On TRANSLATION ASPECTS of Vikram Seth's TWO LIVES (study now on-line and question)
- From: "Christopher Rollason" <rollason@xxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 27 Jul 2006 01:43:28 -0700
At:
www.geocities.com/christopherrollason/SETH2LIVESLONGVERSION.pdf
those interested in Vikram Seth can now find my essay on TWO LIVES, his
non-fictional work of 2005. This text is entitled: "The multicultural
in
Vikram Seth's TWO LIVES: 'history writ little' or global protagonism?";
it
is a longer version of an essay published as: "Vikram Seth's TWO LIVES
A
Literature of Global Protagonism", in The Expatriate Indian Writing in
English, vol. 1, eds. T. Vinoda and P. Shailaja, New Delhi: Prestige
Books,
2006, pp. 171-183 - for which book, see entry for 21 May 2006
on my blog at:http://spaces.msn.com/members/christopherrollason/
**
I examine Seth's book from a number of different viewpoints, including
genre problematics, translation issues and documentation ethics. TWO
LIVES
recounts the true histories - at first parallel, later intertwined - of
Vikram Seth's great-uncle Shanti Seth (or 'Shanti Uncle') (1908-1998)
and
his German-Jewish wife Hennerle Caro ('Aunty Henny') (1908-1989).
Shanti is
sent by his family to study dentistry in Berlin in the early 1930s. He
lodges with the Caro family, where he makes the acquaintance of his
future
spouse. The perspective darkens with the rise of Nazism: Shanti
graduates
in dentistry but is barred from practising as a foreigner, and
relocates to
England, where he requalifies. Indian but still a British subject, he
serves in World War II and loses his right forearm at the battle of
Monte
Cassino in Italy. Meanwhile, Henny manages to get out of Germany and
settles in London, where Shanti is the only person she knows. Her
mother
and sister perish in the Shoah. Hers is the arduous task of rebuilding
a
shattered life, with the friendship and, finally, the married
companionship
of Shanti, who himself heroically overcomes his disability and
practises
for years as a much-respected dentist. Neither thinks of returning
'home',
despite Indian independence and West Germany's rise from the ashes: the
couple resolutely make their life in England. In 1969, they offer a
home
base to Vikram, Shanti's great-nephew from Calcutta , sent as a
schoolboy
to England. Years later and now a famous writer, Vikram returns to
London
and, staying once more with the now-widowed Shanti Uncle, discovers
Henny's
papers in a trunk in the attic, and conceives the idea of turning their
two
lives into a book.
**
EXTRACT ON THE BOOK'S TRANSLATION ASPECT:
**
Two Lives is a text which impinges directly on translation matters:
large
parts of it are in translation, it is certain to be widely translated,
and
its subject-matter concerns intercultural relations in highly sensitive
contexts while also appealing directly to the translator's conscience
(as
to that of any reader). Indeed, Vikram Seth's own responsibility of
accuracy is especially acute, since he is translating neither into nor
out
of his native language, but into his second language (English) from a
third
one (German). However, for evident historical reasons, still greater
will
be the responsibility of his future German translator. It may be
predicted
in advance that, given both the book's subject-nature and Seth's
existing
position on the German-language market, Two Lives will be a
considerable
seller in that market. Clearly, it will be imperative for the German
translator to work exceptionally closely with Vikram Seth himself, to
ensure that it is always the authentic originals of the various
German-language realia that are reproduced. The German version will
thus
emerge as a kind of mirror-image of the English text, with material in
the
original German accompanied by commentary translated from English: much
of
the book's realia will be not translated but recovered, and the
translation
will thus appear as the wraith or Doppelgänger of the original.
Translators
into third languages will also be confronted with a technical and
ethical
challenge. If they know German, would it not be correct to obtain the
German originals of the realia and translate them directly? If they do
not
know German, is it really satisfactory to serve readers a
third-language
version in, say, Spanish that has been translated part-directly
(English to
Spanish) and part-indirectly (German to English to Spanish)? These
vital
translation issues emerge in particularly stark fashion since this is a
book dealing in detail with the Shoah.
**
END OF EXTRACT
**
In this connection, I note since I wrote the article that the German
translation has now appeared, as 'Zwei Leben' (translator: Annette
Grube;
Frankfurt: S-Fischer-Verlag, 2006). I have seen it in the shops and
have
established that it contains no translator's note or introduction of
any
kind and no indication of what has been done with the German-language
realia. The points I raise in my article are thus not openly discussed
at
all. Whether this is the correct procedure I leave to you to decide.
** I
I WOULD BE INTERESTED IN DISCUSING THIS ISSUE FROM THE
VIEWPOINT OF TRANSLATION STUDIES. I believe a Germanist
could usefully take the matter up in a paper.
.
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