'The historical and traditional roots of bilingual and multilingual literature, and its importance in today’s globalized world.' By SANTOSH KUMAR

The bilingual and multilingual literature is quite popular in today’s globalized world. In fact, every lover of literature is a bit of a polyglot. No doubt, the mixture of cultures is greater than its parts. The uniting people into a universal race through literature written in several languages is a remarkable idea in our war-torn world. Roman poet Ennius, the founder of Latin literature, was familiar with three languages-Oscan, Greek and Latin. In the 17th century, English poet Milton used several linguistic masks to unravel his emotions. He used Italian for love sonnets (his lady spoke Italian). His “Lycidas” 91637), a memorial to Edward king drowned at sea, is written in English, and his poem “Epithamium Damonis” (1640) written in Latin uses the twilight imagery and the same theme. Both poems are pastoral laments. This shows Milton’s thorough immersion in Latin literature. Several English poets from 16th to 18th century like George Herbert and Crashaw, were bilingual. Gibbon’s History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (1776) is in English, but the notes are in English, French, Greek and Latin. The very beginning of Tolstoy’s greatest novel War and Peace is in French, which is excessively used by Tolstoy. Ezra Pound in his Cantos has used several multilingual passages to recreate the past alive.

Besides, Burton’s The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621) is full of Latin sentences or verse on almost every page. Thomas Browne, the author of Religio Medici (1635) revealing a quaint pietism and a tangled growth of erudition,, remarks: “It is necessary to learn Latin in order to learn English.” The title Religio Medicine is in Latin. The question is why an author is inspired to write in several languages. Adam Powell writes in English, Spanish, Norwegian and French. His extraordinary Three Legged Waltz (2006) created in three languages enables him to soar as an international poet. His another book LE PARADIS (PARADISE) dealing with several significant issues in today’s French Polynesia reveals ‘the increasing multi-lingual and transcultural realities’ of the present times. A bilingual poet today desires to reach global market. This is “personal ego trip” (Powell). On the other hand, Albert Russo who writes both in English and French-his two mother tongues- feels that to write bilingual works is an existential need. Jan Oskar Hansen’s greatest compositions are in English language. His desire for a bigger audience and ‘sailing in strange waters’ inspires him to write in English instead of his mother tongue. He feels ‘a sense of not getting anywhere in my own language’.

It may be added that Ezra Pound translated Chinese classics into English. His translations have been called “translucences” and original poems. Pound is at his best in these creations. We don’t find word-for word renderings, but the rhythm of the original is present in Pound’s translations which are unfortunately held in contempt by some scholars as Pound didn’t know Chinese. A deep study of Fenollosa’s notebooks helped Pound to realize the great importance of Chinese ideogram and poetic image .He kept in mind that the poetic image communicates across different centuries and diversity of culture.

The biggest advantage of the bilingual literature is to foster a multilingual culture and global literature by balancing or reconciling the opposite qualities. A bilingual author has two or more words for each object or idea. This is clearly a cognitive advantage for the artist. Moreover, a bilingual poet is more sensitive to a different culture than monolinguals. Access to different cultures breeds tolerance of other cultures and languages. The multicultural and multilingual dance by the authors will surely conduce to universal brotherhood. No doubt, for the publishers proof reading of the multilingual manuscripts poses problem, because they lack resources to handle multilingual editing. I may offer one suggestion: the authors may ignore or overlook any misplaced preposition, if the publisher is unable to find a translator or editor.

Further, the translation from one language into another may present some hurdles. Some phrases and images in a poem are not easy to translate. I give one example; the image “altarwise by owllight” (Dylan Thomas), “da da da”, “Shantih” (The Waste Land). To translate Dylan’s phrase, we will have to understand that the poet is aware of the relation between twilight and religious experience. To comprehend Eliot’s images, one will require the study of Sanskrit text. Robert Frost aptly comments, “Poetry is what gets lost in translation.”

There is no doubt in my mind that there is a wonderful and genuine advantage to have two or three languages at one’s disposal. Bilingual literature has an important tradition, and it provides a larger context to an author’s work. For a bilingual author, the borders don’t exist. When a certain concept or ideology doesn’t exist in a particular language, translation becomes impossible. Even then, the importance of translation can never be minimized. Lorca, Vallejo, Paz, Pablo Neruda-great 2oth century Spanish poets- are accessible to English-speaking readers now through translations. Moreover, we may remember that Shakespeare’s plays are more often staged in German than in English.

Adam Donaldson Powell in writing his Three Legged Waltz, got the proper cooperation from María Cristina Azcona (Argentina), Diane Oatley (USA-Norway-Spain), Susan Morales Guerra (USA-Norway), and Fernando Rodríguez (Chile-Norway). Powell’s extraordinary book is an apt symbol of multilingualism in contemporary writing, because the Prefaces of this book have been written by En español: María Cristina Azcona, in English: Diane Oatley, På norsk: Susan Morales Guerra. The importance of global literature has been well recognized by the above contemporary writers. Powell writes in his poem Boundaries:

Peripheral lines

in my psyche

and yours

dance and intersect

with agreement

and understanding.

It is true that by multilingual writings, we may be able to create a world culture, based on ‘agreement’ and ‘understanding’, subject to eternal values of humanism brotherhood, friendly towards all without any bias of language or creed. It is most necessary, as T. S. Eliot says, that an author’s work should reveal “objective correlative” It is not enough for a poet to say that he feels sad. The poet should reveal that he feels sad due to a particular reason. The poem whether bilingual or multilingual should be a proper response to a defined situation. I may give one example. In Shakespeare’s Macbeth, the following soliloquy is quite convincing and inevitable, because it is spoken by Macbeth after his wife’s death:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time;

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage

And then is heard no more: it is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.

It is difficult to agree with the view that Milton’s Latin writings had a bad influence on his English poems. Ezra Pound accuses Milton of doing ‘wrong to his mother tongue.’ T.S. Eliot also criticizes Milton: “Milton subjected the English language to the peculiar kind of deterioration.” No language is pure, and the influence of other languages is always there. The fact is that by his bilingualism, Milton is able to write Paradise Lost in grand style. For example, we may see the following lines from Paradise Lost:

Of Mans First Disobedience, and the Fruit

Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste

Brought Death into the World, and all our woe,

With loss of Eden, till one greater Man

Restore us, and regain the blissful Seat

… … …

What in me is dark

Illumine, what is low raise and support;

That to the height of this great Argument

I may assert Eternal Providence,

And justify the ways of God to men.

We are aware that the French symbolists for T. S .Eliot were “the strongest friends of the soul’ and “the kinsmen of the shelf”. Different languages provided him new, sharp tools to express his anguish in The Waste Land (1922). The use of paradox, irony and contrast in the following lines clearly shows the impact of the French symbolists on his poetry:

That corpse you planted last year in your garden,

Has it begun to sprout? Will it bloom this year?

Or has the sudden frost disturbed its bed?

…

Who is the third who walks always beside you

When I count, there are only you and I together

But when I look ahead up the white road

There is always another one walking beside you