The Modern Rules Of Translating A Passage: Other Language Learning and Understanding the Culture

The works of modern poets throughout the world have been inspired by Dante. And it is imbued with Dantean imagery, especially that of Ezra Pound and T. S. Eliot, Gabriele D’Annunzio, Paul Claudel, and Anna Akhmatova. Read More Teaching English Again, among the many notable translations into English are verse renditions by the American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and, in the 20th century, by the English writer Dorothy L. Sayers and the American poet and critic John Ciardi. In the other part of the world, the Persian poet Omar Khayyam is also made a place in our heart by the translation (published anonymously in 1859) of the Rubáiyát by Edward FitzGerald. But ware these possible if they have not been translated into other languages!!

Thus translation is the key to language learning and understanding the other culture and where English is the Second Language, translations will have to be encouraged more and more. “Parallel to these studies the general recognition of the translator's responsibility has increased. More and more translators and interpreters are being seen as active participants in geopolitical conflicts, which raises the question of how to act ethically independent from their own identity or judgement. This leads to the conclusion that translating and interpreting cannot be considered solely as a process of language transfer, but also as socially and politically directed activities.” Read More Teaching English Again, it is very important to learn the reciprocal relations between the author and the translator, the origin and the target language.  So here we will note down few basics of translations and point them out here. 

There are about twenty five main Verb Patterns in English. They are built around the verbs. Unless a student learns that Verb Patterns very carefully he will not be able to use English correctly dither in speech or in writing. Read More Teaching English It will also be impossible for him to render correctly Indian language passages into English without mastering these patterns thoroughly. If a learner spends a few days studying these, he will be able to avoid a number of mistakes in sentence constructions.

The main English Verb Patterns with their Indian languages renderings are to be studied minutely.  Here are a few verb patterns given bellow.

Intransitive verbs

Transitive verbs

Gerunds and Infinitives

Link verbs

Double object verbs

Verbs with -ing forms Read More Teaching English

Verbs with to + infinitive

Reporting verbs with that, wh- and if clauses

Let and Make

Make and Do

Used to Do, Would Do, and Be Used to Doing

Say and Tell

Wish

Two- and three-part verbs

Verb patterns - adverbials

Clauses: short forms

Relative clauses

Reporting: reports and summaries

Verbs - questions and negatives

wh- clauses

The following points should be borne in mind while rendering passages from Indian languages into English:Read More Teaching English

1. Read the original Indian languages passages several times so that you can grasp the general idea contained in it: Reading the text in its true sense is a must. Through the maze of philosophy and social values the real subject might be hidden. So, it should be alert. Translations of Songs Offering @ http://ardhendude.blogspot.in/2014/10/rabindranath-tegores-poetry-in-english.html

Rabindranath Tegore’s Poetry in English: Evaluation and Controversy in Reading Gitanjali (Song Offerings) - See more at: http://ardhendude.blogspot.in/search/label/Rabindranath%20Tagore#sthash.Jzf67TwQ.dpuf

Rabindranath Tegore’s Poetry in English: Evaluation and Controversy in Reading Gitanjali (Song Offerings)     - See more at: http://ardhendude.blogspot.in/#sthash.sXpyZK57.dpuf

2. In rendering, the rules of Sequence of Tense should be carefully followed, e.g.,

 —I saw that they were playing. Read More Teaching English

 —The teacher said that the earth is round.
While most of the Indian Language cases, the sequence is inverted.

3. In Indian languages, Present Tense is very often used in a narrative passage for describing past actions. In rendering this type of passage into English the Past Tense should be used, e.g.,

 The pathsala (primary school) was held in the afternoon. Altogether eight or ten children came to study there. All of them brought small mats from home.

4. We know that a passage consists of several sentences and these sentences are related to one another. Hence while rendering, the following minor changes can be made, but we must not change the sense or meaning of the sentences, e.g., Read More Teaching English

(a) Very short sentences may be combined without changing the meaning, e.g.,

It is certain Nagendra is a rich landlord of Gohindapur.

b) Sentences may be split up without changing the meaning

He accepted a fifty paise piece without any hesitation and put into his bag.

5. The English idioms should be used as they are: Read More Teaching English

 —Man and women (not woman and man)

—land and water (not water and land).

—virtue and vice (not vice and virtue)

 —pen and ink (not ink and pen).

 — bird in the hand worth two (not four) in the bush.

Students should, under all circumstances, render a passage from their vernacular into English as faithfully as possible. They must use these idioms in English terms, not in Indian terms.

6. Cultural study and adaptations regarding this is also vital in the whole process. Read More Teaching English  We cann't understand a language unless we truely appreciate the culture integreted. So, we should be tolerant enough to understand the opposites and oppositions of values and morals.

Ardhendu De