Lesson 4

P20124 : Contemporary Literary Translation

This lesson talks about contemporary literary translation in Tamil. The art of translation has gained enormous importance today. The advent of the British and the subsequent translation of English and other European literary masterpieces into Tamil, had a considerable impact on Tamil literature.

    Literary translations in Tamil can be broadly divided into 5 categories: viz. translations from west European languages, translations from Asian countries like China and Japan, translations from English, translations from other regional languages in India, and translations from other south Indian languages.

    Translations from European and West Asian languages such as Greek, French, German, Russian, Persian, Hebrew and Arabic constitute a significant portion of literary translations in Tamil. Among these, the translation of Arabian Nights, the poems of Omar Khayyam, the novels of Victor Hugo, the plays of Moliere and Ibsen and the novels of Gorky and Tolstoy are worth mentioning. Translations of Asian literature include the writings of Confucius, the novels of Murasaki and the haiku poetry of Nokachi. Translations and adaptations of English literary texts played a considerable role in shaping Tamil literature. John Banyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress”, “The Golden Treasury of Poems”, the plays of Shakespeare, Charles Dickens’ “A Tale of Two Cities” and Hemmingway’s “Old Man and the Sea” are some important works that have been translated in Tamil.

    Government organizations such as the Sahitya Academy, the National Book Trust and a number of other private publishing houses are promoting translation of popular literary texts from other regional languages in India. Among translations from Hindi, Gujarati, Marati and Bengali, Premchand’s novels and the works of Tagore are significant. Similarly among the literary translations from south Indian languages, the poems of noted Malayalam poets Kumaran Aasaan and Vallathol and the novels of Thagazhi and Basheer - two reputed Malayalam writers - are noteworthy.

    A number of Tamil literary works have also been translated into other languages. Barathiyaar, Baarathidasan, Mu. Varadarasanaar, Jayakaanthan and Akilan are some of the noted 20th century Tamil writers whose works have been widely translated.