Here we go.. first part of the translation

There wasn’t much general interest in the Pooh Project though a couple of Bengali learning friends are keen but busy. In general I have to say, it makes me feel quite special to be one of a small number of English speaking learners of Bengali in the world (who are using a blog as a learning tool) Given the language is the sixth most spoken in the world as a native language, you’d think there would be several!

Anyhow, the plan is now to stick to this passage only and I’ve translated the first third of it based on my comment and with some help from my mother-in-law. I have to say that this has helped to rekindle my enthusiasm, so the aim has been achieved. Hurrah!

Native speakers please make corrections!

“এটা ঠিক,” ঈঅর বলে, “গান কর.

উমটি তিদ্দ্লি , উমটি তো

এস, ফুল বাদাম তুলি

আনন্দ কর.”

“আনন্দ করি,” পু বলে.

কেউ কেউ আনন্দ করবে,” ঈঅর বলে

“কেন? কি সমসা আছে?”

“কি সমসা?”

“মনে হয় তুমার কিছু ধুক আছে, তাই নাকি?”

“আমার কোনো দুঃক নেই. আজকে আমার জন্মদিন. সবচেয়ে সুকের দিন.”

“তম জন্মদিন?” পু বলে, সবচেয়ে আশ্জর্য দিন.

“নিশ্চয়ই. তুমি দেখতে পারছেনা? দেখো আমি কত উপহার পেয়েছি. “

সে এ দিক থেকে সে দিক দুলিয়ে দুলিয়ে দেকছে.

“দেখো আমার জন্মদিনের কেক. মম্বার্তি. গোলাপী রঙ্গে মিষ্টি চিনে.”

Here was the English:

“That’s right,” said Eeyore. “Sing. Umty-tiddly, umty-too. Here we go gathering Nuts and May. Enjoy yourself.”

“I am,” said Pooh.

“Some can,” said Eeyore.

“Why, what’s the matter?”

“Is anything the matter?”

“You seem so sad, Eeyore.”

“Sad? Why should I be sad? It’s my birthday. The happiest day of the year.”

“Your birthday?” said Pooh in great surprise.

“Of course it is. Can’t you see? Look at all the presents I have had.” He waved a foot from side to side. “Look at the birthday cake. Candles and pink sugar.”

So, let’s give ourselves until 30 May to have a look at the next third of the passage. 

May’s Passage for Translation

Pooh looked–first to the right and then to the left. “Presents?” said Pooh. “Birthday cake?” said Pooh. “Where?”

“Can’t you see them?”

“No,” said Pooh.

“Neither can I,” said Eeyore. “Joke,” he explained. “Ha ha!”

Pooh scratched his head, being a little puzzled by all this. “But is it really your birthday?” he asked.

“It is.”

“Oh! Well, many happy returns of the day, Eeyore.”

“And many happy returns to you, Pooh Bear.”

“But it isn’t my birthday.”

“No, it’s mine.”

“But you said ‘Many happy returns’–”

“Well, why not? You don’t always want to be miserable on my birthday, do you?”

“Oh, I see,” said Pooh.

Eeyore has a birthday – first translation section

Thanks to everyone who contributed to the naming. I’ve put revised names at the bottom. The jury is still out on Piglet.

We are now ready to start translating! I suggest nine short sections, spending a month on each which would take us to the end of December 2012. We’re all busy but a month should give some flexibility. If you’re busy please just translate even a few sentences, it all helps!

Learners only up until 30 April, then on line native speakers if you can please comment from during May while we attempt the next section.  (Individually please ask native speakers, I will have to go to my mother-in-law I’m sure, I just don’t want them posting direct yet otherwise it may be correct too quickly for us to learn!) Thank you!

I have, befittingly, chosen a passage about the oft forgotten Eeyore to start us off. ”Here we go gathering Nuts and May” (a traditional English children’s song) will be a nightmare to translate. I’ve got some Bengali songs about fruit and flowers but as Tangle of Wires mentioned,  you can’t always switch the culture. As said, if Apu was Adam it wouldn’t quite work. Might end up missing it out! We’ll see.

From Chapter 6 in which Eeyore has a Birthday and gets two presents

“That’s right,” said Eeyore. “Sing. Umty-tiddly, umty-too. Here we go gathering Nuts and May. Enjoy yourself.”

“I am,” said Pooh.

“Some can,” said Eeyore.

“Why, what’s the matter?”

“Is anything the matter?”

“You seem so sad, Eeyore.”

“Sad? Why should I be sad? It’s my birthday. The happiest day of the year.”

“Your birthday?” said Pooh in great surprise.

“Of course it is. Can’t you see? Look at all the presents I have had.” He waved a foot from side to side. “Look at the birthday cake. Candles and pink sugar.”

Pooh looked–first to the right and then to the left. “Presents?” said Pooh. “Birthday cake?” said Pooh. “Where?”

“Can’t you see them?”

“No,” said Pooh.

“Neither can I,” said Eeyore. “Joke,” he explained. “Ha ha!”

Pooh scratched his head, being a little puzzled by all this. “But is it really your birthday?” he asked.

“It is.”

“Oh! Well, many happy returns of the day, Eeyore.”

“And many happy returns to you, Pooh Bear.”

“But it isn’t my birthday.”

“No, it’s mine.”

“But you said ‘Many happy returns’–”

“Well, why not? You don’t always want to be miserable on my birthday, do you?”

“Oh, I see,” said Pooh.

“It’s bad enough,” said Eeyore. almost breaking down “being miserable myself, what with no presents and no cake and no candles, and no proper notice taken of me at all, but if everybody else is going to be miserable too—-”

This was too much for Pooh. “Stay there!” he called to Eeyore, as he turned and hurried back home as quick as he could; for he felt that he must get poor Eeyore a present of some sort at once, and he could always think of a proper one afterwards.

Revised Characters Names

Winnie the Pooh – Winnie Choto Pu  ঔইনি  ছোট পু

Pooh Bear – Choto Baluk Pu ছোট  ভালুক পু

Pooh – Pu পু

Bear – Choto Baluk  ছোট  ভালুক

Christopher Robin – Kristopher Robin

Tigger – Tara-bagh তাড়া- বাঘ

Piglet – Still undecided – suggest Munna (“short”) or Golapi (“pink”) with in brackets (Suyor bacca) after the first mention

Eeyore – Eeor  ঈওর

Kanga – Kyaenga  ক্যেন্গা

Roo – Ru রু

Rabbit – Khorgos  খরগোশ

Owl – Pyaeca  প্যাঁচা

The Hundred Acre Wood - Aek-So Bigha Bon  একশ বিঘা বন

Pather Panchali পথের পাঁচালী

Well, I’m enjoying Pather Panchali পথের পাঁচালী the first of the films about Apu based on the classic novel by Bibhutibhushan Banerjee and made by the celebrated film maker Satyajit Ray.

I can’t really understand much of the Bengali at all, it’s too fast! [Actually I'm carrying on two days later and guess what? My ear has adjusted and I can understand the shorter utteranaces. Hurrah!]

I never found watching French films much help when my French was elementary. Even now for learning purposes I find it easier to watch something shorter repeatedly rather than a full length film once. That does help with your progress as I find you understand more each time. Also when you are good enough, turning the subtitles off helps you to listen more carefully. But when I tried turning them off for Pather Panchali I became worried I wouldn’t be able to follow in any meaningful way so I turned them back on again.

Modern Bengali films seem easier to follow if you are going to watch something full length.  Still it’s nice to see older films for cultural reasons I guess. [Actually the way that Pishi is treated seems to me exactly what goes on today if my husband's extended family is anything to go by!]

Pooh into other languages..

Just checking out the competition…I’m not aware of any translation of Pooh into Bengali or Hindi for that matter. But stories about the Bear have been translated into many other languages. There is a well known translation into Latin – Winnie Ille Pooh (1958). Apparently Amazon is now selling translations of Winnie the Pooh into Esperanto, German, Italian, Latin, Scots, Spanish and Yiddish. The House at Pooh Corner into Latin, Polish and Scots. Another website lists many languages, including Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Nowegian, Danish and Afrikaans, but still no Indic ones. I’ve copied some of the illustations below to show how they have tended to keep the name Winnie!

We could go into business! (‘Joke,’ said Eor, ‘Ha, ha’).

On a scholarly level, I discovered an interesting article by Olga Papusha about the nature of translation as regards Children’s Literature with reference to translations of Pooh into Russian and Ukranian Translation as Adaptation: The Winnie-the-Pooh stories as Children’s and Adult Reading Interestingly Kanga becomes “mama Kenga” (‘mommy Kanga’) in at least one of these translations, while Owl, masculine in Milne, becomes a female Sova in both versions.

Characters names have been translated – request for native speakers to check and correct!

So we learners have had a go at translating the characters’ names.

The first four are all names for Winnie the Pooh. As I said before, Winnie the Pooh makes no real sense in English, so the Bengali just has to have the right feel about it.

Piglet is the most tricky if suyor bacca really is a swear word. My Indian grandfather who was brought up speaking English first and then some Hindi too, always used to say:’The swines, the swines” if he wanted to insult someone/some people. I always wondered why. Pigs do not have a good name in hot countries. Even in English, pig is an insult for someone considered to over-eat. But somehow, Piglet or Piglit (as he writes himself) sounds so cute!

Winnie the Pooh – Winnie Choto Pu  ঔইনি  ছোট পু

Pooh Bear – Choto Baluk Pu ছোট  ভালুক পু

Pooh – Pu পু

Bear – Choto Baluk  ছোট  ভালুক

Christopher Robin – Kristopher Robin

Tigger – Tara-bagh তাড়া- বাঘ or baagh (we need to alter Tiger in some way)

Piglet – Suyor bacca, suyor chana or Munna (“short”) or Golapi (“pink”)

Eeyore – Eeor  ঈওর

Kanga – Kyaenga  ক্যেন্গা

Roo – Ru রু

Rabbit – Khorgos  খরগোশ

Owl – Pyaeca  পেঁচা [ corrected to প্যাঁচা by Musings of a Bou]

The Hundred Acre Wood - Aek-So Bigha Bon  এক-স  ভিগা  বন [corrected to একশ বিঘা বন by Musings of A Bou]

I feel rude

One thing which is problematic for both native Bengali speakers using English and native English speakers using Bengali is just how WORDY English is and how (relatively) SUCCINCT Bengali is.

For example (I’m not talking about Bengalis fluent in English, by the way) my mother-in-law frequently misses out words when she speaks English, especially ‘the’ and ‘a’.  Her sentences usually have other words missing, also plurals. But when I go to Kolkata (and I’m starting to think about the Summer and how I flail around hopelessly talking to the maids) I find that I struggle with how brief Bengali can be. I feel like I should be putting extra words in. For example,  I’m always asking the maid for hot water. I guess this is “Gorom jol dao” but it’s so short, I feel rude. It’s using a command, the imperative, GIVE ME that I don’t like.  I feel awkward so I used to just say ‘Gorom jol’ but his obviously doesn’t mean much. (Should or can this be said more politely?) You see, if we compare, you say in English something like:’Would you mind getting me some hot water?/Could I trouble you for some hot water? [y'know?]).

It’s curious how different cultures express politeness. In Bengali or Hindi, you might show respect to the person, by adding -ji to their name or using polite forms (aapni rather than tumi, for example). In English we put the politeness into the language we use to ask the question, not really how we address someone.

The Pooh Project – and now we are one!

And finally and somehow befittingly on the first birthday of this blog (thanks for reading everyone! 50 posts in a year and over 6000 hits, not bad!) we begin the Pooh Project where we learners will attempt to translate some excerpts of A.A Milne’s classic children’s books about Pooh Bear into Bengali.

First off we need to name the characters. Now remember, that names like Winnie-the-Pooh and Tigger don’t really exist in English, so we can, when we translate Tigger, for example, take the Bengali for tiger and alter it a bit – do you see? Also we need to make decisions such as do we want to keep the name Christopher Robin or Bengalicise it and give him another name completely? Remember too that Owl spells his name Wol so he’ll have to make some sort of error in Bengali when he writes too…

Ok, so learners only, please suggest names for the characters below by 14th March in the comments either in transliterated Roman script or in Bengali script. And then I will ask native speakers to look them over during the rest of March if they can. Good luck!

Characters to name

Winnie-the-Pooh, or Pooh for short, is an anthropomorphic toy bear. Despite being “a bear of very little brain,” he is a friendly and thoughtful character. His love for honey sometimes leads to trouble. His catchphrases include “Oh, Bother!” Although his full name is Winnie-ther-Pooh (as Christopher Robin pronounces it) he is variously referred to as Pooh, Pooh Bear or Bear so we need a name flexible enough to alter into these as they are nuanced.

Christopher Robin is the only human boy in the series. Pooh considers both Christopher Robin and Piglet to be his best friends.

Piglet, Pooh’s best friend, is a kind, tidy, small animal who is ordinarily quite timid, but with Pooh by his side, he often overcomes his fears. His catchphrase is “Oh, D-D-Dear!”. Piglet lives in a beech tree, can sing very well and he likes to eat “haycorns”. In many adventures it has been up to Piglet to save Pooh from some sort of problem or danger.

Eeyore is Pooh’s ever-glum, slow-talking, pessimistic donkey friend. Eeyore has trouble keeping his tail attached to his bottom. Eeyore also has a house made of sticks which is destroyed many times (the most of the times being destroyed by Tigger) and has to be made again.

Roo is Kanga’s joey, who moved to the Hundred Acre Wood with his mother. His best friend is Tigger.

Kanga is Roo’s mother who moved to the Hundred Acre Wood with Roo. She is the only female resident in the Hundred Acre Wood. She often makes Tigger shy by calling him “Dear”.

Rabbit thinks he is the smartest animal in the Hundred Acre Wood, and can get very mad when Tigger bounces on his prized garden.

Tigger is Pooh’s bouncy, exuberant and trouble-making tiger friend. He loves to bounce and have fun, especially bouncing on others. He is orange and yellow with black stripes. Tigger commonly mispronounces words, like ‘ridickerus’ (ridiculous) or ‘vill-i-an’ (villain). He is also Roo’s best friend.

Owl is an owl in the series; he acts as a teacher, and believes that he is the smartest animal in the wood. He can spell “Tuesday” but spells his own name “Wol”.

The Hundred Acre Wood is the setting for the stories.

With thanks to Peacay on Flickr for the images.

The scented air of Rajasthan and slapping yourself back to life (Dreaming in Hindi, 10)

In the scented air of Rajasthan…at the edge of the desert, surrounded by camels and pleasure gardens and high palace walls, I’d been slapping myself back to life.

Katherine has a physical illness which is treatable, and for years, but not curable. After having received good medical tests back after two shock results, she finds her ‘silent period’ ends and she experiences a ‘naming explosion.’ (This happens at around the age of three in your native language –  you suddenly become fluent, as if out of nowhere) She suddenly realises a connection between the good medical results and the blossoming of her competence in Hindi. Unconsciously, she had realised the seriousness of her medical condition, and like animals (if fight or flight isn’t possible, they play dead) she’d been playing dead. Until now, when she realised that as she’d been given so many extra years, it was preposterous not to accept them. And hence the sudden flow and fluency and fertility.

First time around, language jump-starts the brain, Russ Rymer says in Genie (Dreaming in Hindi, p.263).  ’The organisation of our brain is as genetically ordained and automatic as breathing,’ he writes,’but like breathing, it is initiating with the slap of a midwife, and the midwife is grammar.’  In going back for seconds, she had been trying to replicate the process.  She’d been slapping herself back to life.

So, this is the final post on Dreaming in Hindi. Next, the Pooh Project!

নিজের জিবন নিজের হাতে Your life, your hands?

I recently read a book about a fish called Mona who ends up getting eaten.  I got it at Star Mark in Kolkata last summer and it has nice big print and bright pictures.  It was quite easy at first but then the vocabulary got a bit trickier. So I got my mother-in-law to read it out. Fortunately  some of the vocabulary is then repeated so that it helps to reinforce it. I’ve been trying to translate the title, it seems to mean Your own life is your own responsibility.

They are kind of like Aesops’s (or as she said Aeshop’s) fables, tales with a moral to them.

Mona’s mother educates her in how to protect herself from predators by exhaling a black cloud but to be prudent in the use of this, as it can run out.  Then one day Mona is trying the cloud for fun when a big fish comes along and she then she finds she hasn’t got enough left, and then gets eaten. Yikes! I think this is quite scary for a young child, though it makes the point.

Reading books like this seems quite helpful to keeping my Bengali up, when I’m doing less time on formal exercises. That and listening to my mother-in-laws lengthy telephone conversations…

The Breakthrough

It’s freakily true. Once I stopped my obsession about learning Bangla and my intensive study, I find that what I have learned and what I have been exposed to have somehow come together. I understand more, I can speak more and most excitingly I can read whole words and sentences instead of having to decipher each word by decoding they syllables or sounding them out like a British 5-year-old (I say that as they love teaching reading with the phonetic method here).

I’ve gone back to Teach Yourself Bengali chapter 23. So I’ve got 23-26 and then it’s just literature and poetry. Hopefully I’ll get all this finished by the time we go out in the Summer, but either way I’m feeling more confident. Maybe I’ll do better this year.