Join us this January for a lecture that unsettles one of literature’s most stubborn ideas: that a translation should be faithful to an original.
About the Lecture
We are often taught to think of translation as secondary—derivative, deferential, forever chasing an unreachable original. But what if this way of thinking misunderstands what translation actually does?
This lecture begins from a provocation: the original is not faithful to the translation. A translation’s deepest commitment is not to a source text, but to the language in which it is written, to its rhythms, possibilities, textures, and moments of resistance. The best translations, then, are not replicas. They are re-creations.
Moving through literary theory, practice, and close attention to language itself, the session explores:
- Why fidelity is the wrong measure for evaluating translation
- How “untranslatability” becomes a source of invention rather than failure
- What it means to create beauty in one language that echoes beauty made in another
- Why the idea of a single, stable “original” collapses under closer scrutiny
About the Speaker
Arunava Sinha is one of India’s most prolific and acclaimed literary translators, with over 100 translations published to date. His most recent work, The Bengal Reader, marks a major milestone in a career devoted to bringing languages into conversation rather than hierarchy.
He is Professor of Creative Writing at Ashoka University and Co-Director of the Ashoka Centre of Translation, where his work continues to shape how translation is thought, taught, and practised in the Indian literary landscape.
PS: Your ticket includes a complimentary beverage or snack at the venue
About unLecture
unLecture brings experts out of classrooms and into cafés, bars and neighbourhood spaces across Delhi. Created by three friends from St. Stephen’s, Delhi who wanted learning to feel warm, social and alive. unLecture turns an otherwise ordinary evening into a conversation you may think about long after it ends.
Where it is
Address : Siyah Arthouse, Siyah Arthouse, 3rd Floor 261, Plot 8, Westend Marg, Saidulajab, Saket, New Delhi, Delhi 110030, India
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