Essay: Odia Literature in English Translation- The Lie of the Land

Himansu S. Mohapatra shares an essay capturing a detailed and comprehensive profile of the field of Odia Literature in English Translation.

The first printed text in Odia, dating to 1807, is a translation. A Bengali poem by one Pitambar Singh was published by Serampore Mission Press under the title of “Ashray Nirnay”, meaning Refuge Ascertained. But this is not what underscores the centrality of translation in Odia literary culture. The evidence of that centrality is how a huge and significant corpus of poetry, produced by Sarala Das, Balaram Das and Jagannath Das during the medieval period, was born of translation in its triple form as localization or Odiaization (Sarala Das), subversion (Balaram Das) and standardization (Jagannath Das). This body of work became not only the backbone of Odia culture but also the benchmark for what is defining in Odia language and literature. The year 1807 marks the beginning of the print era in Odisha. Translations began to play a specific role from here on, reflecting the shifting temperament of an evolving society.

The story this presentation wishes to tell concerns another category of translation that has also unfolded with equal intensity and verve in Odisha, as in rest of India. It is the exogenous or exotropic variety involving translations of Odia-language works into English, mostly done by Odias themselves. As a matter of fact, starting from the closing decade of the last century this field has become prominent as renderings from Odia into English have tended to multiply. Thus a whole new field has come to be constituted: Odia Literature in English Translation or OLET, in short. This essay gives a cursory view of this particular translation eco-system, delineating its evolution and its achievements.