Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Crossing Borders



Last week I got to peek through the pages of ‘Mother’ again, a work by Russian novelist Maxim Gorky that changed the ideologies of many people around the world. This revolutionary novel depicting the story of a rebel during the time of the Russian revolution carried the history of Russia across the globe after being translated into many different languages. Like Gorky, many other Russian writers of that time — Dostoevsky, Gogol and Tolstoy — won international fame through their writings. Similarly, Hindi, German, Chinese and many other authors have been successful internationally.


In Nepal, the literary pieces of Laxmi Prasad Devkota, Parijat, Bhupi Sherchan, Gopal Prasad Rimal and others are forever remembered with reverence. But, compared to world literature, Nepali literature is yet to find its international readership.

Here comes a question: why is this so? Have we ever thought of how Russian and other literatures were able to keep such a significant mark in world literature?

It is not only because those works were good pieces of literature. Rather, one of the reasons for their broad international fame was because they were translated into many world languages including English. Translation into many languages made it possible for them to take their place in libraries around the world, helping people to read and understand them.

Translations not only help literature cross borders, it also helps writers survive. Diamond Shamsher Rana’s ‘Seto Bagh’, translated into English as ‘White Tiger’, is one example. In one of Rana’s interviews, he has revealed the fact that his ends, so far, are met by the royalties of ‘White Tiger’, published by a British publication decades ago.

Contrarily, a few Nepali literatures have been given the opportunity to be translated into English, like Parijat’s ‘Shirish Ko Phool,’ which is now incorporated into the curriculum of some US universities. Recently, Ramesh Vikal’s ‘Awiral Bagdacha Indrawati’ earned the honour of being the only Nepali literary work to get a place in the Cultural Endowment Project, formed by a committee of US Senators dedicated to translating popular literature of the world. There are still many other great Nepali literatures, like Madan Mani Dixit’s ‘Madhavi’, waiting to come out of the wrapping to reserve a space in world literature.

For every country, its language, culture and literature hold its identity. Literature reflects the social order and practices of an era and transmits that to its readers. If Bhanubhakta had not translated ‘Ramayan’ into Nepali, many of us still would not have known the great epic and the time of that era.

Promoting the culture, language and literature of a country for its broader readership is the responsibility of the state. But unfortunately, enough work has not been done by the sector responsible for looking after literature and culture. It seems the culture of sycophancy has plagued every section of Nepali society. Even for the promotion of Nepali literature, politics plays decisive role. Still, academicians are politically appointed. The centre lacks the zeal to promote Nepali literature in the world. Whatever few translations have been done so far is only because of the self-initiatives of the writers and self-proclaimed translators.

6 comments:

Diya said...

ilove each and every article of urs n the way u write n express ur self...

Milan Raut said...

I have already read it in TKP... You have raised a very sensitive issue through your article... its really sad that Nepali literature hasn't been able to rise so much because of the negligence of the authorities responsible for it... very nice article...

A New Beginning said...

You are right Jayant, translations help a lot coz they go beyond borders, its important that a good text in any regional language is translated since then it reaches a large readership.
I'm sure one day you'd be one of the well known writers whose books would be translated in innumerable language sand read all over the world:) you have a great style of writing , just keep it going!!
I like books in our regional languages you can relate to them well and can feel one with the story, we have such diverse culture that I wish every book thats written in our country is translated into other languages , so that one gets to read them!
Thanks and have a great day ahead!!

Jayant Post said...

@diya: thanks darling...
@milan: yup, u r right...
@sana: thank you so much sana... actually its not the fate of Nepali literature only, almost every country whose english is not the mother tongue faces this... thanks for your patient reading even it didn't reflect the issues of your language...

Milan Raut said...

a lovely article about our literature... u indeed have excavated a sensitive question and it definitely needs to be administered by the state... hope our literature will soon get its international readers by the help of translators like you...

Basanta said...

Nice post! I totally agree with you that classics of Nepali literature need translations into as many foreign languages as possible. We are not short of world class literary creations. In fact, those translations will not only put our literature to world readership, they will even strengthen our existence as a country.

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