DR. RATHI SAXENA: THE HINDI POETESS IN LOVE WITH MALAYALAM LANGUAGE
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| Dr.Rathi Saxena, Thiruvananthapuram |
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27 years ago, when Dr.Rathi Saxena from Rajastan first came to Kerala, the vegetable seller here had to communicate to her in sign language. Today she is a well-known Hindi-Malayalam translator whose Hindi version of Dr.Ayyappa Paniker’s poems won the Kendra Sahitya Academy Award for best translation in 2000.
Apart from Dr.Panicker’s works, she has translated Balamani Amma, Kamala Das and Thakazhi into Hindi. It is not only in literary life that she loves Malayalam. Her 2 daughters, when they were studying in the Central School here, chose Malayalam as a language for study, though they could have easily chosen Sanskrit for scoring marks.
Dr.Rathi, who is a poetess in her own right, came in contact with Malayalam when her husband, Dr. Pradeep Kumar, joined Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre here. Her mode of translation is like this: she listens to someone reading the verse or prose. Later the work is converted into Devanagari script and translated. Then she will do one more reading to find out the aesthetic elements to be added to the translation.
Translating an abridged version of Thakazhi’s ‘Kayar’, especially its beginning was a challenge, she says. Words like ‘karanavar’ used to frighten me, she says.
In order to better translate the works, she makes it a point to read books on Kerala History and Social Life. For someone who is doing so much for the language, the reciprocal action came recently when her Hindi poems were translated into Malayalam.
Courtesy: Sujith Nair, Malayala Manorama, December 31, 2002
Contributed by: Administrator
