On #InternationalTranslationDay, a note from our Translators – #Marathi #मराठी

On International Translation Day, September 30, 2017, we bring you notes from our translators without whose efforts PARI would not have been able to publish stories in many Indian languages. This post is for Marathi (मराठी) translations.

Medha Kale

Translates PARI stories to Marathi and also reviews translations by other volunteers.

Medha has worked in the field of women and health. She is interested in learning from the lives of men and women who remain unknown to the world.

Medha has translated P. Sainath’s Visible Work, Invisible Women stories, Water crisis series and Ten tales of freedom among many other stories by different authors.

Medha says: For me, translation is an entry into another world. Each language comes with a culture and a very rich universe of its own. Translating content from one language to another is like living in two different worlds and making it possible for readers of these languages to travel to these different spaces. I enjoy this process thoroughly and that’s why I translate….

अनुवाद करणं हे माझ्यासाठी एका वेगळ्या जगात प्रवेश करणं आहे. कारण प्रत्येक भाषेची स्वतःची अशी एक संस्कृती, एक वेगळी दुनिया असते. एका भाषेतून दुसऱ्या भाषेत अनुवाद करणं म्हणजे या दोन जगांमध्ये राहण्यासारखं आहे. त्या त्या भाषेच्या वाचकांना एका वेगळ्या जगाची सफर घडवून आणणं म्हणजे अनुवाद करणं. मला ही सगळी प्रक्रियाच मनापासून आवडते आणि म्हणून मी अनुवाद करते…

उगम नद्यांचे, ‘उद्योग’खोरी राज्यकर्त्यांची is Medha’s translation of

Source of the rivers, scams of the rulers by P. Sainath

धन्यतेची गाणी, उत्सवाचा जागर is Medha’s translation of the

Songs of gratitude, chants of celebration by the PARI Grindmill Songs Project Team.

Kaushal Kaloo

Kaushal Kaloo is studying Chemical Engineering at the Institute of Chemical Technology, Mumbai and is a PARI volunteer and translator. He says:

For a person like me who was born and brought up in a city, stories published on PARI opened up doors of an unknown world of the rural India. Every time I translate a story on PARI, I feel like opening up these doors to others like me. Besides, I feel more closer to my language and the culture I have inherited from it.

ग्रामीण जीवनाचा गंधही नसलेल्या माझ्यासारख्या शहरी मुलाला तेथील एका नव्या जगाची ओळख करून दिली ती “पारी”वर प्रकाशित होणाऱ्या कथांनी. “पारी”वर प्रकाशित होणाऱ्या कथा भाषांतरित करून आपण अनेकांना या जगाची दारे खुली करतो. शिवाय, भाषांतर करताना मला आपल्याच भाषेशी आणि पर्यायाने संस्कृतीशी असलेली वीण घट्ट करता येते.

Settu, a farmer from Thayanur village in Tamil Nadu

Between life and death – a drought by Jaideep Hardikar

is well translated into Marathi by Kaushal as दुष्काळ – जीवन आणि मृत्यू यांच्यातील संघर्

Chhaya Deo is a Nashik based activist of Shixan Bazaarikaran Virodhi Manch, a group working against commercialisation of education and for quality education which is a constitutional right of Indian citizens. She writes and also does translation work including translating for PARI.

She shares her thoughts with us:

Often while reading something in English, one thinks, ‘O, this should reach Marathi reader!’ Similarly, while reading valuable literary works/ intellectual writing I think, ‘our Marathi is so enriched, others in our society should also know this.’ That is why I like to translate. And while at it, my fluency in both languages – English and Marathi – improves. There is one more feeling of happiness while working for PARI – the satisfaction of knowing that I am contributing towards something that is valuable in society and helping in the documentation of our social history.

अनेकदा इंग्रजी वाचन करताना मनात येतं, “अरे, हे मराठी वाचकांपर्यंत पोचायला हवं!’; तसंच वाटतं मराठी मौलिक साहित्य/वैचारिक वाङ्मय वाचताना की,’आपली मराठी किती समृद्ध आहे हे इतर देशातील समाजांत सुद्धा कळलं पाहिजे’ यासाठी मला भाषांतर करावसं वाटतं. जाता जाता, करता करता माझ्या दोन्ही भाषांच्या वापरात प्रगती होते.
‘पारी’साठी काम करण्यात आणखी एक आनंद मिळतो – सामाजिक मूल्य असलेलं असं काम करून आपण सामाजिक इतिहास/दस्तावेजीकरण यांना हातभार लावतोय ही भावना समाधान देते.