Urvi Teresa Gomes, Kolkata: Gender and sexuality are intricate aspects of human identity that are deeply embedded in culture and language. As literature and media traverse linguistic boundaries, the act of translation becomes a critical tool in conveying these complex concepts accurately. On the 31st of July, 2023, Women’s Studies Research Centre, University of Calcutta (CU), in collaboration with the Department of English, CU, organised a lecture on ‘Translating Gender and Sexuality’ at the Alipore Campus of CU. The lecture’s Speaker was Ruth Vanita (Indian academic, activist and author who specialises in British and Indian literary history with a focus on gender and sexuality studies, Professor at the University of Montana, United States) and the seminar was chaired by Dr. Sinjini Bandyopadhyay (Associate Professor, Department of English); Dr. Durba Basu (Assistant Professor and Head, Department of English, Swarnamoyee Jogendranath Mahavidyalaya) served as the Respondent. The event was brought to fruition with the help and support of the higher authorities of the University of Calcutta, including Professor Santa Dutta (Vice-Chancellor, CU) and Professor Debasis Das (Registrar, CU).

Established in 1989, the Women’s Studies Research Centre (WSRC), CU is one of the oldest of the Women’s Studies Centres in India. Over the years, the WSRC has undertaken numerous project-based and field-based endeavours, and simultaneously hosting monthly scholarly discussions both online and offline. Ruth Vanita’s lecture was the first major physical gathering post-pandemic. Underlying such gatherings conducted by the WSRC is the deep concern of the shutting down of Humanities departments across the globe, specifically in places like Hungary, Florida and Japan.

Eminent scholar, poet, novelist Ruth Vanita was initially the co-founder of India’s first feminist magazine ‘Manushi’ and co-edited it for a long span of 13 years. She has published over 80 scholarly articles, translated several works of fiction and poetry and authored several books including ‘The Memory of Light’, ‘Love’s Rite: Same Sex Marriages in India and the West’, and ‘On the Edge’— her most recent book being ‘The Dharma of Justice in the Sanskrit Epics: Debates on Gender, Varna, and Species’.

In her lecture, Ruth Vanita talked about different types of translations, using examples from her own work over the last four decades. She developed her translation skills in the thirteen years of working for the ‘Manushi’, and finds non-fiction easier to translate as one can use technical terms in the process. However, “fictional poetry,” said Ruth Vanita, “is much more difficult because it’s coloured by emotion”— and hence we reach the popular conclusion that what’s lost in translation is poetry. Her book ‘Love’s Rite’ contains her translations from Urdu, Hindi and Sanskrit. In the lecture, she used instances from the book to elucidate how translation affects meaning. In her analysis, she found that the ‘Kamasutra’ states that two men friends, who are each other’s well-wishers and have complete trust in each other, may unite— the term used is “parasparaparigraham”. In ‘Love’s Rite’, Vanita has written, “Paraspara means ‘mutual’, and parigraha has many meanings, including “take in marriage,” “have sexual intercourse,” ‘take’, ‘accept’, or ‘seize’. Danielou translates it as ‘get married together’, two Hindi translators as ‘have oral sex together’, and Doniger as ‘do this service’ for one another. I examined other uses of parigraha and its variants throughout the Kamasutra, and found that it is used eight times to refer to marriage; five times to mean ‘seize’, ‘accept’, ‘take’ or ‘obtain’; and six times to refer to copulation. There is only one other use of parigraha along with paraspara. Parasparaparigrahayoha (V.4: 41) refers to a man establishing a mutual bond with another man’s wife. Paraspara (mutual) is also used along with “enjoyment”— parasparamranjayeyuhuhu (V.6: 1) refers to mutual sexual enjoyment between women in seclusion. Both these, like the reference to two men uniting, refer to unconventional types of union.” Vanita further explains in her lecture that when a word has multiple meanings, it is best to look at the sense in which the word has been used in that particular text. Throughout the lecture, she delves into several subtopics, such as the specific difficulties of translating erotic emotion and activities, and consequently backs up her reasoning with instances from her own work.

Several texts explore complex aspects that are difficult to capture in translation due to the nuanced nature of language. The challenge lies in balancing fidelity to the original text with readability and comprehension in the target language. Translators face the age-old dilemma of either domesticating the text to suit the target culture or retaining foreign elements to preserve the cultural authenticity of the original. Striking the right balance is crucial when dealing with sensitive topics like gender and sexuality. Translating gender and sexuality in texts is a complex process that requires sensitivity, cultural awareness, and linguistic finesse. Translators must navigate linguistic constraints, cultural sensitivities, and historical contexts while maintaining the integrity and authenticity of the original work; and the lecture by Ruth Vanita offered a glimpse of the process of translation and the implications of it.