Among Malayalam writers who are read worldwide through translations, M.T. Vasudevan Nair is surely in the forefront. On Saturday, as he celebrated his 84th birthday, the Jnanpith Award winner stressed the need to have more translations from Malayalam to English and other foreign languages to take our literature to the global stage.
He was speaking after presenting the V. Abdulla memorial prize for translation to E.V. Fathima for her translation of Subhash Chandran’s Manushyanu Oru Aamugham into English as A Preface of The Man.
MT said that people such has Abdulla strived to translate books from Malayalam to English when not many were aware of the great literary works being produced here. Along with Mullaveettil Abdurahman and K.P. Raman Nair, he also played a major role in Kozhikode’s cultural sphere.
Cultural festival
Abdulla was one of the founders of the Malabar Kendra Kalasamiti, which organised a drama festival and later a grand cultural festival for the first time in the city, he recalled. Vaikom Mohammed Basheer used to frequent Kozhikode then as his Ntuppooppakkoranendarnnu was staged as a play at the festival. Later, Basheer settled here.
It was during the same festival that Chembai Vaidyanatha Bhagavathar staged a concert and Guru Kunchukurup, then in his 80s, was in the audience. He had performed Kathakali at the event. After he spotted Kurup among the listeners, Bhagavathar paused to ask, “ Entha Kuruppe adanamennu thonnunnundo ?” (Well, Kurup, do you feel like performing).
Pointing out that Abdulla was equally interested in literature and arts, MT said that in the course of his stint at Orient Longman, a separate section was set up to promote translations from regional languages to English. “During those days, literary works from regional languages did not attract the attention of a larger audience. Now, it has changed. The condition is quite favourable,” he said.
Writer U.A. Khader, who delivered the memorial lecture, said that people such as Abdulla should be remembered at a time when society was fast losing its humaneness. Ummi Abdulla, Mr. Subhash Chandran, and actor KTC Abdulla were present.
