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The best of times, the worst of times

Completed in 1958, Indra Bahadur Rai’s only novel was finally published in 1964, at a time when Nepali was still not considered an official language in India.
Kurchi Dasgupta
Published at : November 18, 2017
Updated at : November 18, 2017 08:53

But translating a South Asian language into English has its hazards. The differences in syntax is the most immediate and obvious. The act of representing a regional text through a language so heavily charged with its own colonialist history must also throw up certain challenges.

So I had to ask, ‘How would you define the English you have translated into? Also, would you like to comment on the issue of translating into a language like English given its colonial/postcolonial burden?’, to which Thapa responded with: “In postcolonial literature, English is open to being occupied by non-English subjects. I enjoy that as a writer, and I enjoy that as a translator.

It’s especially gratifying to bring this particular story into English, given Darjeeling’s history as a British ‘hill station,’ and the romance it used to enjoy in the colonial imagination.

I wanted to translate the novel into standard UK/US English, rather than South Asian English, to give it as wide a readership as possible. There are, of course, many Nepali terms in it still.

But I wanted the translation to read as a standard UK/US English novel about South Asia would. It’s a special joy to be able to bring a story from one of India’s smaller languages into English, and to help expand its reach beyond the Northeast and Nepal, where it’s already a well-revered classic.”

The last sentence in Rai’s foreword reads, ‘And another thing: it seems to be possible to write only about people you like.’ I remember reading somewhere that ‘one should never translate anything one does not admire.’ At the launch of There’s a Carnival Today, Thapa pointed out that the reason she was drawn towards the project was because she felt an affinity towards the style and content of IB Rai’s writing, an immediate resonance as she entered his world.

And it was this joy of discovery that she wanted to bring to her readers: ‘For the reader’s enjoyment is, in the end, my goal. I enjoyed reading this novel in its original, and I have enjoyed translating it into English,’ she wrote in the translator’s note.

It is this joy that spills out from every word and turn of phrase as she dexterously transfers the original Nepali into English, for no amount of empathy or skill can make a good translation unless the translator feels at one with the source text’s world view and stylistic grace. 

But why Aaja Ramita Chha? At the end of the day, translation is about the choices the translator makes while recoding the original into a target language.  These choices stem from the translator’s cultural, ideological, historical and linguistic location and affinities.

Thapa could have chosen any other novel from an extensive Nepali corpus. My guess would be that her choice of Rai rests on his distinctive style that recurrently weaves together the realistic with the experimental avant garde, and his commitment towards recording effective history, which are elements that Thapa herself negotiates consistently through her own oeuvre.

There’s a Carnival Today may not be a word for word replica of Aaja Ramita Chha, but it is a very fine version of it. We must thank her for making accessible to a non-Nepali readership a work of such vigour, intellectual depth and formal elegance. 





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