Andhra Pradesh | my india encounters

Auto rickshaw in Telugu words

Auto Rickshaw / March 8, 2006

Madhu H. KazaVimala is a prominent modern Telugu copywriter whoever brief stories frequently appear in annual anthologies of the greatest writing in Telugu. Yet “The Dark Girl’s Laughter” stands apart not only in regards to her own body of fiction, but also in the framework of modern Telugu literature. A lot of Telugu fiction is really what we possibly may call “committed” literature; the writing will engage directly with contemporary politics, and stories often have an obvious moral perspective. “The black Girl’s Laughter, ” rather, presents a more open-ended, enigmatic narrative. It is not a story with much dramatic activity or old-fashioned narrative drive either. It really works rather through a circular and repetitive conversation between two figures in a confined environment. (While taking care of this translation we had been reminded regarding the structure and conversational relentlessness of Marguerite Duras’ novella, The Square).

The story is steeped in particular caste, color, gender, and class concerns of this region. The narrator is a sympathetic middle-income group Telugu-speaking, intellectual woman whom listens into the life stories recounted by a younger, impoverished, lower-caste, Tamil lady who has been susceptible to sexual assault, and yet the story makes clear that an uncomplicated knowledge of one other isn't feasible. The narrator acts not quite as a savior of more youthful lady, but quite simply as an interlocutor so when an individual who listens.

Among the challenges of translating from an Indian language – within situation, Telugu – usually English is an Indian language and English words and appearance are part of most Indian languages. So while Telugu (as a non-Indo-Aryan language) is quite distant from English, we also confront having to translate between expressions or words from an Indian English idiom into an American English. For us, this is not simply a technical issue but a political one.Sitaramayya Ari simply how much do we want to domesticate the English to make it read seamlessly for an American reader? Simply how much do we should keep a number of the scars of difference in order to indicate the plurality of Englishes worldwide? Do we keep “mobile phone” or convert it to “cell phone”? Should we transform “kilometers” to “miles”? Use “berth” or “seat”? We maybe not set up for ourselves a unified and permanent principle concerning this therefore our translation is combined. For example, we decided to maintain the term “auto” in text, whilst the automobile the younger girl will hail once she gets from the train. In cases like this, “auto” is the three-wheeled motorized auto-rickshaws popular for transportation in Asia, instead of an automobile or car. We made a decision to avoid translating “auto” as “taxi” because “taxi” would suggest a car or truck and would erase the course difference when you look at the story; the young woman will never have the methods to hail a taxi. After much discussion we rejected numerous choices also and decided to maintain the word because appears in original, “auto, ” though we recognize that American readers will most likely skip the differences which the expression “auto” will seem strange with their ears. It’s an example of a place when you look at the text in which a reader might-be drawn out of the story for a second. Risking that disturbance is certainly not about attempting to make a big declaration; rather it's section of our acknowledgement that interpretation is definitely a practice, in-process and unsettled.

Source: waxwingmag.org