How do you translate classic literature for contemporary readers?

It must be a meaningful conversation with the currents, conflicts and concerns of the present.

Parvathy Raveendran

· Jun 25, 2017 · 05:30 pm

A terrible beauty shines through this tea garden poet’s fierce verses on war, freedom, erotica

A raw, energetic voice that illuminates the dream of a better world.

Nabina Das

· May 27, 2017 · 05:30 pm

Fourteen Marathi classics, handpicked by Bhalchandra Nemade, that must be read (and translated)

A list distilled from traditional and modern Marathi literature.

Devapriya Roy

· Mar 19, 2017 · 03:30 pm

Here’s a literary quiz: What’s common to Ladakhi, Kurukh, Halbi and Saurashtra?

Will the works of the Sahitya Akademi award-winners for ‘unrecognised’ languages survive or be washed away?

Devapriya Roy

· Mar 04, 2017 · 06:30 pm

First read: The story of the boxer who had to win more bouts outside the ring than in it

Two novellas about a boxer by Moti Nandy, whose sports-based fiction remains unique in India, perhaps the world.

Moti Nandy

· Oct 24, 2016 · 08:30 am

International Translation Day: Why I read Tagore in translation (and why I translate)

The burden of reading in the original alone can impose a form of cultural chauvinism.

Somrita Urni Ganguly

· Sep 30, 2016 · 06:00 pm

This Tamil novel laid bare the politics and divisiveness of Malayalam literature

‘I detest my adversaries, I am ashamed of my disciples.’ An excerpt from Tamil writer Sundara Ramaswamy’s scathing satire ‘JJ: Some Jottings’.

Sundara Ramaswamy

· Sep 07, 2016 · 08:30 am

‘Sharing’: A short story to remember Punjabi writer Gurdial Singh (1933 - 2016)

A tender village tale of love and longing by Punjab’s celebrated Jnanpith-award winning fiction writer, who died on August 16.

Gurdial Singh

· Aug 18, 2016 · 08:30 am

What do we do with a kameez in English? The translator’s fashion dilemma

In Upendranath Ashk’s Hindi novel, ‘Jumper-numa kameez mein uske patli-patli gori baanhen…’ present a serious translation challenge.

Daisy Rockwell

· Jun 26, 2016 · 07:30 am

This man was writing wicked satire 100 years ago in Calcutta – and it’s funnier than ever now

Satyajit Ray’s father Sukumar Ray used nonsense as a potent form of social and political commentary.

Chandak Sengoopta

· Jun 08, 2016 · 08:30 am

How the Natyashastra was born (and the inevitable disruption of early performances)

A translation of the ancient text reveals the beginnings of the art of drama in Indian mythology, complete with its political implications.

Devapriya Roy

· May 29, 2016 · 02:30 pm

Do you understand me? Translation in India after the classics

A poet and scholar offers bird’s eye view of how translation has progressed from colonial times to the present.

K Satchidanandan

· May 15, 2016 · 05:30 pm