EVERY year, Sept 30 is commemorated as International Translation Day. The ritual began in 1991 when International Federation of Translators (IFT) began officially celebrating the day to show unity with the translators of the world and to promote translation as a dignified activity.
Established in 1953, IFT (www.fit-ift.org) is a federation of international associations of translators, interpreters and terminologists. It promotes professionalism in the areas related to translation. IFT publishes a bulletin named Translatio, to keep its member associations informed about its activities. BABEL is the federation’s journal that publishes scholarly articles.
Translation has become a serious academic business over the years. Translation studies is now considered a discipline that intermingles many disciplines, such as literature, linguistics, semantics, lexicography and terminography. It is with a sense of satisfaction that one notes the popularity of translation studies in Pakistan in recent years as a number of Pakistani universities have started courses on translation studies, applied translation studies or similar disciplines.
Notwithstanding the nomenclature, such courses are offered at National University of Modern Languages (Islamabad), International Islamic University (Islamabad), University of Gujrat (Gujrat, Punjab), Allama Iqbal Open University (Islamabad, with campuses and outreach programmes all over Pakistan), and some private universities in Pakistan. Some Pakistani universities have included a course on translations in their MPhil/PhD coursework.
Also, a number of books on the art and science of translation have appeared. We have had a steady flow of Urdu books and articles in the past on translations, and scholars like Khaleeq Anjum, Qamar Raees, Nisar Ahmed Qureshi, Mirza Hamid Baig and others have published books that are now part of a worthwhile contribution. However, the recent developments and introduction of computers in the field have changed the rules of the game. The idea of machine translation has arrived here too and some experts are working on software that would enable us to have machine translations in Urdu as well as other languages.
So we need some new books that could describe and explain the theory, practice, problems, practical aspects, modern techniques and computational tools of the science of professional translations. In recent years, luckily, some Urdu books published on translation studies have addressed the new issues and such books include Fun-i-Tarjuma Nigari by Khalid Mahmood Khan and Tarjuma Kaari by Fakhira Noreen.
Another addition to Urdu books on translations is Fun-i-Tarjuma Kaari: Mabahis, or, ‘the art of translations: the issues’. Compiled by Safdar Rasheed and published by Islamabad’s Poorab Academy, the book is a collection of 24 scholarly articles, expounding the essential problems in translations and suggesting some remedies for those interested in Urdu translations. In his intro to the book Dr Anwaar Ahmed has rightly mentioned the trend of substandard Urdu translations of literary and scholarly works rendered on commercial basis and published only for profit. On the other hand, Dr Ahmed says, we have had a long, brilliant and enviable tradition of literary, scholarly and scientific translations, too, in Urdu. He has mentioned the names of individuals and organisations that have done wonderful jobs of Urdu translations in Pakistan and they include Syed Abid Ali Abid, Ghulam Rasool Mehr, Imtiaz Ali Taj, Hasan Askari, Intizar Hussain, Ibne Insha, Muhammad Saleem-ur-Rahman, Kishwer Naheed, Umer Memon, Baqar Naqvi and many more.
According to him, the organisations that have rendered invaluable service for translations include Karachi University, Government College Lahore, Punjab University, Multan University, Gujrat University, National Language Authority, Urdu Science Board, Pakistan Academy of Letters and Lok Virsa.
Despite his dismay over the substandard and incorrect translations rampant in our society these days, Dr Ahmed sounds very optimistic and is justified in his optimism as he has noted that we have witnessed four pleasant changes in our country recently when it comes to translations: 1) Many universities have either established translation departments or have made it a part of languages/linguistics departments’ curricula and have begun MPhil/PhD classes in translation studies. 2) Masood Ash’er through his Mash’al Foundation has turned translation into a movement. 3) Aside from government organisations, some private publishers, such as Oxford University Press (Pakistan and India), Lahore’s Classic Publishers, Sang-e-meel Publications, Fiction House, Saanjh Publishers and Karachi’s Scheherazade Publishers have done all-important job of promoting translations. 4) Some magazines have played an important role in strengthening the tradition of translations and these magazines are or were edited by Niaz Fatehpuri, Shahid Ahmed Dehlvi, Mansoor Ahmed, Kishwer Naheed and Ajmal Kamal.
Dr Ahmed is the former head of the Urdu department at Multan’s Bahauddin Zakariya University and former chairman of Islamabad’s National Language Authority. He is a progressive-minded academic and critic and is known for his benign fatherly role. He has concluded his intro with the remarks that the European and Greek scholarly works and invaluable heritage were saved from becoming extinct through translations and Muslim scholars too transferred that knowledge and heritage through translations. He adds that had it not been for the translations, much of that cultural, literary, scientific and scholarly treasure of the world could have been buried deep into the annals of history.
The book includes some very interesting and thought-provoking articles on relevant issues such as Urdu translations, machine translation in Urdu, problems of literary translations, journalistic translations and terminology by some renowned scholars such as Moulvi Abdul Haq, Shan-ul-Haq Haqee, Unwaan Chishtie, Shams-ur Rahman Farooqi, Khaleeq Anjum, Saleem Akhter, Moinuddin Aqeel, Atash Durrani and others.
Published in Dawn, September 26th, 2016
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