[Reader-list] Retracting Moushumi trasnlations

[hpp at vsnl.com]

Retracting translation of Moushumi's songs

V Ramaswamy


Further to my posting of the transcription / translation of 3 of Moushumi Bhowmick's songs, I have received valuable feedback on the translations.

For someone who does not know Bangla, the translations could confuse and even reflect poorly on the original text. This will do more harm than good to the author, which is not my intention at all. 

The deceptively simple text of the original, which masks the subtleties conveyed by various words, phrases and tones is very hard to render into any other language, without making it sound prosaic. And this is definitely not the case with the original. My verse by verse translation does not do justice to Moushumi's work. 

This also underlines the difficulty inherent in translation of Moushumi's songs. The poetry of the original is lost in the translation. 

Taking responsibility for the protection of Moushumi's work, I would like to take back / retract the translations posted by me, with sincere apologies to everyone concerned.

If its possible for my posting of the translations to be removed I would be grateful for that.