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Grounded in the reception of Latin American poets in the Hindi poetic arena, this paper examines how translators such as Kunwar Narain, Uday Prakash, and Mangalesh Dabral function as creative agents who recode foreign poetics into Indian literary sensibilities. Drawing on Hindi translations of Pablo Neruda, Jorge Luis Borges, and Octavio Paz, the paper argues that these translators engage in various selective processes akin to algorithmic operations: filtering themes, adapting imagery, domesticating metaphors, and recalibrating rhythms to resonate with Hindi idioms and socio-political contexts. Rather than treating translation as derivative reproduction, the study situates it between poetic production and transnational influence. By framing translators as cultural algorithms, the paper rethinks influence not as linear transmission but as iterative transformation, highlighting the ethical, aesthetic, and ideological responsibilities embedded in acts of translation. This approach offers a human-centred counterpoint to contemporary discussions of algorithmic mediation, reaffirming translation as a historically situated practice.
Ms. Mansi. “Translators as Cultural Mediators: Latin American Poetics and Its Representation in Modern Hindi Poetry.” The Criterion: An International Journal in English, vol. 17, no. 4, August 2026, pp. 905-915. DOI, https://doi.org/10.66376/criterion.v17.n4.55.
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