The first week of blogging, I chanced upon a priceless treasure - the translation of Sivagamiyin Sabadham, the immortal epic by Kalki. Needless to say, I immediately scuba-dived in to it and in three days caught up with the author (only the first book has been completed and the author, Pavithra is still working on the second book).
I experienced the same exhiliration that I felt when I read the original a few years back. Narasimhar and Sivagami haunted me through sleepless nights and a sort of passion burned in me. Just as before.
Incidentally, Kalki's other great works have also been translated, also by youngesters. C.V.Karthik Narayanan has translated and published "Ponniyin Selvan" in a set of five books (as was the original) and a Nirupama Raghavan has published "Parthiban Kanavu". Apparently both the translations were quite good.
If someone reading this blog has read those works, kindly comment.
Translating classics, in general is a thankless job. No matter how hard you work on it, readers will always feel that it isn't the same thing as the original. Pavithra's work deserves the praise for a job being done well. I am positive that if Kalki was alive today, he would be very very proud of her masterful retelling of the Sivagamiyin Sabadham. Can't wait to see it all done.
I bless my parents' forethought when they insisted on me learning Tamil in school. As they put it, "What is life worth if you haven't read, enjoyed and savoured Kalki" (and Sujatha and Balakumaran and...). I have initiated many a friend to Kalki and sympathised with some of them who haven't been able to, because of their 'tamil illiteracy'. I am glad that now they can read these classics too. I am gladder that Kalki's classics, which were written in the first place to introduce and to give a sense of pride of the Tamil culture hasn't lost appeal among youngsters and endured the test of time.
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