Salesian College Siliguri Campus held a ‘Workshop for Literary Translation’ in collaboration with the Centre for Translation of Indian Literatures (CENTIL), Department of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University, as part of Project Anuvad (UGC- UPE 2 Cultural Resources and Social Sciences) on 27th, 28th and 29th of June, 2017.
The workshop aimed to encourage consensus translation of literary texts in groups. The participants worked with Bangla, Nepali and English texts. The texts were selected keeping in mind the theme “Darjeeling in Bangla Literature” and “Kolkata in Indian Nepali Literature”. Three types of texts were translated during the course of the three day workshop. Texts about Darjeeling were translated from Bangla to English, texts about Kolkata were translated from Nepali to English and also Rabindranath Tagore’s writings on Christ were translated from Bangla to Nepali.
The workshop was of collaborative format where every group consisted of two members, where one member had a strong understanding of the source language and the other had strong writing skills for the target language.
The experts for the translation workshop were Dr. Sayantan Dasgupta (Associate Prof, Jadavpur University), Dr. Sujata Rani Rai (HoD, Dept. of Nepali, Darjeeling Govt. College), Dr. Nilanjana Bhattacharya (Associate Prof., Visva Bharati University), Ms. Monika Mukhia (Writer from Darjeeling), Dr. Dhiman Bhattacharya (Assistant Prof., Visva Bharati University). The patrons for the workshop were Prof. Suranjan Das (Vice-Chancellor, Jadavpur University) and Fr. (Dr.) Mathew Pulingathil (Rector, Salesian College, Siliguri).The workshop conveners were Dr. Sayantan Dasgupta (Associate Prof, Jadavpur University), and Fr. (Prof.) George Thadathil (Principal, Salesian College). The workshop co- conveners were Fr. C.M Paul (Vice- Principal, Salesian College, Sonada) and Fr. George Chempakathinal (Vice- Principal, Salesian College, Siliguri). The workshop was co-ordinated by Mr. Ugyal Lama (Jadavpur University), Dr. Terence Mukhia (Salesian College, Sonada) and Ms. Shradhanjali Tamang (Jadavpur University).
The workshop commenced on 27th June, 2017 with the inaugural speech by Dr. Nupur Das (Secretary, Under- Graduate Council, NBU). Over the span of three days the participants comprising of research scholars, assistant and associate professors worked relentlessly on the translation of the selected literary works of Bangla and Indian Nepali writers. The workshop enabled the participants to explore the challenges of understanding the writer’s intentions and conveying them appropriately in the target language. They explored the texts in depth and endeavoured to keep the essence of the text intact paying particular attention to the cultural nuances.
The final day of the workshop witnessed the reading of the texts by the group representatives followed by the valedictory session by Dr. Meenakshi Chakraborty (Development Officer, NBU) and vote of thanks by Dr. Terence Mukhia. The participants were then awarded certificates and some of the translations produced during the course of the workshop may be published.