This is not a political post, but my reaction to a line I just read in
The Jungle Book in Hindi. Since the English original was published in 1894 and its sequel in 1895, the following line REALLY jarred
"बिलकुल
ब्लैक एंड व्हाइट सिनेमा की तरह लग रहा था"
The large bolded text are English words written in devanagari: "black and white cinema". So the whole line reads basically "looked exactly like black and white cinema"
I've long felt the
Jungle Book belonged in Hindi, especially since Hindustani was Kipling's L1 until around 5 yo, and I loved the Hindi dub of the 2016 movie so much I haven't watched the English version. I've been enjoying the translation so far, but this anachronistic paraphrasing was very irksome. The translator did say in his foreword that he was aiming the translation at kids, but even so, this seems a bit much.
Here's the original passage:
Quote:
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“Ha! Ha!” said Mowgli, on his back. “Now thou knowest!” and the torrent of black horns, foaming muzzles, and staring eyes whirled down the ravine just as boulders go down in floodtime. "
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And the Hindi passage translated into English:
Quote:
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Mowgli said, "Ha! Ha! Now you will know." Only jet black horns were visible there, and white froth on the fur of the cattle; it looked exactly like black and white cinema. The herd of buffaloes looked as if black stones were flowing fast in a strong flood.
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I think what disappoints me most is that the above quotes show the "cinema" reference was an insertion, without it the passage would have been a close rendering. Hence my rant against excessive liberty.
How do you react to this kind of VERY loose translation?