Introduction

It is commonly accepted today that translation means more than bringing two languages together; it is bringing two cultures together. Language is a reflection of culture and social milieu.In that sense each language is unique and represents the context that is special to itself. Edward Sapir, the noted linguist states: “No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality” (qtd in Bassnett 13). This brings us then to the question whether languages can really be translated at all. Carrying across the meaning and style of one particular language into another language that is radically different in terms of culture is difficult. In short, are languages translatable? For instance, Arundhati Roy's The God of Small things owes its beauty to a great extent, to its idiosyncratic language and spelling. Roy liberally makes use of capitalization and phonetic spellings of words to emphasize her point. How can this be adequately translated into an Indian language like Malayalam that does not have capital letters? Being a phonetic language (unlike English, it is spoken exactly like the way it is written) the phonetic spellings cannot be reproduced either. The problem is: can Roy's text be translated into languages that are quite unlike the SL? It should be noted that this is a rather quaint problem – the text is not representing a different cultural milieu; in fact it is set in Kerala where Malayalam is spoken. But English, the SL is remote from Malayalam which is a Dravidian language.The book has been translated into Malayalam, and the translator has attested to the difficulties in capturinge the zest of Roy's prose. Herein lies the problematic of translatability.