TRANSLATION
UNIT (Vibhasha)
Vibhasha
is a programme undertaken by the Centre for Policy Alternatives
(CPA) in furtherance of one of its main objectives which is to
contribute towards the conflict resolution process in Sri Lanka,
so as to strengthen institution - and capacity - building for
democratic governance in multi-ethnic and pluralistic societies.
Mutual understanding and effective communication among the diverse
ethnic groups of Sri Lanka could be strengthened through creating
a culture of respect and knowledge of each others' languages,
and CPA envisages that Vibhasha will accomplish
precisely this important task in contemporary Sri Lanka.
In
Sri Lanka, the absence of competent translators is sorely felt
in all spheres of society. No standards of translation are being
maintained, nor is there any official certification and accountability.
In the country's fraught multilingual and multi ethnic context,
this situation has further polarized the communities and prevented
effective inter ethnic communication. In fact, studies have demonstrated
that in the Sri Lankan Mass Media, the Sinhala, Tamil and English
publications of the same media organization reflect entirely different
worldviews and do not engage in any dialogue with each other.
In the universities too, bilingualism is a thing of the past and
academic learning is severely constrained by the lack of satisfactory
translations of key texts. In the creative arena, translations
have lost their quality and in the absence of public awareness,
a generation has had access to superficial gist translations of
the great works of world literature.
Unless
this situation is remedied, Sri Lanka will lag a decade or so
behind the rest of the world in popular access to disciplinary
knowledge, as well as suffer internally due to the lack of communication
between and among its multiple ethnic groups. The Vibhasha
Translation Programme was conceived as a remedial measure to help
address these difficulties.
The
Vision of Vibhasha
Vibhasha (Sanskrit: ‘Alternative’) is
a programme designed to generate a culture of translation as well
as to foster mutual enrichment among Sri Lanka’s three main
languages. Vibhasha aims to disseminate disciplinary
knowledge, making it accessible to a wide and diverse audience
and to provide both a learning opportunity and the recognition
of skill through certification in translation studies, to all
those interested across the country.
Components
of Vibhasha
1.
Translation Training Programme
The
main component of Vibhasha is the training and certification
of a body of translators drawn from diverse social strata. This
will serve to foreground translation as a discipline in its own
right and to provide a remedy for the national demand.In the first
training programme, out of the 64 selected students 28 completed
the course successfully and obtained their certificates on 25th
August 2002 at an Awards ceremony held at the Sri Lanka Foundation
Institute, Colombo 07. The second translation training
Programme will commence in November 2002. At present we are in
the process of short-listing the applicants according to specific
criteria.
2.
Core Advisory Groups
At present, Vibhasha has 52 professionals representing
the following six broad disciplinary areas:
Arts
and Humanities
Social Sciences
Science and Technology
Business Administration and Accounting
Law and Public Administration
General Subject Areas (including Communication Studies)
The
roles played by the members of the above Core Advisory Groups
are fourfold.
a.
Assisting in the compilation of a definitive core glossary:
The Core Advisory Group Members have critically evaluated the
suitability of existing glossaries available in Sri Lanka regarding
their discipline/s and understood that revising existing glossaries
is impossible since it involves a longer process as well as longer
time. Since almost all existing glossaries contain only the terms
and one single meaning which are quite incomprehensible to the
user, all the members of each disciplinary area have decided,
as a remedial measure, to compile an encyclopaedic glossary containing
key concepts relating to the specified fields of the Core Advisory
Group members. The terms selected are those that are regularly
misused/misunderstood and urgently need explanation/ clarification
as well as a historical contextualization of the Sinhala/Tamil
reader. The glossary includes the derivation, development, and
the current range of use of these key terms. Collecting terms
on each discipline, which will be included in the Core Definitive
Glossary, is in progress.
b.
Assisting and overseeing the compilation of a single publication
(the Vibhasha Volume), which will have
many translations in relevant disciplines. This will be published
by the end of May 2003 and will consist of six separate sub-volumes
on each broad core discipline. Each member of the Core Advisory
Groups has already submitted at least three articles relating
to their respective disciplines on certain themes/topics.
Core Advisory Groups have also decided that the Volume should
have a potential multiple audience, consisting of university students,
intellectuals etc. as well as the informed general reader. It
must cater to all these strata of society and contribute to the
general usage as well.
c. Serving as resource personnel in the Diploma Course in Translation
Studies.
Meeting and interacting with the teaching staff and the students.
Provide opportunity for students to obtain one-on-one feedback.
d.
Meeting monthly to discuss translation issues within the core
disciplinary areas, which is open to the public:
Providing guidance and expertise to translators, the Vibhasha
team and others.
Helping to create a culture of translation through public exposure
and dialogue.
3. Vibhasha Newsletter
One
of the aims of Vibhasha is to issue a bi-monthly
newsletter. There is a need for creating an impact nationally
and for providing knowledge in the area of translation studies,
so that all those interested in this field would benefit from
it. This newsletter is a vehicle to disseminate Vibhasha’s
vision on a national scale. So far, we have published three issues
in March, July and September 2002. All the contents of these issues
are in all three languages. (ie. English, Sinhala and Tamil).
The newsletter is distributed free of charge throughout the island.
The readership targeted ranges from school children to the general
public. It was encouraging to receive
enthusiastic feedback from our readers.
4. Regional Centres
Vibhasha
is in the process of establishing Regional Centres to ensure wider
accessibility. It is proposed that centres will be set up in 2003
in Anuradhapura, Amparai, Batticoloa, Badulla, Jaffna, Kandy,
Kurunegala, Matara and Ratnapura. Initial ground work to set up
our first regional centre is in progress.
The
Vibhasha Programme gratefully acknowledges the generous contribution
made by the Ford Foundation without whose support this innovative
multi-disciplinary programme would not have been possible. |
