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LITERARY TRANSLATION AND ITS LIMITATIONS IN THE WIDER SPECTRUM OF CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Abstract

This paper aims at exploring the issue of whether it is possible to treat translation simply
as a strategy in which semantic equivalence between the source language and the target
language is established, especially in the context of literary translation which involves socio
cultural communication, understanding of register, role relations and attitudinal aspects of
language. To what extent a translator can contribute in bridging the gap caused by culture
and geography is a question of great concern, as all literary texts are deeply couched
in the socially determined and historically grown matrix of a particular culture, which
proves to be a major impediment in translation. For example, a culturally specific term in
source language may not have the corresponding word in the target language and some
words have great suggestiveness in certain contexts whereas some images hardly have
equivalents in other languages. To authenticate this point, a few examples of Assamese
proverbs and idioms are considered that are very much grounded in the Assamese cultural
fabric. In addition to these proverbs, the lexical items used in Assamese traditional folk
songs are considered, which can pose difficulties for literary translators.

Translation and its various theories

Translation, which can be broadly defined as a means of providing the semantic equivalence
between  the  source  language  and  the  target  language,  has  become  a  very  significant
instrument  of  international  communication  in  all  branches  of  human  knowledge  and
experience in recent years. It is through translation that we can bridge the distance caused
by  culture  and  geography.  Renaissance,  transcendentalism,  communism,  colonialism,
imperialism  et  cetera  came  to  be  known  all  over  the  world  through  the  medium  of
translation.

Translation  has  developed  various  theories  throughout  the  course  of  history,  keeping
in  consonance  the  dominant  trends  of  the  age  such  as  structuralism,  cognitivism  and
functionalism, and these theories differ radically from one another in terms of perception
and  orientation.  J.  C.  Catford  (1965)  is  credited  with  providing    scientific  analysis  and
the  first  theory  of  translation.  Translation,  according  to  Catford,  “is  the  replacement  of
textual material in one language in another language.” However, there cannot be textual
equivalents at all levels because translation is neither the transference nor the transcoding
of meaning, but the substitution of meaning. He considers the term total translation as
misleading  as  there  can  be  no  analogous  contextual  translation.  Catford  (1965)  treats
translation  equivalence  as  “an  empirical  phenomenon  discovered  by  comparing  the
source language and target language texts” and this discovery is not dependent on the
intuition of the bilingual informant but on objective and analytic procedures. The chief
condition that he lays down for testing translation equivalence is source language and
target language texts or items that are interchangeable in a given situation. The general
theory of linguistics on which Catford’s analysis is based is the earlier theory of Halliday,

LITERARY TRANSLATION AND ITS LIMITATIONS IN THE WIDER SPECTRUM OF CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION

which focuses on the surface structure of language relegating the functional aspects of
language.

In the same way, E. Jakobson defines translation as a craft similar to a manual skill where
practice makes one perfect. It is not systematic rule-governed transfer from code 1 to
code 2 as the under differences and over differences that must be there simply rely on the
assumption that language has to take in to account the socio-cultural reality. This idea of
Jakobson was influenced by the behaviouralist hypothesis. However, translation as a skill
negates by implication the role assigned to the human mind.

Whereas Jakobson’s and Catford’s approaches are analytic, Nida’s approach is intuitive. Nida
(1964) said that anything that can be said in one language can be said in another unless the
form is an essential element of the message. In his theory, the source, the message and the
receptor are the original components in the communication event, which has a linguistic
and cultural context. If the receptors of the target language really understand the message
in a substantially equivalent manner, although never identically, to the manner in which
the original receptors comprehend the first message, the translation is adequate. In Nida’s
framework the fundamental sets of priorities are (a) contextual consistency has priority
over verbal consistency, (b) dynamic equivalence has priority over formal correspondence,
and (c) forms that are used by and acceptable to the audience for which a translation is
intended have priority over forms that may be traditionally more prestigious.

In the words of Theodore Savory (1957), translation is an art because it is an intellectual
activity that involves creativity and emotional responses. Language is not merely a code
and the message has to be renewed according to the communicative intent of the author
or the speaker.

What is literary translation?

Literary translation is a mode of cross-cultural communication, not simply a derived or
second-hand communication. It is not just a target language replica of a message or a
text in source language; rather it is a creative process by which meaningful experience
is communicated from one speech community to another. By contrast, when translating
a scientific text one’s creativity and transcreation are not permitted and the translation of
scientific texts can be defined as the encoding and decoding of one language by another.
There is no question of compromise as far as meaning is concerned and it bears no question
of creativity, no question of aesthetic appeal. Scientific texts rely on denotative meanings
and hence contain no ambiguity in scientific descriptions, unlike literary translation that
relies more on the interpretation of metaphors rather than on just the denotative meaning.
The extent to which we can make the relative claim that literary translation cannot be
expected to be too faithful or too free from the original is a topic of exploration. If the
translation is too faithful it suffers in readability and aesthetic appeal, but if it is too free

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it ceases to be translation at all and becomes adaptation. A creative translator is one that
does not destroy the identity of the original, and does not produce something that sounds
different from other works of art in the receptor language. Despite its differences from the
original, a translation has to have acceptability and comprehensibility for the readers in the
receptor language. In the 1980s, some attempts were made to combine both linguistics
and the literary theory of translation, which sought to perceive language and literary texts
as entities rooted in the cultural matrices of a speech community. In this context, mention
must be made of Larson (1984) who said that “Each society will interpret a message in
terms of its own culture. The receptor audience will decode the translation in terms of
its own culture and experience of the author and audience of the original document.”
The modern literary translation theories have agreed on the notion that the main goal of
translation is communication and any communication event should take in to account
the context of language use. It is the context that has the power to generate secondary,
figurative or aesthetic meanings.

Constraints on literary translation

Broadly  speaking,  literary  translation  aims  at  finding  expressions  in  another  language
while preserving semantic and stylistic equivalence, matching grammatical structures and
cultural contexts. Now a question arises as to the parameters on which we can define the
term equivalence, as the whole theory of translation relies on this notion. It is found that
equivalence in the sense of absolute synonymy does not exist between individual words
in the same language. Hence, if this is true how can we go on to claim equivalence while
translating  a  text  from  one  language  to  another?  To  what  extent  can  the  professional
literary translator preserve the original text and be faithful to the author’s intentions? In
the Aristotelian sense, translation is a verisimilitude or a reproduction and not a mirror
image or reflection. So a translator has to take utmost care in manipulating his craft so
that  it  does  not  fall  in  to  the  domain  of  paraphrase  on  one  hand,  and  substitution  on
the other. A translator must be a good writer, well versed with the language and culture
of  both  source  language  and  target  language.  Therefore  a  translator  is  entrusted  with
enormous responsibilities as he has to satisfy the reader and the critic in addition to the
justification of the author’s intentions or vision. Moreover, in order that the translation be
faithful, harmonious and artistic, the translator has to take in to consideration not only the
words and syntactic structures of the language, but also the cultural connotations that
are inherent in particular linguistic expressions. In this context, mention can be made of
Wittgenstein (1953) who claims that we know the meaning of a word if we know how to
use it in a particular context. It is because language is not a homogeneous, monolithic
entity used in a vacuum or in isolation, it is a vehicle for the realization of the interpersonal
relations,  for  the  performance  of  social  transactions  and  for  the  maintenance  of  social
relations.

LITERARY TRANSLATION AND ITS LIMITATIONS IN THE WIDER SPECTRUM OF CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION

One  of  the  serious  constraints  in  literary  translation  is  the  danger  of  projecting  the
translator’s  own  patterns  of  thought  and  action  into  his  work.  Even  historians  and
biographers fall prey to this kind of error. A literary translator may develop an interest in
interpreting  or  appraising  the  emotions  and  diverse  human  experiences,  and  this  very
human act proves to be one of the greatest impediments for the translator in achieving
excellence  because  a  translator  possesses  no  right  to  interpret.  It  can  be  said  that  the
translator needs to act not as a moral agent but as a dehumanized moral agent.

Language, culture and literary translation

Language, which is purely a human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas
by means of voluntarily produced symbols, can be brought to the penetrating light of
analysis when looked at in relation to culture. Culture is a complex whole that includes
knowledge,  belief,  art,  morals,  customs  and  other  capabilities  that  derive  from  the
environmental,  psychological  and  historical  components  of  human  experience,  which
an individual acquires as a member of society. There is an intrinsic relationship existing
between  the  sounds,  words  and  sentences  used  in  a  particular  language  and  the  way
the speakers of that speech community perceive the external reality around them. It has
been a commonly held assumption to treat language as a transparent medium for the
transmission of thought as it provides no obstacle to the customary flow of ideas. Saussure
(1916)  analyses  language  as  organized  thought  coupled  with  sound  because,  without
language, thought is an unchartered nebula. There are no pre-existing ideas and nothing
is distinct before the appearance of language.

However, this notion has been refuted by a host of linguists, especially by Sapir. Language
constitutes a sort of logic, a form of reference that is instrumental in moulding the thought
of its habitual users. The difference observed in the vocabulary of two languages can be
attributed  to  the  difference  found  in  ideas  and  opinions  that  are  commonly  expressed
in the two languages. On bringing the concept of culture into this wider spectrum, one
is  confronted  with  the  anthropological  question  of  what  culture  incorporates.  For  the
convenience  of  our  analysis  it  is  imperative  on  our  part  to  treat  culture  as  whatever  a
person  must  know  in  order  to  function  smoothly  in  the  social  framework  of  a  society,
and that the outcome of this social participation in the environmental, psychological and
historical domain has nothing to do with any kind of genetic endowment.

Wardhough (1986) claims that the issue of language and culture can be illustrated in
the backdrop of the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which can be categorized in to linguistic
determinism and linguistic relativity. Linguistic determinism implies that it is the language
that determines our thought process and our cognitive propensities, in the sense that we
are always at the mercy of a particular language. We “see, hear and otherwise experience
in terms of the categories and distinctions encoded in a language and we dissect nature
along lines laid down by our native tongue.” The doctrine of linguistic relativity, which

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is considered the weaker version of the hypothesis, claims that there is no limit to the
structural diversity of human languages. Language does not impose reality but exerts an
impact on our psyche in assessing the subjective and objective reality surrounding us.
The linguistic structures of a language do not determine a peoples’ world view but are
extremely influential in predisposing the speakers toward adopting one particular world
view.

Against the backdrop of such research findings we may have an idea as how culture stands
as an impediment in front of the translator when translating a literary piece that is deeply
couched in the cultural fervour of the region in which the language is spoken. The extent
to which a translator can contribute in bridging the gap caused by culture and geography
is a question of great concern, as all literary texts are firmly embedded in the socially
determined and historically grown matrix of a particular culture. Once texts are translated
they have to abandon their home base and attempt to invade new territories where other
socio-cultural norms prevail. Kathy Mezei (1988) holds the view that the literary translator
must consider three referential systems—the particular system of the text, the system of the
culture out of which the text has sprung and the cultural system in which meta text will
be created. The customs and conventions in one part of the world can be quite different
from those of other regions, and it is through the medium of language that a particular
culture is manifested. Some words have great suggestiveness in certain contexts whereas
some images have no equivalents in other languages. Consider the following Assamese
proverbs and idioms, which are very much grounded in the Assamese socio-cultural ethos.

Proverbs in Assamese

bohibo

janile matiei pira

khabo janile

saulei sira

sit

to know soil

pira

eat

to know

rice

sira

Paraphrased in English: If you know how to sit, the ground can function as a seat for you
and if you know how to eat, then rice can become sira (a dish prepared from rice).

This proverb implies that it is the nature of human beings to blame others or give excuses
in order to hide one’s weakness. If a person has faith in his or her inner potential, external
constraints have limited impact on them as such people can adapt to the situation and
therefore circumstances never appear as impediments to their progress. The furniture called
pira and the food item called sira are available in the Assamese household. These terms
cannot be translated fully into other languages. Hence, we can assume that sometimes
vocabulary help in moulding culture and vice versa.

Lau

dangor

leu

pat

tol

pumpkin

big

despite leaf

gen

below

LITERARY TRANSLATION AND ITS LIMITATIONS IN THE WIDER SPECTRUM OF CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Paraphrased in English: A pumpkin may be big in size, but it always remains enveloped in
its leaves.

Here the pumpkin represents the Assamese woman who despite having enormous
potential has to keep herself confined under male subordination. With the advent of
modernization, this proverb starts to lose its legitimacy, yet it can provide a portrait of
an Assamese society dominated by patriarchal values. Still the proverb has significance in
rural areas where men are considered to be doers and women to be nurturers.

purux

ron

tiri

biyon

man

gen

fight

woman gen suffering

Paraphrased in English: The credibility of a man lies in aggression but the woman should
be the epitome of tolerance.

This proverb shows the differing societal norms and values involved in the socialization of
boys and girls in Assam. Through this saying a man is shown as the agent of action and
change, whereas a woman is shown as the puppet of passivity and subordination.

bahir

xowani kakini tamul pisphal

xowani

pan borghor

outside beautiful kakini nuts

backyard

beautiful

leaf home

xowani gabhoru sowali tulona pabo

loi

tan

beautiful young girl

comparison get to

difficult

Paraphrased in English: The outside of the household looks beautiful with nuts and the
backyard with leaves. In the same way the young daughters make the house a pleasant
place to live in. These things can not be compared to others.

The significance of the proverb lies in the fact that it shows the importance of nuts and
leaves in Assamese society. They are part and parcel of any ritual or function ranging from
religious festivals to marriage ceremonies. This proverb also shows that, although Assamese
society is patriarchal, daughters are adored by parents. They are never considered a
burden; rather they are treated as assets by the family. The words used in this proverb such
as kakini tamul and borghor are language specific and replete with cultural connotations.
These terms provide a window to the cultural repertoire of the Assamese community life.

ahu saba godhuli xali saba puwa

jakoi baute suwali saba kun kenekuwa

ahu look evening xali look morning jakoi use girl

look who how

Paraphrased in English: See the ahu crop in the evening and shali in the morning. In the
same way you can better judge a girl while fishing in the river with a jakoi.

This proverb provides a glimpse into the Assamese behavioural patterns. Ahu and shali
are two paddy crops and jakoi is a fishing tool used by girls. From this proverb we have an
idea of the food habits of the Assamese people. Rice is the main food in Assam as evident

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from the reference to the paddy crops in the proverb. That the Assamese people are fond
of fish is implied by the reference to the fishing tool mentioned. Assam is a land blessed
by Nature with lots of streams and rivers and almost every household has a pond in which
there is plenty of fish. Such a geographical set up is, to a great extent, instrumental in
predisposing  the  inhabitants  towards  adopting  a  particular  food  habit  which,  in  turn,
is  manifested  through  the  medium  of  language,  especially  through  proverbs  and  folk
songs.  These  terms,  such  as  ahu,  xali  and  jakoi,  that  belong  to  the  material  cultural  of
Assamese life pose a serious problem for the literary translator as these terms have greater
suggestiveness  within  the  purview  of  Assamese  community  life,  and  referencing  these
terms may not imply any significance for the audience of the target language.

phota hok sita hok

pator tongali kona hok kuja hok bhuya r

torn be echo word be pat garment blind be

bend be bhuya gen

puwali
son

Paraphrased in English: The muga silk has a unique value of its own even though it may
lose its dazzling quality or may be torn into pieces; in the same way, a son from the
Bhuyan dynasty enjoys all the privileges despite the fact that he may be blind or physically
deformed.

This proverb is a reflection of Assamese social prejudices as well as the trend of the caste
system prevalent in ancient Assam. Caste is a sociological concept associated with the
Hindu religion and its premise lies on the notion of purity and pollution. It acts as a
divisive factor, distorting solidarity among the people in a social network. The practice of
casteism is considerably less in Assam compared with other parts of India, yet we feel the
presence of this social evil on some occasions. The proverb exhibits in an explicit way the
existing social discrimination in the society in the name of caste. The reference to the term
bhuyar puwali (the son of bhuya) in this proverb is indicative of the caste bias that prevails.
This proverb displays the fact that an ascription of social decorum is given priority over
achievement. These terms are assigned meanings by social decorum in which it is used as
a medium of cultural transmission. These terms are not simply lexical elements but form
a cultural matrix in which the whole society participates, and the connotations that are
derived from these words are confined to the linguistic code of the community. In this
regard, an act of literary translation will be a serious challenge.

From the analysis of the proverbs and their paraphrased English versions, it is evident
that the vocabulary items used in the proverbs provide a window to the verbal repertoire
of the Assamese community. It is the words and syntactic structures employed in the
proverbs that have created an aura of Assamese rural life along with its rituals, beliefs and
prejudices. But their paraphrasing into English fails to capture that rhythm. Most of the

LITERARY TRANSLATION AND ITS LIMITATIONS IN THE WIDER SPECTRUM OF CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION

items such as pira, jakoi, kakini tamul or pator tonglali are untranslatable into English or
into any other language because they are culture-specific terms and it is difficult to find
the corresponding terms in other languages. Hence if a question arises as what might be
the most basic obstruction to translation, the answer would not be the fundamentally
different structures of the original and target languages, or the lexical differences between
the two, but the contextually conditioned culture-specific structures of meaning that
create hermeneutic problems of interpretation for the translator.

In the same fashion, some words have greater suggestiveness in one language and some
images used in a particular language do not have equivalents. For convenience I am going
to illustrate some rituals observed in Assamese community along with their culture specific
linguistic expressions and imagery that pose problems for the translator. Let us consider
first the marriage songs of Assamese community, which are usually sung by the women.
These songs are replete with culture specific linguistic connotations as is evident in the
following song:

There is no end to the praise of ornaments which the bride is supposed to wear.
Every Assamese girl has a special liking for jewellery and they find a special mention
in marriage songs (Nath and Nath, 2003).

dhu dhuna loguwa juron ahi roi ase adorugoi uluwa maror

olongkar

incandescent light

juron wait prog welcome lets

mother’s ornaments

thuwa kati kori

deutaror olongkar thuwa rame di pothaise bisitro olongkar

set aside father’s ornaments set

aside Ram send prog diverse ornaments

xir pati luwahi
head nod take

Paraphrased in English: Light the incandescent lamps; Juron is waiting. Let us go to
welcome the Juron. Keep aside the ornaments of your parents; Lord Rama is sending
beautiful ornaments for you; bow your head and accept these gifts.

The lexical item such as Juron is replete with great significance. It is the name of an occasion
just one day prior to the wedding, in which the mother-in-law, along with several women,
visit the family of the bride and offer cloths and jewellery to her daughter-in-law and,
more importantly, apply oil and vermillion to her forehead. From that day onwards a girl is
expected to wear bindi and vermillion on her forehead to symbolize her marital status. This
ritual is unique to Assamese culture and translating the vocabulary items associated with
this occasion will give great difficulty to the translator as these lexical items are culturally
conditioned.

Apart from marriage songs, there is another kind of song prevalent in Assamese culture,

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aai naam (Gogoi, 1997), which are sung in supplication to aai (or mother) the goddess
of pox, along with her seven sisters. The disease of pox has been considered by common
villagers as a goddess who appears and departs from the human body at her own will.
Whenever a person suffers from pox, utmost caution is observed in maintaining cleanliness
and hygienic conditions around the patient, and women take care of everything. A
congregational prayer is arranged in which the women of the neighbourhood sing aai
naam to cure the patient suffering from pox. Deep humility and a sense of submission are
key to the prayer songs as is evident in the following paragraph of the song devoted to aai:

e dukhiyar ghoroi ahe

xatu bhoni

poor gen

home to come seven sisters

diboloi naikia eku e
give to nothing
muror kexe singi pau mosi dime
head gen hair pluck feet wash fut

dehor pari dime xaku e
body spread fut bridge

nejani xumalu aire phulebarit
neg know enter mother’s garden

nisini singilu koli
neg recognize pluck bud

eibar duxoke khyoma bhagowoti
this time blunder forgive bhagawoti (goddess)

matu soronote dhori
call feet touch

Paraphrased in English:

Seven sisters visit the impoverished home

And we have nothing to offer;
We shall rub your feet with hair of our head,
Make our body a bridge for her,
Unknowingly we trespassed into Ai’s garden
And plucked there a bud.
Forgive us this time for our faults,
We pray at your feet.

LITERARY TRANSLATION AND ITS LIMITATIONS IN THE WIDER SPECTRUM OF CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION

The aai naam itself is a representation of Assamese beliefs and nuances. The words used
in this prayer are very much rooted in Assamese cultural fabric. The paraphrased version
in English somehow fails to capture that lyrical fervour and the sentiments inherent in the
original song.

In Assam, when a girl attains puberty at the age of 12- to 14-years old, a ritual is organized,
which in Assamese culture is known as tuloni biya or small marriage. This festival revolves
around the young girl and the women performing the ritual, and boys are strictly
prohibited from participating. It is a cause of celebration for the family of the girl and the
neighbourhood as the girl has attained the potential to bear a child. The songs sung on this
occasion are manifestations of the celebration of womanhood, although they indirectly
impose restrictions on the freedom of the girl, as can be perceived in the following song:

abeli

belika konai nuliyaba

silai

thape mari

nibo

evening

time

konai neg bring

sila

snatch take

fut

silai thap maribo modarot tulibo burhimak bauli hobo
sila snatch modar loc keep grandmother overwhelmed be future

Paraphrased in English:

Do not bring the konai outside in the evening
The bird may snatch it away and will fly away to the modar tree
The grandmother will be overwhelmed with grief.

Here the word konai is replete with great cultural significance. It is a part of the ritual
of the women on this occasion to make a doll called konai of nuts and cloths and place
it on the lap of the young bride so that she can bear a baby in the future when she will
be married. Such types of vocabulary are very culture specific and it is very difficult to
reproduce a linguistic expression in its exact completeness by means of another expression
in another language because the specific organized structure of that expression not only
creates meaning, but more specifically it contextualizes the meaning. So in such cases the
translator has to deal with the specific problem of cultural recontextualisation.

Conclusion

It can be argued that it is a problematic venture for a translator to reproduce a linguistic
expression in its totality and exact equivalence in another language. This is seen from
the interpretation of the lexical items used in Assamese proverbs and folk songs. A
literary expression in a particular language does not assign a meaning in to a particular
word, but it creates an associative horizon of understanding in which the meaning gets
contextualized. Each word in a literary piece is not just a lexical entity, but a cultural matrix

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in which the whole society participates. The customs and conventions in one part of the
world are quite different from those of other regions, and it is through the medium of
language  that  a  particular  culture  is  manifested.    It  is  to  be  noted  in  this  context  that
sometimes  the  reference  to  a  particular  custom  may  appear  to  be  very  strange  to  the
target language community, and therein lies the credentials of a good translator to create
right  response  to  the  source  language  text.  Hence,  in  literary  translation  in  which  two
heterogeneous cultural systems are juxtaposed, the translator must address not only the
semantic equivalence existing between the source and the target language, but also the
cultural milieu of both social frameworks that condition the two languages.

LITERARY TRANSLATION AND ITS LIMITATIONS IN THE WIDER SPECTRUM OF CROSS CULTURAL COMMUNICATION

Glossary

This article is about the difficulty of translating Assamese to English, so to have a standard Glossary
with all non-English words would not be appropriate. However, some more information about certain
words is included here.

ahu and shali

Two paddy crops grown in the soil of Assam.

aai naam

A genre of Assamese devotional song in which the elderly women sing in
order to appease the mother of pox. In Assamese folk beliefs pox is treated
as a mother goddess.

biya naam

The songs sung by Assamese women on the occasion of a
marriage. The themes of these songs are replete with love and
devotion although they are characterized by a tragic note of
separation.

borghor

The main building of the Assamese household.

jakoi

A fishing tool used usually by Assamese women in rivers or ponds.

juron

The name of an occasion just one day prior to the wedding, in which the
mother-in-law, along with several women, visit the family of the bride and
offers cloths and jewellery to her daughter-in-law and more importantly
applies oil and vermillion to her forehead.

kakini tamul

Betel nut, which is part and parcel of Assamese culture. It is chewed with
betel leaves. It is needed on every auspicious occasion in the Assamese
household.

konai

The word konai is replete with great cultural significance. It is a part of the
ritual of the women on the occasion of Tuloni biya to make a doll called
konai of nuts and cloths and place it on the lap of the young bride so that
she can bear a baby in the future when she will be married.

pira

Assamese furniture usually made with bamboo and wood used for the
purpose of sitting while having a meal in the kitchen.

pator tongali

A piece of silk cloth which Assamese males tie around their waist. This
garment is considered to be highly precious among the Assamese
community.

sira

A delicious food item prepared from rice.

tuloni biya

An occasion celebrated in Assamese household when a girl attains puberty
at the age of 12 to 14. It is a cause of celebration for the entire family and
the neighbourhood as the girl has attained the potential to bear an offspring
in the future. This is a festival where only females participate and male
members of the family are strictly prohibited from participating.

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References

Catford, J. C. (1965). A Linguistic Theory of Translation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gogoi, L. (1997). Aai naam. Ganesh Prakashan, Guwahati.

Larson, M. L. (1984). Meaning-based translation: A guide to cross-language equivalence.

Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

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