A two-day seminar on ‘Knowledge Text Translation in Kannada’ began at Mangalore University on Wednesday with an expert expressing fears that if a language did not open up itself for translation, it could face the threat of dying.
Inaugurating the seminar, Shivarama Padikkal, professor, Centre for Applied Linguistics and Translation Studies, University of Hyderabad, said that if there was no translation, languages would become stagnant. “Hence, there is a danger of such a language dying,” he said.
The professor said that a translator would have to transfer the power of the text and not merely its meaning. Translation is an active engagement and not merely a neutral act.
Ashok Patil M.D., Assistant Professor, Department of Community Medicine in Ayurveda, DGM Ayurveda Medical College and Post-Graduate Research Institute, Gadag, said that a translator of Ayurveda texts should have the knowledge of Sanskrit. He regretted that many doctors were not coming forward to translate medical texts into Kannada.
The National Translation Mission, under the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysuru, and S.V. Parmeshwara Bhatta Institute of Kannada Studies, Mangalore University, have organised the seminar. Jnanamurthy B.R., consultant (academic), National Translation Mission, said that their mandate was to translate knowledge texts relating to higher education and research to 22 Indian languages listed under the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution.
The mission conducts a free three-week intensive training programme in translation every month.
