“Every regional language has an inbuilt genius. Many languages have grown by absorbing words from other languages,” stated the acclaimed Malyalam writer, M T Vasudevan Nair while speaking at the Translators Award 2009 function organised by the Sahitya Akademi at Kala Academy, Panaji, recently.
He added that because of translations, readers have become familiar with the world classics. He gave an example of the famous Bengali writer, Saradchandra Chatopadhay who was very famous in Kerala so much so that many believed that he was from Kerala. “He was very close to us and because of his translated works in Malyalam we came to know about Bengal, its villages, mangroves etc. I believe that translation is an amalgamation of two souls. It is a window to know about other cultures. It is an ongoing creative process.”
He further said that a translator should be very careful while selecting a book for translation. He/she should understand the art, craft and aesthetics of translations. “It involves thinking and re-thinking,” added Nair.
Speaking about the current scenario he informed that there are around 6,700 languages in the world and out of these 167 are on the verge of extinction and among these, four are Indian languages. “Now the translator has to be very careful and vigilant about translation.” He also observed that some of us know what’s happening in foreign languages but have no knowledge about our own languages.
Sunil Gangopadhay, President Sahitya Akademi in his address stated that readers should take more interest in translations as translated books are not marketed well. He suggested that like minded people should conduct meetings and seminars on the same. He also maintained that the process of translation is not yet specialised in India.
Speaking about the awardees he remarked that out of 23, only three translators are women and there are only three books on poems. “There are not many translators in poems because poets are difficult persons. They are very peculiar about the size of the poem as even that has meaning,” added Gangopadhay.
He further congratulated the awardees and stated that the history of translation is the history of civilization.
Among the 23 awardees are - Kasturi Desai, a Konkani translator from Goa. The other awardees are—Yatindra Kumar Bargohain (Assamese), Ujjal Singha (Bengali), Gobinda Narzary (Bodo), Om Goswami (Dogri), Tridip Suhurd (English), Ramnik Someshwar (Gujarati), Bhalchandra Jayashetty (Hindi), D N Srinath (Kannada), Shad Ramzan (Kashmiri), Bhalchandra S Jha (Maithili), K Radhakrishna Varier (Malayalam), S Brajeshwar Sharma (Manipuri), Jayprakash Sawant (Marathi), Om Narayan Gupta (Nepali), Dharanidhar Panigrahi (Oriya), Shah Chaman (Punjabi), Arjun Singh Shekhawat (Rajasthani), late Premnarayan Dwivedi (Sanskrit), Jhamu Chhugani (Sindhi), Bhuvana Natarajan (Tamil), Prabhakar Mandaara (Telgu) and Asma Saleem (Urdu).
