http://www.nepalnews.com.np/contents/englishdaily/ktmpost/2003/aug/aug12/features1.htm

Translation : From corruption to meditation

By SANGITA RAYAMAJHI

The Kathmandu Post, 12 August 2003

These past two years have been  years of translations for me, which I have spent translating diverse texts from Nepali into English. These translations I undertook mainly for three reasons. The first one is to sustain Across quarterly which as most of us know is a non-profit magazine. The second reason is to follow my interest in the field of literature and theatre and the third reason is to highlight the conditions of women, especially those living the rural areas and therefore to understand and make others understand women and their issues better.

When I translated Bhrastacharko Shalyakriya as Anatomy of Corruption, transferring most of the “corrupt? Nepali words into English was quite an experience. But before getting into the translation of words their essence and their ethos, what grabbed me first was the magnitude of corruption rampant in Nepal. There was no limit, no line that could demarcate the range of corruption. While translating I felt as though a floodgate of corruption had opened and all the filth was pouring out for the English-reading public to gloat over. The next thing was, time and again I came across terms, very common in Nepali, very popularly used by everyone, but when it came to translating the word and transferring all the milieu of meanings with it, I encountered some problems. They were simple words like bhrastachar itself, or prakaran or some other word. But each time I was faced with the fact that these Nepali words had become a clich