Google to the rescue...

The author of the Kannada novel (Chandramukhiya Ghatavu) that I had translated, Rodda Vyasarao Venkatarao, from what I could make out from his novel, appears to be a well-read person, interested in Sanskrit classics and also English literature...he has used verses from Sanskrit plays almost at will, whenever he wanted to illustrate a point or where the words of a higher authority would settle the issue...

But he never ever says from where he has taken these verses from...I am not sure how his readers reacted to this use of verses from Sanskrit plays...who did he have in mind as his readers? Once I started translating, I realised I hit a wall when I came across the first Sanskrit verse in the second page itself...and it was in devanagari script...I tried to guess the meaning from the context... and I could make out two words...'hans' for 'swan' and 'kshira' for 'milk'...and I put two and two together and surmised that this verse could refer to that well-known concept of 'hamsa kshira nyaya'... which refers to a celestial bird (swan) which had the power to drink only the milk and leave the water mixed with it behind...and this is given as an example for somebody who has the ability to sort the 'grain from the chaff' so to say... the positive power of discernment or judgment... it is also given as an example for a job or assignment that needs judiciousness or refinement for it to be completed successfully...Many people in India are aware of this concept...

That done...but from where is this blessed verse taken? which book or who should I consult? How should I go about consulting a book? Did I know any Sanskrit scholar? all questions the result of incomplete formal Indian education!! But now I was stuck...

Somehow, as a last independent resort, before consulting people and books, I thought of an old trick, a trick by which I would detect plagiarism during my 'editor' days...I decided to transcribe the Sanskrit verse into English and give it the 'google' treatment...and you know what...it worked and worked beautifully... I now know that this 'swan' and 'milk' verse is taken from Kalidasa's Abhijnana Shakuntalam... some kindhearted souls had put up something related to the play and I also located an English translation of the play...and things started to fall into place... and I gave the same treatment to all the Sanskrit verses that are in the novel...and I discovered that the author had taken verses and phrases from Kalidasa's Abhijnana Shakuntalam and Meghadutam, Bhavabhuti's Uttara Rama Charita, the Hitopadesha, and (now I feel) not surprisingly, a quote from Herbert Spencer too...and I found out from where all these verses, phrases, and quotation were taken with the help of Google...after locating the origins, I had to refine the references...and make them consistent...that is another story...for another post...

Thank you Google for helping me in my search...and all those who had written, hosted, or contributed to various websites on Sanskrit literature...

(the usual disclaimer...I am a happy Google user...in no way connected with Google)

A paper published and some publicity...(!!!)

Last week some good news came in the mail…I received the recent issue of Journal of Karnataka Studies…this journal is published by Kannada University, Hampi, Karnataka… the good news is that my paper is published in this issue…in fact, 2009 has been good in this sense so far…this is the third paper to see the light of the day this year, though I had submitted them some time back…so suddenly, my list of publications has increased…feels good…

This paper is about one of the prolific translators of novels during the early days of the novel in Kannada…Venkatesha Tirako Kulakarni ‘Galaganatha,’ popularly known as only ‘Galaganatha,’ translated 16 novels from Marathi into Kannada…and all of them were historical novels and most of them were written by Hari Narayan Apte originally…

The paper is titled “The Novel and the Nation: Galaganatha’s Rewriting of Historical Novels in Kannada”… and a part of this is taken from my earlier research for my PhD…and of course, the editors wanted me to make substantial changes in the draft I had submitted…which made me read some more and which was really good because I was able to see the whole issue from a slightly different perspective…I had written about the how the ‘novel’ as a genre is analogous to the idea of the ‘nation’ and how the ‘novel’ could be used to ‘plot’ the idea of the nation…especially historical novels…and since this is a family blog I don’t want to get into graphic details which could result in extreme self-torture…!!!

I must thank my friend Tharakeshwar, who was earlier teaching in the Translation Studies Dept at Kananda University, and who encouraged me to send this article for publication…now he has come to Hyderabad and is a reader at EFL University…

Among the many issues that I worked on, I enjoyed working on this aspect of the novel the most…the idea of the ‘nation’ and the novel…

Translating an early Kannada novel...first draft completed

I am returning to blogging after a long long time...not that I didn't want to or didn't have anything to write about...maybe it was the scorching summer that sapped my interest...or maybe I was just lazy...(see, I have written three lines without saying anything...!!)...If my I put my mind to it, I can write... and this is what I thought I should do and went ahead and translated an early Kannada novel into English...it is an extremely short novel called 'Chandramukhiya Ghaatavu' (The Murder of Chandramukhi) written in 1890...I have researched and written about the translation scene during the early days of the novel in Kannada...and I had always wanted to translate a novel from Kannada to English and felt that this short novel would be an ideal beginning...I thought it would be easy translating a 26-page novel into English...a-page-a-day kind of schedule will take me a month to complete it...only when I started to translate that I saw and felt the real challenges...I found it really tough to locate synonyms for certain words and phrases and idioms and proverbs of the Kannada being spoken and written more than 100 years ago...sometimes the parallels for proverbs and idioms were easy to find in English...like the Kannada idiom 'go-mukha vyaaghra' (a tiger with a cow's face) was easily rendered into the familiar English idiom 'wolf in a sheep's clothing'... and many examples of people and events quoted in the novel were from Ramayana and Mahabharata...mythological figures entered and exited at will...verses from Kalidasa and Bhavabhuti appear at crucial moments...but the story is essentially about 'reforming' the 'Indian' society, a topic that was popular with the early novel writers in almost all languages in India...here, it is about the nefarious activities and final repentance of a fake swamiji...but this novel fascinated me for its narrative style which was unique for an early novel...It finally took me 3 months to complete the translation...I am now doing the proof reading and corrections...this is again taking its own time...there is so much to do after that...and since I studied novel as part of my doctoral research, I want the English translation to be slightly academically inclined with an introduction, preface, notes, glossary, etc. I want this translation to be published...lets see how soon I can release the draft from my hands... for a larger release...

jaisiri: My article published...

jaisiri: My article published...:

http://www.anukriti.net/tt6/article1/page1.asp

My article published...

I returned to blog yesterday after a break…the break just happened, though I had a lot of things to write about…maybe the 50 blogs really overwhelmed me…though I was not blogging, I was thinking about my ‘not blogging’…my lack of enthusiasm and also wondered whether I should stop at 50…but in the end I think wiser counsel prevailed…I don’t know about all of you out there, but I have come back…I felt really sad when I read the news of Vidwan Kunnakudi Vaidyanathan’s demise and remembered the episode which I recounted in my previous post...

The week that ended brought in a couple of happy surprises…one was tinged with embarrassment and was tricky…let me tell you the‘full’ happy surprise…

I had mentioned in one of my previous posts that one of my research papers had been accepted for publication by the journal Translation Today…on Friday I received a mail from one of the editors (Prof. Giridhar) saying that the issue in which my article is published is now online and that I could see it…this journal has both online and print versions and the online version comes out first…and I personally feel that this is one of the important and intellectually stimulating journals on translation related subjects in India today (I am saying this not because they published my paper)…and since this journal is online (www.anukriti.net) and free, interested readers can see this for themselves…

My article is on the novels translated into Kannada by B. Venkatacharya…and it is called “B. Venkatacharya’s Novels in the Kannada Literary Polysystem and the Founding of the Novel in Kannada” and it can be seen and read at http://www.anukriti.net/tt6/article1/page1.asp ... I request readers of my blogsite to please visit this page and I would be happy to receive your comments, criticisms, suggestions, praise…

Jayasrinivasa Rao