Translation: An Act Of Creativity

Translation is one of the most creative activities. Generally it is believed that the translator has no freedom of creativity or thought as he has to confine himself to the text of the original author. It is believed that the translator has no right to bring about any kind of changes in the contents of the original text. He has no freedom to change the meaning or purpose of the text. He has to commit himself to literally recording the original's ideology from language which has got its own assets of culture and tradition as well as social norms into another different language. He is considered a slave to the original text. So the question asked under such circumstances is that where is the scope for creativity. However such a view does not hold good simply because unless a translator has an inner urge of creating something new in the language apart from the language of the original text and unless he applies his own mind, the translation would never see the light of the day. That inner urge and instinct of creating something new in a different language and keeping the faithfulness is an art of creativity. Creating something new in a given framework using the mindset of somebody else needs more creativity than what is required for creating an original piece of art. So translation and creativity are deeply related to each other. This paper is an attempt to explore how translation is an act of creativity.