Discovering a Classic
Through Translation
What struck me most about this translation was how it captures the flavour of the region without turning it into a stodgy representation of the original.
Recommendations is a weekly column, in our Books section, where we invite a well-known author to recommend four books translated from an Indian language. These are not just recommendations, but books that have made an impact on their creative world.
This month, we will feature author Anita Nair’s selections.
Bride in the Hills
By Kuvempu
Translated by Vanamala Viswanatha
While I am familiar with the rural culture of Kerala and Tamil Nadu, I knew next to nothing about rural Karnataka. So, I was delighted to be able to lay my hands on a translation of Kuvempu’s “Malegalalli Madumagalu”. I had previously read Vanamala Viswanatha’s translation of the medieval Kannada classic “The Life of Raja Harishchandra”. But what drew me to “Malegalalli Madumagalu” or “Bride in the Hills” was how it promised a deep dive into the Malnaad region. I was also curious to know how this ambitious work would read in translation.
In the sixties and seventies, be it in Malayalam, Bengali, Kannada or Hindi, writers were breaking free of the shackles of storytelling. Their books delved into themes that their predecessors had balked from. Their stories were gritty, and drawn from real life. The writing became more fluid and less verbose or contrived. Nevertheless, their writing was imbued with a sanctity for the written word which manifested as an adherence to language rules. Naturally, the writing which combines dialect and formal expression of language while working wonderfully well in the original language, would seem stiff and clumsy in translation, especially the dialogues.
Translating such text is a challenge for the contemporary translator who uses English with a felicity that it would be tempting to turn the text into a more amenable, anglicized one. What struck me most about this translation was how it captures the flavour of the region without turning it into a stodgy representation of the original. And, how it kept alive the slightly formal tone which was characteristic of the writing of the period. The landscape, the customs, the social complexities, the dialogues including idiomatic phrases — all of it captured in simple prose, allowing the storytelling itself to shine.
