Discussion Group: What Language Do We Sing In?: On Ek Gaana Kayi Zubaan, an Indian Film Music Translation Project
Please register to attend here: https://forms.office.com/e/KitK0AF9MB
In Ek Gaana Kayi Zubaan (One Song, Many Tongues), we translate Indian film songs into other languages of the subcontinent, strictly adhering to the tune of the original (and then record them in the studio and release them on YouTube). From one perspective, this project is a form of political engagement in a historical moment where single languages and singular narratives are being peddled by political dispensations in India. But from another, more interesting perspective, it is a part of a long history in which music and film songs have already cultivated a translating culture in India - whether of audience from different linguistic communities listening to and humming music from languages they do not otherwise know, of music composers remaking songs in other languages, or of affective communities that do not seem to care much about the specificity of language and share something beyond the letter and its meaning. Working in that vein on this project-both translating songs into other languages and attempting to sing them as a musician-has put into relief concepts that are more or less stable in translation discussions: what the "original" might actually be (in this case, the lyric, or the melody, the syllable, the beat?), what needs our absolute focus and attention in translation and what's uncompromisable, what a "language" might be, and therefore where we angle questions of translation and translatability. The form of the source text - a song - changes how we go about translation and what ideas we hold dear.
Vighnesh Hampapura is a Teaching Fellow of English and Visiting Faculty of Performing Arts at Ashoka University, India. He has degrees in comparative literature, translation, and writing from Ashoka, and Oxford, where he was supported by a Rhodes scholarship. His translations of Vivek Shanbhag's novel On One Side, The Sea and Vasudhendra's short story collection, from Kannada to English, are underway; he irregularly contributes to the Books and Ideas section of Scroll.in. He has been a student of Karnatik music for the past eighteen years.
