September 30th is celebrated around the world as International Translation Day. We're very fortunate that some of our wonderful translators and language reviewers shared their thoughts on translation and children's books with us on this occasion.

 

 With 19 years of experience in journalism Shashi Sampalli is indeed our star translator. This father of an 8 year old girl includes literature, the environment and agriculture are his interests. In this piece of writing he speaks on how to balance “maturity and innocence” while writing for children.  

ಅನುವಾದ ಎಂಬುದು ಕೂಡ ಒಂದು ಸೃಜನಶೀಲ ಕ್ರಿಯೆ. ಅದರಲ್ಲೂ ಮಕ್ಕಳ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯವನ್ನು ಅನುವಾದಿಸುವಾಗ ನಾವು ಸ್ವತಃ ನಮ್ಮೊಳಗಿನ ಮಗುವನ್ನು ಮುನ್ನೆಲೆಗೆ ತಂದುಕೊಂಡೆ ಅನುವಾದವನ್ನು ಆ ಮಗುವಿನ ಮೂಲಕವೇ ಆಗಿಸಬೇಕಾಗುತ್ತದೆ. ಎಲ್ಲ ಸೃಜನಶೀಲ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಕಕ್ಕೂ ಒಂದು ಹಂತದ ಮುಗ್ಧತೆ ಅಗತ್ಯ. ಮಕ್ಕಳ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯದ ವಿಷಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಮುಗ್ಧತೆ ಮತ್ತು ಕಡಿಮೆ ಪ್ರಬುದ್ಧತೆ ಉತ್ತಮ.

ಸ್ವತಃ ಮಕ್ಕಳ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯ ರಚಿಸುವಾಗ ಪ್ರಬುದ್ಧತೆಯ ಪ್ರಮಾಣ ಕಡಿಮೆ ಇದ್ದರೂ ನಡೆಯುತ್ತದೆ ಅಥವಾ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಅನುಕೂಲವಾಗಬಹುದು. ಆದರೆ, ಮಕ್ಕಳ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯದ ಅನುವಾದ ಅಷ್ಟು ಸರಳವಲ್ಲ. ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ಪ್ರಬುದ್ಧತೆಯೂ ಬೇಕು. ಮುಗ್ಧತೆಯೂ ಬೇಕು. ಆ ಅರ್ಥದಲ್ಲಿ ಇದೊಂದು ತಂತಿ ಮೇಲಿನ ನಡಿಗೆ. ಎರಡೂ ಕಡೆಯ ಸಮತೋಲನ ಇಲ್ಲದೆ ಇದ್ದರೆ ಜಾರುವುದು ಖಂಡಿತ.

ಭಾಷೆ, ಅರಿವಿನ ವಿಷಯದಲ್ಲಿ ಅನ್ಯ ಭಾಷೆ ಮತ್ತು ಹೊಸ ವಿಷಯವನ್ನು ಅರ್ಥಮಾಡಿಕೊಂಡು ಅನುವಾದಿಸುವ ಪ್ರಬುದ್ಧತೆಯೂ ಬೇಕು. ಆ ಅನುವಾದ ಉದ್ದೇಶಿತ ವಯೋಮಾನದ ಮಕ್ಕಳಿಗೆ ಎಟುಕುವಂತೆ ಭಾಷೆ ಬಳಸುವ, ಮಕ್ಕಳ ಮನೋಸ್ಥಿತಿಗೆ ಅನುಗುಣವಾಗಿ ಸುಲಲಿತ ಮಾತುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ತಲುಪಿಸುವ ಮುಗ್ಧತೆಯೂ ಬೇಕು.

ಈ ಸಮನ್ವಯತೆ ಸಾಧಿಸುವುದು ಸರಳವಲ್ಲ. ಅದಕ್ಕೆ ನಮ್ಮೊಳಗೆ ಒಬ್ಬ ತಿಳಿವು, ಅರಿವಿನ ವಯಸ್ಕನೂ ಇರಬೇಕು, ಜೊತೆಗೆ ಮುಗ್ಧತೆಯ ಮಗುವೂ ಇರಬೇಕು.

ಅನುವಾದಿಸುವ ಮುನ್ನ ನಮ್ಮ ಎದುರಿನ ಕಥೆ ಅಥವಾ ಸಾಹಿತ್ಯ ನಮ್ಮೊಳಗೆ ಇಳಿಯಬೇಕು. ಅನ್ಯ ಭಾಷೆಯ ಅದನ್ನು ಓದಿ, ಒಂದಿಷ್ಟು ಕಾಲ ಒಳಗಿಟ್ಟುಕೊಂಡು ನನ್ನ ಭಾಷೆಯ ಮಾತುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಮರು ಕಟ್ಟಬೇಕು. ಅದಕ್ಕಾಗಿ ಮಕ್ಕಳ ಮಾತುಗಳಿಗೆ ಕಿವಿಯಾಗಬೇಕು. ನಂತರ ಅನುವಾದಿಸುವಾಗ ಕೂಡ ಬಳಸುವ ಪ್ರತಿ ಪದವನ್ನೂ ಜೋರಾಗಿ ಉಚ್ಛರಿಸಿ, ಅದು ಮಗುವಿನ ಮಾತಿನಂತೆ ಕೇಳುತ್ತದೆಯೇ? ಪದ ಬಳಕೆ ಮಗುವಿನದ್ದೇ ಆಗಿದೆಯೇ ಎಂಬುದನ್ನು ನಿಖರಗೊಳಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುತ್ತಲೇ ಮುಂದುವರಿಯಬೇಕು.

ನನಗಂತೂ ಒಬ್ಬ ಕವಿಯಾಗಿ ನನ್ನೊಳಗಿನ ಮಗುವಿನೊಂದಿಗೆ ಮಾತಾಡುವುದು  ಈ ಕಾರ್ಯಕ್ಕೆ ಒದಗಿಬರುತ್ತದೆ. ಜೊತೆಗೆ ಎಂಟು ವರ್ಷದ ಮಗಳಿಗೂ ಕಥೆ ಓದಿ ಹೇಳಿ ಅವಳ ಪ್ರತಿಕ್ರಿಯೆ ಮೇಲೆ ತಿದ್ದುಪಡಿ ಮಾಡುವ ಅವಕಾಶ ಕೂಡ ಇದೆ.

ಹಾಗಾಗಿ, ಬಿಯಾಂಡ್ ಸೈಟಿಂಗ್ಸ್, ಬೆಸ್ಟ್ ಫೂಟ್ ಫಾರ್ವರ್ಡ್, .. ಚೀನಾಟೌನ್ ಮುಂತಾದ ಕಥೆಗಳು ನನ್ನ ನಿರೀಕ್ಷೆಗೂ ಮೀರಿ ಉತ್ತಮವಾಗಿ ಮೂಡಿಬಂದವು ಮತ್ತು ನನಗೇ ಅಚ್ಚರಿ ಹುಟ್ಟಿಸಿದವು.

ಮುಖ್ಯವಾಗಿ ಅನುವಾದ ಕ್ರಿಯೆಯನ್ನು ಆವು ಮೋಜಿನ ಆಟದಂತೆ ಆನಂದಿಸಬೇಕು.

ಇವು ನನ್ನದೇ ಅನುಭವದ ಮಾತುಗಳು.

- ಶಶಿ ಸಂಪಳ್ಳಿ

 

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Rantu Moni Deka is a busy man! As a Block Resource Person with Pratham in the Kamrup district of Assam, he works closely with schools who are a part of Pratham’s flagship program: Read India. The programme aims to improve the reading, writing and basic arithmetic skills of children between 6-14 years.

As a part of Read India, Pratham has initiated 'Reading Week'  in 'Lakhon Mein Ek' villages across the country. Block Resource Persons go into villages with the aim of setting up a library with the help of the community. There are 48 schools that come under the two blocks that Rantu is the resource person for. He is personally involved with  6 Read India Schools and 12 library villages.

The two time Reading Champion, was inspired to start translating stories for children when he read Rukmini Banerji’s  'दीदी का रंग बिरंगा खज़ाना'. It was the first story he translated to Assamese using StoryWeaver.

    

“The students have access to a library in school, but the books there are meant for much bigger children - high school and college degree. The children of course are not interested in them at all.” shared Rantu. “So when I downloaded my translation to a laptop and read it to them, they just loved it. They were so happy with the colourful pictures and a story that was written just for children.” remembers Rantu.

   

“Seeing how happy the children were when I shared the story with them inspired me to translate more and more stories to Assamese” says Rantu who has now translated 14 stories on StoryWeaver.

 

You can read all of Rantu's translations on StoryWeaver here.

“I have shared the stories and shown the StoryWeaver platform to my colleagues at Pratham and to teachers at the schools.” says Rantu who wants to encourage more of his colleagues to use the site. Rantu has conducted reading sessions with children and teachers in almost all the schools that he works with.

 “The teachers have all been very impressed with the platform and the idea behind it. They all agreed that such stories with bright and beautiful illustrations will encourage children to read more and help them become more skilled readers.”

Also on his to-do list is creating a simple reading App.

“Access to internet connection and computers can be a challenge. But everyone has a mobile phone, including the parents of the children we work with. A simple app which children can read stories on will give them access to books at home where they can continue improving their reading.”

We are so impressed by Rantu’s passion and enthusiasm for helping more children read joyful books in a language they are fluent in. We’ll keep you posted with more news from Rantu about his translations and reading app.

Do you work with children? Would you like to help translate stories to languages they are fluent in? Do you know someone who is using StoryWeaver to translate or share stories with underserved children? Write to [email protected] and tell us.

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Did you know that you can now see how many versions of a story there are on StoryWeaver upfront? 

When you click on the 'read' icon of a story you'll be directed to a page that has all the information you need to know about that story. We've added Other Versions to this page. Here, at a galnce,  you can see how many languages the story has been translated in to and how many translations there are of a story in a particular language! 

However, just because a version of a story already exists in a particular language, don't let that deter you frome trying your hand at translating it yourself. StoryWeaver believes in and encourages as many diverse re-tellings of a story as possible! 

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