Vishes Kothari, a translator based in Kolkata, translates from the Rajasthani into English. Working in a critically underrepresented language in literary translations, Kothari has assiduously translated one of Rajasthan’s most important writer – Vijaydan Detha. The first book in translation of Detha’s stories, Timeless Tales from Marwar, was targeted at a younger readership. His second – another one by Detha – The Garden of Tales are stories meant for adult readers. This only confirms the appeal of Detha to generations of readers across languages.
In a conversation with Scroll, Kothari talked about translating the master, the future of Rajasthani literature, and the one cardinal rule he never fails to follow while translating. Excerpts from the conversation:
The recently published The Garden of Tales is your second translation of Vijaydan Detha’s short stories. What is it about his writing that you admire so much? What sets him apart from his contemporaries?
Vijaydan Detha is the most important prose writer of the 20th century. His stories are familiar to all of us from Rajasthan and yet his tellings and re-tellings remain magical. The lightness of his prose – so characteristic of oral traditions, his dark humour, his refusal to romanticise the village or the life of the common men and women from whose points of view his stories are told, and his insistence that he would only write in his mother tongue…all these truly set him apart.
The Garden of Tales and Timeless Tales from Marwar were published in quick succession. If you were to look back at both projects, what would you say was the most challenging aspects of translating Detha?
There were all the usual challenges that translating between languages and cultures usually poses. But here there were two additional ones – how to keep the orality of these stories alive in English. Detha had perfected the art in Rajasthani, and it was important that I strike the right note in English.
The second was how to keep Rajasthan alive in the English translation – what devices should be used? I ended up using various devices – but I suppose finding a balance between representation and pastiche can be tricky.
Can you briefly tell me how contemporary Rajasthani literature is faring? For example, What are writers writing about, what are the readers interested in, and is the language thriving in its written form?
When I am in the urban centres in Rajasthan or diaspora hubs outside, I feel a sense of despair. Everywhere, young people who otherwise come from Rajasthani-speaking homes – seem completely brainwashed into using Hindi, as if Rajasthani isn’t a language worthy of being spoken by educated, urbane, young people.
However, at the same time, I can’t help but marvel at how the language is thriving outside these urban centres. Particularly heartening has been the huge adoption of the language on social media. All manner of influencers – comics, cooks, food bloggers, photographers, those who document the daily life of cities and people – everywhere, newer idioms of cultural expression in the language has opened up. The Rajasthani Yuva Samiti has done a great job of creating awareness and mobilising the Instagram generation.
Written literature is however a different matter. Audiences are limited and it appears writers write mostly for their set circles, and perhaps for the various awards. However, there is definitely good literature also being written. Class conflict, Dalit literature, Adivasi literature, including writing in older, more feudal idioms – all sorts of literature continue to be written.
Are there any words/phrases/emotions in the Rajasthani language that, according to you, are untranslatable?
I find caste connotations to be very specific to Rajasthan. We are an incredibly diverse culture an these connotations are easily lost in translation. Seth, sethani, thakar, thakrani, jaat, jaatni…all these don’t work when translated into English. So I retain the originals from Rajasthani itself.
Other than Vijaydan Detha, which authors are you interested in translating?
While there is still a vast amount of Detha’s literature that remains unavailable in English, I do want to look at other authors for now. But it is a bit premature to begin talking specifics just yet!
Finally, what is that one cardinal rule that you as a translator never fail to abide by?
I try to refrain from intervening in the text as far as possible. Even though I understand the translator cannot just be an intermediary, I still think it is my duty to maintain fidelity to the original in so far as translation allows.
