I retained the Hindi words in many places to give a ‘feel’ of the time and place of the book, but overall, I tried to remain as truthful as I could to the emotions of the book rather than do a literal, word-by-word translation. My task was not made any easier by the fact that Dharamvir Bharati’s Hindi is so exquisitely beautiful, English seemed woefully prosaic and inadequate in comparison. How do you, for example, translate a phrase like ‘Ekadashi ka chand’? You can’t! The original text will always be supreme. That said, translation can be exceptionally difficult because it requires not just translating words but an entire culture. * Though it’s a translation, you have to make sure it reads like a novel in English. I would often crave to get back to the novel it was something I looked forward to at the end of the day. Because then, it ceases to be a chore but becomes a pleasure. * You have to love or at least like (very much) the book you’re translating. * You have to be fluent in both languages but you must be more fluent in the language in which you have to translate (in my case, English). The rewriting of certain parts, the polishing etc continued, but the bulk of the work was done. Once that was done, I went through the entire draft again, reading it at one go to see how it flowed as a novel. After I’d finished the entire book, I went back to the tricky portions. I eventually settled down to translating two pages every night, leaving out the parts that were particularly difficult. And unfortunately, the author was not alive to help in the process. This was especially important because Gunahon Ka Devta has some complex, ambiguous passages from which you have to gently extract the subtext. (Subsequently of course, while translating it, I went through the novel again and again, so much so that today you have to just read out a couple of sentences from the book, and I will be able to place them.) I found that the more I read the book, the clearer it became, the easier to understand. I first read the book two or three times, to acquaint myself intimately with it. So I decided to try – also because I was stunned to discover that Gunahon Ka Devta, in the 66 years since it had been published, had never been translated into English! That seemed like a severe injustice. However, I was bilingual, comfortable in both languages. Gunahon Ka Devta is probably the most loved Hindi novel, the biggest bestseller and pretty much everyone I met who had read the book had the same reactions as I did.īut I had never translated a novel from Hindi to English before. I soon realised that I was only one among millions. It is a jewel of a novel, glowing with wistful old-world charm, but why was I getting so involved with it? Chander is the novel’s ‘gunahon ka devta’ – an idealistic young man who wants to do the high-minded thing, yet ends up giving Sudha pain and grief. But the social mores of the time ensured that this love could not be expressed or realised.Ĭhander persuades Sudha to marry the man of her father’s choice, a decision that rocks the very foundations of their lives. The novel tells the story of the brilliant university student Chander and his love for his professor and mentor’s winsome daughter, Sudha. What is the nature of love? Is sex a necessary part of love? Is platonic, idealistic love possible? What happens when love comes in conflict with duty? Should one marry for love or to fulfil social obligations? In a strange way, the dilemmas and conflicts of that time resonate even today. The book also compels you to reflect on the age in which it was written. I was swept away by the story, I empathised with all the characters. Gunahon Ka Devta, a tempestuous, moving love story set in Allahabad in the 1940s, written by one of Hindi literature’s most powerful writers, Dharamvir Bharati when he was just 22-23 years old, does both. But without the ‘heart connection,’ no matter how accomplished, it remains sterile. It becomes truly great if it can also appeal to your mind, your intellect. I have long believed that any creative work is ineffective unless it reaches your heart. Sometimes you read a book that burrows its way into your heart and then just stays there, refusing to budge. The short answer: Because I loved the novel. Because moving from one language to another is challenging, it requires not just translating words but an entire cultureMany people have asked me: "Why did you translate Gunahon Ka Devta into English ( Chander & Sudha)?"
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