{"id":14366,"date":"2012-05-23T14:12:00","date_gmt":"2012-05-23T14:12:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/works.raqsmediacollective.net\/?p=14366"},"modified":"2025-05-23T14:47:53","modified_gmt":"2025-05-23T14:47:53","slug":"translators-silence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/works.raqsmediacollective.net\/index.php\/2012\/05\/23\/translators-silence\/14366","title":{"rendered":"Translator’s Silence"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Translator’s Silence
<\/i><\/em><\/strong>Shown at: <\/i>‘Lines of Control: Partition as a Productive Space’, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, New York (2012)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foldable take-away, perforated text on paper<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Translator’s Silence<\/em> incises three poetic fragments – from Faiz AhmedFaiz, Rabindranath Tagore and Agha Shahid Ali – on to a take-away embellished, folded paper card. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

hum ke thahrey ajnabi itni madaraaton ke baad
phir banai.ngain aashnaa kitni mulaqaton ke baad<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

we who have been rendered strangers, after so many travails
how many meetings will it take for us to embrace each other again<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faiz Ahmed Faiz<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

AAAchena-ke bhoy ki amaar ore ?
Achena-ke-i chiney-chiney uth-be jibon bhore<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

what fear have I of strangers,
the cup of life will fill by knowing the unknown<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rabindranath Tagore<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Will you, beloved stranger, ever witness Shahid
two destinies at last reconciled by exiles?<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Agha Shahid Ali<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

The care of strangers is the gentlest and the sharpest form of sedition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

India, Pakistan, Kashmir – so many names for so many states of quarantine. So much familiarity, so much contempt. Better the admission of a future mutuality of strangeness than the bitter explosive ancestral familiarity of hatred. At least there will be questions left to ask of each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

None of these fragments appears in translation. The work moves directly from one language to the next, unmediated. To read it, viewers must seek out a \u2018stranger\u2019\u2014someone who speaks an unseen tongue\u2014to unlock its meaning. In doing so, the piece suggests that a \u2018stranger\u2019 can transform into a \u2018beloved\u2019 when once-adversarial destinies\u2014common across partitions and \u201clines of control\u201d\u2014meet through a willing encounter with the unknown. Such an encounter, crossing languages, memories, desires, and nightmares, may initially bring a loss of words. Strangers who venture into this space must first translate each other\u2019s silences before hearing each other\u2019s voices. That interval\u2014a fold between utterances\u2014carries the gift of silence. This take-away that takes the form of a fold between utterances, embodies a gift of that silence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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See also: Translator’s Silence (lenticular)<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Translator’s Silence incises three poetic fragments – from Faiz AhmedFaiz, Rabindranath Tagore and Agha Shahid Ali – on to a take-away embellished, folded paper card.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14367,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14366","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-works","has-thumbnail"],"gutentor_comment":0,"yoast_head":"\nTranslator's Silence - Works Raqs Media Collective<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/works.raqsmediacollective.net\/index.php\/2012\/05\/23\/translators-silence\/14366\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Translator's Silence - 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