Postcolonial translation, or adaptation, refers to the rewriting of classical works within or for modern postcolonial societies. Postcolonial adaptation offers particular insight into this larger cultural process.
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The 3 Pillars of Postcolonial Theory
• Edward W. Said
• Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak
• Homi K. Bhabha
Tejaswini Niranjana
Translation as a practice shapes, and takes shape within, the asymmetrical relations of power that operate under colonialism. (Niranjana 1992: 2)
Furthermore, she goes on to criticize translation studies itself for its largely western orientation and for three main failings that she sees resulting from this
(1) that translation studies have until recently not considered the question of power imbalance between different languages
(2) that the concepts underlying much of western translation theory are flawed (‘its notions of text, author, and meaning are based on an unproblematic, naively representational theory of language’);
(3) that the ‘humanistic enterprise’ of translation needs to be questioned, since translation in the colonial context builds a conceptual image of colonial domination into the discourse of western philosophy.
POSTCOLONIAL TRANSLATION THEORY
i. In general, the postcolonial translator must call into question every aspect of colonialism and liberal nationalism (ibid.: 167).
For Niranjana, this is not just a question of avoiding western metaphysical representations. It is a case of ‘dismantl[ing] the hegemonic west from within…’, deconstructing and identifying the
means by which the west represses the non-west and marginalizes its own otherness’.
By identifying and highlighting the process, such repression can then be countered.
ii. Specifically, Niranjana calls for an ‘interventionist’ approach from the translator. ‘I initiate here a practice of translation that is speculative, provisional and interventionist’,
Her own suggested translation, she claims, resists the ‘containment’ of colonial discourse. By avoiding similes that would tone down the native form of metaphorization
First love and last love: A Tale of the Indian Mutiny (1868)
James Grant (1822-1887)
Ganga Persad Verma
English Source Text:
The mutineers burned down a camp and murdered officers, ladies and children, literally in the presence of a superior force of European soldiers; superior considered in a moral sense. (Grant, 1869, pp. 134-135)
Target Text (Urdu):
باغیوں نے ایک پڑاؤ کا پڑاؤ جلا دیا۔ اپنے افسروں، ان کی بیویوں، لڑکیوں اور لڑکوں کو یورپین افسروں کی موجودگی میں مار ڈالا۔
English Source Text:
___said Doyle, “but it would only be fair if miss Weston did add to her own natural beauty”
“if possible”, interrupted Harrower.” The odds are much against a girl here after her twentieth year is past; and in a place like Delhi, with a thermometer at 98 degree or 100 degrees in August, she won’t bloom as if in the Ridings of Yorkshire or on the Wicklow mountains, in Ireland. God bless it!” (Grant, 1869, p. 14)
Target Text (Urdu):
ڈویل نے کہا"بہتر ہو کہ لینا وسٹن اپنے قدرتی حسن و جمال میں کوئی اور بات شامل کریں"۔
ھندوستان کے مقاموں میں اور خصوصاً دہلی کے ایسے مقام میں جہاں اگست کے مہینے میں گرمی 98 اور 100 درجہ تکپہنچ جاتی ھے لڑکیوں کے گال شگفتہ نہیں ھوتے۔
English Source Text:
“….was she the same Polly Weston_ the once happy and heedless girl whom everyone admired, petted and liked and who had flirted with all the little ensigns and cadets in Delhi? Or was this sudden transition from the civilization of an English home to Oriental splendor and barbarism, a madness that had come upon her? The Odalisques overwhelmed her with questions about the Feringhee women” (Grant, 1869, p. 376)
Target Text (Urdu):
"کیا اب یہ وہی پولی ویسٹن ہے۔ ایک زمانے کی حسین اور چنچل لڑکی جس کی ہر ایک شخص تعریف و محبت کرتا اور جو دہلی کے سب کم سن سپاہیوں سے مانوس تھی۔ بیگموں نے مارے سوالات کے اس کو دق کر دیا۔"
English Source Text:
‘’Poor Lena!”, thought Harrower, “I would that I might provide better fare for you than this. Chuppaties and ghee----ugh! For civilized beings like us who can appreciate delicate soups, and elaborate entrees__ even a slice of good English roast beef, the leg of a well-fed South down, or highland mutton, with salad and dessert; this is a change with a vengeance ----a change all the greater after curries and chutnies, and other provocations of the Anglo-Indian appetite!” (Grant, 1869, p. 230)
Target Text (Urdu):
رور نے دل میں کہا۔''غریب لینا کے واسطے میں ان چپاتیوں اور گھی سے زیادہ عمدہ نفیس خوراک اگر ممکن ہوتا تو مہیا کرتا کیونکہ ہمارے واسطے یہ ذلالت سے بھرا بدل ہے کہ ہماری اعلی خورش کے بجاۓ ھم کو یہ خوراک نصیب ہو
English Source Text:
“As she was about to elude his hand, he grasped her rudely by the shoulder, tearing all her muslin dress, rending her bodiee, and then the lovely ENGLISH girl stood palpitating before them in all the ivory whiteness of her skin, bare almost to the slender waist, her glorious golden hair rolling in masses over her shoulders and delicate bosom, her blue eyes full of anguish and utter dismay, the parted lips showing her close, small teeth and her lovely hands, the while, were crossed on her breast in prayer and entreaty; but in her stature, mere girl though she was, and in her bulk she contrasted most favorably with the dark and diminutive Hindoo maids who in their sixteenth year are both lean and passe; and so thought Baboo Bulli Sing, who was somewhat a connoisseur.” (Grant, 1869, p. 197)
Target Text (Urdu):
جیسے ہی کہ وہ ہاتھ پیروں تک لے گئ اس نے اس کا کندھا پکڑ لیا اور اطلس کا کپڑا پھاڑ ڈالا جن سے پولی بالکل کمر تک ننگی ہو گئ تھی۔ اور اس کے سنہرے بال کندھے تک پڑے ہوۓ تھے۔
English Source Text:
“Up several steps, broken, decayed and covered with grass and herbage and between pillars of twisted,
bulbous and fantastic form, they passed, Harrower leading the shrinking Lena by the hand, until he found a stone or fallen column, on which he seated her, while preparing to make a fire, that they might look around them and see the features of their temporary habitation---the vast memorial of unknown ages, and of a mental darkness that is yet undispelled in the land.” (Grant, 1869, p. 311)
Target Text (Urdu):
"بہت سے آئینے ٹوٹے ہوۓ تھے اور ان پر مٹی جمی ہوئی تھی۔ اندر جا کر ہرور نے لینا کو ایک پتھر پر بٹھا دیا۔ اور خود آگ جلانے کی فکر کرنے لگا تاکہ دیکھے اس کے چند روز کے قیام کے لیے یہ مقام کیسا ھے۔ "
English Source Text:
“ Though nothing could be less calculated to remedy the abuses of Government, or the spirit of tyranny and degradation of woman, which last is one of the essences of Islamism, there had been a species of jurisprudence once in the Mohammedan kingdom of Delhi; but it was chiefly made up from the additions put up to the Koran, or rather the traditions admitted by the Suni as applied by Abu Hanifa, a jurisconsult, whose authority was supreme in India, as it is now in Turkey, though steam, gas and electricity together with brandy and bitter beer, are likely to knock his system all to pieces.”(Grant, 1869, pp. 165-166)
Target Text (Urdu):
اپنی حفاظت کے واسطے،غریب عورتیں اب کس سے عاجزی کریں کیونکہ اس وقت پرانا قانون مغلیہ کا بھی توڑ دیا گیا تھا کوئی شے گورنمنٹ کی برائیوں اور ظلم اور ذلت عورتوں کے دور کرنے والی تھی کہ جو اسلام کا ایک جزو ہے تاہم ایک قسم کا قانون کسی زمانہ میں مسلمان بادشاہت دہلی کے واسطے تھا۔ ابو حنیفہ کے قانون پر عملدرآمد ھوتا تھا کہ جس کا اعتبار اس وقت ترکی میں کیا جاتا ہے۔ گو برانڈی اور کڑوی تیز شراب اس طریقہ کو ٹکڑے ٹکڑے کرنے والی ہیں۔"
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