Loss and gain in translation from Hindi to English: a stylistic study of multiple English translations of Premchand’s Godaan and Nirmala

Abstract

Although translation is an old phenomenon, it is only after the 1970s that it develops as an academic discipline. Nevertheless in the comparatively short period of the last five decades, it has developed enormously. Today it is multi-disciplinary in nature and can boast many publications. Recent developments have also created formal training programs and translation associations. However, inspite of all these developments, its scope has mainly been superficial as most of the studies focus on general aspects of a translation. That said, the present study specifically takes up Hindi English translation tradition and closely explores problems, issues and possibilities in translation from Hindi to English. To accomplish this task, the researcher structurally divides the study in seven chapters. The discussion in Chapter I historically surveys the beginning and the development of translation studies in India and the West. It indicates that historically the role of a translator has been seen differently in these two cultures. While the Indian tradition has appreciated a translator s creative labor and sees him as a co-creator of a new text in the target language, the Western tradition has seen him as a traitor, a bearer of a divine punishment or a mere scribe. The survey also highlights that with global change in the 1960s, these outlooks begin to change and the translators, translation theorists and scholars start to be taken more seriously. From the 1970s onwards, translation studies as an academic discipline is initially established as a field of study. Further in the research, Chapter II shifts the attention from the history of translation studies to Hindi English translation. The chapter first discusses available English translations of Godaan and Nirmala, and then reviews available literature on four of them. Since there is not much literature available on these translations, it also discusses the translators own views expressed with the translations or somewhere else in the form of introductions