When G. Poornachandran, a retired Tamil teacher of Bishop Heber College, Tiruchi, translated Salman Rushdie’s Booker Prize winning novel Midnight’s Children into Tamil as Nalliravin Kuzhanthigal , he was nursing the hope it would get him the Sahitya Akademi’s award for translation. But that was not to be.
Nonetheless, four years later, his dream has come true. His translation of Manu Joseph’s Serious Men , winner of The Hindu Literary Award for best fiction in 2010, has won him the Sahitya Akademi award for translation for 2016. The title of the book is Poruppumikka Manitharkal; it is published by Ethir .
“I am really happy with the translation and the recognition. Only a week ago, I was informed about the award. It would be great if I am conferred the award for my original works,” said the 68-year-old Poornachandran who moved to the field of translation in a big way after penning books on literary criticism and other subjects.
As early as in 1983, he was commissioned by the Tamil University in Thanjavur to write The History of the Tamil Literary Criticism covering the period between 1900 and 1980.
Indomitable spirit
Problems in his left eye that led to total blindness and fracture of the leg that has confined him at home are the two reasons which made him to spend his energy on translation. “I can magnify the letters of the books and translate them. I cannot adopt the method for other literary activities,” said Mr. Poornachandran, whose translation had won many awards.
He has a long list of translations on varied subjects to his credit and he has just finished A.L. Basham’s magnum opus A Wonder That Was India. His earlier translations include Indologist Wendy Doniger’s The Hindus: An Alternative History and Arundhati Roy’s Broken Republic and Telugu writer Varavara Rao’s Captive Imagination.
It was Oxford University Press’ Very Short Introductions — a series on different subjects — that offered the fodder for his translation skills. He translated six books including Globalisation, Terrorism, Nietzsche, Music and Theology.
“I was a physics student in college and scored distinction in the university examination. I worked as a teacher and studied Tamil for my post-graduation because of my passion for the language,” he said.
