International Translation Day: Translated books that translators from Indian languages recommend

Jason Grunebaum, translator from Hindi to English

I recommend Zero Degree by Charu Nivedita, brilliantly translated from Tamil by Rakesh Khanna and Pritham K Chkravarty. The book’s dedication to Kathy Acker signals that we’re in baudy and riotously experimental terrain. There’s a manic genius to Nivedita’s prose that pulsates with life and lust, with a few multiple-choice quizzes thrown in, while the lucky reader traverses genres and canons from Pondicherry to Patagonia.

Jayasree Kalathil, translator from Malayalam to English

Father may be an elephant and mother only a small basket, but… is Shyamala’s first collection of short stories translated from Telugu. Translated by Diia Rajan, Sashi Kumar, A Suneetha, N Manohar Reddy, R Srivatsan, Git Ramaswamy, Uma Bhrugubanda, P Pavana, and Duggirala Vasanta, the stories are rooted firmly in the author’s lived world, her connection with her community and family, and the myriad pleasures, pains, challenges, and triumphs within. The book is deeply connected to its ecology, geography, caste, gender and socio-political realities, its food, music and culture.

In Telugu, Shyamala writes in the language used by Dalits in the Tandur region of western Telangana. By its very insistence on appearing on the written page, it makes an intervention into the politics of language and how it is mainstreamed....

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