By RINA
Rampur: Prof. Surya Prasad Dixit of Hindi Department at Lucknow University inaugurated three-day seminar on ‘The Art of Translation and Compilation: Problems and Solution’ on December 21 at Rang Mahal of Raza Library in Rampur. The program started with recitation of the Gracious Qur’an by Qari Anwarul Hasan.
After introducing the participants, the officer on special duty in the library, Prof. Shah Abdus Salam said, “The world has shrunk today. So the importance of translation has got highlighted in order to het informed about the knowledge, tongue, culture and morals of peoples living in distant lands.”
Underscoring the significance of the topic under discussion, Prof. Salam said, “Some new principles and procedures have been devised for these tasks in our modern age. So it has become necessary to review the success gained by our penmen.”
In his inaugural speech, Prof. Surya Prasad Dixit shed light on importance of manuscripts, their typology, their repositories in India and the ways to preserve them. On translation, he dwelt on intricacies of the two types of translations, literal and import-oriented.
Prof. Abdus Salam spoke on ‘At-Turas Al-Arabia’, the encyclopedia recently published in Saudi Arabia in 17 volumes. At this juncture, Mr. Ibrahim bin Muhammad Al-Batshan, the cultural attaché at Saudi Embassy in New Delhi clarified that Dr. Fu’ad has compiled ‘At-Turas Al-Arabia’ and the encyclopedia is yet incomplete.
Emphasizing the importance of translation in present age, Mr. Al-Batshan said, “The art of translation is a clue to the progress of civilization. So much translation work was carried out at Baitul Hikmat in merely 50 years during the reign of Haroon Rashid and Mamoon Rashid that could not be matched in next 500 years.”
Stressing on adoption of modern techniques, Mr. Al-Batshan said, “Today we need to produce translation on our own. We imbibe films, fashion, costume and games but do not pay attention to translation of arts and sciences.” Chief guest Prof. Sughra Mehdi said, “The translator should have command over both language and avoid literal translation.”
Delivering keynote address, the head of Islamic Studies department at Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, Prof. Akhtarul Wasey said, “Sometimes, the text carries the sense of two meanings. The translation has to select anyone of them. Literal becomes difficult in such cases.” Referring to translations of the Holy Qur’an by Shah Waliullah and Shah Abdul Aziz, he elaborated on problems of translation.
In his presidential address, the chairman of National Commission of Minority Educational Institutions, Justice M. Suhail Ejaz Siddiqui lamented, “There is no international research and development organization of Muslims.” Accentuating that only that nation marches ahead which is ahead in education, he said, “Yesterday, Europeans came to Muslims for gaining knowledge because Greek and Roman scholarship was translated in Arabic language. Muslims taught them for six hundred years but today we go to Europe for higher learning.”
A number of papers were read during second session chaired by Iqtidar Husain Farooqui. Prof. Abdul Qadir Ja’fari’s paper was on ‘Urdu Translation’, Farhat Ehsas’ on ‘Creative Translation: True Picture’, Dr. Zaheer Ali Siddiqui’s on ‘Firmans of the Estate of Rampur’, Dr. Ghudhunfar’s on ‘Lost World of Printing and Publishing’ and Asad Raza’s on ‘Journalistic Language: Problems of Its Translation’.