TRANSLATION
Joyful discovery
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`The language is lucid and the narrative moves steadily without jerks despite the abridgement.'
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SIXTY years after the death of Kalki Krishnamurthy, yet another English translation of his first historical romance, Parthiban Kanavu, has been published, this time by a 15-year-old. Nirupama Raghavan, an entirely home-schooled youngster, who says she began "learning Tamil the same time as her parents did", has abridged and translated the Tamil original. This, at a time when the average urban teen finds it an uphill task to read and relish a Tamil work of fiction, let alone a Kalki classic, notwithstanding the fact that the language the master storyteller used is simple and constituted common parlance.
Kalki, who began as a sub-editor, worked in Ananda Vikatan before starting the magazine named after him in 1941, which, incidentally, is still going strong. From 1943 Kalki R. Krishnamurthy began serialising his historical fiction. Parthiban Kanavu is the first of the trilogy, the other two being Sivakamiyin Sabatham and Ponniyin Selvan. There is evident joy even in recalling the pleasures of reading these three books, the last mentioned magnum opus which is a five-volume work, twice over. Kalki was perhaps the first great writer to have used ancient history — the Chola-Chera-Pandiya-Pallava reign — as a backdrop and so evocatively.
The Chola King Parthiban dreams of making his kingdom all-powerful in the region and has transferred it on canvas in the Chitthira Mandapam or Palace of Arts. Soon after, the kathaa-nayakan (in that he is the titular hero) dies in a war against the Pallava King Narasimha Varman, but not before getting an assurance from the mysterious Sivanadiyar that his heir-apparent will be brought up as a man of great valour. The identity of the Sivanadiyar is kept a delightful suspense till the end, not in the whodunnit genre style though.
The Emperor's daughter Kuntavi notices from her palanquin a young man of nobility, Vikraman, riding past on his horse and their eyes meet. Not a word is spoken, but very soon we find her rushing like the wind to Mamallapuram on hearing that Vikraman is to be banished to the distant Shenbagha Islands. Three years pass and the love between the two royal scions grows, though in absentia as it were! The plot and narration are so brilliantly interwoven with history that the reader is transported to realms of yore and Kalki recreates the glorious life of Tamils living under the Pallava dynasty. The Mamallapuram poems in stone are the priceless legacy left by the father-son duo Mahendra Varman and Narasimha Varman. Kalki writes fondly of the great Tamil cultural heritage and seeks to instil respect in the reader for Tamil language, literature and the arts.
The gentle humour and satire make a harmonious blend. Here is a sample: On Marappa Bhupathi flashing his sword, Ponnan exclaims: "So your knife is real! I must tell Valli. She wagered quite a bit that your knife is made of wood."
Translating historical fiction is a monumental task. That a teenager should have undertaken the venture — translating a writer who is a giant in the Tamil fiction scene — is a marvel. To give Nirupama her due, the language is lucid and the narrative moves steadily without jerks despite the abridgement. When you've read the original and been fascinated with it there is invariably a big drop in the interest quotient when going through the translation. But in this case, Nirupama has succeeded in sustaining the attention of the reader. In her note to the readers, she writes she fell in love with the characters in the novel. But unfortunately, she has been unable to fully convey the endearing nature of an immortal character like Princess Kuntavi of whom she says: "The Princess was a distillation of all that was feminine." Elsewhere she translates: "To see the Emperor and his daughter at the same time was like seeing the sun and the moon together. There was a light on their faces that came from within." The exceedingly beautiful relationship between the father and daughter that comes through the dialogue on many an occasion also suffers to an extent in the portrayal. These are only to be expected in a translation, and more so in an abridged version. The original ran to 450 pages in small print and the translation notches up about 200 pages, and yet the storyline does not suffer. In sum, the translation successfully conveys the joy of Nirupama's discovery of Kalki.
N. Bindhu Malini's illustrations are mostly a letdown. The reason is perhaps as the back cover puts it: "Her pictures come from memories of many visits to Mamallapuram and Kanchipuram"!
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RADHIKA MENON of Tulika Publishers says that the first time they met Nirupama was in Bangalore at an education conference sometime ago, where her mother was making a presentation and the girl was avidly reading the books in their stall. Shortly after, when Aruna, Nirupama's mother, sent three tomes of manuscript of Parthiban Kanavu in English translation by the youngster, "we found the book unputdownable. Both Sandhya Rao and I do not read Tamil, and for first-timers we found the book thoroughly enjoyable". This had been the unanimous response from other readers as well and that clinched the decision.
"This was new territory for us, taking up a popular classic of the region. It was not as if it was a pan-Indian work by say, someone like Rabindranath Tagore", Menon said. The MR.AR. Educational Society, which promotes Indian literature and scholarship, has sponsored the project. Sandhya Rao closely worked with Nirupama in editing the book and found the latter very responsive. Since the young author was in the middle of exams, her mother volunteered to help her in abridging the novel, but the daughter turned down the offer and preferred to do it herself. At first, the translation work had been quite slow, 10 pages a day, but it picked up momentum and Nirupama was doing 50 pages finally.
Tulika publishes, besides others, multi-lingual books. Parthiban's Dream is the second in the series "Classics in Translation". The first by Sandhya was a Swedish book translated into Hindi. When asked if more translations of Kalki are in the pipeline, Menon said "Not right away, though there is no saying when another will come along."
SELINE AUGUSTINE
Parthiban's Dream, Kalki Krishnamurthy, translated from Tamil and abridged by Nirupama Raghavan, Tulika Publishers, p.210, Rs. 165.
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