Post by Thoithoi O'Cottage on Mar 1, 2014 10:26:07 GMT 5.5
A nation may be proud of its civilization (its knowledge, its power), but every civilization has traces of other civilizations without which it will crumble. These “foreign” traces have been so intricately and seamlessly built into the body of this civilization that you can’t ever tease these traces into distinct strands and leave the rest (what's called its own) intact. For instance, mathematics and all other systems (including the computer) using mathematics for that matter (in the West and now in the whole world) would not have been possible beyond certain point but for the concept of 0 (zero) from India. (In this sense, zero makes civilizations possible.) India or any other countries in the world would not have reached their current heights if they did not borrow ideas from others or share ideas with each other. If any people would possibly withdraw their contributions from the world’s fabric of knowledge, then the world civilization would disintegrate and all nations would roll back by several centuries or even thousands of years to a time when nations were living in separate boxes of pathetic cultures. In this sense, national prides are an old-fashioned attitude. (Seriously, I really don't understand why the Meiteis are so proud, why the Nagas are so proud. What community in the world does not have reasons to be proud in that sense? So, what's so unique about it? Are they proud so much because none other communities are not Meiteis? What about them not being other communities? Is that a failure, or a reason for other communities to brandish their pride before us?)
Translation (in various forms) made the world civilization possible. Ideas have no owners ultimately. Ideas/cultures and nationalities do not have an inherent association with each other—the relation is more a historical and geographical (and political for that matter) contingency. Whoever first conceived the idea of an apple pie, now everybody is free to make an apple pie, if they know how to and if they want to. It's a matter of time, ultimately. (The Manipuris who are too cautious about culture/identity should think about this.) The British learnt the languages of the people they conquered all over the globe and wrote a lot about them, translated the most important indigenous texts into their language (English) and published them in England. They appointed qualified people to important posts even in the remote areas of their colonies and the system made it mandatory for these officers to write about those peoples. For one, without the British writings the Manipuris would have had a huge missing link in their history, of a period which is most important in their history.
Sometime in the past it was mandatory for every foreign language teacher in England to translate into English at least a book in the foreign language he/she was teaching. The government would publish it and make it available in the market.
When they have done the same for nearly all places and peoples across the globe, it was like they had known all the languages of the world, and had had all the knowledge treasures of the world. Think about this! What would the Manipuris have been if they were as receptive as the British. Some may be worried about “identity” and “culture”. Well, I’ll tell them identity is not a constant quantity/quality K in/of life. It changes. Honestly, all of us honor/respect the British, and none of us think they are mongrels or cultural bastards, but if you know the history of the English people and see what they are now, you won’t mind being cultural bastard or mongrel Manipuris. You can go before the times of the Angles, Saxons, Britons and Jutes, but you don’t necessarily have to—they are no more their original selves.
America has overtaken its erstwhile colonial master England. You may wonder how it happened! The German-born American writer Sylvia Nasar’s A Beautiful Mind (the biography of the Mathematician John Nash, now a major Hollywood film) would give you a glimpse of that. Some very thinking Americans planned it well—“bring home the mountains". Yes, they did "bring home" all the mountains of all the world--now they have all the mountains in America. It was not all about money and being rich and powerful. You need brains to be rich and powerful, and it takes brains to use money and power properly. The Americans did that, they still do it. (Yes, there are always exceptions, but exceptions are not the rule/norm.)
Among the excellent things the Americans do excellently is translation. When a good book gets published anywhere in the world, be it in whatever language, in a few months or a year, you will see its English translation done by one of the Americans (mostly university professors and scholars), and published by one of the country’s university presses or academic book publishers. Whatever subject that may be of—philosophy, literature, science, medicine, psychology… How won’t they be on top of the world? They know the whole knowledge of the world—they have it all in their libraries, and use them and help themselves improve. That’s their identity. Call them mongrel or cultural bastards, but we all respect them, envy them.
In Manipur (yes, it’s politically a state, not a nation, and we are of a small population—population matters) by translation we understand only literary translations, of novels, short stories, poetry, (and very less of biographies), etc. No science, no philosophy, no technical books. This is because our university (despite a few language departments) don’t seem to think much. We do not have a reading culture among our population. We do not have a culture of thinking beyond our own small state and state of its affairs. If our university takes some initiatives, and if it does try to make a culture of translation of important foreign language books into Manipuri, I think something good will gain momentum in our people. English is important, at the same time think how better it would be if our students can read the most advanced science, mathematics, philosophy, technical and so on books in Manipuri, their own mother tongue! Just imagine! (Many don't read much simply because what they would have loved are written not in their own language or in a language they know.) It’s not to discourage English language among us, but as all best ideas we have known in the world (be it scientific, mathematical, philosophical, etc.) are already in books in several languages, wouldn't it be good if many of our minds translate many of them and make them available in our own language in our markets? Don’t you think this will create a different atmosphere?
All of us say that most Manipuris don’t read. That’s a fact. This is a problem. There must be many reasons for not reading. We cannot wholly think they are lazy and don’t want to learn. One of the most important reasons that I think (but I may be wrong) contribute to the building and furtherance of the non-reading culture is most of our authors don’t say/write much more beyond common sense. We all know common sense. We don’t need to buy and read a book to get common sense talked to us. When many books are at such a level, we lose faith in books from our authors. An encounter with some bad books at an early stage of one’s life is really a metaphorically killing/murderous experience--it nips in the bud the embryo of a habit of reading that could have developed. Probably, somebody who does not want to read book, if he/she is given a really good book of their interest in a language they know, then I think even if you have to push them to open the book and start reading somewhere, once they start reading and begin to get to the book’s treasure, then you cannot stop them. That’s the charm of good books. That you can get through translations.
Translation is a knowledge carrying work. It keeps the world alive, and Manipur should take part in the world’s knowledge flow.
Yes, translation is one thing and publishing what you have translated is yet another thing. Publishing is a problem in Manipur. But we have not tried to improve the situation of publication in Manipur. There are ways to. Some senior intellectuals (among others) should discuss the matter with the state government. There are ways to improve.
Translation (in various forms) made the world civilization possible. Ideas have no owners ultimately. Ideas/cultures and nationalities do not have an inherent association with each other—the relation is more a historical and geographical (and political for that matter) contingency. Whoever first conceived the idea of an apple pie, now everybody is free to make an apple pie, if they know how to and if they want to. It's a matter of time, ultimately. (The Manipuris who are too cautious about culture/identity should think about this.) The British learnt the languages of the people they conquered all over the globe and wrote a lot about them, translated the most important indigenous texts into their language (English) and published them in England. They appointed qualified people to important posts even in the remote areas of their colonies and the system made it mandatory for these officers to write about those peoples. For one, without the British writings the Manipuris would have had a huge missing link in their history, of a period which is most important in their history.
Sometime in the past it was mandatory for every foreign language teacher in England to translate into English at least a book in the foreign language he/she was teaching. The government would publish it and make it available in the market.
When they have done the same for nearly all places and peoples across the globe, it was like they had known all the languages of the world, and had had all the knowledge treasures of the world. Think about this! What would the Manipuris have been if they were as receptive as the British. Some may be worried about “identity” and “culture”. Well, I’ll tell them identity is not a constant quantity/quality K in/of life. It changes. Honestly, all of us honor/respect the British, and none of us think they are mongrels or cultural bastards, but if you know the history of the English people and see what they are now, you won’t mind being cultural bastard or mongrel Manipuris. You can go before the times of the Angles, Saxons, Britons and Jutes, but you don’t necessarily have to—they are no more their original selves.
America has overtaken its erstwhile colonial master England. You may wonder how it happened! The German-born American writer Sylvia Nasar’s A Beautiful Mind (the biography of the Mathematician John Nash, now a major Hollywood film) would give you a glimpse of that. Some very thinking Americans planned it well—“bring home the mountains". Yes, they did "bring home" all the mountains of all the world--now they have all the mountains in America. It was not all about money and being rich and powerful. You need brains to be rich and powerful, and it takes brains to use money and power properly. The Americans did that, they still do it. (Yes, there are always exceptions, but exceptions are not the rule/norm.)
Among the excellent things the Americans do excellently is translation. When a good book gets published anywhere in the world, be it in whatever language, in a few months or a year, you will see its English translation done by one of the Americans (mostly university professors and scholars), and published by one of the country’s university presses or academic book publishers. Whatever subject that may be of—philosophy, literature, science, medicine, psychology… How won’t they be on top of the world? They know the whole knowledge of the world—they have it all in their libraries, and use them and help themselves improve. That’s their identity. Call them mongrel or cultural bastards, but we all respect them, envy them.
In Manipur (yes, it’s politically a state, not a nation, and we are of a small population—population matters) by translation we understand only literary translations, of novels, short stories, poetry, (and very less of biographies), etc. No science, no philosophy, no technical books. This is because our university (despite a few language departments) don’t seem to think much. We do not have a reading culture among our population. We do not have a culture of thinking beyond our own small state and state of its affairs. If our university takes some initiatives, and if it does try to make a culture of translation of important foreign language books into Manipuri, I think something good will gain momentum in our people. English is important, at the same time think how better it would be if our students can read the most advanced science, mathematics, philosophy, technical and so on books in Manipuri, their own mother tongue! Just imagine! (Many don't read much simply because what they would have loved are written not in their own language or in a language they know.) It’s not to discourage English language among us, but as all best ideas we have known in the world (be it scientific, mathematical, philosophical, etc.) are already in books in several languages, wouldn't it be good if many of our minds translate many of them and make them available in our own language in our markets? Don’t you think this will create a different atmosphere?
All of us say that most Manipuris don’t read. That’s a fact. This is a problem. There must be many reasons for not reading. We cannot wholly think they are lazy and don’t want to learn. One of the most important reasons that I think (but I may be wrong) contribute to the building and furtherance of the non-reading culture is most of our authors don’t say/write much more beyond common sense. We all know common sense. We don’t need to buy and read a book to get common sense talked to us. When many books are at such a level, we lose faith in books from our authors. An encounter with some bad books at an early stage of one’s life is really a metaphorically killing/murderous experience--it nips in the bud the embryo of a habit of reading that could have developed. Probably, somebody who does not want to read book, if he/she is given a really good book of their interest in a language they know, then I think even if you have to push them to open the book and start reading somewhere, once they start reading and begin to get to the book’s treasure, then you cannot stop them. That’s the charm of good books. That you can get through translations.
Translation is a knowledge carrying work. It keeps the world alive, and Manipur should take part in the world’s knowledge flow.
Yes, translation is one thing and publishing what you have translated is yet another thing. Publishing is a problem in Manipur. But we have not tried to improve the situation of publication in Manipur. There are ways to. Some senior intellectuals (among others) should discuss the matter with the state government. There are ways to improve.