3 Amazing Instances of Cultural Exchange

An Arabic translation of a Greek text.

One of the most underrated joys, at least for me, is noticing the vast amount of cross-cultural sharing that exists in society. Modern views of "Globalism" that resound in the media tend to portray the topic as some mystical development springing from the advent of advanced communication. It's true that the internet has widened the scope of the world for the ordinary man, but cultural exchange has been around since the beginning of time.

Now, some may point out that cultural sharing can be the byproduct of violent colonialism. And that's true. But much of it also developed through other means, such as trade agreements or scholarship. Here are some of my favorite examples of successful cultural exchange.

Short-Form: Rabindranath Tagore

Rabindranath Tagore is far more well-known as a Bengali writer (among other things) than as a translator. And shouldn't he be? He was the first non-European to receive a Nobel Prize for Literature. In addition to literature, he was skilled and insanely influential to Bengali music and art. As an Indian nationalist, you'll find his compositions as national anthems.

But resources on his views of translation are fairly scarce. He did, however, write to the Spanish translator Joan Mascaró on his translation of the  Upanishads, a collection of Hindu philosophical texts.

Short Form: Gayatri Spiyak

Gayatri Spiyak’s work on post colonialism and feminism in literature has made a profound impact on the interpretation of Third World literature. You may, in fact, remember her name from my post on Post-Colonialism and the Reader. Spiyak grew up and studied in Calcutta, before obtaining her PhD in Comparative Literature from Cornell. She founded the Institute for Comparative Literature and Society at Columbia University, where she is a professor. In addition, she was the first woman of color to occupy the highest faculty position in the entire history of the university.While Spiyak’s primary focus is not translation, the subject cannot be avoided in her field. And while Spiyak’s work centers on feminism, it is important to note that there is no reason her approach to translation can be applied across the board. The primary text I am using for this summary comes from her article, “The Politics of Translation”.

Short-Form: Jorge Luis Borges

“There are not, in the whole vast library, true identical books…everything is there…a version of each book in all languages, the interpolation of every book in all books.” – “Library of Babel” 75 

The Translator

The Argentinian writer, translator and essayist Jorge Luis Borges may be better known as the translator of Garcia Marquez’s One-Hundred Years of Solitude. His work consists of puzzles, falsifications, religion, mirrors, and libraries. And as amazing as his fiction is (I’ll get to that in another blog post), it’s also interesting to interpret his ideas about translation.