Translation is the process of rendering the textual material from one language into another. There have been many definitions of the term given by different people. R. Raghunath Rao defines and also gives the meaning of the word translation as:

Translation is an art by which the ideas of an author are transferred vividly from one language into another so as to affect the mind of the reader in a way which the original itself affects him. The English word translation is the noun form of the verb translate which is connected with the Latin translates, the past participle of transfero meaning to transfer. The essential or basic idea is transference.[1]

Some Indian translators have characterised translation as Parakaya Pravesa, which means entering the soul into a new body. This term came into being as the meaning of a text was retained, giving it a new cover or 'body' in the form of a new language.

Translation has also been seen by some scholars as an art of interpretation and by some as a creative activity and a mode of reading. Every language is set in a special environment, formed by its linguistic tradition, its historical, anthropological, social and geographical milieu, cultural traditions and customs in which the speakers of the language live. Therefore, translation is an activity of transferring the written material set in the special environment of one language called the source language, into another called the target language.[2]  Kashi Prasad emphasises that the translator should be a master of the target language, even if he is not of the source language. Since the transference takes place in the translator's mind, he ought to replace one culture with another in his mind first. A translator not well versed in the source language would not find it difficult to deal with it as help can be sought from outside. His proficiency in the target language will facilitate him to overcome the obstacles he faces while dealing with an unknown language and culture.

Translation has made it possible for world-renowned writers and their works to reach a large number of people. If it were not for translation, many readers worldwide would have been deprived of the pleasure of reading great works. Good translation aims to carry over emotions, feelings, and the fine nuances of words and phrases from one language into another and unite people from different cultures, communities, nations, and languages.

Translation between two languages with similar linguistic structures is comparatively easier than between entirely different structures. For instance, translation between English and French or between Hindi and Punjabi would be easier than between Hindi and English.

Translators translating from Hindi into English face several problems as they differ in structure. The real challenge for any translator is to transfer the textual material from one language into another and still retain the spirit and style of the original intact. For this, the translator has to live in the environment of the source language, which means he has to be bi-lingual and bi-cultural.

Hindi and English are two entirely different languages, with their origins and growth in different contexts. The divergent and cultural milieus of the two languages expose a translator dealing with Hindi and English to two different worlds. Hindi and English have performed an essential function by acting as cementing forces for preserving the unity and diversity of the Indian culture in a multi-lingual and multi-cultural society like India. English as a language of translation has helped as a forceful medium capable of uniting the regional literature of the different linguistic regions of India. In some instances, regional literature gets translated into English, which is translated into another regional language. It so happens that a work is translated from one of the Indian languages into English and subsequently from English into another Indian language. In such cases, there are two stages of translation, and three languages are involved in the process.

In order to find equivalent words and phrases while translating, the translator faces linguistic problems as well as problems of style. Nietzsche explains in this context, "What is most difficult to translate from one language into another is the tempo of its style:"[3] In this context, Raja Rao says that what we express in English should have the essence of Indian life.[4]

Discussed below are the various problems encountered while translating from Hindi into English. The translator should first identify the readership of the translated work. Whether the work would be read by non-Hindi knowing Indians, non-Hindi knowing foreigners, or Hindi as well as English-knowing Indians. This information about the target readership will help decide the level at which the translation will be done. The problems in translating from Hindi into English or vice versa can be categorised as phonological, morphological, syntactic, lexical and collocational, besides the cultural ones.

At the morphological level, the trouble lies in the compound verb formation. Hindi uses complex verbal formations of nouns and verbs, which should be simplified during translation. The Hindi particles like to andhihave no English equivalents. These particles add emphasis to the noun phrase with which they occur. For example, Tu hi to desh ka sapoot hain would translate as 'It is you who is the true son of the soil'. The emphasis in the original with the particles to and hi are shown by the use of the words 'who' and 'true' in the translation. There is a different mechanism followed in English. Other words form the equivalent of to and hi in Hindi. Nevertheless, one should not be governed by the notion of lexical meaning. One of the definitions of translation is that it involves replacing textual material from one language into another. So, the entire material is to be replaced, and not just a lexical item.

Syntactical factors, which include word order, pose a greater challenge for the translator trying to incorporate the style of the original. The word order, which includes subject, object and verb, can be changed in more ways than one. The semantic depth of a sentence expressed in Hindi through variation in word order is often impossible to express in English in the same way. Hindi follows the order of subject-object-verb, whereas English follows the subject-verb-object order. For example, voh ye mez utha sakta hai can be interpreted as (1) 'He may lift the table', (2) 'He can lift the table'. 'May' shows possibility, and 'can' speaks of the ability of the person lifting the table. The sentence in Hindi is ambiguous, as it can assume two different meanings in English: 'He' is the subject, 'may lift / can lift' is the verb and 'the table' is the object in the above sentence. Voh is the subject, yeh mez is the object and utha sakta hai is the verb in the Hindi sentence.

Syntax includes other elements, like number, gender tense, and aspect: Hindi does not have a neutral gender like English and has everything, living or non-living, classified as feminine or masculine. The verb and adjective in Hindi carry the number and gender. English distinguishes between the verb and gender. For example, Voh jarahi hai, voh ja raha hai and voh ja rahe hain would be translated as 'she is going', 'he is going' and 'they are going' respectively. Rahi, raha and rahe in Hindi give information about the number of people and genders being spoken about. The English pronouns 'she', 'he' and 'they', which speak of gender, have just one substitute in Hindi as voh. In English, the verb 'going' gives no information about gender or number, like in Hindi. Likewise, gay kali hai would be translated as 'the cow is black'. Kali not only acquaints the reader with the colour of the cow but also its gender and number, which are not to be found in English.

Hindi lacks articles, definite as well as indefinite. Definiteness is indicated by other grammatical devices, like the use of demonstrative pronouns or numeral adjectives. For example, Vah film dekhne gaya. In English, the above sentence would translate as (1) 'He went to see the film' and (2) 'He went to see a film'. The distinction between 'the' and 'a' in English, the separate use of which would alter the sense of the sentence, is absent in Hindi.

Grammatically, in English, the structure of tag questions is made of a statement and a tag attached. Contrasting polarity can be seen in such structures, which is a positive main clause, followed by a tag, which is negative and vice versa. In English, if a statement is affirmative, the tag would be negative, for example, 'She is going there. Isn't she? However, if the statement is negative, the tag would be positive; for example, She is not going there. Is she? In Hindi, the equivalent structure consists of a single clause with a particular which is invariably na. For example:

You are going tomorrow, aren’t you?

Tum kal jaa rahe ho, na?

Aspect and tense, too, are of importance in Hindi. Aspect indicates whether the action is completed, in progress or repeated. In English, there are three forms of aspect viz (i) perfective, (ii) progressive and (iii) perfective progressive, whereas Hindi has only two aspects – perfective and progressive. That is the main difference between the two languages in this respect. For instance, 'Mein aapko sun raha hoon', which shows a progressive aspect, cannot be translated into English as 'I am hearing you ', which would be grammatically wrong. There are verbs in English that, when used in the progressive form, would appear ungrammatical. The íng’form showing possession is ungrammatical in English, while the íng’form showing process is correct. The construction, ‘Mohan is having two houses; shows possession and is therefore ungrammatical. The perfective progressive aspect is shown by the use of ‘for’and ‘since’for example; ‘He has been reading since morning’; and 'He has been staying here for four years’; these are idiosyncratic features of certain lexical items. Verbs of perception like see, hear, smell, taste, touch and have do not take the íng’form in English. Hindi, unlike English, takesthe íng’form very easily. The difference between present perfect and past indefinite is lost in Hindi. The Hindi word kal can mean ‘yesterday’ as well as ‘tomorrow’ in English. Similarly, parson in Hindi can be ‘the day before yesterday’ or the day after tomorrow.’ For example, (I) 'He came yesterday' shows past indefinite, and (2) 'He has come' shows present perfect. In Hindi, the above sentences would become (1) Voh kal aaya hai and (2) Voh aa gaya hai, both of which are present perfect. The first sentence should be past indefinite as in English, but this would be grammatically wrong in Hindi.

Lexis or lexicon or the “words” are of chief importance in translation. While dealing with the lexicon, a translator faces the problem of word-to-word translations. There are words and phrases in Hindi which, when translated literally, substituting word for word in English would lose their meaning. Therefore, equivalents that convey the sense are to be found. Sentences like mera sir chakkar kha raha hai would not make sense if translated as ‘my head is eating circles’or use dekh, mera dil baag-baag ho utha when translated as 'on seeing him, my heart becomes garden-garden.'The correct translations would be, I am feeling giddy' and'my joy knew no bounds when I saw him,'respectively. In such cases, one cannot adhere to literal translations but should look for semantic equivalents, as this would convey the meaning and make sense. Certain words in Hindi do not have exact equivalents in English or have to be used differently to bring out the meaning clearly. For example, ghar in Hindi can mean ‘home’as well as ‘house’in English. K. Balasubramanian uses the term anisomorphism, which refers to language differences, especially in lexical meaning. He further adds, "Apart from the problem created by culture bound words in the choice of lexical equivalents and differences in the organisation of designate other components of meaning viz, connotation and range of application lead to anisomorphism of languages and affects the choices of equivalents in TL and thereby the process of translation.[5]

Collocation has always been an area of confusion for English-speaking Indians. Collocations are determined by a person's mother- tongue and background and are most often culture-bound. Some prominent examples of this category are cousin–sister,’‘brother- anointing ceremony’, and ‘cow-worship’. Other more frequently used collocational clashes are ‘welcome address’as contrary to 'an address of welcome,' key-bunch' instead of' ‘a bunch of keys’ and ‘family member’ for ‘a member of the family'. All these clashes result from a kind of preliminary translation that takes place in the mind of a person trying to speak English but whose first language is Hindi.

Culture-bound customs, kinship terms, and colour terms, too, pose problems when it comes to finding equivalents in English. For example, greeting expressions like ‘Good morning/afternoon/evening’ in English have just one word in Hindi, Namaste, for them. The English greetings speak of the time of the day one is being greeted, unlike in Hindi. Chacha, tau, and mama in Hindi are called 'uncle 'in English, and similarly, chachi, tai, and mami have just one word for them, 'aunty'. Culture, which includes the way of life of the people of a certain community, food, clothing, festivals, and other traditional concepts, is seen as the biggest challenge for the translator. Cultural transference calls for a multiple approach and does not just end with language. It also concerns the translator's relationship with the source text and with his readers as well. The many cultural revelations that singularly belong to a speech community are expressed by the language used exclusively by that community. Several cultural categories go into the making of a linguistic culture. Some of these categories have been explained elaborately by Peter Newmark:

Ecology :                                           Flora, fauna, winds,

Plains and hills.

Material culture                                 Food, Clothes, Houses

And towns and transport.

Social Culture                                    Work and leisure.

Organisations, customs,

 procedures, concepts which include

 political, religious and artistic

connotations. Gestures and habits.[6]

1. R. Raghunath Rao, The Act of Translation: A Critical Study (New Delhi: Bhartiya Anuvad Parishad, 1990), pp.2-5,

2. Kashi Prasad, “Some Problems of Translation from Indian Languages,” Indian Literature, 25(1982), p.95.

3. Friedrich Nietzsche, “On the Problem of Translation,” in Theories of Translation: An Anthology of Essays from Dryden to Derrida, ed. Rainer Schulta and John Biguenet, (London : University of Chicago Press, 1992), p.69.

4. Raja Rao, Foreward to Kanthapura. 1938. 2^nd ed. (Madras: Oxford University Press, 1974), p.vi.

5. K. Balasubramanian, “Problems of Lexical Equivalence in Translation,” in Translation as Synthesis : A Search for a New Gestalt, ed. K. Karunakaran and M. Jayakumar (New Delhi: Bahri Publications Pvt. Ltd, 1980), p.17.

6. Peter Newmark, “Translation and Culture,” in A Textbook of Translation, (London: Prentice Hall International (UK) Ltd., 1988), p.95.

7. David Rubin, Nirmala, by Premchand. 1927.(New Delhi: Vision Books Pvt. Ltd. Orient Paperback, 1988), p.7.