Abstract:

Translation apparently appears to be more than a semantic transfer of the basic information, and it is not an apolitical process. Jacques Derrida terms it much more complicated than merely a direct transfer of language. Transference of meaning from the source language to the target language engages both the linguistic and cultural processes. Lexical equivalence of words of one language to those of another language does not justifiably define translation. The most challenging task of translation is to grasp the arbitrariness of the meanings of the source language and incorporate it into the target language as much as possible. This arbitrariness creates spatiality which allows a translator to utilize his authority of imposing gravity, levity, faithfulness, or even faithlessness upon the target text. True, translation, in this modern world of multilingualism, multiculturalism and globalization can be the gateway to reciprocation of cognition and mutual comprehensibility. In Bangladesh, which is predominantly a monolingual country, translation from English to Bengali and vice versa is widely practiced? However, it is irrefutable that translation is never apolitical as it possesses the potential to construct, deconstruct and reconstruct the conscious incorporated into the source text. Besides, intertextuality between the ideology of the translator and that of the source text has the capacity to construct a new conscious and promote the hegemony of the translator. It is really a crucial issue pertinent to the translation process and requires in-depth research. This paper will address the research question- how does translation process construct, deconstruct and reconstruct? This paper will use Jacques Derrida’s theoretical framework of translation and consider select Bangladeshi translators and their works as samples.

This paper traces how the Jinghai Fenji 靖海氛記 [Record of the

Pacification of Pirates] by Qing dynasty historian Yuan Yonglun 袁永

綸 blossomed—through translingual adaptation—into the Argentine writer

Jorge Luis Borges’s famous short story “La viuda Ching, pirata” [The

Widow Ching, Lady Pirate] in the latter’s 1935 collection, Historia

universal de la infamia, known in English as A Universal History of

Infamy.1 The original text, published in Canton in 1830, was translated into

English by German sinologist Charles Neumann in 1831; this in turn was

further adapted by British writer Philip Gosse into a portion of his The

History of Piracy, upon which Borges, knowing no Chinese, based his own

Spanish retelling.

By closely comparing Borges’s reworking with the previous Western

versions, and against the original source in Chinese, I argue that when

adapting the Chinese work, Borges opted for brevity and lightheartedness;

moreover, his multivoiced “baroque” Orientalism proved a self-conscious

parody of itself while caricaturing the biases of Chinese officialese at face

value, thereby offering a corrective to the fallacies of cultural appropriation.

One of the oldest poetic forms, the sonnet has long been associated with European love poetry dominated by white male voices. Since the 20th century, however, African American poets have redefined and transformed the sonnet into a distinctive Black poetic form, infusing it with their marginalized experiences and unique language. In this context, this paper analyzes Marilyn Nelson’s A Wreath for Emmett Till (2005), a sonnet sequence that memorializes Emmett Till, a 14-year-old boy whose 1955 lynching became a pivotal moment in African American history, and explores how Nelson reclaims the sonnet as a powerful space for mourning, remembrance, and resistance. Focusing on the intersection of transgenerational trauma, art, and political activism, this paper discusses how the poet’s creative engagement with the sonnet reflects an effort to confront the traumatic legacy of racial violence embedded in collective memory while reshaping the European form into a monument to the sufferings and resilience of the African American people.