Translating Standayini
Translating Stanadayini: the Cultural Anxiety behind it
When translation occupies a problematic space in the instance of translating from a colonized’s language to a colonizer’s, the debate over the representation of the colonized ‘other’ does not arise if the translator herself is rooted in the culture of the colonized. The Bengali story Stanadayini is composed by the well known writer Mahasweta Devi, and translated into English as Breast-Giver by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak who has had her roots of cultural upbringing in Bengal. Yet there are remarkable aspects where the ‘other’ of the original text loses her voice in the translated version. A translated text may be morally committed to the original text to some degree but not wholly. There is a holy paradox between craft and credulity that heightens the tension in a piece of translation. As in the following instance there is an unintentional slip made by Spivak while translating Stanadayini as she writes : ‘The apparent simplicity of Saratchandra’s and other similar writers’ writings is actually very complex and to be thought of in the evening, peacefully after a glass of wood-apple juice. There is too much influence of fun and games in the lives of the people who traffic in studies and intellectualism in West Bengal and therefore they should stress the wood-apple-type-herbal remedies correspondingly.’1
Now let us examine from the original text the same portion that is translated above : nlvQ¾cÊl Hhw Ae¤l©f mMLcl mM¡l Bf¡a plma¡ Bpm M¤h S¢Vm Hhw påÉhm¡ n¡¿¹ je hml f¡e¡ Mu ¢Q¿¹¡ Ll¡l Lb¡z f¢ÕQjh‰ ky¡l¡C mM¡fs¡ J ¢Q¿¹¡n£ma¡l L¡lh¡l Lle, ay¡cl S£he Bj¡n¡l fËi¡h AaÉ¿¹ h¢n Hhw p L¡lZ hm gm¢Va ay¡cl pj¢dL …l¦aÆ cJu¡ E¢Qaz 2
It appears
When translation occupies a problematic space in the instance of translating from a colonized’s language to a colonizer’s, the debate over the representation of the colonized ‘other’ does not arise if the translator herself is rooted in the culture of the colonized. The Bengali story Stanadayini is composed by the well known writer Mahasweta Devi, and translated into English as Breast-Giver by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak who has had her roots of cultural upbringing in Bengal. Yet there are remarkable aspects where the ‘other’ of the original text loses her voice in the translated version. A translated text may be morally committed to the original text to some degree but not wholly. There is a holy paradox between craft and credulity that heightens the tension in a piece of translation. As in the following instance there is an unintentional slip made by Spivak while translating Stanadayini as she writes : ‘The apparent simplicity of Saratchandra’s and other similar writers’ writings is actually very complex and to be thought of in the evening, peacefully after a glass of wood-apple juice. There is too much influence of fun and games in the lives of the people who traffic in studies and intellectualism in West Bengal and therefore they should stress the wood-apple-type-herbal remedies correspondingly.’1
Now let us examine from the original text the same portion that is translated above : nlvQ¾cÊl Hhw Ae¤l©f mMLcl mM¡l Bf¡a plma¡ Bpm M¤h S¢Vm Hhw påÉhm¡ n¡¿¹ je hml f¡e¡ Mu ¢Q¿¹¡ Ll¡l Lb¡z f¢ÕQjh‰ ky¡l¡C mM¡fs¡ J ¢Q¿¹¡n£ma¡l L¡lh¡l Lle, ay¡cl S£he Bj¡n¡l fËi¡h AaÉ¿¹ h¢n Hhw p L¡lZ hm gm¢Va ay¡cl pj¢dL …l¦aÆ cJu¡ E¢Qaz 2
It appears
Cited: 2. jq¡nÄa¡ ch£ : “Ù¹ec¡¢ue£” , A¿¹NÑa : Ù¹ec¡¢ue£ J AeÉ¡eÉ NÒf, fªz 195-220, LmL¡a¡ : e¡b f¡h¢m¢nw q¡Ep, 1979 3 4. Devi, Mahasweta. “Breast-Giver”.Trans. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.The Norton Anthology of World Literature:Shorter Second Edition. Ed. Peter Simon. New York: Norton, 2009. 1069-1088. Print. 5. jq¡nÄa¡ ch£ : “Ù¹ec¡¢ue£” , A¿¹NÑa : Ù¹ec¡¢ue£ J AeÉ¡eÉ NÒf, fªz 195-220, LmL¡a¡ : e¡b f¡h¢m¢nw q¡Ep, 1979 6 7. jq¡nÄa¡ ch£ : “Ù¹ec¡¢ue£” , A¿¹NÑa : Ù¹ec¡¢ue£ J AeÉ¡eÉ NÒf, fªz 195-220, LmL¡a¡ : e¡b f¡h¢m¢nw q¡Ep, 1979 8 9. jq¡nÄa¡ ch£ : “Ù¹ec¡¢ue£” , A¿¹NÑa : Ù¹ec¡¢ue£ J AeÉ¡eÉ NÒf, fªz 195-220, LmL¡a¡ : e¡b f¡h¢m¢nw q¡Ep, 1979 10 12. jq¡nÄa¡ ch£ : “Ù¹ec¡¢ue£” , A¿¹NÑa : Ù¹ec¡¢ue£ J AeÉ¡eÉ NÒf, fªz 195-220, LmL¡a¡ : e¡b f¡h¢m¢nw q¡Ep, 1979 13 M.Phil. Scholar, University of Calcutta (2012- 2014) deepaundeb@gmail.com