Saturday

A book release and some thoughts

The English translation of bestselling Tamil autobiography of Muthumeenal - Mul - was released with much fanfare in Chennai on Friday evening. The translation – Thorn - done by Shubashree (known to truthdive readers through her article on Carnatic music season in Chennai) was well received.

Ayyanar, Yohei Sasakawa, Kamal Hassan, Muthumeenal

Actor Kamal Haasan who released the translation praised Mr Yohei Sasakawa, Chairperson, The Nippon Foundation, for sponsoring the English translation of a work which in Tamil first dealt with the experiential story of a person affected by leprosy.

Muthumeenal’s narration of living with the stigma of one of the most misunderstood diseases is quite frank. It is not just about living with the disease. It is also about a village girl growing up with such a stigma. The story has been rendered into English with the simplicity of the original work by Shuba.

Kamal Haasan admitted that the work dispelled several myths that he had about the disease itself. Muthumeenal was cured of leprosy by long-term sustained medication. Though Kamal did not elaborate on the misgivings he had about leprosy, he hinted at his lack of knowledge on the possibility of cure for the disease.

Mr Yohei Sasakawa of Nippon Foundation, Japan talked of how he helped India fight leprosy according to his capacity. P. Ayyanar, writer-husband of Muthumeenal, elaborated on how he came across the Foundation on the internet and sought help. He also lamented that he had to sell his wife’s gold bangles to conduct the release function.

The failure of the organizers of the meeting to mention the translator’s role – both in the welcome address and thanksgiving – showed how insensitive a section of Tamil writers are towards the role of translators. The planned reading out from the translation was also abandoned citing lack of time.

Professionalism in publishing, especially in that emanating from Chennai, is scarce. It will be healthy for the publishing world in Chennai to acknowledge the role of authors and translators. Publishing houses in Chennai don’t even inform the authors about reprinting their works, leave alone giving royalties for successive editions.

This commentary on the insensitivity towards the translator’s role is to make publishers and funding agencies make note of the little care that is given to the person who communicates to the world at large the voice of  the regional language writer. Also, at least ten copies of the translated work should be given to the translator.