Translation – A Major Force Unifying Diverse Cultures and Countries

Abstract

Literature is defined as ‘the mirror of society.’ True literature is ageless, timeless and borderless. Translation is a means to trace the essential human spirit that underlies all literature. This paper focuses on the importance of translation in the Indian as well as the world context. Though, it is commonly held that the cultures of the Occident and the Orient are diametrically opposite, one realizes that they are not so, when one enters these worlds, via translation. In a multi-cultural, multi-lingual and multi-script country like India, translation plays the role of a unifier in helping to trace the Indianness that lies beneath each of the regional literatures. People of different countries and diverse faiths realize the sense of oneness when they read literature of other faiths. Translation of a literary text enriches both, the Source Language (SL) and Target Language (TL).