Silence across Languages

• In Event: Reading between the Lines: Islamic Interlinear Translation in Indonesia

Abstract

An inter-linear translation in which each line is Arabic is followed by its translation into Malay constitutes a microcosm in which we can view the act of translation from up close and in detail. This paper explores one aspect of such translations, the question of silence.

In his insightful essay, “Silence Across Languages,” (1995) A.L Becker suggested that every language consists of a particular balance between speech and silence: between what can be expressed in words and what must remain unspoken. One implication of this fact, he further claimed, is that the different silences between and across languages make translation very difficult, if not utopian.

Clearly, despite the challenges, translation has taken place for many centuries and translators have found means to overcome the silences. Taking Becker’s essay as my starting point I will explore ways in which sound figures in the overcoming of such silences in interlinear translations from Arabic into Malay.

I will also suggest that interlinear translation is a space in which silences are “not allowed,” or must be overcome, as these translations do not offer the luxury of adaptation and re-tellings where words, idioms, grammatical and syntactical elements can be glossed over, ignored or remain unheard. An inter-linear space forces the scribe, translator, reader and listener to produce and pronounce the sounds of different languages even when they are “incompatible” and thus may overcome the silences, in however small a way, and offer us a paradigm of “sound across languages.”

Author

• Ronit Ricci, Australian National University