Students translate poems on Thursday. Picture by Bhola Prasad

Jamshedpur, Sept. 10: Students of Loyola College of Education celebrated International Translation Day in advance by translating English and Hindi poetry into Bengali, Tamil, Oriya, Ho, Mundari and Santhali today.

Although International Translation Day is celebrated on September 30, the institute will be shut for Puja holidays at that time.

Literary club members said that the act of translation not only helped in sharpening the skills of students but also gave them a chance to compare a single piece of literary work in two languages.

“Any one preparing to be a teacher, should be aware of many languages. There will be a number of students with whom they would have to communicate, so language skills help. Also, translating a piece of text sharpens the language skills,” said Vijay Sharma, the moderator of the club at the college.

Thirty-two students in pairs took part in the event.

Students translated the works of Edward Lear, Christina Rossetti and Margaret S. Rhodes from English and Sumitranandan Pant, Sarveshwar Saxena, Subhadra Kumari Chauhan and others from Hindi to a number of languages.

“We chose simple poems, which could be easily translated. I just instructed them not to translate word by word but to understand and feel the essence of the poem. The thoughts and expression matters most. We could not translate prose because it would have been too long. Short stories are also not less than two pages,” said Sharma, who herself has translated many novels.

Students were also quite excited about translations. Most of them, though not experts, maintained the essence of the original in the translations.

“It is fun and a learning experience. I have learnt new words and the correct pronunciation in Tamil. I have tried to keep the same meaning as the original work,” said Annette Smita Das, a student of the college who translated a Tamil poem into English.