Translating a text should not be taken as a mere adaptation of the parent text, it is rather being faithful to the original text

Originally Published at The Kompass By Jyoti K. Singh

Ravi Kumar, Founder President of the Indian Translators Association (ITAINDIA) is a Master of Arts and philosophy in Spanish and Latin American Studies. He is a visiting Professor for Spanish Studies at the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi. During the FIT World Congress in Shanghai, in July 2008, he was elected as a council member of the International Federation of Translators, an apex body of translators globally connecting more than 110 associations of the world spread into more than 80 countries. In addition, he is India Representative for International Medical Interpreters Association, USA as well. Kumar is the managing director of a translation company "Allied Modlingua Services Pvt. Ltd" an ISO 9001:2000 & EN 15038 certified firm incepted in 2000. Prof. Kumar has delivered more than 15 keynote addresses during national as well as international conferences on Translation covering CAT Tools, Quality Standards, Project Management, Entrepreneurship, and Networking. He regularly conducts workshops for the professional development of language experts, professors, team leaders, and translators. He is actively involved in promoting the Translation Industry of India and has played an important role in designing and delivering Translation Courses for various universities. BhashaIndia, the Indic language division of Microsoft has given him special recognition for promoting Translation activities in India. 

How do you perceive translation – as a skill or as an art?
Translation in the Indian context has a very different connotation than the other parts of the world. In India, we are more tuned to trans-creation or adaptation more aptly expressed in rupantar or anuvad, whereas in the west or in the US, translation means being faithful to the original text while transferring them into a target language. Thus a literal adaptation of the language to be translated happens here and what comes out of it is ‘Trans-creation’ and not Translation. Perhaps this difference lies in our oral tradition of transfer of knowledge, which gives us the flexibility to enrich and bring adaptation in a new language or in a totally different cultural set. Moreover, in India, people mostly associate translation with literature. But the reality is far different from it. The scope of this vocation is much higher in non-literary assignments. For example, translating a book on Java programming from Spanish to English is non-literary where there is little scope left for trans-creation, on the other hand translating Ramayana, the ancient Hindu text in Portuguese is a literary translation where the translator has lots of scopes to prove and testify his/ her creativity. And this ‘literary connotation’ only helps us classify translation is an art or a skill. It can be referred to as an ART when it is done in the context of literature whereas it becomes a SKILL when putting to use for non-literary functions because such translations require an individual to undergo customized training and technological integration.

What distinguishes translation and trans-creation?
“Translation is the comprehension of the meaning of a text and the subsequent production of an equivalent text, likewise called a "translation," that communicates the same message in another language.” The above definition at Wikipedia does bring home the meaning of the word. Trans-creation, on the other hand, implies presenting a particular text in another language in the most casual manner possible where the meaning would be close to clear like –May I Come in Sir? is a phrase whose actual translation should be - ‘Kya mai andar aa jau?’ Now, some people would write it like – ‘kya mai andar aa jau, shree maan ji?’ This is an adaptation and ‘ Aaaun Kya?’ would amount to trans-creation. 

What is the scope of ‘translation as a career’ in the Indian job market?
With the growth of knowledge-based activities, the Indian job market has massive scope for translators. IT revolution in India has further increased the employment opportunities here by leaps and bounds. And these opportunities further increased manifold with an introduction of the ‘e-governance’ concept. The concept implies all the related information reaching every doorstep irrespective of its location – urban or rural. So, in terms of scope of jobs, translation as a vocation is on an all-time high. As per the most recent estimate made by Indian Translators Association which is also supported by Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Government of India, Indian translation industry alone has a total worth of 500 million dollars excluding the opportunities which are going to multiply by 100 times because of e-governance coming into the picture. With e-governance as an added advantage, the requirement of translators in our own domestic market is much higher than of the European Union or the United States of America.

Do some languages enjoy a special status in comparison to others in the business world? If yes, which are those?
Yes, of course. An average translator gets paid Rs 5000 INR for translating a 400-word document from Danish to English whereas for translating a document of the same word-limit from English to Hindi, the same person would get only between Rs 100 to Rs 200.

There is a huge gap between the demand for translators in the Indian market and its supply. What all can be attributed as reasons for this?
India is a multi-lingual country. The majority of Indians are bilinguals, and we are quite self-sufficient in managing the demand and supply in terms of bilinguals involved in rupantar or anuvad, but when we talk of translation as a professional activity, we are lagging behind. Now in comparison to the opportunities ahead, our human resource supply is negligible irrespective of our fleet of bi-lingual or multi-lingual (in some cases) experts. Both government and individuals must take necessary steps at their respective levels for tapping the said opportunities, especially if we aspire to meet the growing demand for quality translation resources at domestic and international fronts.

With the growing Chinese influence, are the translators’ governing bodies planning some strategies to encounter the rising demand of Mandarin?
I admire China for its initiatives in promoting foreign language training in China, which includes English and Hindi as well. The entire world knows that China has been eyeing the NER belt of the 7 Indian states for long. Chinese media has started propagating this in that part of India using the colloquial language of the region. Has our government ever noticed this? Do we have even a single media house that has experts who can refute the allegations and make the natives of China understand our viewpoint in their language? I guess I have given you enough food for thought on this. 

Do you mean to say that the government is not doing enough to safeguard the interests of translators?
The government has taken some concrete initiatives recently. They have even established the National Translation Mission through special provisions of Prime Ministers Fund. The homepage of its website states, “National Translation Mission (NTM) is a Government of India initiative to make knowledge-based texts accessible in all Indian languages listed in the VIII Schedule of the Constitution through translation. The idea of NTM stemmed from a statement of the Prime Minister of India stressing how vital is the access to translated material, for increasing access to knowledge in many critical areas.” Our policymakers reasoned the origin of this body saying, “NTM would fulfill a seminal aim of all translation viz. of democratizing and secularising knowledge, empowering and enabling languages and thus speech communities.” The idea was to empower translators so that they help in the translation of knowledge text that should reach all corners of India. I am yet to see any visible empowerment process for translators by National Translation Mission. Interestingly, major translation works are being outsourced to publishers who have been undercutting translators and paying little.

Are there any reports or data available to attest to the growing need for translators?
The National Knowledge Commission headed by Sam Pitroda opined that the translation industry can engender around 500,000 jobs in India thus, various courses on languages must be introduced in the present system at the earliest. “Based on NASSCOM reports that India is sharing 5.2 percent of the ITES market, and according to the growth pattern depicted by common sense advisory, if we take India’s share as 5 percent of the world market, currently language market size in Indian languages may be taken to be approximately $500 million,” he said.

What role does ITA play in strengthening the vocation?
Indian Translators Association is a non-profit making body recognized by the apex body of translators, International Federation of Translators (Fédération Internationale Des Traducteurs (FIT) with its headquarters in Montreal.ITAINDIA was created with a vision to unite the widespread translators and interpreters’ community of India at a common platform to address issues for the betterment of the industry and take steps to ensure that its members are empowered and they provide services that meet professional standards of the industry. To achieve our aims we regularly conduct workshops, seminars, and conferences, and maintain constant relations with decision-makers in India and Industry leaders abroad.

Now, moving on to my specific TG, the students, what is the minimum time period for learning a language?
Learning a language is a complex process and its success greatly depends upon the kind of training you undergo. You can see large hoarding of B-category language courses promising you to make a foreign language expert in three months. I implore all the readers hereby to kindly lend a deaf ear to such ads. Language learning is a continuous development process, which requires at least three years of formal training. Language per se is a reflection of culture and to master it, you need to gain more and more info about a particular region. And that takes time. After my Masters in Spanish from JNU, I have been translating from Spanish into English and vice versa for the last 13 years but I am proud to declare that I am still learning and improving myself.

What challenges does a beginner face in this field?
At the learning stage, the complexity of certain languages at times forces an individual to develop disinterest in what s/he is doing. Just concentrate a little and the mist soon starts fading away. But once one starts working, the biggest challenge is that of rejection. Ensure that you have all the traits of a good translator.

What are these traits?
a. Command over Language (Grammar, structures, tenses)
b. No omissions
c. No Mistranslation
d. No Spelling errors
e. Accurate choice of words
f. Maintaining Consistency
g. Zero factual errors (While translating a text, one can neither omit nor add any facts)
h. An eye for detail (errors in detail are subjected to outright rejection. 50 can never be 5 here irrespective of how tired or mentally disturb you were while translating)
i. check Punctuation, symbols, signs, etc: 10 Check Character attributes
j. Check Page layout

What all are the sectors that usually employ translators?
Medical, IT, BPOs, KPOs, Embassies, Media, Publishing and so on.

Which genre of translation, according to you is the best one and why? (Out of word-for-word translation, literal translation, faithful translation, semantic translation, adaptive translation, free translation, idiomatic translation, and communicative translation)
Each has some or the other pros and cons. Moreover, translation is a vocation that can never fit in into the shackles of genres. Every individual comprehends differently thus translates differently. A quality translator’s work would never fit in the listed genres.

What message would you like to leave for the budding translators?
Define your own professional standards and respect your own self-worth. Market yourself well, then clearly define your expectations and stick to them. If I quote Rs 10,000 for a paper, I guarantee excellent work with zero critical errors and can assure that the work would be the best. This is my worth; develop your own.