realize that it is meant for adults. For example - Gulliver’s Travels etc. She also translated many stories into Gujarati.

Ms Pooja Mehta has done her translating work on Hari Vallabh Bhayani’s books. These books were the translation of a translation. She said that it was so difficult task to do and many of the words she had to retain in the original language. She said that while doing this she realized that being a Gujarati her language was so poor. She also said that it is necessary to know more than two languages that are too deep.

Ms Pankti Desai started her journey as a translator during school as a process of language learning. She has done her MPhil in Translation Studies. She translated many short stories. Among them, she read her translation of a short story by Mona Patrawala. She retained the words as in the original dialect to give the feel of the people and their Parsi culture.

Lastly, Mr Mrunal Chavda shared about his Project on Gujarati Literary Production in South Africa: Themes and Strands. 

This project reminded me of a famous line-

 “Jya Jya Vase Ek GUJARATI Tya Tya Sadakal GUJARAT”

We got to know here how different people faced different problems in their journey as a translator. 

For a fresher like me, it was altogether a new, Productive and wonderful experience.

On the first day, we had discussed the story ‘GruhPravesh’ by Suresh Joshi. This word is associated mostly with the girls entering a new. I had the same feeling while entering into this new world of translation where everyone experts as well as participants not only warmly welcomed me but also appreciated my work and encouraged me to keep writing, learning and growing.

This wonderful workshop ended with the valedictory function and distribution of certificates and a book as a token of love.

As it is said,

"भूखे-भजन-न-होए-गोपाला"

No work can be done without food. The food at the workshop was delicious and relishing.

It is very necessary to have a positive eye-soothing atmosphere to learn something new.

Thanks to the students of the Department of English, MSU for providing us knowledge through different beautiful projects on the display.

I extend my heartfelt gratitude towards Prof.Sachin Ketkar, Prof.Hitesh Raviya, Prof.Madhurita Choudhary, Dr AjaySingh Chauhan. Thank you, Mr Dhiren Parmar and Mr Parth Dave for helping us these two days.

Looking forward to such events in future!!!!!!

For my first experience as a translator…..Stay tuned to read my next blog!!!!