Writing for frontline.in, K. Satchidanandan notes that “With India’s plurilingual heritage, translation, with its accretions, adaptations and substitutions, was often a reinterpretation of the ‘original.’ It continues to be a way of having a living dialogue with our past and between our different cultures.”
India is, it seems, a nation meant for translation, a land where “it is difficult to come across monolinguals,” a nation whose “literature is founded on direct or free translations since the various Ramayanas, Mahabharatas and Bhagavatas in different languages, including tribal and folk versions and performative improvisations, have been the very foundations of our rich literatures.” And even when the short story and modern novel came to India, “these epic, magical fables and folktales served as indigenous models for storytelling.” More.
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