Abstract
My paper discusses issues of translation particularly in relation to the untranslatable as understood by Jacques Derrida in “Des tours de Babel.” A single sentence from Finnegans Wake by James Joyce: "cha kai rotty kai makkar, sahib" sheds light on the issues of polysemy in a novel that deliberately overturns assumptions about the English language. Finnegans Wake as can be seen in the study of this sentence, was composed in anticipation of a non-European reader and a non-European audience. Joyce in this instance is performing an act of translation, one which translates a sentence of Hindi (albeit grammatically suspect) in a polysemic work, creating a sense of openness in its attitude to translation.
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Recommended Citation
Ramani, Sudarshan
(2021)
"“Tea, with Roti and Butter, Mister?” An Examination of a Single Phrase in a Sentence from Finnegans Wake,"
Living in Languages: Vol. 1, Article 6.
Available at:
https://scholarsarchive.library.albany.edu/liljournal/vol1/iss1/6