Seminar on Translatology

Date : 7-9-June 1996
Venue : Hosanna mount, Edamattam, Pala

The inaugural session was chaired by Shri. D. C. Kizhakkemuri. Dr. M. V. Pylee, former Vice-Chancellor of Cochin University and president of the ACS, inaugurated the seminar. Well-known translator Prof. Nileena Abraham and Dr. Sunny P. Orathel, the Vice-President of ACS spoke on the occasion. Over the three days more than fifteen papers were presented. The following were the papers: Modern Theories of Translation (Dr. A. P. Andrewskutty), Translation: Modern linguistic and literary and ancient Indian models. (Dr. Scaria Zacharia), Vedas and Upanishads in Malayalam (Dr. P. V. Viswanathan Namboothiri), Translations of Ramayana (Dr. P. V. Ramankutty), Bible Translations (Cyril Mathew), Grammars in Translation (Dr. T.B.Venugopala Panikkar), Sanskrit Poetics in Translation (P.S.Radhakrishnan), Sanskrit drama in translation (Dr. K.G. Poulose, European drama in translation (Gijy Joseph), The Waste Land in Translation (Josy Joseph), Indian Novels in Translation (Jaya Sukumaran), English Translations of Malayalam short fiction (Dr. C. P. Sivadasan,) Translations of the Bhagavat Gita (Dr. Vijaya Mohanan Pillai), Translations of Meghasandesam (Dr. Ajayakumar), Translations of Gitanjali (Dr. Deviprasad) and Translations of Rubaiyat (Raina Sebastian). Two memorial lectures were the other major items of the seminar. Dr. V. R. Prabodhachandran Nair delivered the Vallathol Memorial Lecture on the “Unforgettable Translators to Malayalam”. The Changampuzha Memorial Lecture was delivered by Dr. Desamangalam Ramakrishnan who spoke on “the Problems in Poetry Translation”. The final session of the seminar included an open conversation with well known poets and translators. D. Vinayachandran and Desamangalam Ramakrishnan spoke on their personal experience in writing poetry as well as translating poetry. The delegates actively took part in the discussions on all three days.