Translation is a challenge, as more works are made into Tamil with a boom in publishing

The translation of Shakespeare's Hamlet into Tamil at the Chennai Book Fair highlights the challenges and importance of translation in the publishing industry.

The title of Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Tamil in the recently concluded Chennai Book Fair invariably brought to a Tamil reader’s mind a scene from the Sivaji Ganesan-starrer Rajapart Rangathurai. “To be or not to be” will be followed by the Tamil lines, Vaazhvathaa Saavathaa. K. Kamalakannan, the translator of the work, however, opted for Iruppatha Irappathaa and it seems to give a natural flow to the dialogues that follow in Tamil.

“The challenge in translating Shakespeare is reading the psyche of his characters and the language used by him to delve into their mind,” said Mr. Kamalakannan, who has translated Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet, besides Hamlet, for Tamizhini, a publisher.

Likewise, poet Puviarasu has translated Othello, and other works of Shakespeare are available in Tamil as stories in condensed form rather than in word-for-word translation. “We are publishing them for the sake of introducing them in Tamil and we do not attach much importance to their demand in the market,” said Vasanthakumar of Tamizhini. He has also published James Joyce’s Dubliners in Tamil.

Asked whether he consciously opted for classical Tamil words, Mr. Kamalakannan said he would use them to give a sense of the Gothic tradition as well as poetic exuberance. “Mostly the work itself will demand the intensity and flavour of the language and I am a little biased in my use of classical words.” In saying this, he seems to agree with Walter Benjamin’s argument that “the task of the translator consists in finding the particular intention toward the target language which produces in that language the echo of the original.” In the essay, The Task of the Translator, Walter Benjamin says not only does the intention of a translation address or differ from that of a literary work — namely, a language as a whole, taking an individual work in an alien language as a point of departure — but it is also qualitatively different altogether. As more and more works of writers are getting translated into Tamil in the wake of the boom in the publishing industry, regular book fairs and Chennai International Book Fair that have paved the way for translation of over 750 titles into Tamil and Tamil works into other languages, translation remains a challenge.

“There is a paucity of good translators. While it is easy to translate non-fiction, translation of poetry and fiction demands creative approach from the translators to capturing the idiom of the language from the work is translated,” pointed out Sankarsaravanan, Joint Director (Translations) of the Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corporation (TNTBESC). The TNTBESC has also translated a lot of Tamil works into English and other Indian languages.

Another challenge is in capturing the tone of the author since many Tamil translators do not know other languages and have to depend on the English translation of the original works. “It is difficult to fully capture the spirit and tone of the author if he has written in some other European language and we depend on the English translation. How can I convey the tone of José de Sousa Saramago unless I know Portuguese,” asked G. Kuppusamy, who has translated the works of authors, including Orhan Pamuk, Raymond Carver, Arundhati Roy and Salman Rushdie, for Kalachuvadu. He said the translation of Saramago’s The Tale of the Unknown Island into Tamil as Ariyapadatha Theevin Kathai by poet Anand was an excellent translation.

Sharing his experience of translating Pamuk, Mr. Kuppusamy said since Pamuk was well-versed in English, Russian and German and collaborated with his translators, the translations of his works achieved what was expected of a good translation and it was easy for those who translated his works from English to Tamil. “Translation is mimicking the creativity of the author in your language. It should flow naturally and choosing the right word to get the feeling is important,” said Mr. Kuppusamy.