Lyricist Vairamuthu’s Sahitya Akademi award-winning novel Kallikkaatu Ithikasam , which portrays the suffering of 14 villages displaced by the construction of Vaigai Dam, is being translated into 22 Indian languages and in English.
Sahitya Akademi’s secretary K. Sreenivas Rao has written to Mr Vairamuthu informing about the project. The novel sold over a lakh copies.
“When the novel won the award in 2003, I deemed it as a personal achievement. Now, I treat it as an honour for Tamil language,” Mr. Vairamuthu told
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“I vividly remember leaving my village holding my mother’s finger while my baby sister was on her lap. I could not understand why she was crying. My grandfather was dismantling our house in Mettur, now drowned in water, to build a new house from scratch at Vadugapatti,” said Mr Vairamuthu recalling the migration.
Mr. Vairamuthu said even though the villages remained along the banks of the river it hardly made any difference to the people. “It was like living in a desert. Every day, life was a struggle and the novel captures their hopes and disappointments. I will inform the present generation the urbanisation process that has gobbled up our villages,” he said.
The writer said the first priority of the project was to identify translators who were well-versed in Tamil and the language in which the novel would be translated into.
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“If we are not able to find suitable persons, we use the English translation for the purpose,” he said, quoting later Professor A. Srinivasaragahavan’s remarks that translation was akin to extracting the blue from the sky.
Mr. Vairamuthu said since the novel was full of dialects and flora and fauna of the area, he was available for translators to find appropriate words. “After the translation is ready, I will have a book launch programme in all State capitals,” he said.
The first priority of the project is to identify translators who are well-versed in Tamil and the language in which the novel would be translated into.
- Vairamuthu