Class of 2024 of the Post Graduate Translation and Creative Writing Programme ready to enter the publishing world

The flavour and essence of the content must be preserved at any cost in a translated text, and herein lies the real creative challenge for an author seeking to translate the work of a counterpart from one language to another. All writing begins with a thought, which is taken forward as a veritable electromagnetic impulse of energy in the human mind through the deployment of language and vocabulary. Thus, when it actually assumes the form of a written word, this thought has already gone through multiple acts of translation, making the latter an inherent part of human existence. This also imposes an immense responsibility on the translator of ensuring authenticity and accuracy, making translation a labour of love. This was the crux of the message delivered by the prolific translator and celebrated poet and novelist, Jerry Pinto, at the graduation ceremony of the second cohort of the one-of-its-kind Post Graduate Diploma Programme in Translation and Creative Writing at Ahmedabad University.

The programme endows students with writing and translation skills through a combination of online courses, offline workshops, and access to key practitioners as guest faculty. The results are evident, with students translating books, winning nominations for prizes and fellowships, and most importantly, building a community that will benefit them and the literary scenario.

Translators also need to be armed with adequate knowledge and skills to navigate the evolving space of AI and legal complexities in the publishing space, noted Karthika V. K., Publisher at Westland Books. Speaking at the ceremony, she emphasised that the intersection of language, integrity and ethics, coupled with copyright issues in the creative ecosystem of translation, pose many challenges for translators.

The graduation ceremony featured an alumni meet, and a panel discussion with experts on various issues confronting the literary world, moderated by cultural theorist and Professor of Humanities and Languages at the School of Arts and Sciences, Ahmedabad University, Tejaswini Niranjana. Mr Manish Tayal, Head of JCB-CSR, which is collaborating with the University for the programme, also addressed the graduating students.

The juxtaposition of literary translation and gender in terms of the common issues they raise is an interesting interdisciplinary construct in literature. This thought was underpinned in the concluding event at the ceremony, The Threshold, a musical conversation on gender between award-winning singers and composers, MD Pallavi and Bindhumalini. Accentuating their voices through the use of multiple instruments such as the harmonium, flute, kazoo, swarmandal, melodica, and banjo, they took the audience through an evocative journey recounting the stories of women across continents and generations.