fहndi - Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya

here that he forgot to smile.'"After translating Khalil Gibran I hadthe opportunity of translating 'The GlassPlace', a novel by Amitav Ghosh, thepopular Indian English novelist. The canvasof the story in this epic novel is vast. Theprimary and secondary actions in the noveltake place in Burma, Malaya and Calcutta.The main story is set in Burma. It istherefore natural that the names ofcharacters, geographical locations, rivers,festivals and religious events are all in thelocal language. While translating the novelinto Hindi my problem was that if I wrotethose names as they were written in theEnglish version, it would have meant beingtwice removed from the original. That iswhy I decided that I would write thosenames in the devnagri script with theiroriginal pronunciation. Because I did notknow the original language, it was not aneasy task. I received no help from theMyanmar Commission. I went to theregistration office for foreign students inDelhi University. There were manyBurmese students registered there but Icould not locate them. It was there thatsomeone suggested to me that I could meetmany Burmese students studying at theinstitute for Buddhist studies. Ashinkumar,who is a research scholar there, introducedme to their professor. In the early chaptersof the translated novel, the Burmese wordsare written in the manner he suggested.He then went back to Burma. Then Isought help from Bhante Shree SayadoUegga who lives at 'Samta Vihar' inPashchimpuri. I had to pay a number ofvisits to him. With great patience, he taughtme the pronunciation of some threehundred words. Some the examples are asfollows :What is written 'The Baw' in Englishis pronounced 'Tee Baw' in Burmese. Thequeen of Burma 'Supayalat' is called'Suphyalat'. The minister 'Wungyis' wascalled 'Wonjee', his assistant 'Wundauks'was called 'Bonda', the courtier 'Pudeinwunwas called 'Patewan’. The dress 'Htamein’that women wear below their waist is called'Thamein’. ‘Angayi’ worn like a blouse iscalled 'Enjee'. A popular snack of that placeis called 'Bayagyaw' that is 'Byajo'. Thename of a place of worship, that is apagoda, is called 'Shwedagon' and ispronounced 'Shwitakon'.It was necessary to gloss many wordsused in the novel. For instance, those wholook after elephants are called 'usi' and'pasi'. Kneeling down before the king andqueen with hands spread on the groundto pay obeisance to them is called'sheekho'. In China, Malaya and Malayasiathere is a religious sect called 'Hakka.’Among its followers, there have beenpeople following teachings of Confucius,the Buddha and Jesus. The language ofthis religion too is called Hakka. I shouldhave explained the meaning of such wordsin the introduction, or the footnote or atthe end of the chapter, otherwise the flowof the reader's pleasure would have beenhindered, but all that was deleted in theediting. Perhaps the editor's purpose wasto make the book appear original.In modern English writing, an involved148 :: April-June 2013fgndi •