தினசெய்தி – 7 5 2023
பக்கம் எண் : 4
அருந்தமிழும் அன்றாட வழக்கும் – 160
சேக்ஸ்பியர் நாடகத்தின் முதல் தமிழாக்கம்
முனைவர் ஔவை அருள்
தில்லிப் பல்கலைக்கழகத்தில் நான் 28 ஆண்டுகளுக்கு முன்பு வழங்கிய முனைவர் பட்ட ஆய்வின் பத்தாம் பகுதி வருமாறு :
Dramatic literature in Tamil, in the real sense of the term, is a comparatively recent phenomenon.
One can say that Shakespeare also played a notable role in the modern revival of drama in Tamil literature through the translation of his plays.
The introduction was made easy because English had become the medium of instruction in schools and colleges and the British Principals also encouraged such performances on important occasions like college anniversaries.
Shakespeare had also become a familiar author to the educated Indians as they were in simple prose style and the early renderings were only adaptations.
The earliest of the Tamil translations of Shakespeare, a mixture of prose summary and dialogue of “The Merchant of Venice” was done in 1870 by V. Viswanatha Pillai, official translator in the Office of the Director of Public Instruction, Madras.
Another example of an early translation of Shakespeare appeared in the Tamil Text prescribed for the Matriculation Examination of the University of Madras of 1889 that contained prose renderings of Macbeth and stories of King Arthur. Perdita and Miranda Colleges came forward to enact scenes from Shakespeare, probably improvised for the occasion by the teachers.
Besides students, the members of the local public who patronized and ran dramatic clubs, particularly in cities like Madras, took Shakespeare to the wider populace.
One can safely say that the first translators of Shakespeare were
V. Viswanatha Pillai (1870),
Venugopalacharyar (1874), S.Narayanaswamy Iyer (1893)
and
T.R.Salachalosana Chetiar (1897).
The first three have given a faithful rendering of the originals and the last one, an adaptation.
The rest of the plays translated before 1900 were all prose renderings that ignored the development of the Shakesperean plot.
The common objective of most of the pioneers was to give the main plot of the play in a readable third person narrative.
An awareness of the way these works were conceptualized and written will help one in assessing and appreciating the merits of a translated piece, though the views are varied.
Tamil writers, professors, artists, academicians, scholars, thinkers, critics and actors have made bold experiments in translating, transcreating, transforming and presenting story versions of Shakespeare.
This was largely due to kindred sensibilities and motivating forces of the great savants in the field of Tamil Drama.
3
THE THREE GREAT PRECURSORS
The trio,
Prof. Sundaram Pillai (1855 – 1897),
V. G. Surya Narayana Sastriar (1870 – 1903)
and Swami Vibulanandha (1892 – 1947) were the early pioneers, who exerted a major influence in inspiring Tamil Dramatic art and the study of Shakespeare in Tamil Nadu.
Dramatic art precedes dramatic literature.
There are accounts of savage, semi civilized and civilized races possessing some kind of music and dancing, the primitive root from which has sprung modern drama.
Movement and tone based on rhythm, have in all countries, grown into separate systems.
From a mute representation of emotion through gestures, to a vocal representation, is a transition which, at times, one is likely to overdo.
Shakespeare himself gives a caution in Hamlet.
Speak the Speech, I pray you, as I pronounced
It to you, trippingly on the tongue: but if you
Mouth it as many of your players do, I had as
Life the town crier spoke my lines. Do not saw the
Air too much with your hand thus, but use all gently;
For in the very torrent, tempest and as I may say,
The whirlwind of passion, you must acquire
And beget a temperance that may give it
Smoothness. O, it offends me to the soul,
to hear a robustious periwig pated fellow
tear a passion to tatters to very rags, to
split the ears of the groundlings, who for
the most part are capable of nothing but
inexplicable dumb shows and noise. . .
Be not too tame neither, but let your own
discretion be your tutor; suit the action to
the word, the word to the action; with this
special observance, that you o’er step not
the modesty of nature; for anything so
overdone is from the purpose of playing,
whose end, both at the first and now, was
and is, to hold, as there, the mirror up to nature. . . .
(Act – III Scene II)
– முனைவர் ஔவை அருள்
தொடர்புக்கு dr.n.arul@gmail.com
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