GUJRAT - The centuries-old stereotype of translation being a ‘secondary status’ activity has seriously stymied the development of the art, leading the translators and scholars towards the pitfall of embellishment, said an expert at a seminar here at Hafiz Hayat Campus of the University of Gujrat (UoG) on Wednesday.
Noted scholar and translation studies expert Dr Jamil Asghar Jami of the National University of Modern Languages (NUML) Islamabad threw ample light on the various pitfalls and emerging new challenges facing the discipline of translation studies during the day-long seminar titled “Translation Studies: Challenges and Prospects” which was organised by UoG Translation Society, Centre of Languages and Translation Studies (CeLTS).
“The difficulty of translation is the difficulty of language. Translation works in Pakistan are thrice, in some cases many more times, removed from reality,” Dr Jami said quoting examples from different translated works during his scholarly presentation.
For this, he blamed the wrong teaching methods totally insensitive to key translation rules being followed at our schools.
Chairperson CeLTS Dr Ghulam Ali was in the host’s chair while Director Media Sheikh Abdul Rashid and noted scholar and teacher Dr Iqbal Butt were among the guests of honour. Dr Jami said the Europeans owe their scientific thinking, the Renaissance and Reformation Movement to Muslim translators.
Discussing the role and importance of translation in our lives, he said that translation has proved itself an effective source of cultural and psychological empowerment. It gave us the power of thinking and expression.
He told the audience about how the paradigm of globalization has seriously damaged the sensitivity of the context and locality among the translators.
“The paradox of our planet Earth turning into a global village and the new multilingualism challenges including the demise of a language every six months has baffled the experts,” he said.
He said that the need for and challenges of translation have multiplied with the migration or immigration becoming a way of life.
According to a survey, he said, about twenty thousand foreigners are languishing in Pakistani jails simply because translators who could understand the regional dialects of their native lands are not available.
He also briefly discussed the role of translation in the Pakistan movement, citing Allama Dr Muhammad Iqbal’s famous Round Table Conference speech and those of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah as perfect examples of importing European translated idiom. Dr Ghulam Ali discussed the cross-cultural and cross-civilizational role of translation, preparing the ground for new idiom and expression.
Director Media Sheikh Abdul Rashid said promoting translation studies will go a long way in the development of regional languages.
Dr Iqbal Butt highlighted the importance of translation in understanding the various traditions and cultures practised by different peoples in other parts of the world.