Ned Rorem has rightly penned,” The art of translation lies less in knowing the other language than in your language.”
We as Indians have been keen and passionate enough about literature from time immemorial. The farthest one can think of might just include the epics and the Vedas. We have so many renowned poets like Sarojini Naidu, Sudha Murty, Ruskin Bond and the list continues. They all have one thing in common that is they always prefer English as their preferred language. Not only the poets but the fault also lies within the avid readers who indulge more in reading English novels rather than their mother tongue.
How ironic it feels, doesn’t it? Earlier epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata were translated to so many other languages from Sanskrit. Now if someone wants to translate any language, their priorities always lie in foreign languages such as Spanish, French and German. This list will continue till you find the languages that have been spoken in only a few parts of the world, however, one can be guaranteed that Hindi or Sanskrit would lie at the bottom of the list. Research has shown that only 20% of India’s enormous population knows Sanskrit let alone foreigners. The poets and composers before used to strive for perfection in their mother tongue and made sure that they had written the finest works so that in the future, the Indian languages could have been promoted worldwide but this is quite the opposite. We don't know the languages that have been passed down through generations. How is it practically possible that we promote it across the entire world? The Bhagavad Gita is one of the finest works in Indian history and is famous worldwide to learn from the holy book, foreigners have indulged in learning Sanskrit but Indians these days are using the translated English versions which have pretty much-lost touch with holiness and virtue.
Not only about the epics but teenagers these days indulge in reading novels written by foreign poets rather than Indian poets even if they are in English.
This just shows how Self possessions are constantly undermined and others possessions seem better.
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