The Sahitya Akademi is involved in a task of translating the works of poet Bharathi - both prose and poetry - into English. This is a major project taken up by the Chennai sub centre of the southern regional office of the Akademi, Sirpi Balasubramaniam, distinguished Tamil poet and convener of the Tamil Advisory Board of the Sahitya Akademi, said.
“I mooted this proposal a couple of years ago and there was an overwhelming response from the literary personalities of various languages attached to the Akademi. Everyone was interested in getting poet Bharathi's works translated into English and all Indian languages and this proved the popularity of the late revolutionary poet, Dr. Balasubramaniam told The Hindu here on Wednesday.
The translation of prose included stories written by Bharathi.
A major part of the translation work undertaken by Tamil and English scholars had already been completed. The project is funded by the Central government.
The English translation would pave way for translation of Bharathi's works into Hindi and other languages, Dr. Balasubramaniam, also the Editor of this project, said.
Yet another major project currently on is publishing a book titled ‘History of Tamil Literature.'
The Sahitya Akademi, in collaboration with the UNESCO, is engaged in the work of preparing ‘Encyclopaedia of Indian Poetics' in English language.
From this year onwards, the Akademi instituted the ‘Bala Sahitya Puraskar' award for the best works in children's literature in all Indian languages.
It would confer from next year an award called ‘Yuva Sahitya Puraskar' on debutant writers in Indian languages under the age of 35 years, Dr. Balasubramaniam added.
