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B.T Seetha is Associate professor in English at Nizam College, Osmania University, Hyderabad. She received her Ph.D in 1994 from Osmania University for her thesis, 'Ed Bullins and Aime Cesaire: A Comparative Study'. Her areas of specialization and Research interest are Afro-American Drama, Modern Indian Drama and Translation.Her postal address is # 19, Radhika Colony, West Marredpally, Secunderabad. 500 026. Andra Pradesh.

Abstract

The paper addresses the issue of Translation and Empowerment in the contemporary context. It basically deals with the concerns of translation in an intercultural situation. Translation from Indian Languages to English and from English to Indian Languages, involves an intercultural dialogue. Drama is polyphonic and thus not rigid. While translating a play the translator needs to be aware of the aspects of performance and presentation. The source text (ST) passing through the different stages of anuvad as translation or interpretation, bhashantaram as transformation or translation and vivarta as trans-creation, enforces decisions which find their way into performance as textual strategies in the form of a dialect or an idiom or audio-visual signs by way of body language, design, sound, and music. This paper is divided into three sections. The first two parts explore the theoretical assumptions of translation and the last part deals with the thematic analysis of the text Listen Shefali wherein Shefali's predicament is viewed as the predicament of the translator.

Translating Suno Shefali, a Hindi play by Kusum Kumar as Listen Shefali was indeed an empowering experience, both at the level of the translational process involved as well as the necessary thematic understanding. Translation of thought and language, which overlap, leads to an empowerment of the writer, translator, reader and also the text. As the title of the text suggests, Shefali's act of listening to what is said and to what is justify unsaid, is similar to the translator's attempt of interpreting the text and creating a faithful re-production.

This paper is divided into three sections.The first two parts explore the theoretical assumptions of translation and the last part deals with the thematic analysis of the text Listen Shefali wherein Shefali's predicament is viewed as the predicament of the translator.

In the year 2000-02 Osmania University decided to offer specialization courses, in its constituent colleges. Following this decision Postgraduate College Secunderabad, Osmania University offered six courses in Indian Literatures in Translation as a specialization. As a result, translations in English from various Indian "vernacular" languages gained special significance, for both students and teachers. These six courses spanned a vast range of literary texts and excerpts from different genres like a chapter on Rasa from Bharatamuni's Natyasastra; Somadeva's Kathasarithsagar (chapters I and II: Kathapita and Kathamukha); Kalidasa's Abhijnana Shakuntalam; selected poems of Kabir from Mystic Songs of Kabir; Gazal's of Mir Galib, Insha Allah Insha, Bahadur Shah Zafar and Quli Qutub Shah from Urdu Gazals and Nazm; Prasad's Kamayani (books I and III); Gurrum Joshua's Gabbilam (part I) and Tendulkar's Silence, the Court is in Session to mention a few.

The students' response to these texts was much better than to the other core texts from British and American literatures. Some of them went to the source text in their enthusiasm to learn more and perhaps read only the source texts! It was a pleasant surprise when one of the students wanted to pursue further studies on Thyagaraja. Her reason for doing so, she said, was that she was learning music and also that if a foreigner, William. J. Jackson in his book Thyagaraja: A Renewal of Tradition could work on Thyagaraja's musical compositions, a culture-specific text, she felt she could do equal justice or even better. Why was she so confident to think that she was better equipped? This could be a simple case of reiterating confidence in oneself which a vernacular language offers by way of familiarity with the culture, no doubt embedded in the source language. Or it could be a mere desire to reach out to a wider audience by way of translation because the target language has the sanction of a language widely used.

The locuton "Translation and Empowerment" raises certain questions. How and who or what does translation empower? Being translated, has the writer been empowered by gaining wider readership? Has the translator empowered himself/herself by reaching out to a wider audience? Have the translator and the enlarged readership empower the source text/culture or the target text/culture by way of giving the source text one more medium of expression?

Literature, whether classical or contemporary, identifies the need of a sympathetic and at times even an empathetic reception, termed sahridaya in Sanskrit. Unlike other genres drama and theatre show a different relationship between the text and the reader or the performance and the audience. If in literature, the relationship between Sruti and Smriti forms the very basis of transcreation, wherein an idea is translated into text and the text consciously acquires a form, the text in drama further includes other forms of perception. Citing Lesley Soule in Theatre Praxis McCullough refers to the relationship between the performer, spectator, and character/ text, to assert,

The meaning of a performance is not fixed in the 'character' mirroring life, but the result of a plurality of readings located in the spectators' perceptions. The 'who' of a performed identity is not a state of being but 'a process of interaction, residing not in the subjective individual but a social behaviour'.

(McCullough Christopher 1998:12)

Translation from Indian Languages into English and from English into Indian Languages thus involves an intercultural dialogue. Thus in the process of inter-semiotic transposition leading to meaningful inter-lingual transposition, creativity works at different levels of culture, character, plot and structure of the source/target texts. The translator after a comprehensive understanding of the text, in the process of translation, needs to find proper words and phrases that can convey the mood and meaning of the source text in the target text too.

According to the Nyaya school of thought, linguistic utterance or sabda is a way of knowledge, which includes perception and inference. Theatres as a mode of communication through word and action has an immediate influence on the receiver leading to a possible critical inquire. Thus an active interaction of perception and inference could lead to knowledge. The power of expression at these different levels, which the theatre has, is its element of beauty. Therefore a play even when it is being written, translating idea or thought into word, or being translated, from source text to target text; due to its polyphonic characteristics needs a multi-dimensional approach. It is not merely the context, mood and tone of the character but also the action that call for attention. The settings and surroundings too tend to influence expression and action. A play merely written or read is half done, it gains a complete form only when performed or seen. Therefore while writing or translating a play one needs to visualize not merely the performance on the stage but also the possible composition and the reception of the audience. The composition and reception of the audience very often depends on the cultural and social texture. When a performance moves from a specific milieu to another, changes could occur in expression or presentation. The audience could be anyone; anyone who walks into the theatre and watches the play constitutes the audience, which makes it difficult for the writer or the translator to have a specific group in mind. Thus, a drama text for performance has no rigid text, every translation or performance envisages creativity.

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