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Download Complete Volume - National Translation Mission

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258 Sachin Ketkarfield in an unprecedented way. At the same time, it is alwaysextremely interesting and enlightening to know what is left out whiletranslating, because it educates us about a different culture anddifferent ways of looking at the world.The difference between cultures is another obvious andmajor challenge one faces while translating poets like Narsinh intoEnglish. In fact, language and culture cannot be separated and bothare inextricably interwoven with each other. Julia Kristeva's thesis(1988:59-60) that one signifying cultural practice is interwoven withthe elements from other signifying cultural practices.That is, thenotion of intertextuality is particularly important here. A verbal textas a signifying practice already contains elements from othersignifying systems like mythology, systems of food and fashion,indigenous medicinal system, metaphysics, literary conventions andgenres, musical system, festivals, religious-ritualistic beliefs andeven superstitions. No text can be an island or can remain isolated ina network of signifying structures called culture. Hence, one doesnot translate a piece of text, though it may seem isolated, but tries tofind equivalents for the entire network involved in the constructionof the text. All this becomes very apparent when one attempts totranslate Narsinh.Genres hardly have equivalents in a different literarytradition, as they are conventions of a particular literary tradition.They may travel to another tradition but they are no longer the same.The flexible and lyrical form of Pada, which has been discussed inthe chapter three, has no equivalent in English. Hence, the free verserenderings of Narsinh's poems have no fixed form in English.Of course, the mythology of Krishna and Radha has noequivalent in English culture, nor do the allusions and references toPuranic characters and events have parallel in the target languageculture. They are untranslatable and therefore I have onlytransliterated them. I also provided a glossary of culture-specific

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