Shabari: A Novel

Back of the Book Translating a myth-narrative poses several types of challenges at the linguistic and semantic levels, as the myth of the source-text needs to be transplanted into the collective psyche of the target audience. In the process, the myth undergoes a cultural metamorphosis to reach out to the concerns of the target culture. The task of the translator is doubly compounded because, not merely is the translator supposed to carry the myth in the narrative to a new culture but work closely with the target language so that the myth does not become "an alien myth" after translation.

The work in question Shabari in English translation, demonstrates a curious amalgamation of "equivalence and difference". In order to render the cultural nuances of the tribal world, the translators of the text, Basavaraj Donur and Aravinda Mitra, have incorporated their own creative and innovative impulses, without at the same time, compromising with the extra-linguistic concerns of the source-text. As against choosing a uniform monolithic English, the translators have utilized "heterogeneous englishes". I believe, this act is a significant move that "nativizes and tribalizes English", and also transplants the mythic and tribal experiences into a language that does not know such a phenomenon.

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