‘I think in English, feel in Tamil and flirt in Bengali’
The author and journalist’s translation of a Tamil classic immerses the reader in the milieu of a temple town
1 What is the hardest thing about translating from Tamil into English?
Dialects and usages. Tamil is one of the world’s ancient languages but is amazingly adept at keeping abreast and adding new words to its vocabulary. We don’t say Facebook, World Wide Web, or Nasdaq in Tamil. We have translated them into Tamil even though they are proper nouns. Similarly, when it comes to modern classics like Hungry Humans, dialects and anachronisms that were authentic to the early 20th century can pose a challenge. As in any Indian novel dealing with family and relationships, names of family members in relation to the characters differ. Not everyone is an uncle or aunt. Maternal cousins and paternal relationships have different names that need careful translation.
2 Did you come across anything that was untranslatable?
Certain dialectical cadences and descriptive passages and the writing on sexuality and sex were challenging. They read with a different emotive heft in Tamil. English-educated Indians are often conditioned to be outraged by vernacular descriptions of sex, while these are seen as acceptable in English. Torrid expressions of sexual feelings shift in languages. It’s a bit like when some Indians swear in English easily but baulk when they hear cuss words in Indian languages. It’s difficult to hit the high pitch, melodramatic notes and fervidness in translation. My other bother was the wokeness of my reading towards the characters, the unabashed male gaze, the caste conceit, and the treatment of women, trans men and gays and how I would translate them being true to the attitudes prevalent in the period the story is set in.
3 The book has extreme themes touching upon disease, desire, spirituality. What was your experience at first, as a reader and a translator of the novel?
Honestly, I felt quite shaken up. It took me many readings to understand that the story reads raw because it is without literary artifice. It is a hard gaze at how human beings are. Hungry Humans discards familiar storytelling. It is not a linear narrative; the characters are many; no one is good or bad. Everyone is damaged, one way or the other. If I were partial and were asked to choose, I’d pick Bhuma and Sama. Bhuma is a clear-headed woman, warm-hearted and generous sexually and socially. Sama’s craziness, funereal jobs and wild sadness nudged my heart.
4 You speak Tamil, English and Bengali. Which of these languages do you think in?
I feel like a linguistic chameleon. I love to flirt and chitchat in languages; they ease the fear that many have socially to try a new language. I think in English, feel in Tamil and flirt in Bengali.