Abstract:
The intent of the present paper is to critically analyse the Cobalt Blue, a novel originally written in Marathi language by Sachin Kundalkar and later translated into English language by Jerry Pinto. Both the novelist and translator have put their whole hearted efforts in their works. Translator is not merely a replacement of the word from the Source Language to the Target Language but it requires much toil and responsibilities. It translator is not suppose to translate the words and sentences of the original works but he has to understand the socio-cultural phenomena of the both the languages. It becomes more difficult when Source Language and Target Language are of the different countries. Both Marathi and English are virile, direct languages and perhaps their competing claims lead Pinto to change, compress or eschew several details, phrases and sentences from the original, trusting the readers' wisdom.While Marathi is not his first language, Jerry Pinto has measured up to Kundalkar's novel's exquisitely constructed but basic plot and knotty issues. He made a valiant attempt to find out not only 'what' the initial text means, but also 'how' itwas said - the hidden context, the accents of characters, and the intricacies of daily parlance.
Key Words: Source Language, Target Language, Marathi, English, Translation
[1] Introduction
Translation in the field of literature is not a new phenomenon in the world. Through the authentic translation of the great treatises, the entire world acquires the knowledge of the various fields. As far as India is concerned, since the Colonial Period, English translation has secured the paramount place. However, translation is not merely as word replacement from one language to another language. Translation is not an easy task because it requires a deep knowledge and mature understanding of both the languages i.e. Source Language and Target Language. Source Language is a language of an original text whereas Target Language is a language into which an original text is intended to be translated. As far as this paper is concerned, Cobalt Blue of Sachin Kundlakar is a Source Text originally written in Marathi language and it is translated by Jerry Pinto in English language which is known as Target Language. So, Marathi is a Source Language and English is a Target Language as far as the novel, Cobalt Blue is concerned.
[2] Objectives of the Study
To understand the concept of Source Language and Target Language.
To critically analyse the translated version of Cobalt Blue.
To examine the role of translator.
[3] Research Methodology
Research methodology is the path through which the researcher needs to conduct his research. It shows the path through which the researcher formulate his problem and objective and present his result from the data obtained during the study period. No practical study is carried out for the present paper. The English translated version of Cobalt Blueis selected as the primary source. The research papers, articles and journals are selected as a second source for the present paper. A critical and comprehending reading, analytical and comparative methods are employed for the present paper. MLA 8th edition is followed to design the paper and to quote the citations. Marathi textual quotations are taken from the original novel Cobalt Blue of Kundalkar, Sachin whereas English textual quotations are taken from the translated works of Jerry Pinto.
[4] Translations in India
Eugene Nida describes translation as a science, Theodore Savory terms it an art, and Eric Jacobson visualizes it as a craft (Das 167). Translation is all this and much more. In the contemporary world, translation is indispensable. Noted translation theorist Paul Engle wrote in the 1980s, “As this world shrinks together like an aging orange and all peoples in all cultures move closer together…it may be that the crucial sentence for our remaining years on earth may be very simply: TRANSLATE OR DIE. The lives of every creature on the earth may one day depend on the instant and accurate translation of one word” (2).
In the Colonial Era, West contact transformed India's translation scene. Western scholars interpreted Indian texts into English and other European languages. Translations of English or European texts into Indian languages and translations into Indian languages were a distinctive aspect of the Indian Renaissance and helped develop the country throughout the fight for independence.
Translating Indian literature into a global language like English has always been a powerful means of revealing to the world its rich cultural heritage, vast storehouses of knowledge and wisdom, human vision and lofty ideals. William Jones, MacDonnell, MaxMuller, Wilson, Griffiths and Jacobs were pioneers in the field.Satchidanandanin “The Hindu Literary Review” asserts that:
….… by late 19th century, Indian scholars like Romesh Chandra Dutt… also joined the effort, sometimes with the noble intention of correcting Western perceptions of Indian texts. This is a living tradition as we realize from the practices of P.Lal, A.K.Ramanujan, DilipChitre, Velcheru Narayana Rao, Arvind Krishna Mehrotra, ArshiaSattar, H.S. Shivaprakash, RanjitHoskote, Vijay Nambisan, BibekDebroy, and several other poets and scholars. (3)
The world of translation has been enriched by the translation of Vedas, Puranas, Upanishads, Darshanshastras, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchtantra etc. Apart from these religious Hindu treatises, we have translations of great literary works of Kalidas of Sanskrit, Tulsidas, Surdas, Kabir, Meera, Premchand, Bhartendu, Dinkar, Agyeyaof Hindi, Ghalib and Iqbal of Urdu, Chandidas, Saratchandra and Tagore of Bengali, Narsi Mehta of Gujarati, Pothanna and Vemanaof Telugu, Jagannath Das in Odiya, Shankar Dev of Assamese, Purandardas in Kannada, Kumaran Asan and Vallatholof Malayalam, Kusumagraj and Vijay Tendulkar of Marathi, Kamban and Andalof Tamil. Especially the English translation of the above mentioned works has reached to each and every corner of the world. English translation has helped Indian literature break the boundaries of time and space, being available to both layman and critic. There is enormous potential and desperate need for further these translations of old and recent plays in Indian literature, such that new concepts are uncovered and endless lost gems are exposed.
However, the actual translation processof translation is not so easy it requires good command over both languages i.e. Source Language and Target Language. The translator must perform three roles: the first is of the reader who must understand the original text in its entirety; the second is of the bi-linguist who must learn and balance the particular laws, patterns, socio-cultural backgrounds and worldviews of two separate languages; and the third is of the author who produces a new text with the meaning, sensitivities and expectations of the original text and writer in mind; and Translation requires creative imagination like original writing. In reality, the role of the translator becomes harder because he / she has to grasp and express another person's heart and mind nature. The supreme task of the translator is to carefully translate the essence of the original work into the target language without compromising the original text's form, sense or elegance, or source and target languages. Jerry Pinto is a translator who has translated a Marathi novel Cobalt Blue of Sachin Kundalkar into English. The further discussion is made below.
[5] Analysis of Cobalt Blue
Cobalt Blue published by Hamish Hamilton in 2013 is Jerry Pinto's English translation of Sachin Kundlakar's Cobalt Blue Marathi novel (2006). Sachin Kundalkar is a popular playwright, movie director, and screenplay writer. With Nirop (2007) and Gandha (2009), he has produced and directed four feature films. Cobalt Blue (2006) is his debut novel, written in his early twenties,“a tale of rapturous love and fierce heartbreak told with tenderness and unsparing clarity” (qtd. in Kundalkar, Cobalt Blue English edition, blurb).Jerry Pinto is an influential Indian English writer of prose, verse, children's writing and a journalist. His debut novel Em and Big Hoom (2012) won the Hindu Literary Award. Helen: The Life and Times of an H-Bomb (2006), Surviving Women (2000) and Asylum and Other Poems (2003) are the notable works of Jerry Pinto.When Marathi literature fails to find professional English translators, Jerry Pinto's Kundalkar 's translation comes as a precious ray of hope. As writer and translator Shanta Gokhale noted, "... Jerry Pinto's translation is fluid and immensely readable" (qtd. in Kundalkar, Cobalt Blue).
Cobalt Blue, a brief novel, centres around the Joshis’, a conservative Brahmin middle-class family living in Pune, primarily in the early years of the new millennium. The basic story depicts the interactions of brother and sister Tanay Joshi and Anuja Joshi, whose lives are changed forever when a paying guest comes to remain in Joshi's household. The first section of the novel is an internal monolog, Tanay's direct message to the nameless paid guest with whom he has a romantic homosexual relationship. The second part of the novel is Anuja's diary, where she writes about her love affair with the same paying guest. The enigmatic paying visitor robbed both Tanay and Anuja and the novel is a record of their lamentations.
Mr and Mrs Joshi, a middleclass worker and a housewife worked hard to bring up their three children, Aseem, Tanay and Anuja. Although Aseem is a conformist, Tanay and Anuja are revolutionaries who want separate lives. Mr Joshi (Baba or father in Marathi) and Mrs Joshi (Aai or mother in Marathi) give Tanay and Anuja independence, but little do they realize their children would end up doing something they never dreamed of.
Mrs Joshi, Baba decides to rent their room upstairs to pay guests, as a result of this, a handsome young man gets into the Joshi household as a paying guest. From the very beginning, everything seems to indicate he is someone different. No name, no caste, no village, no relatives. A French Indian diplomat's orphaned son, he has lived alone since he was fifteen. His magical paintings, his French, his music, his charismatic persona and charm make him stand out. Well-versed in international literature, art, music and culture, he charms everyone with his ability to mix and listen to them patiently and attentively for hours. He is the one ever ready to help, the one from whom everyone likes to confess their sorrows and draw consolation. He remains shy, elusive, introverted as ever. He's master of his own fate, captain of his own plane, a wild bird who lives life on his own terms without worrying about the planet.
Precisely these qualities attract Tanay and Anuja to the same individual, unknown to each other. Being gay, he and Tanay are physically drawn together. Tanay, who lives a double life hidden except to his own kin, with no one to comprehend him, discovers a real soul mate in the paying guest and wishes to stay with him forever. Tanay learns to be truly free, to love life to the fullest, to live for one's own sake, to find happiness in every moment. But all this ends abruptly when the paying guest elopes with his sister Anuja. A broken Tanay has none to express his sorrow and he mourns alone, lyrically, for he lost part of his own self with the paying guest’s departure.
The second part of the novel begins with Anuja's diary. She sets about her own observations on the psychiatrist's recommendation, who is treating her for extreme depression after the paid guest has found her. Anuja, a colourful tom-boyish girl, a wanderer, trekker and environmental activist will never reconcile as a typical Indian woman with a history of glorified slavery. She finds a man who is different in the paying guest, who can give her space while taking care of her, a man who supports her dreams, teaches her music, makes her laugh. She is profoundly drawn and possessive. One day, they elope to the unknown place, and she has six months of paradise with him. One day without informing her, suddenly he disappears. She does not have any option except to return to her parents’ home. Since she does not dare to take her own life, she swallows the insults and humiliation. She improves gradually with her family's support.
Cobalt Blue is a story of enthusiastic youth of the modern age. This covers many current issues like breaking gender stereotypes, homosexuality, child abuse, feminism, art, environmental activism, familial relations, man-woman relationship, marriage versus open relationships, loss of innocence and coming of age, generation gap, culture clash, satire on Indian social orthodoxy and hypocrisy, disadvantages of Western liberal culture, the problematic concept of freedom etc. Cobalt Blue through focusing on a contemporary existential dilemmas wonders whether true love and fidelity actually exist, whether partnerships are to be measured by durability or consistency.
While Marathi is not his first language, Jerry Pinto has measured up to Kundalkar's novel's exquisitely constructed but basic plot and knotty issues. He made a valiant attempt to find out not only 'what' the initial text means, but also 'how' itwas said - the hidden context, the accents of characters, and the intricacies of daily parlance. As Pinto himself states, "Because it's not that you're taking one word and replacing it with another … You are actually taking one culture and replacing it with another" (qtd. in Phadke, The Times Of India). The ultimate tribute comes from the novelist Sachin Kundalkar himself - "I was moved by (the translation) … It was fluid, poetic and had the exact tints and textures of emotions as the original Marathi novel" (qtd. in Phadke, The Times of India).
Both the translator and novelistbelongs to the younger generation. Maybe that's why Pinto suits Kundalkar's youthful and casual language so well, his chaste Marathi peppered with English phrases, his style and depiction characterized by searing strength, blazing liveliness and sparkling clarity. Kundalkar's novel is a thriller of suspense, and musical love poem rolled into one. Owing to stream-of - consciousness technique filled with repeated, fragmented and haphazard musings, interpreting Tanay's monolog in the first section is a major challenge. The second portion of Anuja's diary blends first-person subjectivity with third-person objectivity, stream-of-consciousness, flashback and chronological narration. Translating a novel of diverse opinions and perspectives from elation to despair and neuroticism to stoicism is both joy and challenge. Pinto opines in the valuable 'Translator's Note' at the end of his text:
As readers we expect narratives to fall into seemly timelines. But neither Tanay nor Anuja respect the sequential. Smitten, broken, rebuilt, they tell their stories as memories spill over, as thoughts surface. …. this is how we grieve … in the present tense and in the past, all at once, because the imagined future must now be abandoned. (228)
Although the English version cannot fully capture the Marathi language's colloquialism and emotional appeal, Pinto compensates with his blend of precision and brevity, sarcasm and tenderness, humour and pathos.
Nonetheless, Pinto's analysis is unique. The novel's two parts are originally titled 'Tanay' and 'July-August chi Diary,' while the translator names them 'Tanay' and 'Anuja.' With regard to Anuja's journal, Pinto gives only the day and month, but omits 2002, which is part of any entry in the original. Pinto found his own ingenious ways to bridge the vast cultural divide between Marathi and English. Without clarification or footnotes, he preserves Marathi terms as in – aai, baba, aaji, ajoba, kaka, maushi, kelvan, sanatandharmi, shengdaana, sabudaana, bhakri, chafa, etc. He'sunapologetic about this practice, especially as online meanings can be easily traced. Perhaps this is a great way to preserve the initial Marathi flavour, as correct English interpretations of local cultural words are always difficult. Pinto says, however hard the translator tries, some things cannot be communicated. Incapable of finding a suitable substitute for the Marathi word 're’ used by Tanay to address the paying guest, Pinto admits, "It ('re') gives his monolog an intensity, spontaneity and affectionate intimacy that is not equal in English" (225-6).
Both Marathi and English are virile, direct languages and perhaps their competing claims lead Pinto to change, compress or eschew several details, phrases and sentences from the original, trusting the readers' wisdom. Maybe he thinks that interpreting something represents his original influence relaxation. This strategy helps prevent repeated repetitions or data. Yet it also bears the downside of skipping significant parts like Tanay's comment; “Pannayushyaitkasoppanasta. Zara complicated asta; aanitu tar ayushyapekshaadahapatcomplicated manoos” (Kundalkar, 27) meaning “But life is not that simple. It is a bit complicated; and you are a man ten times more complicated than life.”The translated text misses out on lines about Anuja's resentment for her psychiatrist who just has to drink tea, wear flowery saris and dine with her husband, who hasn't faced the shocks Anuja has suffered, who hasn't been deserted by her lover, or who hasn't had to return home to her parents.
At the other side, Pinto may be incredibly creative in providing definitions or even sentences that are not present in the source, but are appropriate for the English edition readers. Any of Tanay's reminiscences illustrate his family's caste-consciousness:
We didn’t bother much about caste and such matters at home. But when we sat down to dinner and you asked Aai for a poli, I could see her perk up. Brahmins say ‘poli’ while other castes make do with the humble ‘chapatti’ - same bread, different brand name. Baba took the bull by its horns. ‘May I ask who is your family god?’ he asked. (38)
Also, there's this remark after Anuja's unsuccessful suicide attempt, “This was failure piled on failure” (110). The pieces in italics are the contributions of the translator and represent his deep comprehension of the Marathi narrative's sentiment and culture, as well as his attempt to create a truly artistic job tailored to the character of English.
There are many instances of genuinely inspired translation that pierce and contribute to the original text's heart. In the original, Tanay confesses that the time he spends with his friend Rashmi is the most peaceful (Kundalkar, 32). Pinto’s translation is -“…friendship can offer surcease from noise”(77). Then there is Rashmi’s advice to Tanay, “All of us have to give shape to our lives…And that means trusting what pleases you” (96). Or these self-discoveries of Anuja– “I have to do something for myself. Of myself; and I have to live the way I want to live. Whatever it takes” (185). When the paying guest withdraws into a world of his own, the term paripoornaektepana (Kundalkar, 37-38) is not literally translated as total or complete solitude but as ‘accomplished solitude’ (91). Pinto’s excellent grasp over Marathi usages and his skill in substituting them with the most natural English idioms is obvious. For example, Anuja says that while she is being treated for depression, everybody complies with her wishes (Kundalkar, 49 ). The English translation simply reads, “These days, I have only to ask.” (121) Pinto recreates the effect of a maidservant answering the phone in crude Marathi – ‘Woo is spikking?’ (CB 200) When Anuja speaks of her ambition to establish a fine zoo in her city (Kundalkar, 82), Pinto translates it thus - “I had wanted to study zoo management and become India’s Gerald Durrell” (CB 201).
Thus, the translator, Jerry Pinto has added a true flavour into the original text to justify Kundalkar, the novelist’s true intention in his English translation version. Both have applied their mind and heart to their works.
[6] Conclusion
Sachin Kundalkar's English translation brings a strong Indian literature to the world. Jerry Pinto adds new dimensions to the original text and the entire Indian English literature. The translation exemplifies how Indian and English freely borrow from each other. Language boundaries crumble, producing a genuinely regional and multinational literature. Such literature alone can create new universal welfare revolutions.
Works Cited
Prof. Nanda Chauhan, Lecturer, C. U. Shah Polytechnic, Surendranagar Mobile : 9825409364