I collapsed after my attempt at translating the Hollow Men. It was a poem that affected me deeply when I first read it many years ago and I wanted to see how it sounded in Tamil. At first it was a great thrill to form the phrases in Tamil, look for a way to represent the imagery and ask friends for their critical comments, but later it has thrown open a whole branch of thought. Should anyone at all translate into their mother tongue from English?
The question was thrown open by an editor I listen to, 'why translate from other languages into English'?
A fair question since Tamil literature is just now freeing itself from the shackles of authority and the dictates of caste and class forces. It is taking on forms more and more representative of lesser heard voices, suppressed clamour and ignored angles. In every sense, form structure etc there is a climate of experimentation and one does not want to be retro and wean away the audience from this.
But... the fact remains problems that need solutions - from the personal expressions of women and sexual minorities upto global crises of the misappropriation of science and technology and all resources, - still remains a universal need.
The solutions could be micro and perhaps even highly individualistic, but one can't deny that the problems are not new to us. Poems and Art trigger off thoughts that can release one to oneself and it is in that hope that I read "any origin" literature and translate into Tamil in the hope that readers who feel the same may enjoy the same contact sensation
No comments:
Post a Comment
You can leave your comments or simply sign here.