Table Of ContentSUJIT MUKHERJEE
Translation
as
Recovery
With an introduction by
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TRANSLATION AS RECOVERY
Sujit Mukherjee
Translation as Recovery
Edited by Meenakshi Mukherjee
With an Introduction by Harish Trivedi
Pencraft International
Delhi-110052
Published by Anurag Jain for Z .ÏO 5
Pencraft International
Sales Office: 4262/3, Ansari Raod,
Darya Ganj, New Delhi-110002
Head Office: B-l/41, Ashok Vihar II
Delhi-110052
Phones : 23277084, 27443784, 27120156
e-mail : [email protected] Fax: 27443784
Copyright© Reserved with the Editor, Meenakshi Mukherjee
Copyright © All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced in any form without the written permission of the Editor,
Meenakshi Mukherjee.
Translation Studies
First Edition : 2004
ISBN 81-85753-63-6
Laser typeset at
Suneha Computer Systems
WZ-526, Nangal Raya, New Delhi-110046
Printed at
D.K. Fine Art Press (P) Ltd.
A-6, Nimri Commercial Centre, Ashok Vihar IV, Delhi-52
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Editor’s Preface
Sujit Mukherjee left on his table a file marked Translation as Recovery
which contained some of his published essays on translation and
several unpublished ones. There was also a tentative Table of Contents
from which I know that he was planning to write a few more, among
them the title essay which was probably going to explain why he chose
this name for his proposed book.
I would not have ventured to edit this volume but for the
encouragement and support of two friends, Harish Trivedi and S.P.
Jain. Harish came to Hyderabad in early 2003, soon after Sujit’s death,
and rummaged through his papers to assure me that there was enough
material for a book here. He and Sujit have been close associates in
their work on translation ever since 1981 when Sujit found out that this
young lecturer from St. Stephens College was the anonymous
publisher’s reviewer for Translation as Discovery. Harish’s long report
on his manuscript, Sujit always said, was the best piece of constructive
criticism he ever received. These two friends of unequal age have
exchanged views on translation (and other matters) for more than two
decades, in conversation and through correspondence, and it is most
appropriate that Sujit’s last book should have an Introduction by
Harish.
Even before the manuscript for Translation as Recovery was finalised
Sujit had talked to S.P. Jain about it and offered to send him a Table
of Contents to help him to decide whether Pencraft would be interested
in publishing it. Dr. Jain with his unfailing courtesy and generosity
assured him that even without looking at the contents he was certain he
would want to publish the book. I happen to know all this because I
was sending and receiving these e-mail messages on Sujit’s behalf. He
refused to use the computer and avoided communicating through
e-mail as far as possible. The manuscripts of most of his books were
prepared on his old Olivetti, precious to him because it was a gift from
his daughter Rukmini who bought it out of her scholarship money
while a student in England.
I have tried to sort out as far as possible the tangled material of various
kinds that make up this book, some published essays, some handwritten
on loose sheets, some typed papers presented at various conferences
with many corrections scribbled in the margins and insertions in small
pieces of paper stapled here and there. Some of the blanks in the end
notes had to be filled in. If I have made mistakes in the process of
tidying up, I take the blame for those. Also, adding the book reviews
as Section III of the volume was initially my idea, subsequently
endorsed by Harish and S.P. Jain. I do not know if Sujit would have
approved of this. For permission to reprint the reviews and the
published papers I thank the editors of the journals/volumes where
they first appeared. I am grateful also to Subashree Krishnaswamy of
Chennai and A Dinakar, Librarian, SCILET, Madurai for help in
locating the source of the published reviews.
I did not know the story behind the title Translation as Recovery until
our friend Ashok Kelkar wrote to me about it. Kelkar had published an
essay with this title in a feschtshrift volume for Lothar Lutze in 1994.
His essay mentioned that title ‘Translation as Recovery’ “of course
alludes to Sujit Mukherjee’s Translation as Discovery (1981)”.
Kelkar’s letter says “When Sujit saw my artticle he wrote to me
saying: while your title merely alludes to mine, I’m going to pinch
yours straight away for my next book, it’s too good not to.”
That ‘next book’ is being published now, posthumously and with some
trepidation on my part. Sujit’s standards were exacting both as a writer
and as a publisher’s editor. I will never know if my attempt at editing
his manuscript would have passed his scrutiny.
Hyderabad Meenakshi Mukherjee
January 14, 2004
Contents
Editor’s Preface
Meenakshi Mukherjee
5
Introduction
Harish Trivedi
11
SECTION I
ANUVAD VIVAD
-
1. Re-slating Translation
21
2. The Craft not Sullen Art
of Translation
33
3. Transcreating Translation
43
4. Publish and Perish
53
5. The Absent Traveller:
A Classical Text in Translation
63
6. Unfinished Song, Incomplete Road:
Text, Film and Translation
73
SECTION II
RABINDRANATH IN ENGLISH
7. Urvashi: When She Danced
83
8. Twice-Told Tales
99
9. Rabindranath into Tagore:
The Translated Poet
113
10. The English Rabindranath
124
SECTION III
REVIEWING TRANSLATION
11. Terminology and Practice
139
12. Third World Texts in
First World Academy
144
13. Bankim in Translation
148
14. Penguin Reprints
152
IS. Operation? Mahasweta
16. Politics of a Love Story
165
17. Unslating the Translator:
A Review of Reviews
171
SECTION IV
TRANSLATION AS RECOVERY: AN EXERCISE
18. History of India as Revealed In a Dream
by Bhudeb Mukhopadhyay, 1862
(Translated into English by Sujit Mukherjee)
177
Index
205
