The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : ‘The Second Sex’ in Kannada

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Monday, Sep 10, 2007
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‘The Second Sex’ in Kannada

Deepa Ganesh

‘Simone is remarkable because she seeks liberation through the self’

BANGALORE: It seemed an odd coming together: the most penetrating voice of feminism, Simone De Beauvoir and the Kannada writer late Poornachandra Tejaswi.

Adhyayana Mandala, the publishers of the translation of Simone De Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex” in Kannada by H.S. Shrimathi, dedicated the book to Poornachandra Tejaswi as part of their “Nenapina Chintana Maale” series.

And so, while some of them chose to speak on Tejaswi, others sought to speak about Simone De Beauvoir’s controversial and important book.

It, however, took a friend to bridge the two disparate individuals.

B.N. Sriram, among Tejaswi’s dearest friends, choking on memories said: “Tejaswi was a feminist in the true sense. He did his own things and never expected his wife to be at his beck and call.”

It is 57 years after “The Second Sex” was first published (1949-50), the Kannada translation has appeared. Haven’t we moved on?

Writer and critic Nataraj Huliyar said: “For the last 25 years, notionally, the book has existed in our writers and their writings. But it is only now, with this translation, that it has assumed a tangible existence.”

A continued engagement with the arguments of the writer, led Nataraj to say that it should not remain the stuff of academic debates, but must become part of everyday existence.

Till this book came, feminism was limited to the study of women. But Simone De Beauvoir brought into her forceful argument various knowledge streams such as history, science, psychology, philosophy and Marx, said cultural critic Ki. Ram. Nagaraj.

It was exactly this sweep and range that made translation a challenging task, admitted H.S. Srimathi, for whom translation is a personal activity: an effort to understand a text better.

Also, “Simone has influenced every sphere of my life,” she said.

“Even now, 40 years after I first read it, the text disturbs me… because, when I read it I cannot not read it as a man,” observed writer U.R. Ananthamurthy, who made his reappearance at a literary function after a long hiatus.

He spoke of the soul as route to liberation as opposed to the human self as the route to success. “But Simone is remarkable because she seeks liberation through the self,” he said.

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