Meet New India Foundation’s first translation fellows - Mint Lounge - Translation

The New India Foundation (NIF), a Bengaluru based literary and cultural organisation, has just announced the awardees of the first round of its Translation Fellowships, chosen from across 10 Indian languages.

They are NS Gundur, Rahul Sarawate, and Venkateswar Ramaswamy along with Amlan Biswas. The awardees are each working to translate into English non-fiction texts from Kannada, Marathi, and Bangla, respectively.

Each of these books, is, according to the NIF jury, “historically significant”. Literary historian Gundur is working to translate D.R. Nagaraj’s Allamaprabhu Mattu Shaiva Pratibhe. The Kannada book, which was first posthumously published in 1999, will introduce the life and thought of the 12th century Shaiva mystic, Allama Prabhu, to an English readership.

Historian Sarawate’s translation will do the same with Sharad Patil’s Marxvad: Phule-Ambedkarvad, first published in 1993. The Marathi text is a collection of essays that elucidates his political philosophy of synthesising Marxism with the anti-caste ideals of Jotirao Phule and BR Ambedkar.

Literary translator Ramaswamy and former assistant director of the Anthropological Survey of India Biswas will together be working on Nirmal Kumar Bose’s Diaries:1946-1947. Bose, an anthropologist and professor, was Mahatma Gandhi’s Bengali interpreter between 1946 and 1947. This time included Gandhi’s peace mission in the riot-affected areas of Noakhali. Bose’s diaries will therefore offer glimpses into the life of Gandhi during these years, and of the author’s life in general, in the lead-up to Indian Independence in August 1947.

These winners (or duo, in the case of Ramaswamy and Biswas), will each receive for six months, a stipend of Rs. 6 lakhs to research and work on these texts.

The NIF had invited applications and proposals for this fellowship in August 2021. Winners were then selected by a jury consisting of the NIF’s trustees — this includes political scientist Niraja Gopal Jayal, historian Srinath Raghavan, and entrepreneur Manish Sabharwal. They were joined by bilingual scholars and literary translators like Kuladhar Saikia (Assamese); Ipshita Chanda (Bangla); Tridip Suhrud (Gujarati); Harish Trivedi (Hindi); Vivek Shanbhag (Kannada); Rajan Gurukkal (Malayalam); Suhas Palshikar (Marathi); Jatin Nayak (Odia); AR Venkatachalapathy (Tamil); Ayesha Kidwai & Rana Safvi (Urdu).

The NIF also has Book Fellowship, instituted in 2008, for original research on topics related to post-Independent India. This has so far lead to 22 published books.

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New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures Released in Chitonga (Zimbabwe) - JW News - Translation

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New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures Released in Chitonga (Zimbabwe)  JW News

Review of 'Native America: In Translation' at Art on Hulfish: A masterclass of what photography can do - The Daily Princetonian - Translation

It was a quiet and rainy Thursday evening when I biked past FitzRandolph Gate and through Palmer Square to Art on Hulfish, Princeton University Art Museum’s satellite facility, which was hosting Galleries on the Go: A Night of Art on the Town. Amid the evening’s festivities — the event included artmaking, food and drink, and live music — I was enthralled by “Native America: In Translation,” a photography collection by and about Native American artists. It was an important and complex collection that exemplified what photography is capable of as a medium.

Wendy Red Star curated the collection. Raised on the Apsáalooke reservation in Montana, her scholarship centers on historical narratives and how an artist can twist them for a new perspective.

Photography is an artistic medium, of course. But it’s also a direct mode of capturing history as it happens — a moment in time.

Jacqueline Cleveland, an artist from Quinhagak, Alaska, works in this way, by capturing her family’s traditions through her art. “I’ve been foraging as long as I can remember,” said Cleveland, as quoted in the wall label. A candid photograph of her family foraging through an Alaskan lea feels like a capsule of history.

The exhibit balances art and history. Cleveland’s photograph of her family positions their feet in the dirt, but their heads amid the clouds and mountains. The photograph reflects the subjects rooted in a specific place, yet connected to something more conceptual.

“Molly Alexie and her children after a harvest of beach greens in Quinhagak, Alaska,” Jacqueline Cleveland, 2018.

Gabriel Robare / The Daily Princetonian 

But photography is more than direct expression. Duane Linklater contributed a series of photographs to the exhibit that combine text and spliced-together images to tell stories beyond any individual part.

One piece had a few indeterminate objects, stitched together with text reading “Head in Clouds, Minneapolis, Minnesota, 1992, photographer unknown.” But Linklater makes the photographer known, appropriating and remaking the original work and thus making the unknown known, in a different way.

This made me think, as I stood for a long time in front of his work, about how the presence of the artist is different in photography than in other media. To photograph is to apply an artist to that which wasn’t art before. Linklater combined diverse pieces and photographed them, and thus associated his name with it. This exhibition about Native American art is a decolonization effort, claiming images for his own after they’ve been taken. Note that in the text referenced above, Minnesota is a Dakota word, but Minneapolis is a bastardized Greek word. He claims the text for his own, after colonizers put their suffixes on it.

Martine Gutierrez is a transgender artist who juxtaposes hyperfeminine and Indigenous images to question what makes a “Native-born” woman. In my view, she made the best piece in the gallery: a bright jungle of objects, set out at a sort of plein air tea party, with a reposing Gutierrez as the centerpiece.

Gutierrez is dressed in traditional wear paired with strappy pumps. She wears numerous gold bracelets and long chains wrap around her neck. She nearly sleeps, with a heavily made-up face so indifferent as to bring Manet’s “Le déjeuner sur l’herbe” to mind. Dolls on small rocking chairs join her. On the grass around her — sur l’herbe, indeed — is a soccer ball, some model dogs, a ceramic parrot, some scraps of red fabric, and other various trinkets.

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The scene is already crowded, but Gutierrez overlays photographs of animals all around to complete the jungle. A small monkey looks at the subject; a mountain lion prowls in the background; a spider crawls in the grass; parrots fly toward their ceramic counterparts; a snake slithers away.

None of them are really there but simply added after the fact. Yet in another way, all those animals are there, because photography brings all these objects into one collected frame. Gutierrez merges so many images seemingly in service of bright colors and striking construction to subvert the medium of historical photography — hyperpop in the jungle. The move to overlay so much content nods to how the medium is constructed, perhaps in the same way her identity is so carefully constructed from the parts she chooses.

Photographers decide what is in the frame — both by choosing what to exclude and what to add in. That choice is a tool to juxtapose, to create interactions. History is complicated by their decisions. “Native America” tells indigenous stories by taking their history and throwing art at it. Cleveland, Linklater, and Gutierrez take what really happened and chew on it, creating something new.

Gabriel Robare is a Senior Prospect Writer and Staff News Writer. He is also the Head Puzzles Editor. He can be reached on social @GabrielRobare or at grobare@princeton.edu.

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Translation Team Leader (Internals only)- Syria Idleb - ReliefWeb - Translation

General Description of the Programme:

GOAL has been working in Syria since 2013, responding to the acute needs of conflict-affected communities. GOAL is working in Idleb Governate, both through direct implementation and through partners, delivering food, non-food programming to highly vulnerable populations, and provision of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) through support to Water units, as well as emergency support to recently displaced households.

GOAL has been working in North Aleppo Governate since 2019, through direct implementation and through partners, delivering food, non-food programming to highly vulnerable populations, as well as emergency support for recently displaced household.

Job purpose:

We are seeking to hire a full time Translation Team Leader

Reporting to the HR & Admin Manager, the Translation Team Leader performs interpreting / translating services of oral and/or written communications between English and Arabic in a variety of settings; and performs other duties including translators’ team management tasks.

The Translation Team Leader performs a wide range of duties including some of the following:

Duties, objectives, and competencies

• Manage the Translation Team to ensure effective, efficient, and timely delivery of translation and interpretation services
• Monitor translators’ participation in assignments and manage the flow of day-to-day assignments
• Ensure that high quality translation and interpretation services are provided
• Ensure team’s compliance with all GOAL policies and procedures
• Keep updated trackers of team activities
• Provide interpreting / transliterating services for meetings, interviews, telephone calls, etc. including one to one and group settings.
• Translate orally or in written form all documents presented by staff, and other individuals.
• Prepare written translations of instructional, policy and educational materials, correspondence, and forms from one language to another when appropriate for use by the staff, and other individuals.
• Review translated material for accuracy of meaning, grammar, and syntax.
• Relay concepts and ideas between languages.
• Convert written materials from one language into another, such as books, web pages.
• Create a new text in the target language that reproduces the content and style of the original.
• Receive and submit assignments electronically.
• Use dictionaries and glossaries for reference.
• Any other duties as required

Requirements (essential)

• Bachelor’s degree in English, Translation, or Interpretation. Postgraduate degree would be highly regarded.
• At least 3-year previous experience working in the field of translation/ interpretation
• Fluent in spoken and written English and Arabic
• Previous experience supervising/leading team
• Syrian with previous working experience with NGOs in Syria
• Excellent IT Skills
• Excellent analytical/problem-solving skills and detail orientation
• Staff management experience and good inter-personnel skills
• Enthusiastic and keen to work hard to achieve the objectives of the organization
• Supervisory skills, Team building skills, Problem solving skills, basic counselling skills, and negotiations skills
• Report/proposal writing skills

Requirements (desired):

• Ability to manage workload and prioritise varied tasks.
• Diplomacy and negotiation skills
• Flexible, creative, and able to resolve issues and identify solutions.

How to apply

Interested? Then apply for this position via clicking on the "apply now" button and fill out the application form. All applicants must send a cover letter and an updated CV (no longer than four pages). Both must be in English. Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.

Application deadline is 25 April, 2022.

Please note that GOAL does not charge a fee of any kind or any other financial obligation at any stage of its recruitment process (application, interview, processing, training, induction) or other fees, or request information on applicants’ bank accounts. GOAL does not work with intermediary institutions and individuals or employment agencies during the recruitment process. If any fee or payment requested from you at the application or any stage of the recruitment process, please do not respond.

"يرجى ملاحظة أن منظمة جول GOAL لا تفرض أي رسوم من أي نوع أو أي التزام مالي آخر في أي مرحلة من مراحل عملية التوظيف (الطلب ، المقابلة ، المعالجة ، التدريب ، التعريف) أو رسوم أخرى ، و لا تطالب بأي معلومات عن الحسابات المصرفية البنكيه للمتقدمين على الشواغر. لا تعمل جول GOAL مع المؤسسات الوسيطة والأفراد أو وكالات التوظيف أثناء عملية التوظيف. في حالة طلب أي رسوم أو مستحقات منك خلال عملة التقديم على الوظائف الشاغره أو في أي مرحلة من مراحل عملية التوظيف ، يرجى إلابلاغ عدم الاستجابه

General terms and conditions

Safeguarding

Children and vulnerable adults a must be safeguarded to the maximum possible extent from deliberate or inadvertent actions and failings that place them at risk of abuse, sexual exploitation, injury and any other harm. One of the ways that GOAL shows this on-going commitment to safeguarding is to include rigorous background and reference checks in the selection process for all candidates.

Accountability within GOAL

Alongside our safeguarding policy, GOAL is an equal opportunities employer and has a set of integrity policies. Any candidate offered a job with GOAL will be expected to adhere to the following key areas of accountability:

• Comply with GOAL’s policies and procedures with respect to safeguarding, Code of Conduct, health and safety, data protection and confidentiality, do no harm principles and unacceptable behavior protocols.
• Report any concerns about the welfare of a child or vulnerable adult or any wrongdoings within our programming area.
• Report any concerns about inappropriate behavior of a GOAL staff or partner.

This Job Description only serves as a guide for the position available. GOAL reserves the right to change this document. Any published closing dates are estimated. Due to the nature of GOAL’s work we aim to fill vacancies as quickly as possible. This means that we will close adverts as soon as we have found the right candidate and this may be before the published closing date. We would therefore advise interested applicants to submit an application as early as possible.

Thank you.

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The Words We Lose: The Merits and Disadvantages of Reading Translated Literature | Arts - Harvard Crimson - Translation

Translating a text from one language to another is doubtless a difficult undertaking for myriad reasons, but the reality of an untranslatable word or phrase presents perhaps the most thought-provoking dilemma for translators and linguists everywhere. Naturally, the central discourse concerning translated works regards textual fidelity. What should a translator prioritize in their work to make it most faithful to the original text? Meticulously preserving its word-for-word accuracy, or its connotational precision?

There is something intrinsically lost in translation in either case. If the words you are reading were not originally written in English, you have likely missed some parts of the original text through no fault of your own, nor of the translator’s. It is for this reason that we must be conscious of the translated books on our syllabi and bookshelves alike as slight distortions of their original works rather than as exact copies of them.

Without an English equivalent, even small, common phrases can rear large philosophical problems without clear answers for translators. While the French phrase “c’est la vie” literally means “this is the life,” a translation of “that’s life,” or even “it is what it is” in English might well serve as better translations of the same phrase given how it’s used in francophone countries. This distinction is often called that of connotation and denotation. A similar problem exists with words that seem to have obvious definitions across many different tongues too. One of the most beautiful facets of translation is that from a single text, many new interpretations, however slightly dissimilar, can arise.

The word “llegar” in Spanish could mean either to come, to arrive, or to reach one’s destination in English. Were two separate translators to approach this word, they would have a tough choice laid out before them in synonyms. Indeed, almost every word has a useful synonym within reach, and the very concept of a synonym implies an inherent, though slight, contrast between two or more words. Yet no matter how small the difference between these synonyms, our hypothetical translators would have each created a distinct text through their word choice. Despite their small size, the disparities between “to come” and “to arrive” can matter a great deal in the context of a 200-page work.

In Attic Greek, there are at least six different words for love, all connoting different meanings. The word “philia,” for instance, is translated in the “Liddell & Scott Greek-English Lexicon” as “friendly love” or “affection.” The word “agape” is given the similar though still distinct definition of “brotherly love” within the same text. In English, the word love — or friendship, were the author to choose the more granular option — would most likely be used to describe either of these phenomena, despite their differences. Through Henry George Liddell and Robert Scott’s translations of Classical Greek texts, it is especially clear that we miss certain characteristics of these concepts if we attempt to translate them using our closest single-word equivalents. Instead, adjectives must modify love, a near catch-all term for affection in the English language, to begin to describe the complex categories of this ideal detailed many centuries ago by the Ancient Greeks. What results is often a clunky and still inadequate substitute for the original term as deployed by such authors as Plato and Aristotle.

In an interview with “The New York Times,” Emily Wilson commented on the first line of her own translation of Homer’s “Odyssey.” She translates the Greek text as, “Tell me about a complicated man.” In the interview, however, Wilson said that she could have written instead, “Tell me about a straying husband,” due to certain other definitions contained within the connotations of a critical word in the sentence. Though within certain contexts, this is certainly a valid translation, Wilson herself admits the differences between the two sentences are vast. If each translation is easily justifiable, how can the reader know what the text’s first line truly connoted?

Many courses at Harvard use translated literature as central texts. By no means do I advocate for the omission of these texts from our syllabi; the act of translation is incredibly important to the democratization of literature and the arts at large. I do, however, hope that we can be mindful that many of the works we read in courses on world literature such as Humanities 10 — where I first encountered Wilson’s version of the “Odyssey” — are translated. When performing a close reading on such a text, we must recognize that the intent of the author and the intent of the translator may not align perfectly. The words Stuart Gilbert uses to capture those of Albert Camus in “The Stranger,” for example, are naturally colored by his interpretation of the work. His use of one English word as opposed to its synonym is almost certainly informed by his sense of the work’s meaning. And much like the relationship between a word and its synonym, no matter how close Gilbert’s understanding of “The Stranger” is to its author’s, he will not accurately capture everything Camus tried to convey through his own words in an English translation.

Recently, classical translation has become a particularly fashionable mode of writing due to the novelty any given translator can give to ancient words written by Homer, Horace, Sappho, or Sophocles. While some of Anne Carson’s translations in “If Not, Winter” may be more Carson than Sappho, it’s easy to admire Carson’s attempt to connect a new audience with ancient poetry. Additionally, attempting to translate Sappho’s poetry myself alongside Carson constituted some of the most fun and fulfilling extracurricular work I myself have completed all semester.

In many ways, the translation of a text is futile. No author’s words can be captured entirely honestly in a language other than that in which they were written. Certainly not in both their connotation and denotation. Yet the act of translation is beautiful. It is kind. It stretches across insurmountable divides and helps form a well-needed global community of readers. Fundamentally, a translator has read something that they found interesting and has decided to share it with a broader audience. To say, “Look. See how I loved this. I want you to love it too. Let me give it to you,” — What could be more human? Reading in translation is one of the most important ways we can connect with a broader, more diverse selection of readings than those with which we’ve grown up. If we recognize the inherent deficiencies of these translated texts on levels of both connotative and denotative accuracy, the consumption of translated texts can be a gorgeous cross-cultural exchange of knowledge that emphasizes both the differences and commonalities that fall across humanity.

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—Staff writer Eleanor M. Powell can be reached at ellie.powell@thecrimson.com.

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German Translation Unit - Slator - Translation

German Translation Unit (GTU) is now positioned for substantial growth leading up to its 10th anniversary in 2022. Headquartered in Madrid, with a hub in Berlin, GTU specializes in European language translations for a range of industries, including Fashion & Apparel, Music, and Lifestyle.

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Beowulf: A New Translation - The Prospectus - Prospectus - Translation

Photo courtesy of Trent Chassy

Like many college students, when I’m assigned a book to read and write a report on this rarely evokes positive feelings. It’s even less likely when that story is dated before the renaissance but after when it would be considered cool and ‘ancient’. However, recently I was assigned to read a translation of Beowulf that shakes off the expected stuffiness of old literature while preserving the Scandinavian folklore. The Maria Dahvana Headley translation of Beowulf has changed the way old literature is usually read and successfully directed my interest onto Scandinavian history.

Beowulfis a story of the best the fighter in this Scandinavian world. Driven by his desire to prove this to anyone who will listen, Beowulf is faced with three major antagonists. Two of these he encounters as mercenary enlisted by the King of Danes and he faces the final boss in his home of Geatland after a 50-year reign as king. While these great battles are the peaks of excitement, the intermediate periods are filled with tales about Beowulf’s past fights, other warriors’ stories, as well as political tensions between and within various kingdoms.

Beowulf’s transcription dates back about 1000 years but likely had its start in the spoken word. In a brief analysis published by Course Hero, it’s explained that Beowulf was likely written down by Christian monks. In this process it’s clear some elements were forcibly Christianized. For example, The first two monster-esque antagonists are descendants of the Christian canon’s first murderer Cain. On the other hand, I don’t remember trolls or sea monsters playing very active rolls in the Christian bible. Details like this make for an interesting interplay between preexisting supernatural narratives and the insertion of Christianity.

The fact that this story comes from the oral tradition of storytelling becomes fairly obvious throughout the book due to the many diversions from the main narrative. Occasionally, stories of seemingly random characters are inserted in the midst of narrative progression while at other times the narrator will insert their reactions to the action taking place. To some, these tangents may seem like annoying departures from the main events, I disagree. To me, these tangents helped me feel connected to those who would’ve been telling the story. It felt like the narrator had pieces of extra context from other stories pop into their head in the middle of telling this story. This is certainly something I find myself doing when retelling any sequence of events.

Connecting readers to who would truly be telling this story in its time was a specific goal of translator Maria Dahvana Headley. Headley described in an event with Dan Rosenberg that the original story would’ve likely been dispersed by story tellers more similar to an old guy in a bar rather than a professor. For this reason, rather than treating the story as academic work she translated the story as a “bro story.” Whereas in past translations more stuffy language had been used, Headley used the words bro and dude throughout the story which seemed to fit quite well. The story being interpreted in this light isn’t only more palatable but gives a view into long standing social dynamics through a piece of old literature. This book is a translation which to me means the character portrayals could only wander as far as the narrative and original language would allow. So, the propping up of the patriarchal order, for example, that this story provides should be attributed to the story itself not the translator’s projection on to it, but Headley’s wording allowed me to see those dynamics playing out clearly. Headley’s goal was to provide to a modern audience the story in relatable language and in doing so provided a clear lens into old power dynamics we still live with today.

While I don’t mean to throw shade at Shakespeare, for me this down-to-earth translation made this old story much more interesting to read than deciphering any Shakespearean play. While I understand the hesitancy to pick up a piece of old literature, I can assure you this translation breaks from the expected stuffiness old literature can provide. If you find yourself assigned to read this translation of Beowulf in a Humanities class, give it a chance I bet it will surprise you.

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