Nodes of Translation

Book excerpt: The volume examines translation of key German texts into the modern Indian languages as well as translation from the vernacular languages of South Asia into German. Our key concerns are shifting historical contexts, concepts, and translation practices. Bringing an intellectual history dimension to translation studies, we explore the history of translation, translators, and sites of translation. The organization of the volume follows some key questions. Which texts were being translated? At what point or period in time did this happen? What were the motivations behind these translations? Topics covered range from thematic nodes or clusters, e.g., translations of Economics texts and ideas into Urdu, or the translation of Marx and Engels into Marathi, to personal endeavours, such as the first Hindi translation of Goethe’s Faust done by Bholanath Sharma in 1939. Missionary as well as Marxist activist translation work from Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu is included too. On the other hand, German translations of Tagore and Gandhi setting in shortly after 1912 are also examined. Also discussed are political strategies of publication of translations from modern Indian languages guiding the output of publishing houses in the GDR after 1949. Further included are the translator’s perspective and the contemporary translation and literary culture. What happens through the process of linguistic translation in the realm of cultural translation? What can a historical study of translation tell us about the history of Indo-German intellectual entanglements in the long twentieth century? The volume brings together multifaceted interdisciplinary research work from South Asian and German studies to answer some of these questions.