Linguistic Interface with Emily's poems:

Linguistic equivalence is the most significant aspect of a translation, and especially, a poetic translation. The linguistic typology of English and Marathi is different in that, Marathi is a verb-ending language and English has the verb in the middle. This changes the positions of various parts of speech and grammatical elements such as the position of the subordinate clauses, the prepositions, and other syntactic elements as well. Each language on the other hand, is loaded heavily with cultural connotations, especially in words and phrases, and one would consider connotative translation as closer to the source than denotative translation. Denotative or literal translation results in disaster, or, at times, it is even impossible as cited in the example below. Therefore, words need to be chosen most carefully, or even they need to be created with appropriate meanings in the context. Just as a dictionary, a thesaurus, or an encyclopaedia would offer a lot of help; no doubt, the translator's interpretation plays a big role in the process of selecting certain words. The syntax plays an equally important role in the interpretation of some expressions. The target language demands syntax, which must suit the idea expressed in the source language text. Even a small problem like the gender of a noun presents with a challenge, and the whole sentence/poem, and the notion in the original text needs to be considered afresh.

Emily makes use of capital letters for certain special nouns. Marathi has no such system of capital letters. So, what she intends to convey through the capital letters could not be brought out in the Marathi text. Moreover, the gender of 'soul' in Marathi is masculine. In this poem the soul is personified as a woman. The whole treatment of the concept of the soul as a woman would have been impossible for want of lexical equivalence in the target language, and the related syntax thereof. Creativity had to be resorted to in this translation. After some due mulling, I arrived at a solution. I coined a new word, the feminine of aatmaa as aatminee in Marathi and took my translation as close to the original idea as possible. There were other occasions when such decisions resorting to creativity were necessary. Another example of such a decision was regarding the title of my published book itself. I was particular that I gave an apt title (Malena, 2000) to my book. After spending a good amount of time and mental energy on the question of what the most appropriate description of Emily's poems would be, and what title would most befit my book of translations, one day it came to me in a most creative moment, like a flash. I called it Goodharammyaa Emily. Goodha (mysterious) and Rammya (entertaining/interesting) are two different adjectives. In Marathi, they have associations of something mysterious as well as interesting. They are usually associated with detective stories, or novels. But they are generally used as two separate words and not as a compound word. To describe Emily's poetry, turning them into a compound word and in a totally different context, was also a creative decision.. Not only does the description goodharammyaa mean that she is herself mysterious as well as interesting, but the compound also means that she was interested in the mysteries of the world in an interesting manner.

Regarding syntax in translation, Houbert, (1998) writes: "The translation process becomes two-fold: firstly, the translator needs to detect potential discrepancies and flaws in the original text and understand the meaning they intend to convey…secondly,…the translator will undo the syntactic structure of the original text and then formulate the corresponding message in the target language, thus giving the original text added value in terms of both wording and impact".