-Sajan Subedi
Abstract
Silver Cascades Timeless Stories From Nepal is a translated version of an anthology of twenty different short stories penned by veteran litterateurs of different times. It has been translated by Mahesh Paudyal. The anthology consists of short stories from the writers of different genre, gender, style and upbringing. This has made the anthology a wreath of diverse flowers. It has encompassed the modernist litterateur Guru Prasad Mainali, contemporary Maya Thakuri, Aayameli (Dimentional) Indra Bahadur Rai, and BP Koirala, known as the writer of sexual psychology to mention a few.
Keywords
Scoundrels, acrid, cross with indignation, yonder, fie on you, accursed ones
Introduction
The anthology starts from Guru Prasad Mainali’s A Blaze in The Straw and ends at War by Maya Thakuri. The stories Son of My Dreams (Parijaat), The Husband (Prema Shah), A Sweater For Brother In Law (Poshan Pandey) depicts the picture of sexual and psychological phenomenon of women. Likewise The Magnificient Buffalo (Ramesh Bikal), An Empty Apartment (Parashu Pradhan), The Price of Fish (Shiva Kumar Rai) try to reflect the exploitation of the so called elites or Jamindaars to the poor or lower class people with their settings in Terai region.
The anthology has given room for the works focusing on human relationships as well. Towards Madhesh (BP Koirala), Relationships (Sanat Regmi), Parental Home (Madhab Bhandari), Annapurna’s Feast (Manu Brajaki) are some chosen stories that are basically related to human relationship. Likewise, My Little Friend (Bhawani Bhikshu) depits a picture of human behavior that people are psychologically attracted to the little things done by innocent children.
Translation is not an easy task. It requires certain capabilities to understand the original language of the work and the target language. On top of that, translating literary works like poems, drama, stories and anecdotes do require really special flair and craftsmanship and it still lacks the real essence of the original one.
Anuradha Dingwaney Needham in her work Between Languages and Cultures says, ‘Translated texts are often either uncritically consumed by readers, teacher, and scholars or seen to represent an ineluctable loss, a diminishing of original texts. Translation, however, is a cultural practice, influenced also by social and political imperatives, which can open more doors than it closes.’
It is said that one should be well versed in the target language than the one the works are written. In such a case, Mahesh Paudyal, the translator, has tried to go against the current; translating modern to contemporary short stories ranging from different genre, style and depiction to the second language; English. The translator has tried not to translate but transliterate the entire short stories using different trendy and out of fashion words and phrases to make the transliteration up to closest level. Scoundrels for Murdharharu, Acccursed ones for Marna nasakekaharu/bajiyaharu in A blaze in the straw are the typical examples of them.
Language structure of the translation is simple n terms of the words used but complex in terms of sentence formation to meet the essence of the original text. Footnotes provided in each page (where needed) has made it easy to understand the typical words and their etymology as the book is aimed at non Nepali speaking people.
Some grammatical and punctuation mistakes like Lukhe for Lukhure and the missing uses of punctuation marks like semi colons have made the book quite light as its target readers are foreigners who might have already gone through different levels of literary books from the selected authors from different corners of the world.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, this anthology of translated selected masterpieces of different times and litterateurs is a must go through book for the ones who love to read fiction works. It is suitable for Nepali readers who have already gone through the original texts in Nepali to understand the translation and transliteration aspect of literary work. A good collection for the ones who are eager in translation and transliteration works of both fiction and non-fiction works, Silver Cascades The Timeless Stories Of Nepal serves to be a feast to treat their eyes and mind.
Reference:
Paudyal, Mahesh/2019/ Silver Cascades Timeless Stories From Nepal / Bookhill Publication/ Kalikasthan/Kathmandu
ISBN: 978-9937-9351-0-4
