My
translations are my best critics. Translation undresses a literary
work, shows it in its true nakedness. Translation tells the bitter
truths. Unveils all masks-Bashevis Isaac Singer
WHY AND HOW DID
ANUKRITI COME INTO BEING?
Anukriti: Translating India is designed to
function as a translation service site in all the Indian languages. The
idea of creating such a website was conceived by three institutions
devoted to the development of Indian languages - Central Institute of
Indian Languages (MHRD), Mysore, Sahitya Akademi and
National Book Trust, New Delhi. In May 2001, a meeting was held
between the trio, where the representatives of leading publishing houses,
represented by Oxford University Press and Katha were also present.
WHAT IS ANUKRITI
ABOUT?
Anukriti:Translating India addresses the long-felt
requirement of creating a mechanism to coordinate the activities in
respect of different kinds of translations currently being done by
organizations, institutions and individuals in a sporadic and disorganized
manner. It was thought that the monitoring and promotional action could be
done by setting up a web-based service especially devoted to translation -
both literary and non-literary, including machine-aided translation in the
public domain. The main responsibility of this translation service is to
coordinate, and thus contribute to, the promotion of Indian languages and
writing and projecting them abroad. The site is proposed to be a
collocational site with different IP addresses and at least of 5 GB size
to start with.
WHAT DOES
ANUKRITI CONSIST OF?
As of now, the site contains only already available materials in
print, and the bibliographic and informative documents produced by Sahitya
Akademi, such as Who's Who of Indian Writers and the
Bibliography of Translations in Indian Languages that has been
prepared by Prof. G.N. Devi (ready up to 1990). The latter will be
expanded eventually through people's participation.
Translation
tools such as the dictionaries, common vocabularies published by the CIIL
have been embedded into the site. Other tools like thesauri, cultural and
technical glossaries, etc., created by NBT, CIIL, CHD and other agencies
will be made available on-line as part of this site eventually, and then
expanded to include more ambitious tools and techniques like translation
memory softwares, translation teaching softwares and machine translation
packages for Indian languages
TRANSLATION
TODAY: THE E-ZINE
The editorial and evaluation of the site's e-journal Translation
Today will be done jointly by literary scholars, creative writers and
linguists. Its editorial board will be appropriately expanded to include
both literary and language scholars to ensure quality translations (both
solicited and unsolicited) on the Net. Also, some sample pages of
translated texts published under either Indian literature or Samakaleen
will be displayed on the site and the visitors to the site will be
encouraged to order for the journal copies directly from the Sahitya
Akademi. This site will be promoted through the press and mass media as
well as through the different electronic news services (provided by .com
companies) presently without incurring much cost. An appropriate brochure
will be printed jointly by all three organizations outlining the idea
behind the creation of this site and highlighting the services offered
through the Net. The brochure will be widely distributed among publishers,
authors, translators and academics as well as taken to all book fairs so
that all potential users know the idea. The CIIL, Mysore, has taken the
initiative to create this collaborative web-based translation service,
which has been jointly hosted by CIIL, Sahitya Akademi and NBT. It will be
technically managed by the CIIL from Mysore.
The ultimate aim, of
course, is to trigger a spurt in translation activity and in discursive
discourse on translation across the country with a view to achieving
excellence in the translated word and excellence in the discourse on
translation.
WHAT KIND OF
INFORMATION DOES ANUKRITI PROVIDE?
The information that the site provides is of the
following kind:
ABOUT
TRANSLATION:
This gives an introductory source view of translation as an
activity, and as an area of research based on Munday (2001) [Click here to go to
About Translation or go back to the Home Page and click on About
Translation.]
PROFESSIONAL TRANSLATION:
Details of all the professional
translation organizations across India that undertake translation
jobs of different kinds of material from and into various languages
are documented here. [Click here to go to Professional
Translation or go back to the Home Page and click on Professional
Translation.]
TRANSLATOR
EDUCATION:
Details of all the academic courses in translation that are
on offer in academic organizations across the country are given
here. [Click here to
go to Translator Education or go to the Home Page and click on Translator
Education.] On-line e-courses are for registered users.
TOOLS:
This link presents the various kinds of 'tools' or 'aids'
that are used in translation of any kind - literary,
scientific/technical, administrative, religious, and so on. Such
tools include the following:
TRADITIONALLY PRINTED TOOLS:
(a) Thesauri (b)
word-finders (c) glossaries (d) cultural vocabularies
(e) spell checkers (f) grammar checkers (g)
technical glossaries (h) glossaries of various domains.
ELECTRONIC TOOLS:
(a) Machine-readable
dictionaries (b) parsers (c) corpora (d)
e-translators, (e) translation memory softwares (f)
translation teaching softwares etc.
Since we don't
have all these tools in all Indian Languages, whatever is
available forms part of this link. It is clear that as and
when these are created in the Indian languages, this slot will
be incrementally augmented. [Click here to go to Tools or go
back to the Home
Page and click on Tools.]
NEWS AND
EVENTS:
This page provides information about events on the
translation scene in the country, such as details of seminars,
conferences, workshops, etc., on translation that have already taken
place, and the details of those that are going to be held in
future.
It provides updated information about the
developments on the translation scene in the country, such as the
publication/arrival of a new book on translation, a review of a
translation or a translation, awards/titles presented to/conferred
on translators and/or translations, the demise of a translator, etc.
[Click here to go to
News and Events or go back to the Home Page and click on News and
Events.]
TRANSLATION TODAY: The e-zine
Translation Today is the e-journal
of Anukriti. It is designed to publish online articles, squibs,
review articles by research-active translators and translation
scholars and reviews of translations and of theoretical literature
on translation. . It is a sub-site of Anukriti. [Click here to go to Translation Today
or go back to the Home
Page and click on Translation Today: The e-zine.]
InLan: THE
E-TRANSLATOR
This is the e-translator for Indian languages. This will take
some time to realize.
OTHER
LINKS:
Anukriti aims at broadening its users' vision, and directing
their attention to all the other kinds of information about
translation that can be found on the Internet. This page provides
lists of hyperlinks which are online resources one may visit for
further/other kinds of information on translation. These are
arranged according to the kind of information they provide. [Click here to go to Other
Links or go back to the Home
Page and click on Other Links.]
SUBMIT
INFO:
Users are invited here to submit any information they know
about the translation scene in their language(s) along the lines
given under this link. The major database in this site may have gaps
of info which this link is designed to redress.
SUBMIT A
WORKING PAPER:
Users are requested here to submit a working paper to be
published in Translation Today in the format specified.
SUBMIT A
TRANSLATION:
Users are invited here to submit a translation of any genre
of creative literature in any Indian language either into English or
into other Indian languages.
INTERACTIVE BOARD
This is the interactive space of the website.
Quizzes and question-answer sessions will be organized here.
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