The Home and The World- Machine Translation

This blog is in response to the work assigned by Yesha Bhatt Ma'am. It is about our class activities while studying Rabindranath Tagore's 'The Home and The World.'

Brief Intro on The Home and The World

The Home and the World is a novel by Rabindranath Tagore that was first published in 1916. The novel tells the story of a love triangle between the protagonist, Nikhil, and two women, Bimala and Sandhya. Nikhil is an aristocrat who is married to Bimala, a traditional Bengali wife. However, Nikhil also falls in love with Sandhya, a radical political activist. The novel explores the theme of the conflict between the traditional and the modern, as well as the tension between the personal and the political.

The novel begins with Nikhil's wife, Bimala, living in his ancestral home in Bengal. Bimala is a traditional Bengali wife who is content with her domestic life. However, Nikhil is not content with the traditional role of women and is drawn to Sandhya, a radical political activist.

The Home and the World is set against the backdrop of the Indian independence movement. The novel explores the theme of the conflict between the traditional and the modern, as well as the tension between the personal and the political.

The novel ends with Nikhil's decision to leave Bimala and join Sandhya in her fight for independence.

The Home and the World is a classic example of Rabindranath Tagore's humanistic and liberal values. The novel is an important commentary on the social and political conditions of Bengal in the early twentieth century.

Work in English:

I saw a ladder 

it allowed me to climb

I was close to the peak

but it faded on me 

hanging me in the middle of nowhere

at first, I didn't realise anything

I knew I was floating

But I was falling 

Translation:

আমি একটা মই দেখেছি

এটা আমাকে আরোহণ করার অনুমতি দেয়

আমি শিখরের কাছাকাছি ছিলাম

কিন্তু এটা আমার উপর বিবর্ণ

আমাকে কোথাও মাঝখানে ঝুলিয়ে রাখো

প্রথমে, আমি কিছুই বুঝতে পারিনি

আমি জানতাম আমি ভাসছি

কিন্তু আমি পড়ে যাচ্ছিলাম

Āmi ēkaṭā ma'i dēkhēchi

ēṭā āmākē ārōhaṇa karāra anumati dēẏa

āmi śikharēra kāchākāchi chilāma

kintu ēṭā āmāra upara bibarṇa

āmākē kōthā'ō mājhakhānē jhuliẏē rākhō

prathamē, āmi kichu'i bujhatē pārini

āmi jānatāma āmi bhāsachi

kintu āmi paṛē yācchilāma

We had a fantastic online conversation with Budhiditya Das. She graduated from the English department. As we read R. Tagore's book "The Home and the World" and saw the Bengali film "Adaptation" (with English subtitles). We have the opportunity to see if our translation accurately captured the meaning of our article or not. Bengali is the mother tongue of Budhaditya Ma'am, and when our small group of students read their writing and translations, we came to the conclusion that machine translation is utterly unreliable. A few lines or words were ignored by the machine based on its flexibility. We don't grasp the pauses in the language because we aren't at all familiar with Bengali.

Some classmates' work was excellent, and Google Translation did not make mistakes when translating it unlike mine had.