by Garvita Gahlot
Jainendra Kumar was the 20th century, Hindi novelist who is popular and known for his work in Hindi literature, he is even the most appreciated novelist after Premchand. Some of his known works include Sunita, Tyagapatra, Parakh, Paap Aur Prakash, and Muktibodh. He is indeed known for his contribution which paved way for the creation of Hindi literature, though in the beginning he was criticized for his philosophical ideology but later, he was termed as the “Messiah of the new age and the human soul”. He was also one of the unsung heroes who left his studies in mid-way to participate in the freedom movement namely the Non-cooperation movement as he was quite inspired by the Gandhian school of thought.
He presents as an epitome of sheer dedication and patriotism. He subordinated his individual interest over the country's by leaving his education midway and taking an active part in the freedom struggle. He comes up as a noble person with a high sense of generosity and magnanimity.
In this philosophical text, the author is trying to convey how a market place attracts human beings with all the splendid materialistic things which compels them to think about how much is available to them and how much they still lack to achieve which creates a void in them. Hence, greed, dissatisfaction, and jealousy from others who possess these enter the scene. All these negative feelings, slowly and steadily consume them and can make them useless forever. He has very beautifully conveyed the message of how materialistic pursuits end up making the person unproductive that is he is no more considered to be adding value to the society by using satire as his main medium to express himself.
Hindi excerpt
बाज़ार दर्शन - जैनेंद्र कुमार
मैंने कहा–यह इतना कुछ नाहक ले आए!
मित्र बोले–कुछ न पूछो। बाज़ार है कि शैतान का जाल है? एेसा सजा-सजाकर माल रखते हैं कि बेहया ही हो जो न फँसे।
मैंने मन में कहा, ठीक। बाज़ार आमंत्रित करता है कि आओ मुझे लूटो और लूटो। सब भूल जाओ, मुझे देखो। मेरा रूप और किसके लिए है? मैं तुम्हारे लिए हूँ। नहीं कुछ चाहते हो, तो भी देखने में क्या हरज़ है। अजी आओ भी। इस आमंत्रण में यह खूबी है कि आग्रह नहीं है आग्रह तिरस्कार जगाता है। लेकिन ऊँचे बाज़ार का आमंत्रण मूक होता है और उससे चाह जगती है। चाह मतलब अभाव। चौक बाज़ार में खड़े होकर आदमी को लगने लगता है कि उसके अपने पास काफ़ी नहीं है और चाहिए, और चाहिए। मेरे यहाँ कितना परिमित है और यहाँ कितना अतुलित है ओह!
कोई अपने को न जाने तो बाज़ार का यह चौक उसे कामना से विकल बना छोड़े। विकल क्यों, पागल। असंतोष, तृष्णा और ईर्ष्या से घायल कर मनुष्य को सदा के लिए यह बेकार बना डाल सकता है।
Translation into French
La philosophie du marché par Jainendra Kumar
Je dis- Pourquoi vous avez acheté trop de choses peu recommandables !
Mon ami dit- Ne me demande rien ! Est-ce que c’est un marché ou un tissu de mensonges ? Ils mettent des produits dans une manière que personne ne peut s’empêcher d’être attiré vers eux.
Je me dis, d’accord- Le marché s’invite pour que les gens le volent. Comme il veut dire « Oubliez tous et regardez-moi ! J’ai cet air bel pour qui ? Je suis pour vous. Même si, vous ne voudriez rien, quel est le problème en regardant juste. Allons-y ! La qualité de cette invitation est que cela ne vous insiste pas parce que l’insistance suscite dédain. Mais, l’invitation d’un grand marché est souvent muette et avec qui, le désir est émané. Le désir qui signifie le manque. En se tenant débout au milieu d’un marché, un être-humain pense qu’il ne possède pas suffisamment et il a besoin de plus en plus. J’ai de choses limitées et il est sans pareil. »
Pour quelqu’un qui ne se connait pas, cette place va le déranger. Pour quoi déranger, cela va le rendre fou. Blessé par le mécontentement, l’avidité et la jalousie, peuvent rendre l’être-humain, inutile pour toujours.
Notes :
Shaitan- devil but here translated as a web of lies to depict deceit.
Chauk- a market place or square translated in French as une place.
Ajji- a way of speaking local to a particular place or a sort of exclamation used frequently in Hindi.
Problems faced :
Some words in the source text which are frequently used in Hindi, being local to a particular region or were vernacular in nature, were difficult to translate in the target language that is French in this context. Therefore, to translate the meaning of the text and to better capture the context, these were first converted into their meanings, and then these meanings were better translated into their French equivalents.
Pros and cons of the strategy used :
- Pros:
- Having understood the context first as a whole, it was easy to capture the satire and to translate it in the language of work.
- Sense to sense translation was more effective as it allowed to convey the original message without getting deviated from the motive.
- Words that were not incorporated as it is from the source text were added to convey the meaning.
- No compromises were made with the meanings and the target text conveys the apt meaning. Hence, the spirit of the text as well as that of the author was never compromised.
- Cons:
- Some exclamations like 'ajji' (अजी ) of Hindi were eliminated, though it did not change the final message of the text.
- It was not possible to locate the exact equivalents of words like ‘behaya’ (बेहया) of the source text.
Conclusion :
The title itself has two connotations बाज़ार दर्शन can be either understood as the ‘philosophy of the market’ as it teaches a lesson of not running behind materialistic pursuits or it can also be understood as a ‘tour of the marketplace’. Hence, deciding the title itself was a bit challenging but if the translator understands the need for an effective and attractive title, then only h will be able to translate the idea of the source text’s title. Moreover, there were some problems while translating some terms which were vernacular in nature or origin-specific, the source text was easy to translate when the context was understood and the author’s time and space when he wrote the text by the translator.
The attempt of the translator is either to bring the writer close to the reader or the opposite of it. Not only this, the persona and the habitus of the translator play a very important role in this translation process who is influenced by factors like social, political, and cultural which leave an imprint on the target text.
To conclude, one can say that literary translations can prove to be difficult but at the same time, one should not forget that they tend to link many traditions and cultures together.
