தினசெய்தி – 19 3 2023
பக்கம் எண் : 4
அருந்தமிழும் அன்றாட வழக்கும் – 153
அங்கிங்கெனாதபடி ஷேக்ஸ்பியர் !
முனைவர் ஔவை அருள்
தில்லிப் பல்கலைக்கழகத்தில் நான் வழங்கிய முனைவர் பட்ட ஆய்வின் நான்காம் பகுதி பின்வருமாறு:
The renowned scholar translator T.N.Ramachandran exemplifies how the Saiva Siddanta concept of ‘Iruvinaioppu’ is best illustrated in Shakespeare.
The Bard uses the word ‘blood’ in a peculiar sense.
Blood that is stirred by passion was antithetical to reason and reflection as in these words of Hamlet addressed to Horatio.
A man that fortune’s buffets and rewards
Hath ta’en with equal thanks.
Blest are those
Whose blood and judgement are so
Well commingled that
They are not a pipe for fortune’s fingers,
To sound what stop she please.
Give me that man
That is not passion’s slave, and I will wear him
In my heart’s core, ay, in my heart of heart.
(Act III, Scene II)
If one looks at AkalikaiVenba, yet another scholarly work by V.P.SubramaniaMudaliar,
the behaviourial pattern of the characters, their thought processes and speech modes have all been modeled on a blend between the Dravidian and English traditional concepts.
As an instance, the author says that the altercation between Akalikai and Indira find parallels in some of the profound utterances of Shakespeare, though the Bard wrote these much later.
V. P. Subramania Mudaliar is the one who has collected the different stories about Akalikai available now and he should know.
In his scholarly translation of Bharathi’s PanchaliSapatham, (The Oath of Draupathi), the translator T.N.Ramachandran has located a number of Shakesperean parallels.
He says that the poignant words of Dhritarashtra are the same as those of King Henry.
Yea, there thou mak’st me sad, and
Mak’st me sin, in envy
Henry IV, Part I, (Act I, Scene 1)
Or Dharma’s resignation to fate reminiscent of Hamlet’s words
‘There is a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough – hey them how we will.”
Hamlet(act v, scene II)
Or,the way Arjuna is enticed in the game of dice is likened to the lines in
‘The Merchant of Venice’
‘The seeming truth which cunning times put on
To entrap the wisest”.
(Act III,Scene II)
Or Sakuni’senticing words that are the very words of the cruel queen of
Cymbeline………….”
I never do him wrong
But he does buy my injuries to be friends-
Pays dear for my offences
(Act I,scene I)
In recent times,it is said that Bharathidasan attempted a translation of The Merchant of Venice,but unfortunately, the manuscripts have not come out in print.
It is generally believed that the great poet Bharathidasan must have read or listened to the readings of Shakeaspeare’s plays whose impact is seen in his script of the movie ‘Ponmudi’, an emotional replica of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet.
Likewise, the speeches of the revolutionary poet in his ‘BilhananKathai’may have been inspired by the emotional speeches of Mark Antony in Julius Caeser.
In fact, the impact of Shakespeare on Tamil literature or the hunt for literary parallels between Tamil classics, ancient or modern, could actually be a fruitful source for many doctoral dissertations.
The Bard of Avon, his attitudes, his insights and vision of life as a whole, were very inviting to the Indian sensibilities and set the Indian hearts ablaze.
This helped in his influence gaining hold throughout India, in general and Tamilnadu, in particular.
The first translations of Shakespeare’s plays were made in Bengali by Michael MadhusudhanDutt.
It is interesting to note that a road in Kolkata has been named after Shakespeare and this is but an example of the admiration of the Bengalis for the great playwright.
The first English editions of Shakespeare’s plays are said to have arrived only in Kolkata, when it was the capital of the Britishers.
The European settlers are believed to have spent their evening hours in reading and enacting scenes from Shakespeare.
Individual characters like Prospero, Falstaff, Shylock and Lady Percy were also represented on the stage.
Thus,it was in Bengal that Shakespeare was introduced in India by the British.
If one looks at Hindi, there are ten versions of “The Tempest”and Rangeya Raghava’s “Toofan” is a close translation in unrhymed free verse.
Henry IV Parts (I) and (II) have been rendered into prose by Ganga Prasad. “Romeo andJuliet”, Shakespeare’s famous love tragedy, has had several versions, out of which, four are in the form of prose narratives.
Of Julius Caesar,one finds a rendering in prose and two full translations by Lala Sitaram, and Rangeya Raghava.
Lala Sitaram’s translation of “Hamlet”is all in prose, but his “Othello”isfar superior to “Hamlet”.“
Macbeth” has been translated by as many as ten persons andHarivansh Rai Bachan’s“Macbeth” is a memorable contribution and perhaps the first Hindi version of “Macbeth”, to be staged.Ganga Prasad has also attempted a prose rendering of “Antony and Cleopatra”.
There are many translations of Shakespeare in Sanskrit too.Guide Rao Harkare of Hyderabad (1887-1973),amultilinguist has translated Shakespeare’sHamlet and A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream in Sanskrit
.Prof.SukayeMukhopadhya,a Professor in the University of Calcutta, translated Hamlet into Sanskrit and published it in 1981 to which Dr.V.Raghavan, Professor and Head of the Dept. of Sanskrit of the University of Madras, has given a foreword in English.
This also shows that even in those days, the scholars worked together when it came down to classics.
AnanthaTirupathiSarma of Birhampur has translated many plays of Shakespeare into Sanskrit.
Some of them have been published in the journal ‘Manorama’ and a few came out in book form, between 1960 &70.
It would not be a hyperbole to say that the person, who had the most impact on the English educated Sanskrit scholars, was Shakespeare, as it is supported by the fact that there are quite a few scholarly works comparing Kalidasa with the Bard or reinterpreting Kalidasa through the Bard.
It is also seen that through and with translation,linguists learn what a language lacks and also learn how to make good this deficiency.
Along with the language, the translator also learns to use new phrases,images and new forms of expression.
Dryden acquired that while translating Virgil,and Pope while translating Homer.Along with translations, there are also adaptations and an adaption while similar to the original, need not be identical.
Thus, an adaption of Shakespeare would be anything that is Shakesperean.
It may not represent, at times, the actual work of Shakespeare, but it does add to the literature of that language.
Among the south Indian languages, besides Tamil, there have been quite a few translations and adaptations of the well-known plays of Shakespeare.
Shakespeare’s great works in Malayalam started the journey as early as 1866 and today many a Malayali author would agree on the influence of Shakespeare in their writings.
Kainikkara Padmanbha Pillai, Kainikkara Kumara Pillai, EM Kuvoor and Muttathu Varki are just a few names from the long list of those who have been influenced by the Bard’s work.
Likewise, in Telugu,quite a few plays of Shakespeare have been translated. KandhukooriVeerasalingam Panthalu (1846-1919) has translated The Merchant of Venice (Venisu Varthaka Udhanthalu) and The Comedy of Errors (SamathkaraRathnavalli), which were published in 1880.
Adiphadla Narayanadasu, a scholar and multilinguist,has authored many plays and has translated many oft-quoted sayings of Shakespeare in Telugu and published them in a book form.His ‘NavarasaTarangini’ compares the nine rasas or moods in the works of Kalidasa and Shakespeare and is considered a seminal work in Telugu.
Durba Ramamoorthy (1908-1981), a Lecturer in English in Venkatagiri College,Nellore, has translated Shakespeare’s Hamlet in Telugu.
For centuries after the great dramatic tradition of Sanskrit,drama was regarded merely as a source of entertainment and not as a great literary medium of human expression.
But with the introduction of Shakespeare into India there came a renewed sense of realization that drama was not merely a thing of thrills and laughter but a true mirror of life.
So in a way Shakespeare rekindled the interest in portraying human emotions and holding a mirror to the society using plays.
வளரும் . . . .
– முனைவர் ஔவை அருள்
தொடர்புக்கு dr.n.arul@gmail.com
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