Bridging cultures

N. Dharmarajan talks about his love for translating English works into Tamil.

April 02, 2015 07:30 pm | Updated 07:31 pm IST

Professor  N. Dharmarajan. Photo: R. Ashok

Professor N. Dharmarajan. Photo: R. Ashok

Often translations are not given due credit when compared to original writings but not in the case of Professor N. Dharmarajan, whose translated works are equally popular. His Tamil translation of the biography of Jawaharlal Nehru authored by of A. Gorev and V. Zimyanin sold like hot cakes.

“Translation is all about trans-creation,” says the retired English professor of Raja Duraisingam Government Arts College, Sivaganga. “You have to imbibe the spirit of the original work and retain it in your writing,” he adds.

Dharmarajan also has the credit of coining new words in Tamil. For instance he calls favouritism as natpu salugai and amorality as aram saramai . He has translated more than 110 original English works of different genres into Tamil. These range from fiction, philosophy, economics, history, biography and politics to children's stories.

“I choose a work only if it disturbs me,” he says and adds, “More than the entertainment the work should have enough substance to make you think.” His Mahatma Sila Paarvaikal (Mahatma, some views), a selection of articles, is a good introduction to the life, struggles and message of Mahatma Gandhi.

A voracious reader, he credits his success as translator to the days he spent in Raja High School, Sivaganga. “It was a period of socio-political ferment in Tamil Nadu fuelled by E.V. Ramasamy Naicker and C.N. Annadurai, who emphasised empowerment of backward classes. It kindled revolutionary impulses in students like me. Teachers also used to discuss politics in class,” he recalls.

As the son of the school headmaster he enjoyed few concessions. He was liberally allowed to take books from library to home. “I read a lot of translations by Swaminatha Sharma, who translated the volume of tributes to Gandhi on his 70th birth anniversary edited by Radhakrishnan. I also read Karl Marx biography and T.J. Ranganathan’s translation of Jim Corbett’s books,” he says.

The political orientation inside the classroom initiated him into reading more books and articles on politics. That was the time when the Communist party printed many articles in English. “If two comrades met they would converse only in English. Such was the passion for the language,” he says.

Dharmarajan was motivated by the party leaders S. Ramakrishnan, who had translated India Today by Rajani Palme Dutt, Jeevanantham and Tho.Mu.Si. Raghunathan, whose noted translations include Maxim Gorky's The Mother and Vladimir Mayakovsky's elegy Vladimir Ilyich Lenin .

He sharpened his literary skills by reading the classics of Jane Austen, Ernest Hemingway, R.L. Stevenson and Bernard Shaw. Translation came naturally to him as he could handle both English and Tamil with equal felicity. “My Tamil teachers Varadharajan and Dakshinamoorthy were the main reason to kindle my love for the language,” he says.

His first translation of Irish playwright Sean O’ Casey’s The Worker Blows the Bugle as Uzhaippaliyin Sanganatham was published in Janasakthi in 1958. He also wrote Seena Kathaigal a translation of Chinese stories in 1960 and went on to translate Gorky's collection of stories, which was published as Itthaliya Kathaigal (Tales of Italy) in 1962. His Thennappirikka Kathaigal , a translation of some of the protest writings of South African writers, captured the essence of apartheid.

Dharmarajan’s Oru Kudumbathin Kathai and Nilavu Vandhu Padumo , the translation of the works of Russian writer Chedrin and American writer John Steinbeck respectively, were well received by the public. He also translated the book on life history of Fidel Castro and What is History by E.H. Carr and 1857 by S.N. Sen. His only Tamil to English translated work is writer Alagarsamy’s short story Kumarapuram Station .

He feels Tamil language’s flexibility offers tremendous scope for translation. “When the best writings of another language are made available to the native reader, the local language prospers. For instance, people came to know about the stream of consciousness technique when they happened to read some of the translations of writer La.Sa. Ramamirtham,” he points out.

Dharmarajan’s political inclination and deep understanding of Marxian philosophy and the erstwhile Soviet Union through the writings of Maxim Gorky, Pushkin and Tolstoy helped him to build a career in translation in Moscow. He spent eight years working for the Progress Publications which published books on literature, politics and economics. He was also the president of the Hindustan Samaj in Moscow.

He fought for the cause of teachers and was instrumental in forming Madurai Kamaraj University Teachers’ Association. Dharmarajan is the recipient of Ilakkiya Perumandram Award for his work Michael K. Sila Kurippukal , a translation of the Nobel prize-winning novel The life and times of Michael K by J.M. Coetzee. He has also received Thanjavur Tamil University Award for best translator in 1986, Swaminatha Sharma Award by Swaminatha Sharma Trust, Chennai, in 2004 and Tamil Nadu Translators' Association Award in 2005.

At 80, Dharmarajan’s passion for translation is unrelenting. He is now busy working on Isaac Deutscher’s three-volume study of Leon Trotsky ( The Prophet Armed , The Prophet Unarmed , The Prophet Outcast ).

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