The beauty of Bangla fades with translation. Local flavor gets missing in English translation said Nahid Kaiser, a PhD researcher on Rabindranath Tagore at a seminar series organised by the Department of English and Humanities (ENH) on Thursday, 20 June 2019 at Brac University’s Mohakhali campus.
The researcher presented her paper titled A Study of Tagore’s Thoughts and Observations on Translation which is under process. She divided her talk into two phases; pre-nobel essay and post-nobel essay to explain her own observation and thoughts with the audience.
She also said that authentic translation is not possible. Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore also claimed that one has to be a poet himself to translate the originals. Because it is almost like writing a new one.
Her talk focused on the methods Tagore undertook as a translator. Ms Kaiser gave example of Gitanjali (1910) translated as Song Offerings (1912) by Tagore himself and mentioned that these seem like two different books altogether. That is why Tagore emphasized on rewriting and considered translation as a creative process, she added.
Nahid Kaiser is a PhD researcher on Tagore at the Dept. of English, University of Dhaka and works as an Assistant Professor of English at Daffodil International University. She has published papers in scholarly journals home and abroad. She is a bilingual poet and has published three books of poetry so far.
Senior Lecturer of ENH, Rukhsana R. Chowdhury moderated the talk while Professor and Chairperson of ENH Firdous Azim was present.