November 05, 2024 13:22 (IST)
Follow us:
facebook-white sharing button
twitter-white sharing button
instagram-white sharing button
youtube-white sharing button
Pakistan's Lahore has become world's most polluted city with an AQI of 1900 on Sunday | Indian Army 'successfully completes' patrolling to a key point in Ladakh's Depsang region | US presidential election: Donald Trump ahead of Kamala Harris in swing states, poll survey predicts | 'I strongly condemn Hindu temple attack, intimidation of our diplomats': PM Modi amid Canada row | 'I strongly condemn Hindu temple attack, intimidation of our diplomats': PM Modi amid Canada row
Translation is also 'transcreation', says writer-journalist Ranjita Biswas on receiving PFC-Valley of Words award
Translation Award

Translation is also 'transcreation', says writer-journalist Ranjita Biswas on receiving PFC-Valley of Words award

| @indiablooms | 29 Nov 2021, 05:38 pm

“Today translation as a literary genre is getting amply recognised, if long overdue, in India. In another development in recent years, it is now accepted that writings in English is part of the wider spectrum of Indian regional literatures,” said Ranjita Biswas, journalist, author and translator, in her acceptance speech after receiving the PFC-Valley of Words, 2021, Award in the English Translation category.

Her award winning book The Loneliness of Hira Barua is published by Pan Macmillan.

Originally titled Mariam Austin othoba Hira Barua in Assamese it is written by Arupa Patangia Kalita, Assam’s foremost contemporary writer, who received  the Sahitya Akademi award in 2014 for this book. It has 15 stories that reflect contemporary society in its many facets.

Biswas herself received the Sahitya Akademi Award for English Translation in 2017 for another of Kalita’s works titled Written in Tears published by Harper Collins.

In India, from the 1950s when the Sahitya Akademi launched its bhasha translation projects to the present, when well- known publishers in the country, many of which are headquartered abroad,  encourage translations from Indian regional literatures, there has been a big leap indeed.

As Biswas points out, there was a time when the translator’s name did not even appear on the book cover and he or she remained almost invisible. But translation, as is recognised world-wide, is as creative a process as any.

In fact, many prefer to term it as ‘transcreation’ as the translators not only transform the text into another language, they also enrich it  with  their own literary sensibility.

“It is also a huge responsibility for  the translator  to bring out the rasa- or aesthetics of the original writing,” Biswas reiterates.

Valley of Words International Literary Award, Dehradun, has seven categories  under  which each winner is conferred a plaque and a cash prize of one lakh rupees. 

Support Our Journalism

We cannot do without you.. your contribution supports unbiased journalism

IBNS is not driven by any ism- not wokeism, not racism, not skewed secularism, not hyper right-wing or left liberal ideals, nor by any hardline religious beliefs or hyper nationalism. We want to serve you good old objective news, as they are. We do not judge or preach. We let people decide for themselves. We only try to present factual and well-sourced news.

Support objective journalism for a small contribution.