Paper short abstract:

This paper endeavors to raise questions about the translation of rhetoric theory from Arabic to South Asia; about the translation of this theory into practice; and about translation as an aesthetic dimension of Islamic sermons in contemporary Bangladesh.

Paper long abstract:

Religious speech is one important site among the multilingual configurations of South Asia. Reflections about it as laid out in rhetoric theories are themselves shaped by processes of translation. The paper will in a first step shed light on the adoption of Arabic 'hermeneutical rhetoric' in South Asia, which involves translations, transcriptions and new relationships to other parts of rhetoric. It is argued that despite normative instructions on certain aspects, a lot of room is left for a rhetoric practice which can adopt to different linguistic surroundings. The example of contemporary Bengali sermons shows how this space is used for what might be termed 'sonic translation' and 'melodic dramatization'. In a last step, some questions about the relationship between translation and sonic aesthetics are discussed.