Modes of Transcreation: Commercial to Sublime

Imagine browsing the shelves of translated classics and religious scripture of the world. How many versions of Homer and Dante are there to choose from? How many versions of Dhammapada, and Bhagavadgītā? Could there actually be a "transcreation" among them that inspires a localized devotion to their mythic and sublime sources?

What is this word, "transcreation"? And why is it not in the dictionary? Are people really employing its methods for commercial operations or even religious culture? What about transcreation catalyzing deeper cultural trends?

Transcreation is a discipline of ecstatic transformation, a modulation of language, names and signs in a fuller cultural context.

A transcreator is immersed in the source and practices holistic, interdisciplinary, and productively novel procedures that are contemporaneous with the target culture.

Transcreation is ecstatic and novel until it is localized, assimilated into the mainstream. Transcreators must be fluent, flexible, original, and elaborative with a keen awareness of the values (cultural and even religious values) of the transcreation’s source.

Transcreation as Discipline / Transcreation in Industry

Transcreation as a professional or academic discipline is still in its infancy; in fact, the word itself is not even in the dictionary. Divergent approaches to its practices and applications remain to this day. As such, transcreation as a discipline, or method, has resisted classification.

Purushottama Lal first coined the term with his publication of Transcreation: Two Essays in 1972. He published both "translations" and "transcreations" of classical Indian literature in his career as a writer, artist and culture worker. 

Though P. Lal is celebrated in his field, his discipline of transcreation seems to have been forgotten in favor of commercial or “corporate” transcreation. This new sense of its profession—an emergent career path—conveys names and brands, video games and movies with craft and respect from source to target culture. 

That said, it is our aim on this site to revive Purushottama Lal's founding intent to transcreate the classics and the myths, to renew direct experience of the sublime in target cultures. In “Myth, Literature, and Transcreation” he says, "The search for values in literature—values that truly matter, not values that satisfy only aesthetic needs—can be conducted fruitfully only among sacred texts." 

Since the cultural forms of entertainment and commerce invariably become dated, what's sacred and foundational offers us meaning and moral value beyond what's pretty and fleeting in today's aesthetic. Nevertheless, it's worth looking at the discipline of transcreation in commerce today, since it does represent the most popular use of the term and employs many of its most prominent methods.

Transcreation in Commerce

Transcreation in commerce represents a growing career path in the service sector. Corporate brands throughout the world are increasingly cognizant of the importance of localization in their marketing campaigns. A blend of translation, creation, and copywriting make for quality transcreation for target cultures.

Most of the discussion on transcreation so far has revolved around classical literature, scripture, and the traditional arts whose purpose is to clarify and enhance the mythos of their target cultures. However commercial name-branding and the production of movies and games share common features—here, for now, we find the most common use of the term, "transcreation".

Viviana Gaballo speaks to the commercial applications of transcreation as a service in "Exploring the Boundaries of Transcreation in Specialized Translation." While translators simply translate, transcreators are creative and disciplined professionals specialized in a wider scope of adaptation. Positions include: “marketization,” “cultural adaptation,” “multilingual copywriting,” “marketing translation,” and “creative international marketing,” to name a few.

One way of distinguishing commercial transcreation is that the transcreator offers a service as an employee or contractor. For instance, when a company has hired a translator only to find that even a faithful translation misses the mark (or even offends) the target audience; then a transcreator will be sought to ensure that the marketing message is culturally relevant and appropriate in the wider scope. 

In commerce, transcreation represents an integral blend of translation, creation, and copywriting. Understanding the intent of the piece is key to marketing it effectively to multiple target audiences. Its creative aspect inspires action by the recipient of the message by evoking emotion and maintaining a strong brand. The result of the service is a completely localized copy.

The ultimate contrast between translation and transcreation lies in the source content: if it is more technical, and less creative, it probably would require a more literal and precise translation. Whereas, if the source content relies on calls to action, or is meant to produce certain feelings, or evoke a certain outcome; then the service of transcreation should be employed.

Underlying Myths & Symbology

"The quality of a work of art, for all its secular excellence, draws sustenance from the moral values that proceed from the acceptance of a 'total myth'." ~ P. Lal, “On Translating Shakuntala”

Scriptural classics and myths are all creations in their own right of complete and unified worldviews each in their original context. To transcreate such works of sublime creation requires a considerable amount of familiarity with the source tradition meaning its language, history, and culture in the broadest scope. 

Myths are grand works of oral and/or scriptural tradition that comprise what's sacred and profane, totem and taboo— all things meaningful in culture. In contemporary speech "myths" are thought of as fictions, legends, and tall tales of people and places far, far away. However, this common way of talking about myths will be proven too simplistic; each and every worldview is complete with its own unique blend of logic and fantasy that nearly always seems farfetched to neighboring countries. 

Each myth has its own, ineffable logic—its own time/space-bending narrative modality—its own complete worldview that remains contemporaneous in the present of the culture in which it was created. The best transcreation would retain the profundity of the original myth anew in its relation to the target culture’s myth.

Cultural myths are the very foundations of the works of Scripture and literary classics. These textual creations and their collections have always arisen within cultures of integral and mythic proportion. If scripture and the literary classics were removed from their mythic source and merely translated word for word, would not some of the most resounding harmonics of the source have been lost? 

For instance: Tibetan literature is overwhelmingly dominated by scripture and religious commentary. The culture underlying these works is a predominantly feudalistic paradigm atop a flat-earth buddhafield worldview that is quite accustomed to inextricably entwining church and state in Lamaism. Then we Westerners come along to translate their sacred scriptures based on our predilections for democracy and outer space!

Purushottama Lal says it best: "In religious books, the quality of the translator's participation gets fairly accurately reflected in the quality of translation." In other words: why not become a willing subject of the source? Then one's translation can be properly assessed either as a creation in and of itself or mere word wizardry. 

Perhaps there's a part of the target culture that can be enhanced by something exotic from a mythos far, far away. If the source texts and traditions are meaningful and profound on their own, surely there must be some target audiences who would also like to participate in their revelations, whether real or symbolic.

At the very same time that a symbol from a myth is represented in art, the complete value set of the myth is invoked. The transcreator must strive to know that complete value set, and invoke it appropriately! The beauty and memorability of artistic creation expands the moral and religious values inherent in the myth, enhancing and enlivening the source and target cultures. Transcreation is thus a virtuous cycle, a feedback loop.

Even foreign symbols, when repeated enough in the context of literature and colloquial expression—whether subliminal or overt—begin to take root and become transcreated on their own within the myth of popular culture. The most successful transcreations have transmitted symbols through deep context so persistently that the symbols themselves have assimilated so far as to become seemingly native in culture. The worldview of the target audience is thus expanded, along with its associated moral and religious values.

The Ecstatic Phenomenology of Transcreation

Ecstasy is the experiential source of creation and beauty and it must be experienced in the process of transcreation. From direct source-experience, with reverence and respect, ecstasy flows into the target as a whirl of joy, bliss-emptiness its nature. Here we pay homage to the Muse of Power.

All victors' gnosis, compassionate spring
Bliss-emptiness breaks as Goddess of Charms
Ravising, her body magnetizes
Three realms, all lives and souls—salute the ḍākini!

The transcreator does not merely deal with text as if it were the mere letters of a static document. Rather, the transcreator recognizes the life-force that created and sustains its living tradition, then seeks to re-create it for the target culture. It's not just a translation for an academic audience, it's the ecstasy of the living, breathing lineage in continuity.

For instance, we translated the verse above from a recently acquired prayer flag from Tibet Gallery in Boulder—ten small, strung cotton sheets of red featuring the holy image of Kurukullā along with Tibetan text, block-printed in yellow. It's not just a pretty little decoration to hang. It's a sacred piece of art intended for devotional purposes. Without the inborn cultural context of seeing sacred art everywhere, some transcreation is necessary to enliven the devotion of the target audience.

Transcreating just a part of a little prayer flag involves a meaningful amount of experiential context and phenomenology. Having immersed ourselves in the spiritual tradition of Buddhism, some American laity find meaning in hanging Tibetan prayer flags. The entire little affair is complete in a unique and personalized ceremony just as circumstances do afford. Last year's worn out flags, torn away by the elements, are replaced. The breeze blows anew and a sense of timelessness evokes the sacred continuum of the lineage. Resting in that nowness, for just a brief, few seconds...shivers of ecstasy! Hairs stand on end!

The ecstasy increases to the extent of the empowerment, transmission, and instruction we've received and then increases more with the deeper devotion of their associated meditations, contemplations, and somatic exercises. And yet, in the context of our transcreation, this ecstasy is still on the source side: it's the prerequisite of transcreation that has yet to become apparent to the target culture.

In time, the transcreator respectfully and deliberately sets out to work on a particular project which, in this case, is the verse printing of the prayer flag above. Having recited prayers and made good wishes for a beautiful transcreation, we read and re-iterate the original text. Poring over each syllable, Tibetan name, and connector, the ecstatic essence within again wells up through every pore. Each phrase again comes alive in an iterative process of contemplation between the source and target cultures. When a felt sense of harmony (a sense of peace, or deep flow) is present, the cross-cultural chord is struck and the deed of transcreation is done.

Ultimately, it's all proven by having rapport with the audience. Do they, too, tap into the lineage's depth of knowledge? Its symbols and myth? At the moment the target hears the the verse, can they tell what it means aside from its sounding sweet? The process could take time as various other conditions of learning take shape and unfold. 

Thus there is also a certain amount of effort and participation required of the target audience for a transcreation to be complete and take effect. As Devi and Lal say in their book of transcreation, Tagore's Last Poems, "Poets of truth and wonder demand considerable homework from their readers." Including going out, asking questions, and researching more.

Ideally, the target audience of transcreators are active participants in receiving the most relevant transmissions of the source culture who continue to maintain and transmit the best of their living tradition. The most relevant aspects of any living tradition are those which promote meaning, goodness, wisdom, love and compassion in the daily life of all people's relations.

The Cultural Value of Awakening Aesthetics

This article has broadly defined and explored the field of transcreation, little-known and disparate as it is today. Although "transcreation" is used well to define a particular practice of marketing and localization in the corporate world, our aim is to emphasize its meaning according to the practice of transmitting the cultural artifacts of living traditions, each replete with their myths and sacred scripture.

Again, while the products and services of branded corporations provide value to humanity in many ways, our aim is to promote the deeper, more universal values that are present in the awakening aesthetics of scripture and myth and the cultures they inform. We'd like to shape this emergent field to emphasize the more profound awakening values of each respective source and elevate the ecstasy so close to come.

Classical proportions are integral to art and foundations of beauty as we know it. The traditional arts of cultures East and West are timeless in their expressions of every mood. The more diverse the play and rich the experience with "transcreation,” the more emergent and expanded are the myths.

Once a transcreation has become localized, going mainstream indeed risks its branding and commodification. In a world too rampant in meaninglessness and materialism, even the best transcreations could risk becoming cliché. So the audience—the participants of transcreative culture, the folk who engage its forms—should guard and maintain their sacred place in society. In respect to living traditions, please do maintain the relevance of their truth and beauty in everyday life.

1. _{P. Lal, Transcreation: Two Essays (Calcutta: Writers Workshop Publications, 1972), 15.}
2. _{Vivianna Gaballo, “Exploring the Boundaries of Transcreation in Specialized Translation,” ESP Across Cultures 9, 2012, 95-113.}
3. _{P. Lal, Transcreation: Two Essays, 21.}
4. _{P. Lal, Transcreation: Two Essays, 16.}
5. _{Shyamasree Devi and P. Lal, Tagore’s Last Poems (Calcutta: Writers Workshop Publication, 1972), Introduction.}