Oru Sangeerthanam Pole in Arabic

Novelist Perumbadavam Sreedharan's Oru Sangeerthanam Pole , which earned a place of pride for Malayalam in Indian literature, has transcended the geographical limits of the country to become part of the Arabic literary world. The novel is one among five Indian titles picked up by the Culture Department of the Abu Dhabi government for Arabic translation.

Inspired by the English translation of the novel, Like a Psalm , Egyptian poet and translator Muhammad Id Ibrahim has brought out its Arabic translation, Misal Tharnima . “Through the translation, the novel has gained entry into 82 Arab nations. Much more than a personal recognition, it is yet another universal approbation for Malayalam,” Mr. Perumbadavam says.

The publishing company, Kalima, which functions under the Culture and Heritage Department of Abu Dhabi, has selected Mahatma Gandhi's

My Experiments with Truth and titles of Amrita Preetham and Shashi Tharoor for translation, for translation along with the Malayalam novel. This is the first Malayalam novel to be translated into Arabic. Earlier, a story of Vaikom Mohammed Basheer and poems of Kamala Suraiya and Sachithanandan were translated into Arabic.

Fyodor Dostoevsky is the pet subject of litterateurs across the world. But, Mr. Perumbadavam says, he decided to approach his favourite protagonist in a different vein and that made all the difference. The novelist made a minute analysis of the life of Dostoevsky, who wrote

Crime and Punishment and other classics, and then realised that he had only two parallels, Jesus Christ and David. Before ascending the pinnacle of divinity, they had to pass through a series of trials. The novelist confesses that he too passed through a traumatic phase before starting the novel. “I was not preoccupied with the style or structure. A spell was cast on me at a particular juncture. All the three characters gripped my mind and I was seized of the style. It was a natural process. I fell into a trance and it lasted till I completed the entire work,” he says.

His well-wishers from different parts of the world have informed him that the translator has succeeded in recreating the soul of the original work. “This is a great recognition for me and Malayalam and it has once again proved that the agony, ecstasy and enigma of the people are the same all over the world. Otherwise, a trans-creation like this would not have been easy,” he says.