Tuesday, August 17, 2010

My translation of a Gujarati short story by Shri Pravinsinh Chavda, * The Selected Works of Pushpak Bhandari*, is published in Brooklyn Rail In translation.

http://bit.ly/9dEY8q

A writer’s identity is a fragile thing, but what happens when two writers living in the same city share the same name?There is a certain terseness in the original, an abruptness, that I've struggled to do justice to.

14 comments:

ricercar said...

wow! this is so great (again):-)

Anonymous said...

Congratulations! And many more!

A terrible thing, the Doppelgaenger, the double,das Phantom ... identity and what is left of it, or stolen. But most of the time one is walking together with the other, dem Anderen der man auch ist.

I will head over and follow the link at once.

AmitL said...

heyyy...congrats...I had what i call a 'quick read'-more engrossed reading when I'm in Baroda-Friday.:)Waise,one word makes me curious-what's the Gujarati term for ' with blinkers on'?(Aankhon upar patti?)

norrbu said...

congratulations austere di - I'll read it as soon as I find some time.

PQ said...

Congratz!!! U r going places...keep it up!!!

Anonymous said...

?
Busy?

shiv said...

Congrats...!!

shiv said...

wonderful job !!! and a wonderful story ... u have brought it out well. I think the only difficult piece for you would have been bringing out the essence and the difference between the two " Who is Pushpak Bhandari?"s... since i know the language, i translated it back again to rearrange the words to catch the essence( kon chhe aa pushpak bhandari, and aa pushpak bhandari kon chhe??.. am i right??).... wonderful job , once again

My Unfinished Life said...

congrats!!......

austere said...

shooting-- thank you.

shiv-- thank you, and you got it right, but this is one of the instances, even the paras about the lady00 describing her strong personality, were tough to do. WE say 'mobho" in gujarati, what is the English equiv.?

mago-- throw up my hands at the net and comp Gods...a conspiracy, I tell you.

PQ--shukriya

norrbu-- thank you.

amit 0 thank you, will look up. welcome back to baroda

mago- and I have three, one in a similar field...so funny, isn't it?

Anonymous said...

I'm cloned.

austere said...

ha ha ha.
I KNEW I was talking to a ghost. :)

Arunima said...

very nice, but i did not get the story esp. the ending.

congratulations!

austere said...

arunima- ty.
the guy who becomes famous after he is dead, and the one who is celebrated across nations, is the poor industrial worker.

And not the great celebrity.