Power Dynamics and Ideology in V. G. Kiernan’sTranslation of Iqbal’s Poetry

Abstract

The paper investigates the translational transgressions of V. G. Kiernan against Muhammad Iqbal’s Urdu poetry. The concept of translational transgressions can be conceptualized by appreciating the notions of language appropriation and domestication. It is postulated that while translating Iqbal, Kiernan has committed language appropriation and an extensive domestication of the source text. The present study demonstrates that a mixing of registers is also present in Kiernan’s translation which effectively paves the way to the translational aggressions. More precisely, the researchers have identified two main registers operative in Kiernan’s translation: Anglicization and Christianization. Another essential contention of the study is that the power differentials between Urdu and English also have their bearings upon these translational transgressions. The cumulative impact of these translational transgressions is what Robert Phillipson calls: “The dominance asserted by the establishment and continuous reconstitution of structural/cultural inequalities between English and other languages” (1992, p. 47).  By way of the main finding, it can be said that in Kiernan’s translation Iqbal is considerably deprived of his voice and is represented through a translation which is appropriating as well as domesticating. Thus, Kiernan’s translation appears more of a re-writing of the source text than a translation. Lawrence Venuti’s model of foreignization and domestication serves as the central theoretical framework for the present research and his assertion that translation changes everything constitutes the basic conceptual paradigm of this study (2013, p. 100).