By Shreya Rawat
About the Author
Isabel Allende is one of the most notable female post-boom literature writers of Latin America. She was born in 1942 in Lima, Peru where her father worked as a diplomat. She worked as a journalist in Chile until she was forced to flee to Venezuela after the assassination (1973) of her uncle, Chilean Pres. Salvador Allende. In 1981, Allende began writing a letter to her grandfather, who was dying in Chile. The letter became the basis for her first novel, The House of the Spirits (1985), which became a worldwide bestseller and launched her literary career. All her works are examples of magic realism, in which realistic fiction is overlaid with elements of fantasy and myth. Her concern in many of her works is the portrayal of South American politics, complex family structures and they also reflect her own experiences and examine the role of women in Latin America. Today she is undoubtedly the most read Latin American novelist in the world.
Brief of the Source text, Dos Palabras by Isabel Allende
Dos Palabras is a tale of a woman who uses the power of language to make money. Allende has shown the suffering of the poor girl, and her struggle to create a life. The girl stood up strong and independent from the verge of dying and after losing all her family because of hunger. She is portrayed as a self-made woman since she chooses her own name 'Belisa Crepusculario' and makes a living by selling words. One day, she was sitting in her tent when a group of the Colonel’s men, led by someone named El Mulato kidnapped her. El Mulato is a soldier and feared by everyone. As it turns out, the Colonel is tired of waging war and being a terrifying figure. He wants people to like him. The Colonel plans to become president, so he needs a Belisa's help for a good speech. Belisa agrees to write the speech for him and in the end, whispers two special words in his ear and then leaves. The colonel is restless ever since then and Mulato thinks Belisa has bewitched him, Little did he know that the magic of the two words was something beyond his understanding.
TRANSLATION
Source Text - Dos Palabras
Source Language- Spanish
Ella lo estaba esperando. Recogió su tintero, plegó el lienzo de su tenderete, se echó el chal sobre los hombros y en silencio trepó al anca del caballo. No cruzaron ni un gesto en todo el camino, porque al Mulato el deseo por ella se le había convertido en rabia y sólo el miedo que le inspiraba su lengua le impedía destrozarla a latigazos. Tampoco esta dispuesto a comentarle que el Coronel andaba alelado, y que lo que no habían logrado tantos años de batallas lo había conseguido un encantamiento susurrado al oído. Tres días después llegaron al campamento y de inmediato condujo a su prisionera hasta el candidato, delante de toda la tropa.
"Te traje a esta bruja para que le devuelvas sus palabras, Coronel, y para que ella te devuelva la hombría" dijo apuntando el cañón de su fusil a la nuca de la mujer.
El Coronel y Belisa Crepusculario se miraron largamente, midiéndose desde la distancia. Los hombres comprendieron entonces que ya su jefe no podía deshacerse del hechizo de esas dos palabras endemoniadas, porque todos pudieron ver los ojos carnívoros del puma tornarse mansos cuando ella avanzó y le tomó la mano.
Target Text - दो शब्द
Target Language - Hindi
वह उसका इंतजार कर रही थी। उसने अपनी दवात उठाई, अपने तम्बू के कैनवास को तह किया, खुद के कंधो पर शॉल फेंका और चुपचाप घोड़े की नाल पर चढ़ गयी। उन्होंने पूरे रास्ते एक-दूसरे को कोई हाव-भाव नहीं दिखाए, क्यूँकि मुलातो की इच्छा उसके प्रति एक क्रोध में परिवर्तित हो गई थी और केवल यह भय था कि उसकी भाषा प्रेरित करती थी, जिसने उसे चाबुक से नष्ट करने से रोक दिया। न ही वह उसे यह बताने के लिए तैयार था कि कर्नल को सदमा पहुँचा है, वह नहीं चाहता था कि उसे यह जानने की संतुष्टि हो कि, जो सदियों की लड़ाई पूरी नहीं हुई थी, वह केवल कानों में फुसफुसाकर पूरी हुई। तीन दिन बाद, वे कर्नल के शिविर में पहुंचे और मुलातो तुरंत अपने कैदी को पूरी टुकड़ी के सामने उम्मीदवार के पास ले गया।
"मैं इस चुड़ैल को आपके पास लाया हूं ताकि आप उन गुप्त शब्दों को वापस कर सकें और आपकी मर्दानगी को उससे वापस ले सकें, कर्नल" उसने कहा, बेलिसा करेपुस्कूलारीयो की गर्दन पर अपनी बंदूक की नोक रखते हुए।
कर्नल और बेलिसा करेपुस्कूलारीयो की आंखें मिलीं, एक दूसरे को दूर से ध्यान से देखते हुए। वहाँ उपस्थित आदमियों को तब समझ में आया की उनके बॉस अब उन दो शैतानी शब्दों के जादू से छुटकारा नहीं पा सकते थे, क्योंकि हर कोई उस कूगर की मांसाहारी आँखो में देख सकता था, जब वह आगे बड़ा और बेलिसा ने उसका हाथ थामा तब वह उसके वश में आके बदल गया।
Critical Analysis of the translation of the Source text
A translation is always a new creation. As a view posed by Edward Sapir, different languages represent different worlds. Consequently, translation is not solely a linguistic activity or a technical exercise to rephrase a text from a source language into a target language but it requires an extensive understanding of both structure and culture. A Translation is a rather complex communicative art. As explained by George Steiner in his book After Babel, translation is an "exact art". A translator becomes a writer while conveying the true sense of the original text in the receptor's language. As realized by many scholars like Susan Bassnett, André Lefevere, and Wang, translation studies have been viewed in strong relation with other disciplines such as cultural studies, discourse studies, philosophy, linguistics, and so on. Therefore, there is an interdisciplinary aspect of translation studies. A Literary translation is where most of the challenges reside and theorizing takes place. There are times when it becomes difficult for a translator to find the equivalence in TL, and that's when the translator faces the dilemma of reconciling to faithfulness and adaption. While translating the excerpt from this Latin American literary work, the most frequent problem faced was to find an equivalence or closest equivalence without losing the spirit or the tone of the text. Like, In Dos Palabras, Allende used colloquiality as a tool to work with reality, therefore I had to make certain to not use obscure or heavy words and be able to connect with the local audience in the TL as well. I avoided adapting the text completely as there were some terms or names with social-cultural significance and I realized the message should be conveyed to the TL audience completely with no modification. In those cases, the most effective method would be using a footnote or text expansion, which is a quite simple concept but it's unsettled at times when the length of the TT differs from ST. One such word was Mulato which was the name of the character but it holds a critical socio-cultural significance, it is a racial classification to refer to people of mixed white and black ancestry because of its origin, the term can be considered derogatory or rude to some. The term is also used to refer to light brown, as it is the color of mulatto's skin. To conclude, The key challenge of literary translation is the need to balance staying faithful to the original text with the need to create something distinctive and peculiar that will summon the same feelings and responses as the original.
