MALAYALAM
Tagore's novel
NEELA PADMANABHAN
KANNILE KARADU: Choker Baali (A Grain of Sand) by Rabindranath Tagore in Bengali, M. Bilina — Tr. in Malayalam; Mathrubhumi Books, Cherooty Road, Kozhikode-1. Rs. 135.
IN THIS novel, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941) masterly pictures the wavering mind of Mahendran oscillating between his obedient and faithful wife Asha and a young widow Vinodini who is charming and an intellectual, and has other pleasing qualities to attract him as well as his intimate boyhood friend Vihari.
The aesthetic surroundings and atmosphere of rural Bengal and Calcutta city in that period, and the changing seasons enhance romantic feelings in the main characters. Vihari is portrayed as an ideal character like Gora in Tagore's another maiden novel Gora. Though the novel is interestingly woven through misunderstandings and the missing of some important letters, at last after knowing the truth when Vihari expresses his willingness to marry Vinodini she prefers to worship him instead of marrying him.
Even after finishing the novel, the characters, situations and its atmosphere keep reverberating in the readers' mind.
M. Bilina's translation is fluent and natural, and capable of bringing the poetic beauty and diction of Tagore's original Bengali style to the target language — Malayalam.
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