Series of online Seminars cum Workshops on Translation Studies
Aligarh : In the ongoing series of online seminars cum workshops on Translation Studies on the theme of UGC SAP DRS-II, “Translating cultural, literary and historical texts related to Uttar Pradesh and Aligarh” organized by Department of English, AMU. Various sessions with resource persons from across the country on different aspects of translation were addressed.
In the fourth session, Prof Tharakeshwar, from the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU), Hyderabad, spoke on ‘Translation and Documentation’. He argued that translation claims to represent the source text and in doing so it gives fixity to the source text. A question and answer session followed his talk.
As a part of the workshop session, Ms Zainab Fatma and Ms Bushra Ahmad, Research Scholars in the Department of English, co-presented their translation of Dr Mohd Uzair’s work – ‘Sir Syed Ahmad Khan: Mutaalla Shakhsiyat, Khutoot ki Roshni Mein’. Ms Zainab discussed the aspects of documentation in the text which is a collection of excerpts from Sir Syed Ahmad Khan’s letters. Whereas, Ms Bushra’s presentation dealt with the various peculiarities of the text and challenges they faced while translating. Prof Tharakeshwar gave probable solutions, comments, and suggestions on their translated work.
The chair of the session, Prof Jawed Ahmad, Department of English, shared his concluding remarks.
In the fifth session ‘Translation and Theatre’, Resource Person Prof Kamlanand Jha, Department of Hindi, AMU disagreed with the negative connotation that translation has been associated with. He emphasized that instead of considering translation as some kind of a sin, it must be seen as an extended hand of friendship towards the readers of the target language. His lecture was followed by an interesting Q&A session.
https://ssl.gstatic.com/ui/v1/icons/mail/images/cleardot.gifAs a part of the workshop, Prof Vibha Sharma (Department of English), as a translator, presented her translated work of Mannu Bhandari’s play, Mahabhoj as the ‘The Great Feast’. She emphasized on retaining the essence of the original work.
Prof FS Sherani (Chairperson, Dean Faculty of Unani Medicine and Coordinator CEC), as an expert in the field of theatre talked about dramatic translation and also about his translated work, ‘Mohabbat Hai, Mohabbat Hai’ from German into Urdu
In the sixth session Prof Sachin C Ketkar from the Department of English (MS University of Baroda), Prof Sushil K Sharma (Department of English, Allahabad University) chaired the session.
Prof Ketkar spoke on the topic – “Approaching Literary Translation: A Russian formalism approach.”He shared that Russian formalism is developing through digital humanities even though it seems out-dated; it continues to have relevance in the contemporary literary discourses related to translation studies. He also gave insights into Roman Jacobson’s Triadic Division of Translation.
After the discussion by Prof Ketkar, a number of questions were asked by the audience.
Mohd Shams Uddoha Khan presented the English translation of Jainendra Kumar’s Hindi story ‘Khel’.
Prof Sushil Sharma commented on some points including the problems faced during the translation of poetic devices like alliteration. He also gave a summary of Prof Ketkar’s lecture wherein he highlighted the novel way in which Prof Ketkar connected literary competence with translation studies.
Prof Rizwan Khan, coordinator DRS-II initiated the sessions and informed that the series of seminar cum workshops will train the translators through exposure and insights from the invited experts’ mentorship. The translated stories and essays would be published into a book, he added.