Words Across Boundaries

Editorial:-
Language is not just for conversations, and literature not just to entertain. They are more importantly about communicating ideas and thoughts, sharing information and inspiring more refined understandings. Towards that end, the written word becomes the vehicle on which language rides on its desired journey, carrying ideas and information to build consensus and fashion opinions. Writing also fills the role of recording the times they are written in, and for making them the mirrors that reflect the times contemporaneous to the times they emerged from. Having the tools to use language effectively for communication then becomes empowerment. On Sunday, Nepali speakers [and readers] the world over celebrated the birth anniversary of Adikavi Bhanubhakta Acharya. About a week prior, another group celebrated the birth anniversary of Padre Ganga Prasad Pradhan. The two stalwarts have much in common even if they belonged to different faiths. Both understood the significance of language and appreciated the importance of translations. Where the Adikavi translated the Ramayana from elitist Sanskrit to the people’s language of Nepali [printed in 1887 two decades after his death], the Padre translated the Bible into Nepali. This year marks the 200th birth anniversary of the Adikavi and the 161st birth anniversary of the Padre and also significantly, the 100th anniversary of his translation of the Bible in the language of his people. To pay true homage to the two giants of Nepali language, its speakers, writers and readers should ideally resolve to make the literary and philosophical output in their language more significant and more widely followed and also, in keeping with the idea of translations that the two clearly understood, also consciously work towards introducing Nepali readers to more works from the world over in their own language, and also sponsoring efforts to make the best works of Nepali available in more languages [in translation]. At the time when the Acharya and the Padre wrote and translated, religion was the most [and to a large extent, only] powerful idea around; in the present day and age of information overload, there are many more ideas that need wider sharing. There is the argument that people are multilingual nowadays and that this has reduced the number of translations required. This, however, is not necessary correct because nuances and subtleties are best understood and appreciated in the mother tongue. Also, if contemporary ideas are not translated into the respective languages, the language begins dying out; debasing itself from a language to a dialect and soon losing even that role and getting replaced. Several of Sikkim’s languages have already run this downhill slide. The regression, let’s accept it, has also begun for Nepali and needs to be reversed. Real homage to his memory would thus be for those who know, to share what they know with the people, in a language that they were born into and understand best. Language should be celebrated not for its purity, but for its effectiveness in sharing ideas and bridge communication gaps. In the meanwhile, celebrate the idea of Bhanubhakta; the Adikavi not because he was necessarily the first poet, but more importantly because he was the First People’s Poet...