Indian Literature

Stevie B

Stevie B

Current Member
tiganeasca said:
I, too, will be curious for Jayan's take on Chemmeen, especially since he recommended it to me. I'll simply say it was in my top 10 for the year, probably my top 5. (Along with Legends of Khasak, for that matter--also on the list--which I thought even better. In fact, elsewhere, you can see that I just bought a book of short stories by the author of Khasak; that's how impressed I was with that book!) I found the translation clunky too and given the quality of the book as a whole, I attribute it entirely to the translation (which should carry a great deal of weight given my superb fluency in Malayalam ?). It's a true pity, but I would unreservedly recommend the book.
Click to expand...
I just checked and noticed the edition for sale on Amazon was translated by well-regarded author Anita Nair. I'll be borrowing a copy of Chemmeen that was published more than fifty years ago and translated by Narayana Menon. It will be interesting to compare how each translated the first chapter.
 
tiganeasca

tiganeasca

Moderator
Stevie B said:
I just checked and noticed the edition for sale on Amazon was translated by well-regarded author Anita Nair. I'll be borrowing a copy of Chemmeen that was published more than fifty years ago and translated by Narayana Menon. It will be interesting to compare how each translated the first chapter.
Click to expand...
I'll be very curious for your report; my copy was translated by Menon.
 
K

kpjayan

Reader
Having read Chemmeen in the original, I must admit that I've not checked the English translations. However, from reliable sources, Anita Nair's recent translation seems to be much better ( Will wait for Stevie's verdict ). The novel itself might sound a bit dated for the current generation ( as I can see it here in India ), but within the context of the socio political situation of the time it was written, it is a compelling story. I personally like 'Kayar' ( Coir ) over this which is one of his later works. Takazhi Shivashankara Pillai is a wonderful writer of short stories too.
 
Stevie B

Stevie B

Current Member
tiganeasca said:
I'll be very curious for your report; my copy was translated by Menon.
Click to expand...
I was able compare the first 5-6 pages of the Nair and Menon translations of Chemmeen, and I found the Nair translation to be the one I’d prefer to read. In my opinion, it reads much more smoothly and naturally. Unfortunately, the school library only has the Menon translation, so I’ve decided to put off reading Chemmeen for now.
 
Leseratte

Leseratte

Well-known member
kpjayan said:
Ashokamitran, and the contemporaries in Indian Literature.

Ashokamitran: The invisible giant

Unlike his contemporaries of comparable stature, Tamil writer Ashokamitran, who died last week, lived on the margins of the national literary establishment
lifestyle.livemint.com lifestyle.livemint.com
Click to expand...
I ´m a bit confused here, Jayan. Is this an old article?
" Ashokamitran (22 September 1931 – 23 March 2017)
https://www.google.com/search?q=Ash...69i60j69i61.3732j0j0&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8 "
 
K

kpjayan

Reader
With Dave reading Gopinath Mohanty, here is a quick overview of Odia Literature that came out yesterday

odishabytes.com

Odia Literature Struggling To Stand By The People - odishabytes

When I started writing poetry in the late eighties, I confronted a vast tract of death and alienation. The poets of my time and my language were talking about something which was not at all familiar to my reality or imagination. Most of them were singing in unidentifiable tune and their images...
odishabytes.com odishabytes.com
 
Stevie B

Stevie B

Current Member
kpjayan said:
With Dave reading Gopinath Mohanty, here is a quick overview of Odia Literature that came out yesterday

odishabytes.com

Odia Literature Struggling To Stand By The People - odishabytes

When I started writing poetry in the late eighties, I confronted a vast tract of death and alienation. The poets of my time and my language were talking about something which was not at all familiar to my reality or imagination. Most of them were singing in unidentifiable tune and their images...
odishabytes.com odishabytes.com
Click to expand...
1664256021938.png

Thanks for sharing the article. Here's another Mohanty book. It was originally published in Odia in 1948, but didn't come out in English translation until a year ago. There were nearly twenty sample pages on Amazon but, unfortunately, they only covered the introduction. Just put a copy in my cart. It might be a good novel to read back-to-back with Mulk Raj Anand's Untouchable.
 
Patrick Murtha

Patrick Murtha

Reader
A little-known Indian novel in English that I can heartily recommend is Chaman Nahal’s 1975 Azadi, a moving tale of the Partition, which he experienced as a young man; he was born in 1927 in what is now Pakistan. I believe it was the only novel of Nahal’s to get publication in the US.

61C85451-9721-4275-9AC8-487B0B0681A7.jpeg
 
Patrick Murtha

Patrick Murtha

Reader
Two other Indian novels in English that I read back in the Eighties are Mulk Raj Anand’s Two Leaves and a Bud and Ahmed Ali’s Twilight in Delhi. I recall enjoying both but my memories are fuzzy otherwise, hence I should re-read them (true of so much).
 
tiganeasca

tiganeasca

Moderator
I'm not sure that this truly belongs here (since India didn't exist when the Mahabharata was created), I think nevertheless that it is a reasonable place to insert this notice.

For those who have read the Mahabharata (or, like me, abridgements, which themselves can run well over one thousand pages) or just find the work and its context fascinating, there is a review of a noteworthy new translation of the generally overlooked final books of this epic by the renowned scholar of religion, Wendy Doniger. The review summarizes the "action" in this part:

"The translation aims at making the ending of the Mahabharata accessible in a more or less contemporary idiom. Her selection starts with the Pandavas, the victors of the great war, visiting their mother and their uncle and aunt (the parents of the vanquished cousins in the war) who have moved to the forest living as hermits. The three die shortly after the visit. Then Krishna and his entire clan dies. The epic ends with the Pandavas going to Heaven. Interspersed among these episodes of death are deliberations on meaning of time, life, death, and karma, to name a few abstractions...."

I was also fascinated to learn something I had not run across before in connection with this work: "it is called itihasa or history, rather than a work of poetry." It has been years since I sat down with this and maybe it is time to dip back into it.
 
Last edited:
K

kpjayan

Reader
tiganeasca said:
I was also fascinated to learn something I had not run across before in connection with this work: "it is called itihasa or history, rather than a work of poetry." It has been years since I sat down with this and maybe it is time to dip back into it.
Click to expand...
To add to this.. The literary meaning of the word 'itihasa' is 'It happened' ( it thus happened) , hence 'history' can be an appropriation.

In the context of the ancient works, Both Mahabharata and Ramayana are called as 'itihasa'( epics). There are other works called 'puranas', meaning ancient/old ones ( There is a 3 volume translation of 18 major puranas by Bibek Debroy) . One of the reason could be, both in Ramayana and Mahabharata, the 'narrator' is living in the times of the story and actively involved.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top