Translation of modern text is blood and sweat: Sherry Simon

Hyderabad: One of the year’s most awaited event, Hyderabad Literary Festival took place in Hyderabad Public  School. It brought about 100 authors, poets, scholars and publishers from India and abroad. HLF2018 was organised by “Hyderabad Literary Trust “in association with the Government of Telangana and various publishers. The literature, art and culture of Spain were at focus.

One such dainty debate took place between Sherry Simon and Vanamala Vishwanadha about ‘Translations of various works into English’ which was moderated by Chandan Gowda. Sherry Simon

spoke about her new book titled “Cities in Translation” which focuses on four such linguistically divided cities: Calcutta, Trieste, Barcelona, and Montreal. It depicts the function of languages as citizens and how they leave their memories. When asked about the difficulties faced in translation of pre-modern text Vanamala replied “All translation is sweat while translation of modern text is blood and sweat”.

According to her the biggest problem is to build the bridges across places and time to portray theculture and traditions. The splendour of writing romance was a discussion among Ravinder Singh and Sudeep Nagarkar who gave an insight into the contemplation and the process of writing romantic fiction.

Panel discussions highlighted the need to sustain endangered languages in Karnataka. Various workshops on storytelling, travel writing and photography took place showcasing creativity in all forms. New concepts like Human Library, Ka se Kavita, Rise of literati and Tale Tellers Troupe were promoted. The young audiences were entertained by events like Story writing, debates, Script enacting competitions.

By R Sahiti