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India Today
25-05-2025
- Entertainment
- India Today
How the power of translation helps many a Heart Lamp shine
Not everything is lost in translation – sometimes, entire worlds are found. This is especially true of Indian literature, which both Indians and the world have discovered, all thanks to translations. This was also acknowledged in the International Booker Prize, which was awarded to two Indian women this year. Writer Banu Mushtaq and translator Deepa Bhasthi won the award for their collection of short stories, Heart beautiful, busy, life-affirming stories rise from Kannada, interspersed with the extraordinary socio-political richness of other languages and dialects," said Max Porter, Chair of the 2025 committee, announcing the prestigious is the second International Booker in three years for an Indian author – a testament to the variety and power of Indian literature. In 2022, it was the translation of Ret Samadhi that won Geetanjali Shree the award. The English translation of Ret Samadhi – Tomb of Sand – by Daisy Rockwell introduced both non-Hindi readers in India and the world to Geetanjali Shree's work. Tomb of Sand was published in Britain in 2021. Since winning the award, it has sold 30,000 copies in Britain and 20,000 reprints in is the importance of translation that the International Booker Prize, formerly known as the Man Booker International Prize, has been instituted for works translated into work of translation is intricate. What seems like a verbatim translation of written words is a larger conversation with the original text and the realisation of how to best convey the context, the people and their sentiments to a reader, for whom those concepts might be absolutely to think of it, there wouldn't be any world literature without of what we consider world literature today — Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Haruki Murakami, Orhan Pamuk — was made accessible only through translation. It is through this invisible art that languages speak to each other, and the world was Ralph Manheim, a great translator of the works of writers Bertolt Brecht and Hermann Hesse, who once said, "Translators are like actors who speak the lines as the author would if the author could speak English."The latest Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to South Korean writer Han Kang after her works were translated. Deborah Smith learnt Korean to translate Han's works into tradition of translating India to the world is not a century ago, Rabindranath Tagore translated his own poetry collection, Gitanjali, into English. He became the first non-European to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in in Bengali, Gitanjali (Song Offerings) introduced the spiritual depth and lyrical beauty of Indian poetry to the win marked a pivotal moment in the global recognition of Indian literature. In more recent years, works like Perumal Murugan's Pyre and Fire Bird, and M Mukundan's Delhi: A Soliloquy have found new audiences through is especially important for a country like India that is culturally and linguistically diverse."Without translation, people in a country like India would be locked into their own linguistic islands," Arunava Sinha, a literary translator, tells India Today LAMP, TOMB OF SAND AND THE MANY 'ENGLISHES'In Kannada, Mushtaq's anthology – Heart Lamp – is called Haseena Mattu Itara receiving the International Booker Award, Mushtaq said of her short stories that her heart had been her field of study. But for the Booker prize judges, it was the "new textures" of the stories and their "radical translation"."A radical translation which ruffles language, to create new textures in a plurality of Englishes. It challenges and expands our understanding of translation," stated Max do not naturally map onto each other and await intricate translation is particularly difficult when it comes to new words or expressions, was revealed by Frank Wynne, one of the member judges of the International Booker in 2022, when Geetanjali Shree's book won the award."In Tomb of Sand, I loved all three. World play, punning, neologisms and humour," said Wynne. "These are inherently difficult to translate since languages do not map onto one another; this is all the more true when the cultural context is very different."In India, Tomb of Sand sold 50,000 copies, making it a resounding success for a work of literary fiction, and Ret Samadhi sold more than 35,000 copies. The novel became ubiquitous in train stations and airports across India, the New York Times LITERATURE REACHES INDIANS, AND THE WORLDTranslated literature is about listening to the varied voices from across the world, sometimes even from the corners of one's country."How will we talk to one another and listen to one another without translation? Translation is the language of democracy," author-translator Sinha tells India Today Heart Lamp and Tomb of Sand were winners of the International Booker Prize, Tamil writer Perumal Murugan's Pyre made it to the award's longlist in reached the global audience because of the translation by Aniruddhan Vasudeva. The judges acknowledged how it was both "specific and universal" and "how flammable are fear and the distrust of others."This was also seen in Murugan's Fire Kannan's translation of Fire Bird made the novel accessible to a global audience. Fire Bird won the 2023 JCB Prize for Literature, with Murugan receiving Rs 25 lakh and Kannan Rs 10 lakh in prize jury praised Kannan's translation for carrying "the rhythms not only of Tamil but of an entire way of being in the world", amplifying the novel's universal the English translation of M Mukundan's Delhi: A Soliloquy (originally Delhi Gadhakal in Malayalam), translated by Fathima EV and Nandakumar K, played a crucial role in elevating the novel's visibility and translation introduced Mukundan's vivid portrayal of Delhi's underbelly and the lives of Malayali migrants to international IN TRANSLATION: WHAT REMAINS UNTRANSLATEDTranslation, while a bridge between cultures, is not without its gaps. The act of carrying a story from one language to another often leaves behind subtle nuances, cultural idioms, and emotional undercurrents that defy instance, the rhythmic cadence of Tamil in Perumal Murugan's Pyre. Words rooted in specific cultural practices – like the term Agmark (a certification mark), used colloquially to denote authenticity in Fire Bird – lose their immediacy when untranslatable also includes the intangible: the smell of rain-soaked earth in a Malayalam poem, the cadence of a Bengali lullaby, or the weight of Partition's trauma in Ret translator Aniruddhan Vasudeva noted in a 2023 interview, "You can translate the words, but the silences between them? That's where the story lives."When asked about translation and its limitations, Geetanjali Shree had a point to make: "Translation is not about producing a replica or a clone. It is making another living being that carries the culture of the earlier one in a new avatar".MANY MARQUEZ IN INDIA'S REGIONAL CRYPTS?Though translation has certain limits, it is this magical art that completes world literature as we know Rabassa's translation of One Hundred Years of Solitude captured the lyrical richness of Marquez's magical realism, letting non-Spanish readers experience a Colombia infused with myth and Michael Heim's rendering of The Unbearable Lightness of Being made Kundera's Czech philosophical reflections accessible, resonating with Cold War-era readers exploring questions of identity, freedom, and political translations did more than convey meaning – they recreated rhythm, tone, and cultural nuance, allowing the soul of each work to survive linguistic Garnett's translation of Anna Karenina made the classic of Russian literature reach the My Name is Red, through Erdag Goknar's deft translation, brought Ottoman aesthetics and philosophical depth into global consciousness, with dense cultural layers made legible but not is no need to make a case for translation, but it is important to reiterate how vital it is for the world of Grossman, Marquez's translator, once stated, "The impact of the kind of artistic discovery that translation enables is profoundly important to the health and vitality of any language and any literature".That is truer for entire genres of Indian literature. Oral traditions, regional folklore, and lesser-known dialects languish without translators or if they are pulled out of their regional crypts, and placed under the sun? We would discover the soul of Indian literature –and a whole new universe.
BBC News
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Banu Mushtaq: Indian author scripts history with International Booker Prize win
Indian writer-lawyer-activist Banu Mushtaq has scripted history by winning the International Booker prize for the short story anthology, Heart is the first book written in the Kannada language, which is spoken in the southern Indian state of Karnataka, to win the prestigious prize. The stories in Heart Lamp were translated into English by Deepa Bhasthi. Featuring 12 short stories written by Mushtaq over three decades from 1990 to 2023, Heart Lamp poignantly captures the hardships of Muslim women living in southern India. Mushtaq's win comes off the back of Geetanjali Shree's Tomb of Sand - translated from Hindi by Daisy Rockwell - winning the prize in body of work is well-known among book lovers, but the Booker International win has shone a bigger spotlight on her life and literary oeuvre, which mirrors many of the challenges the women in her stories face, brought on by religious conservatism and a deeply patriarchal is this self-awareness that has, perhaps, helped Mushtaq craft some of the most nuanced characters and plot-lines."In a literary culture that rewards spectacle, Heart Lamp insists on the value of attention — to lives lived at the edges, to unnoticed choices, to the strength it takes simply to persist. That is Banu Mushtaq's quiet power," a review in the Indian Express newspaper says about the grew up in a small town in the southern state of Karnataka in a Muslim neighbourhood and like most girls around her, studied the Quran in the Urdu language at school. But her father, a government employee, wanted more for her and at the age of eight, enrolled her in a convent school where the medium of instruction was the state's official language - Kannada. Mushtaq worked hard to become fluent in Kannada, but this alien tongue would become the language she chose for her literary expression. She began writing while still in school and chose to go to college even as her peers were getting married and raising would take several years before Mushtaq was published and it happened during a particularly challenging phase in her short story appeared in a local magazine a year after she had married a man of her choosing at the age of 26, but her early marital years were also marked by conflict and strife - something she openly spoke of, in several interviews. In an interview with Vogue magazine, she said, "I had always wanted to write but had nothing to write (about) because suddenly, after a love marriage, I was told to wear a burqa and dedicate myself to domestic work. I became a mother suffering from postpartum depression at 29".In the another interview to The Week magazine, she spoke of how she was forced to live a life confined within the four walls of her house. Then, a shocking act of defiance set her free."Once, in a fit of despair, I poured white petrol on myself, intending to set myself on fire. Thankfully, he [the husband] sensed it in time, hugged me, and took away the matchbox. He pleaded with me, placing our baby at my feet saying, 'Don't abandon us'," she told the Heart Lamp, her female characters mirror this spirit of resistance and resilience."In mainstream Indian literature, Muslim women are often flattened into metaphors — silent sufferers or tropes in someone else's moral argument. Mushtaq refuses both. Her characters endure, negotiate, and occasionally push back — not in ways that claim headlines, but in ways that matter to their lives," according to a review of the book in The Indian Express newspaper. Mushtaq went on to work as a reporter in a prominent local tabloid and also associated with the Bandaya movement - which focussed on addressing social and economic injustices through literature and leaving journalism a decade later, she took up work as a lawyer to support her a storied career spanning several decades, she has published a copious amount of work; including six short story collections, an essay collection and a novel. But her incisive writing has also made her a target of an interview to The Hindu newspaper, she spoke about how in the year 2000, she received threatening phone calls after she expressed her opinion supporting women's right to offer prayer in mosques. A fatwa - a legal ruling as per Islamic law - was issued against her and a man tried to attack her with a knife before he was overpowered by her these incidents did not faze Mushtaq, who continued to write with fierce honesty."I have consistently challenged chauvinistic religious interpretations. These issues are central to my writing even now. Society has changed a lot, but the core issues remain the same. Even though the context evolves, the basic struggles of women and marginalised communities continue," she told The Week the years Mushtaq's writings have won numerous prestigious local and national awards including the Karnataka Sahitya Academy Award and the Daana Chintamani Attimabbe 2024, the translated English compilation of Mushtaq's five short story collections published between 1990 and 2012 - Haseena and Other Stories - won the PEN Translation Prize.
The National
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Enter the world of the Miu Miu Literary Club
Down a quiet side street behind Milan's illustrious Teatro alla Scala sits the Circolo Filologico. As is so often the case in this city, an austere facade conceals a cultural gem. The Circolo, Milan's oldest linguistic and literary association, is devoted to the study of global languages and civilisations. Recently, it played host to a quietly remarkable gathering. For two days in April, the space became home to the Miu Miu Literary Club – an ongoing initiative by the Italian fashion house exploring womanhood, learning and literary legacy. Coinciding with the annual design event Salone del Mobile, the programme – titled A Woman's Education – drew crowds that stretched around the block. In an age of buzzy brand activations and fleeting fashion moments, the Literary Club felt like a breath of fresh air. Inside the library's book-lined rooms – a comforting throwback to another era – two panel discussions unfolded, including Simone de Beauvoir: The Power of Girlhood. The panels explored how girlhood matures into womanhood, how autonomy is shaped and how desire is expressed. The conversations were as powerful as they were intimate, featuring an eclectic line-up that included Irish novelist Naoise Dolan, American writers Sarah Manguso and Lauren Elkin, plus Booker Prize winner Geetanjali Shree. Co-chaired by British curator and writer Lou Stoppard and American spoken-word artist Kai-Isaiah Jamal, the discussions were accompanied by readings by Congolese-Italian model Cindy Bruna and actress Millie Brady, adding a lyrical cadence to the proceedings. Elsewhere, in a larger space where a digital ticker tape broadcast 'Miu Miu Literary Club' in an endless loop, performances by Lauren Duffus and Joy Crookes played to a standing-room-only crowd. An open-door policy stood in welcome contrast to the exclusivity typically associated with fashion and design weeks. This wasn't an event designed for the few – it felt democratic and elegantly subversive. For Miuccia Prada, the house's founder and philosophical heart, the initiative is a natural extension of a decades-long career steeped in cultural commentary. Since founding Miu Miu in 1993 – named for her childhood nickname – Prada has imbued the brand with intellectual nuance and instinctive cool, consistently weaving in references to art, literature and ideology. Her reverence for knowledge was clear in a digitally streamed conversation in 2020, marking the first co-designed collection with Raf Simons, where she urged the audience to 'study, study, study'. This year's Literary Club centred on two influential yet contrasting feminist voices: Simone de Beauvoir, the French existentialist, whose The Inseparables explores the fragile reality of female friendship, as well as Japanese author Fumiko Enchi, whose work, The Waiting Years, delves into the quiet constraints placed on women through tradition and marriage. Of the choice of authors, Prada explained they were selected for their willingness to challenge the status quo and illuminate how precious learning remains. 'We try to raise awareness on the issue of women's education today. How do we teach young girls concepts such as self-determination? How do we teach them to become the independent women of the future?' The idea of a luxury fashion house sponsoring such a discussion is not without irony, and the panel did not shy away from that. Italian author Veronica Raimo spoke candidly of her own conflicting feelings – of squatting as a student while reading Albert Camus, and now being invited to speak under the auspices of a high-fashion brand. Her inclusion – critical, authentic – spoke volumes. And perhaps that's the point. As Sarah Manguso observed, 'Miu Miu took two radical feminist novels and made them the centrepiece of a Milan Design Week party.' A feat that, in lesser hands, might have felt like a sales ploy. Here, it felt sincere. Lou Stoppard reflected on the resonance of the moment, and on how fragile societal truths can be. 'I think it's really important that brands like Miu Miu – that have such a profile and such a reach – are putting time and energy into spotlighting amazing female writers of the past, and championing interesting contemporary writers. We are definitely at a moment of certain histories repeating themselves, so I think there's something really important about this line between past and present.' Beyond the Literary Club, Miu Miu continues to invest in female creativity through its Women's Tales film series. Launched in 2011, it commissions female directors to tell their own stories with the sole caveat that characters wear the house's clothing. It's a reminder that the brand's cultural reach extends far beyond the runway. Indeed, Prada's support of the arts places her in historic company. The Medici of Renaissance Florence famously used their wealth and status to elevate artists, philosophers, and poets – patronage that enabled Brunelleschi, Donatello, Botticelli and Michelangelo to flourish. Botticelli even immortalised them: Madonna of the Magnificat (1481) features Lucrezia de' Medici as the titular figure, with a youthful Lorenzo the Magnificent beside her. Perhaps Miuccia Prada hopes to do something similar – through fashion, literature and conversation. As Lauren Elkin, who translated de Beauvoir's The Inseparables, observed: 'You're not born a woman; you become one. That process – of becoming – is still ongoing. And that's what we're talking about.'
India Today
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- India Today
Bhaichand Patel's 'Across the River'
Hindu-Muslim romances, once commonplace in Indian English literature, have all but vanished from its pages—even the latest notable exception, Geetanjali Shree's Our City That Year, is a 1990s Hindi novel recently translated into English. Because of this, the first act of Bhaichand Patel's Across the River feels really strong. The novel's twin protagonists. Seema Chaudhry and Madhu Gupta (a Muslim and a Hindu woman, respectively) have grown up in Old Delhi in nearby-but-segregated lanes. When the college-educated young women snag accounting jobs in the same Noida firm circa 2007, their families brace themselves for 'corrupting influences'. Soon, Seema falls in love with her bigoted Gujarati employer's son Mohan.
