It has always been my dream to translate Ponniyin Selvan, the great epic story by Kalki Krishnamoorthy. It has the right mixture of everything that is needed for an epic story - History, romance, adventure, battles, treason, secrets and sacrifice.
My interest in Ponniyin Selvan started during the summer holidays from school. I guess I must have been 8 or 9 years old then. During those long summer holidays we used to sit in the verandah discussing everything under the sun. And whenever my father came home early from work we (my sister and I) used to make him to tell us a story.
First he told us stories like the Mahabharata and the Ramayana and later he proceeded to interesting epic histories like Ponniyin Selvan. The characters of Ponniyin Selvan captured my imagination. I wanted desperately to read the book. At that time I didn't even know to read Tamil. My father told me that my aunt had the entire 5-part novel in her possession. The next time I met my aunt I sweet-talked her into giving me all the parts of Ponniyin Selvan promising her that I would return them the very next week. (I never kept my promise though. They are still with me. Thankfully she seems to have forgotten about it!)
I had the novel with me but I did not know to read. I somehow managed to learn the alphabets from an elementary Tamil book and proceeded to read through the novel. My first reaction was that there was so much my father had omitted in his narrative. And the second was I wanted to read it all over again. So I proceeded to read it all over again and again and again. I still am not sure how many times I have read it! You can say it is a bit addictive. One does not want to come out of that era.
For the past few years since I began to write for a hobby I had wanted to translate this epic history into English. Hope you enjoy reading this epic history as much as I enjoyed retelling it.
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2 comments:
You hit the nail when u say the novel is addictive. No doubt it has been an inspiration for you, me and thousands of proud tamil readers around the world. It has inspired you to retell the epic in english while it has fuelled me to write my own historic fiction (the cloud of the princess). No matter in which way, we can be sure it pushes readers to contribute to tamil literature in one way or the other.
Sumeetha, i haven't read your verison of it yet. But surely will do and let you know my comments.
Great Sumeetha.. :)
The list of ardent admirers for Ponniyin Selvan is infinite.. Even some of the internet community friends planned a trip to all those places described in the novel! I can imagine how people would have waited with excitement for the next chapter- when the novel was first published in kalki every week!! I read it atleast once a year -from my school days.. Nice to see that you've extended your interest to translating the novel :) all the best, keep going :)
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