Translator: Hossam Ali Reviewer: Mirjana Čutura
All humans speak the same language.
Maybe not all of us can understand or speak English,
but all of us can understand and convey
the universal language of joy, sadness and pain.
I am a full-time poet and a part time translator.
I'm currently in the midst of publishing my own poetry anthology
with a Singaporean publisher,
and I'm also translating short stories by Ali Akbar Navis,
who is this Indonesian author.
My interest in these two areas of literature actually -
I actually tried to translate this poem that I wrote for our ex-governor Ahok,
and it's really hard because, well, you'll see why.
I started getting really serious with poetry and translation
when I went to Columbia University for a summer session
and I met this Danish translator called Cochin Jensen.
That same summer,
I went to go visit colleges in the US, and I met this American boy.
We introduced ourselves to each other,
and when I told him where I was from, he was like, "Indonesia? What's that?"
(Laughter)
And I was surprised,
but this experience actually made me realize
that Indonesia isn't very well-known in the world.
And part of the reason behind this
is because Indonesian literature does not have a prominent place.
This is because we do not have enough translators.
And in this context, I use the word "translators" loosely,
not in the context of only Indonesian literature,
but in the context of world literature today.
Ladies and gentlemen, successful stories do get translated.
One of my favorite stories as a child, "Harry Potter,"
has been translated into 68 different languages,
Bahasa Indonesian included.
Despite English being the most spoken language in the world,
translating foreign literature or literature in general
opens the door to a more international audience.
J.K. Rowling once said, "No story lives unless someone wants to listen."
And the majority of people who want to listen
are not part of a monoculture,
but are instead citizens of a diverse world.
Literature is knowledge,
and knowledge shouldn't be limited to a single audience.
But how else can we break the barrier of language if not through translation?
When I tell people that I translate Indonesian literature,
sometimes people are kind of judgmental.
Like, one time after AP Literature -
we studied a text by Gabriel García Márquez,
which is a translated short story -
and my friend came up to me,
and she told me that all the while she had perceived translation
with a tinge of condescension.
But this isn't the first time I've heard such a remark.
See, a lot of people attribute the art of translation
as purely a work of Google Translate,
which is every foreign language student's best friend.
And ... yeah, sometimes, I do use Google Translate
if I don't know how a word can translate nicely into English
or if I want to find out a synonym of a word.
But as a translator,
I can't rely on a programmed machine to translate literature.
This is why.
In psychology, we learn about this thing called "mirror neurons,"
which are these neurons in your head
that fire whenever you observe something external.
This is the reason why you might be afraid to go to the bathroom
after watching "The Ring"
or why you feel very sad after reading "Romeo and Juliet."
This is a scientific explanation of what's more commonly known as empathy.
This is what people often forget.
If you're reading a piece of literature,
you're not just reading a scatter of words on a page.
You're reading words that are associated with emotions.
You're reading the words
that the writer has curated effortlessly or sometimes effortfully
by taking you on a journey with them.
And this journey, it's not words.
This journey is emotions, right?
And the things you remember from literature
is not how the author describes Hogwarts,
it's how Harry Potter met his friends,
it's how Harry Potter defeated Voldemort.
If that was a spoiler, I'm sorry.
(Laughter)
Viktor Shklovsky once said, "Art is thinking in images.
The purpose of imagery
is to bring the significance of the image closer to our understanding.
Without this, the image has no meaning."
The reason why I will now say that we are all translators
is because we all convey and understand information differently.
So if you put, let's say, me and my Bahasa Indonesian teacher
side by side
to translate the Ahok poem that I wrote,
our final products would be different.
This is not to say that me or him are underqualified in the target language
or even the original language.
It's just the fact that, you know, my perception of my own poem versus his
are definitely going to be different.
Similarly, my perception of Hogwarts and Narnia
will definitely differ from, I don't know, let's say,
a widowed 40-year-old fireman living in Canada
even if we're both reading the prose in the same language.
Our experiences shape the way we perceive art,
as Shklovsky has implied.
This is also the reason behind why there are multiple translations
for famous translated literature,
such as Fyodor Dostoevsky's "The Brothers Karamazov."
There's the Clara Garnett translation,
and there's the Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky translation.
And it's not to say that both of these have no merit
or, you know, one of it is not qualified,
because both of them are interpretations of the text.
Translated pieces are independent texts.
They're not -
I mean, of course, they are interpretations of the original texts,
but they stand alone as their own art.
So, what's next?
I know not all of you are going to go out translating multiple prose
and plays and poetry.
But if you want to, please do so.
You have my blessing, and you have the world's blessing.
But what can you do to be a translator here in JIS
or even in Jakarta where 50 plus languages are spoken every day?
Ask yourself:
What languages can you speak?
What emotions or truths do you want to convey to others?
And how can you make knowledge accessible to people who are hungry for it?
Begin with a conversation about words.
What words in a language that you can speak
have made you understand something differently?
What truths or concepts do you want to convey to others
that a language that you know has made you understand it better,
but maybe in another language, the concept isn't as clear?
Share your life and your experiences with others.
Be the translator of thought, of emotions, of the knowledge you have acquired
throughout all the years of being alive.
We humans are drifting spirits,
trying to communicate the complexities and the intricacies
of our thoughts and emotions,
but communicating them to other people
through the medium of words that other people can understand.
Ladies and gentlemen,
talking is sharing,
sharing is translating,
and in this digital age, sharing is very, very easy.
All we need is just more people to do it.
Thank you.
(Applause)