Translating the Untranslatable: An Appraisal of Vaikom Muhammed Basheer’s “Vishwavikhyathamaya Mookku”

Abstract

Translation facilitates studying literature in a comparative framework. India, being a multilingual nation with rich vernacular literary traditions, opens an opportunity for a panoramic view of its cultural mosaic. Translation studies have become the need of the hour, and their development will take place as programmes in world literature expand, and the vital role of translation in the propagation of world literature will continue to be highlighted. The etymology of the word translation suggests that meaning is picked up bodily from one culture, transported across a frontier, expressed across the chasm that separates a language from the other and deposited unaltered on the other side. Edward Sapir has rightly said that different languages represent different world views and that it is not simply a question of rephrasing when one moves into another language. The paper will begin by evaluating Malayalam literary stalwart Vaikom Muhammed Basheer’s “Vishwavikhyathamaya Mookku” with a kaleidoscopic view of linguistic provenances. Basheer is placed in the high altar of Malayalam literature as his literary creations are marked by the down-to-earth narration and sheer verities of the lives of ordinary folk. This titan of Malayalam literature, affectionately addressed as 'Beypore Sultan', has earned a distinctive mark of his own in Kerala as a humanist, writer, freedom fighter, and novelist. Languages develop over time, and words accrue significance. The main challenge faced by translators is how far they are able to convey the same meaning without causing any damage to the subtle linguistic nuances and cultural flavour of a target language. The intended study likes to throw light upon the role of translation in the field of comparative literature and how it enables us to "read between the lines" with the aid of its English translation entitled “The World-Renowned Nose”.