A friend, very much  academically oriented, yesterday sent me an article by noted translator Jayasree Kalathil, titled “Literary translation and its discontents,” and sought my views on some of the points she has raised.

The first thing I noticed was the sub-title that seemed to convey the sum and substance of her discontentment: “Why are translators so often disrespected?”

Are they? I am not sure if they are in any way ‘disrespected.’

Jayasree began her long essay with an adverse quote from someone that seemed to buttress her apprehensions about disrespect: “You don’t have your own field to plough, so you go to plough in other people’s fields.” That comment was made, Jayasree said, in the context of an incident that was discussed widely on the Malayalam social media. 

“Maria, Just Maria, Kerala writer Sandhya Mary’s debut novel that I had translated, had just won the Book of the Year award at the Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters (MBIFL). The organizers called me, congratulated me, and asked me to send a video with a message accepting the award. This was played at the awards function. But it was revealed later that the award was only for the author and not the translator.” 

Obviously. Was it an award for Translation or for Book?  

There may indeed be some bad PR on the part of the organizers. But their intention appeared to be clear from what Jayasree herself said: “Their initial social and mainstream media coverage also chose to leave out any mention of the translator.” That meant,  surely, that the award was intended for the book and that there was sort of a lack of proper understanding on the part of the translator about the message conveyed by the organizers.

The matter did not end there. The translator made an open statement voicing her concerns  and the organizers agreed to give her half the prize  money. 50:50 for the author and the translator.

That should satisfy the translator and bring the present controversy to a close, but it raises fundamental questions on the role of translation in literary works in general. 

Is the Translator to be treated equally with the Author, rewarded equally, honored equally?

My answer to this question is emphatic NO.

Translation of books from one language to another has been going on for millennia. That is why we have scriptures and classics and fiction and poetry and drama by writers from far off parts of the world enlivening our lives, enlightening and entertaining us and, at least in some cases, ennobling us. 

How could we ever read Homer’s Iliad or Odyssey, Dante’s Divine Comedy, or Cervantes’ Don Quixote without the help of the great intermediary called Translator?  And look at the unending stream of classical and modern writers from beyond our borders like Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Hugo, Zola, Flaubert, Balzac, Proust, Sartre, Kafka, Neruda, Marquez, Coelho, or the Indian greats like Bankim Chandra, Premchand, Yashpal, the list is endless, whose myriad works brought home to us by a nondescript team of linguistic wizards called Translators. 

But do we ever remember the name of any Translator of any great book we have read, as we do remember the name of the Author and the book? 

That, I think,  is as it should be. Because there is a world of difference between the Author and the Translator. The book, any book from Iliad downwards, is the creation of inspiration. Translation is the result of industry. There is of course a great deal of hard work involved in translation, especially in the search for apt words or apt phrases,  as also in rendering into the translated text conversational style   peculiar to a region or language without losing that local flavour. But there is no inspiration, no creative spark to serve as a lodestar to the person involved. 

The Translator’s role is best explained when we consider books in translation that get the Nobel Prize, the highest prize in the literary world. The Nobel committee acknowledges the importance of translation, but never rewards the translator, monetarily or otherwise. 

“The Nobel Committee recognizes that translation is often a prerequisite for considering an author whose works are not in a language mastered by the committee members. While the committee acknowledges the importance of translators, they do not formally award or recognize the translator of a prize-winning book separately from the author.” 

That is because the focus is, and has always been,  on the Author, not the Translator.

(Note: The writer is Translator of the last anthology of poems by Ayyappa Paniker, titled ‘Pathumanippookkal,’ rendered as ‘Poetry  at Midnight’ in English.)