Abstract:
Among the many concerns about poetry translation, untranslatability is the most critical one.
Translators often face difficulties in offering an authentic translation in target language. It is,
after all, the translator who may decide how to address this issue. One phenomenal Bengali
poem entitled Bidrohi, written by the “rebel” poet Kazi Nazrul Islam can be regarded as a text
that contains untranslatability issues to a large extent. It is to be noted that there are some
translation-techniques - both for any type of source text and for poetry in particular –that are
suggested by translation theorists like, for example, Vinay and Darbelnet, Andre Lefevere, and
Peter Newmark. Whereas Vinay and Darbelnet categorized the general translation procedures
into two methods (direct and oblique translation), Lefever suggested a catalogue of seven
possible strategies for translating poetry. On the other hand, Newmark’s strategies include
semantic and free translation. However, as the translator is the agent of authenticity and
closeness in translation, s/he has a huge role to play in assessing, choosing, and combining
the existing translation techniques according to the source text. This paper aims to explore the
role of the translator and to figure out if there is a certain effective approach that can be made
towards a poem that is difficult to translate. In order to achieve that ground, two translations
of Bidrohi– one offered by Professor Kabir Chowdhury, and the other by Mohammad Nurul
Huda have been analyzed. The findings of this research paper indicate that the two translations
in major parts show two different combinations of translation strategies. This paper takes the terms “Direct” and “oblique” translation as coined by Vinay and Darbelnet to show that both
the translations tend to switch between these two general translation approaches. In addition,
both the translations highlight some poetry translation-techniques like Lefevere’s “phonemic
translation” or Peter Newmark’s semantic translation, which too, serve the purpose of
overcoming untranslatability. The findings also show that there is no single effective approach
in overcoming untranslatability in poetry. Overall, it can be concluded that when a poem
appears nearly-untranslatable, a balanced combination of “direct” and “oblique” translation as
well as some selected poetry-translation strategies can be an effective standpoint. This paper
does not claim to discuss untranslatability issues in any other genre but poetry.