{"id":1830,"date":"2015-12-13T21:36:31","date_gmt":"2015-12-14T05:36:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ajmerrode.com\/?page_id=1830"},"modified":"2018-12-03T20:54:32","modified_gmt":"2018-12-04T04:54:32","slug":"the-last-flicker","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/ajmerrode.com\/?page_id=1830","title":{"rendered":"The Last Flicker"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/a>The Last Flicker<\/em> is English translation (by Ajmer Rode) of Punjabi novel Marhi Da Deeva, a modern classic that gave a new turn to Punjabi fiction after its publication in\u00a01964. The novel is written by Gurdial Singh one of the most honored and awarded writers in Punjabi.\u00a0He is recipient of almost all major literary awards of the country including\u00a0the Bharatiya Jnanpith Award (1999). The novel narrates\u00a0the story of Jagsir Singh a Dalit man, who suffers the cruelty of caste system, social hierarchy, and\u00a0economic exploitation in Indian society.\u00a0The\u00a0plot is constructed masterfully and brings forth the ravages of feudal\u00a0traditions still prevalent in the Punjabi society,\u00a0<\/span>
\nThe first\u00a0edition of the\u00a0translation was published by the Sahitya Akademy of India with a cover showing a scene from a\u00a0Punjabi film\u00a0based on the novel.<\/span>
\nThe second edition was published\u00a0in 2010 by the National Book Trust of India. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>The\u00a0translation has\u00a0been a\u00a0subject of\u00a0several critical discussions. Professor Jeremy Munday,\u00a0professor of Translation Studies at the University of Leeds, UK, has\u00a0discussed it in the third edition of his book Introducing Translation Studies<\/em> (Routledge, London and New York, 2012). Under section, “Case\u00a0study” at the end of\u00a0chapter,\u00a0“Cultural and ideological turns”. Munday says,<\/span>
\n“What the translator has done is to translate the regional and social dialect of a small village community with the sociolect of urban working-class North America, where he has lived for several years.”<\/span><\/p>\n

Rana Nayar\u00a0, professor and chairperson at the Department of English and Cultural Studies, Punjab University, Chandigarh, has expressed a similar opinion in his recent book INTER-SECTIONS published by the Orient BlackSwan, Hydrabad, India, 2012. In chapter 10 and under section, The Last Flicker: A Case Study of Cultural Dislocation<\/em>,\u00a0Mr. Nayar argues\u00a0\u00a0that translator has dislocated the source culture (Punjabi) by using\u00a0an urban idiom of North American English. “As a result, we have this somewhat incongruous, if not anachronistic, situation where characters residing in a remote village in Punjab speak the same idiom that inhabitants of New York or Montreal often use.”<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

While I respect the insights and criticisms by Munday and Nayar I am unable to\u00a0agree with them fully. My translation is audience oriented -I had\u00a0an audience\u00a0before me and it was international. My main concern was to preserve and transfer emotional\u00a0content -as far as I could- of Punjabi utterings without worrying about any cultural dislocations. And I\u00a0preferred to\u00a0use the type of English idiom\u00a0I knew best.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Ajmer Rode<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n
Indian Novels Collective<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
November 28 at 4:31 AM<\/span><\/abbr><\/a><\/span><\/span> \u00b7 <\/span><\/i><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n

On receiving criticism on his translation of Gurdial Singh’s Marhi da Deeva, Ajmer Rode<\/a> resorted to explaining his stance on his website. Here’s the link \u2013 http:\/\/bit.ly\/2E3dd7M<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Last Flicker is English translation (by Ajmer Rode) of Punjabi novel Marhi Da Deeva, a modern classic that gave a new turn to Punjabi fiction after its publication in\u00a01964. The novel is written by Gurdial Singh one of the most honored and awarded writers in Punjabi.\u00a0He is recipient of almost all major literary awards […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1830","page","type-page","status-publish","h-entry","hentry","h-as-page"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ajmerrode.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ajmerrode.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ajmerrode.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ajmerrode.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ajmerrode.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1830"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/ajmerrode.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1832,"href":"https:\/\/ajmerrode.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1830\/revisions\/1832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ajmerrode.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}