Letters: The trouble with translation

This is an occasional translator's response to T C A Srinivasa-Raghavan's article "Lost in translation" (Kitabkhana, March 11), which, as always, is an engrossing read. Towards the end, however, he falters. Leaving aside his rather gratuitous characterisation of the "nature of English" as "anaemic", his assertion that the Marathi word "gaday" is the feminine Marathi equivalent of the English word "fellow" is wide of the mark on several counts.

"Gaday" is not - as "fellow" is - in the nominative case. It is, in fact, in the vocative case; it is a form of address as well as a term of endearment. Secondly, it is not common in everyday use; it is mostly restricted to formal literary domains such as novels, short stories and poems, as well as plays, films and soaps. Thirdly, in terms of gender, although it is apparently feminine, it is somewhat unique: it is unisex when used by a woman, in that she could say it to either a man or a woman. On the other hand, if a man were to use it at all, it would only be while addressing his wife, possibly in a romantic or playful mood. In its shades and nuances, "gaday" is similar to the English term of endearment "honey", which is, similarly, vocative and unisex and is used in specific contexts, mainly in a romantic setting.

The nominative Marathi equivalent of "fellow" is "gadee", which, among others, has two very different meanings, namely "servant" and "member of a team or group". Its vocative is "gadyaa", which would be used very rarely and would be relevant only in case of the latter and only for a male member (but maybe by a female member if there is one), of the team or group, in a very informal setting. However, a woman in any such team or group could not be addressed as "gaday", especially by a man. In short, just as in English, there is no feminine term for "fellow" in Marathi.

As for B N Tandon's book, the word "chaatukhor" was new to me. I thought it was "chaatukaar". The English-Hindi dictionaries that I have give this translation, as also another familiar word, "chaaploos", for sycophant. But Raghavan's point is well taken: "sycophant" scarcely comes close to the sheer despicability conveyed by "chaatukhor". He could very well have used "bootlicker", which is listed as one of the many synonyms of "sycophant" in The New Oxford Thesaurus of English (2000).

Sharadchandra Panse Pune

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