Re : reasons to read Nanayya's Mahabharatam
Ramabhadra Dokka (sdokka@st6000.sct.edu)
Thu, 12 Sep 1996 14:08:17 -0400 (EDT)
aravinda pillalamarri says :
> Here is a question: Would anyone who could read Sanskrit be interested in
> reading Nannaya's _Andhra Mahabharatamu_? Is this work valuable only for
> people who cannot read the Mahabharatam in Sanskrit and must therefore get
> it in Telugu?
Answer for the first part of the question is 'Why not ?' and for the second
part of it is I don't think so. Here is an explanation on why is it so..:-)
Any translation -anuvAda prakriya- in general is not a mere verbatim
translation as it brings along with it among many other things, the opinions,
style, thoughts of the person who is doing the translation and to some extent
the beauty of the language that it is being translated into.
IMHO, this applies to every kind of translation including the epics, ghazals
or simple cine songs where the quality of translation is subject to the
ability or potential of the translator. Ofcourse, there is no question
about it, if the translator is a poet of 'nannaya' stature and I am sure there
will always be readers who enjoy reading both the translation as well as
the original.
> Question 2: Since there are many translations of Vyasa's Mahabharata,
> would there any interest in translating from Telugu into English as well?
> Would this be considered further from the original, being a translation
> of a translation, or have any literary value in its own right?
What ever is the reason for translating a piece (whether to get popularized
among people who don't know the source language or something else), every
translation is ought to be considered atleast equal in value to the original,
if not more. So, even if it is a question of translation of a translation
it has its own value in literature. Let's not bring in the issue of quality
of translation here, which is subjective.
regards..
- Ram (Ramabhadra Dokka from sdokka@st6000.sct.edu)