தினசெய்தி – 5 3 2023
பக்கம் எண் : 4
அருந்தமிழும் அன்றாட வழக்கும் – 151
அங்கிங்கெனாதபடி ஷேக்ஸ்பியர் !
–
முனைவர் ஔவை அருள்
தில்லி பல்கலைக்கழகத்தில் முனைவர் பட்ட ஆய்வேட்டினை வழங்கியபோது முதல் நிலையில் பல விடுபாடுகள் உள்ளதைச் சுட்டிக்காட்டி மெருகேற்றிப் பல புதிய கருத்துகளைப் பதிவு செய்யும்பொழுது பல நூலகங்களுக்குச் செல்லும் வாய்ப்பு எனக்கு கிடைக்கப்பெற்றது.
குறிப்பாக 90களில் பெரும்புகழ் படைத்த வட சென்னையில் உள்ள பாரிமுனையில் அமைந்த மறைமலையடிகளார் நூலகத்தில் ஷேக்ஸ்பியர் நாடகத்தின் மொழிபெயர்ப்பு நூல்கள் பல எளிய பதிப்புகளாக வெளிவந்ததை அங்கு கண்ணுற்று மகிழ்ந்தேன்.
அந்நாளைய சைவ சித்தாந்த நூற்பதிப்புக் கழகத்தின் நூலகத்தின் உரிமையாளராக மிளிர்ந்த
திரு. முத்துக்குமாரசாமியும் எந்தையாரும் ஒருசால் கல்லூரி மாணாக்கர்களாவார்கள்.
அவர் மிகுந்த ஈடுபாட்டுடன் என் ஆய்வுக்கு உறுதுணையாக ஷேக்ஸ்பியர் நாடகங்களின் தமிழ் மொழிபெயர்ப்புகளின் மென்படியை எடுத்து நூலாகக் கட்டமைத்து என் வசமே தந்ததை எந்நாளும் மறவேன்.
அந்த தில்லிப் பல்கலைக்கழகத்தில் வழங்கிய முனைவர் பட்ட ஆய்வின் இரண்டாம் பகுதி பின்வருமாறு வருமாறு:
INTRODUCTION
The unique genius of Shakespeare transcends all languages, and still touches the spirit of mankind from all backgrounds, all cultures.
No wonder, he is remembered with admiration bordering on reverence by all those who love great literature, particularly those who love words couched in incomparable poetic language.
His plays charged with emotion and poetical outpourings are an inexhaustible reservoir of perennial delight, a marvelous testimony to man’s capacity to keep exploring the heights of creative self-expression.
This paean of praise, uttered by his own immortal creation, Hamlet, is truly applicable to Shakespeare himself.
“What a piece of work is man! How noble in
Reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and
Moving, how express and admirable! In action how
Like an angel!In apprehension how life a god!”
Hamlet. (Act II. Scene.II)
And, as early as 1840, Thomas Carlyle, who could visualize the end of the British Empire in India,had this to say this of Shakespeare:
Well: this is our poor Warwickshire
peasant, who rose to be Manager of
playhouse, so that he could live without
begging: whom he earl of Southampton
cast some kind glances on: whom Sir
Thomas Lucy, many thanks to him, was for
sending to the treadmills! We did not account
him a god, life Odin while he dwelt with us: –
on which point there were much to be said.
But I will say rather, or repeat: Inspite of the
said state Hero – Worship now lies in consider
what this Shakespeare has actually become
among us. Which Englishman we ever
made in this land of ours, which million of
Englishmen, would we not give up rather than
the Stratford Peasant? There is no regiment of
highest dignitaries that we would sell him for.
He is the grandest thing we have yet done. For
our honour among foreign nations, as an
ornament to our English house-hold, What
item is there that we would not surrender
rather than him? Consider now, if they
asked us, will you giveup your Indian
Empire or your Shakespeare, you English;
never have had any Indian Empire, or
never had any Shakespeare? Really it were
a grave question. Official persons would
answer doubtless in official language, but
we, for our part too, should not we be
forced to answer; Indian Empire, or no
Indian Empire We cannot do without
Shakespeare! Indian Empire will go, at any
rate someday; but this Shakespeare does
not go, he lasts forever with us; We cannot
give up our Shakespeare!
It is needless to expound on the subject as to how much, India loves Shakespeare.
The Britishers gave up the Indian Empire,but Indians did not let Shakespeare go.
His plays are an invasion that is still cherished and that is something totally independent of any political influence.
It was not forany one linguistic region, but for the whole of India that Shakespeare provided a constant stimulus by adding to the literary wealthof the various Indian languages. Shakespeare arrived on the Indian scene after the introduction of English education by Lord Macaulay,who as a member of the Committee of Public Instruction, produced a minute on 2nd February 1835, in which he defends the introduction of English Education in India.
“It (English) abounds with works of
Imagination not inferior to the noblest which
Greece has bequeathed to us; with every model
Of every species of eloquence; with historical
Compositions,which, considered merely as
Narrativeshave seldom been surpassed. . . .
Whoever knows that language has already
Access to all the vast intellectual wealth
Which all the wisest nations of the earth
Have created and hoarded in the course of
Ninety generations”
Obviously, he had in mind, the works of Shakespeare, as is evidenced by the fact that while framing the Indian Penal Code, he gives illustrations from Shakespeare’s plays.
Schools and Colleges in India suddenly bristled with activity and got introduced to the texts of Shakespeare’s plays.
At the school level, stories and simplified texts were prescribed, while colleges prescribed the original texts and expected the learners to be capable of a critical appreciation of the plays.
When the scholars felt the impact of the Shakespearean dialogues, they began to render them with gusto, which gave them a feeling of mastery over the English language.
As a consequence, many an educated Indian at the end of his/her academic career had a sound knowledge of the English Language.
Thus, Shakespeare began to be widely read in the original and the appreciation that resulted from such a study was very much like what he got within his own country and wherever his countrymen had settled.
In due course, teachers encouraged their students to display their histrionic talents in school functions with passages from Shakespeare.
Mark Antony’s orations,
Portia’s appeal for mercy, the Seven Ages of Man,
Hamlet’s soliloquy on death and similar well-known passages were set for recitation competitions,
while ‘The Trial scene’ in The Merchant of Venice,
‘The Bed Chamber Scene’ in Othello ‘
The Abdication Scene’ in Richard II,
‘the meeting between Arthur and Hubert’ in King John created popular interest on the stage.
Lecturers in colleges started considering teaching of Shakespeare’s plays as a hallmark of their scholarship.
For long,interpreting Shakespeare to Indian students has been considered one of the best experiences of a teacher’s life and appreciation of Shakespeare was considered the reward for the discipline of learning the English language.
Lawyers quoted passages from Shakespeare in the course of their arguments, while judges sprinkled Shakespearean phrases in their judgments.
When all hopes of survival proved futile, doctors counseled their patients to ‘have faith in God and to minister unto themselves’.
Platform orators exploited Shakespeare’s images and descriptions to whip up the sentiments of the audience.
Some of the exponents of the Harikatha tradition and religious discourses started deepeningthe human faith in God with Shakespeare’s line “
There is a divinity that shapes our ends!”
Here begins the real story of Shakespeare’s influence in India,both, culturally and academically.
Having absorbed Shakespeare, the reading public not only admired Shakespeare’s multi-dimensional personality and the universality of his work, but also became sensitized to drawing literary parallels –
between the rejected Katherine in Henry VIII and the rejected Sita in the Ramayana,
the “lost handkerchief” of Desdemona and the “lost ring” of Sakuntala,
the wifely pleading of Calpurnia with Caesar and the pleadings of Tara with Vali,
the motherly pleading of Volumnia to Coriolanus and Kunti’s appeal to her son Karna.
Such an attitude led to Shakespeare being compared with our great Valmiki or Vyasa or Kambar, defying the barriers of space, time and language, and gave him a contemporaneous position.
As a nation, India started getting tuned to the rhythms of Shakespeare’s pulse beats.
The sum and substance of all this parallelism between Shakespeare and the Indian Epics or plays, is that the romantic tradition of Indian drama, especially Sanskrit and classical Sangam lyrics, in many ways similar to Shakespeare’s romantic art, has been largely responsible for the popularity and acceptability of Shakespeare’s plays.
Wherever such remarkable resemblances existed, it is no wonder that Shakespeare was wholeh eartedly welcomed on the Indian stage.
வளரும் . . . .
– முனைவர் ஔவை அருள்
தொடர்புக்கு dr.n.arul@gmail.com
Add a Comment